Am I Competitive for MD?

[SL394]

I thought I had a decent application, but I've been browsing SDN and many pre-meds on here seem to have extraordinary ECs.

cGPA: 3.64
sGPA: 3.55 (Massive upward curve. Freshman year 3.21/2.96. Senior year 3.89/3.88).
Undergrad: Ivy
MCAT: 520 (130/130/128/132)
State: NY, ORM
Clinical Volunteering: 200 hrs volunteer medical assistant at family medicine clinic (over 2 years during Summers and Winters).
Shadowing:140 hours shadowing (derm, internal med, allergy, family medicine).
Non-clinical volunteering: 150 hours tutoring disadvantaged children, 300 hours Habitat for Humanity, 70 hours animal shelter, 100 hours soup kitchen
Research: 350 hours undergrad (no pubs). 1700 hours full-time gap year position (will have a 3rd author pub in mid-summer).
Leadership: Executive board of 2 clubs (~250 hours). Managed 4 different schools for the tutoring club and acted as a mediator between schools and tutors.
Work: Worked ~10/hours a week in my Sophomore and Senior years to support myself. Probably around 800 hours.


I am fine with going to a mid/low-tier MD school and will definitely be applying to all the NY ones besides the T20. It seemed a few years ago that 150 hours of clinical experience was great, but now it seems everyone has 500+.

Does my app look reasonably competitive for this cycle?

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[Rogue42]

From one of the AAMC data tables, your gpa and MCAT combination puts you into an +80% acceptance rate category. I also believe that your ECs are above average. You are plenty of competitive to gain entrance into MD school.

 

[SL394]

From one of the AAMC data tables, your gpa and MCAT combination puts you into an +80% acceptance rate category. I also believe that your ECs are above average. You are plenty of competitive to gain entrance into MD school.

I believe I'm around the 75% because of my sGPA and I'm on the lower end of the 3.6-3.79.

I thought my ECs were decent but people on here have insane 1000+ hours, even on the reapplicant thread. I guess the selection bias here is making me go crazy. Thanks for the reassurance!

 

[KnightDoc]

I thought I had a decent application, but I've been browsing SDN and many pre-meds on here seem to have extraordinary ECs.

cGPA: 3.64
sGPA: 3.55 (Massive upward curve. Freshman year 3.21/2.96. Senior year 3.89/3.88).
Undergrad: Ivy
MCAT: 520 (130/130/128/132)
State: NY, ORM
Clinical Volunteering: 200 hrs volunteer medical assistant at family medicine clinic (over 2 years during Summers and Winters).
Shadowing:140 hours shadowing (derm, internal med, allergy, family medicine).
Non-clinical volunteering: 150 hours tutoring disadvantaged children, 300 hours Habitat for Humanity, 70 hours animal shelter, 100 hours soup kitchen
Research: 350 hours undergrad (no pubs). 1700 hours full-time gap year position (will have a 3rd author pub in mid-summer).
Leadership: Executive board of 2 clubs (~250 hours). Managed 4 different schools for the tutoring club and acted as a mediator between schools and tutors.
Work: Worked ~10/hours a week in my Sophomore and Senior years to support myself. Probably around 800 hours.


I am fine with going to a mid/low-tier MD school and will definitely be applying to all the NY ones besides the T20. It seemed a few years ago that 150 hours of clinical experience was great, but now it seems everyone has 500+.

Does my app look reasonably competitive for this cycle?

Welcome to SDN! It's extraordinarily easy to get a serious case of imposter syndrome after spending time here. Your GPA is a little on the low side for top tier programs, but you are otherwise in great shape. Good luck!!

 

[SL394]

Welcome to SDN! It's extraordinarily easy to get a serious case of imposter syndrome after spending time here. Your GPA is a little on the low side for top tier programs, but you are otherwise in great shape. Good luck!!

Thanks!! I'll only be applying to a couple T20 as crapshoots but I'm mainly focusing on mid-tiers.

SDN is a great resource for AMCAS, but as soon as I began going down the rabbit-hole of WAMC posts, my neuroticism came out. There needs to be a warning on that page lol.

 

[KnightDoc]

Thanks!! I'll only be applying to a couple T20 as crapshoots but I'm mainly focusing on mid-tiers.

SDN is a great resource for AMCAS, but as soon as I began going down the rabbit-hole of WAMC posts, my neuroticism came out. There needs to be a warning on that page lol.

Don't get me wrong, you are perfectly competitive for T20s, and shouldn't consider them crapshoots coming from an Ivy with a 520 and your ECs. It's just so easy to be intimidated by the subset of superstars out of the 50,000 annual applicants who happen to gravitate here. Of course, life would be easier if your GPA was 3.95, but, it is what it is, and it isn't terrible by any stretch, especially given the upward trajectory.

 

[Rogue42]

I believe I'm around the 75% because of my sGPA and I'm on the lower end of the 3.6-3.79.

I thought my ECs were decent but people on here have insane 1000+ hours, even on the reapplicant thread. I guess the selection bias here is making me go crazy. Thanks for the reassurance!

Let me get this straight. You know you’re in the 75% and you’re still asked if you are competitive?

Don’t take that too hard lol but seriously, take a chill. There’s always gonna be super stars on ECs. But that doesn’t always mean that they have the MCAT or the GPA or etc.

Your going to be fine. Take a breath, chill out, and focus on writing an application that is flawless, and you’ll be fine.

Good luck, young grasshopper.

 

[LizzyM]

I think you have made an honest appraisal of your application and your decision to apply to the NY schools (except the T20s) is a reasonable one. You might also consider the private schools including those in Philly (excluding Penn) as well as Quinnipiac in CT (not far from NY).

 

[m1redsox]

Dude I got into two mid-tier (One upper-mid maybe) MD schools with like 80 clinical hours lmao. Clearly I did not spend enough time on SDN before applying. My stats were nothing too special either (515/3.82). Your 200 hours will be just fine. I suggest:
Albany
NYMC
Albert Einstein
Hofstra
Rochester
All 4 SUNYs
NYU-LI
Your Ivy league school’s program
Sinai (might be a reach)
Temple
Drexel
Jeff
Penn State
Pitt
Quinnipiac
Vermont
Tufts
Ohio St
Cincy
VCU
EVMS
Wake
Emory
Miami
Iowa
USF-Morsani
Tulane
Michigan

 

[Goro]

Dude I got into two mid-tier (One upper-mid maybe) MD schools with like 80 clinical hours lmao. Clearly I did not spend enough time on SDN before applying. My stats were nothing too special either (515/3.82). Your 200 hours will be just fine. I suggest:
Albany
NYMC
Albert Einstein
Hofstra
Rochester
All 4 SUNYs
NYU-LI
Your Ivy league school’s program
Sinai (might be a reach)
Temple
Drexel
Jeff
Penn State
Pitt
Quinnipiac
Vermont
Tufts
Ohio St
Cincy
VCU
EVMS
Wake
Emory
Miami
Iowa
USF-Morsani
Tulane
Michigan

OP, this is a fine list, but suggest adding Columbia, Mt Sinai, Dartmouth, Duke, Mayo, Gtown and GWU.

 

[SL394]

I'll probably be applying to Weill and Sinai as my NY reach schools.

I think @KnightDoc was right in that I got a case of imposter syndrome. Thanks for the advice and school list everyone!

 

[CorgiLoaf]

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[m1redsox]

@m1redsox 80 hours across all clinical exposure (shadowing/volunteering/employment)? That makes me feel better too, congrats on your As!

No I had like 50 hours of scribing, 30 hours as a blood drive director (if that even counts as clinical), and like 80-90 hours of shadowing. Granted, I did have some pretty interesting other ECs like 3500 hours as a top-earning door to door salesman and I also served an LDS mission in Argentina which gave me some pretty cool things to write about.

 

[SL394]

Just a bump. I hashed out a preliminary school list and am looking for some feedback. I want to cut 4-6 schools so does any of them look to have heavy IS bias or are extremely service oriented?

Tulane

Eastern Virginia Medical School

NY Medical College

University of Wisconsin

Quinnipiac

Buffalo University

USF-Morsani

Albany

University of Vermont

Miami

Tufts University School of Medicine

Hofstra University

Western Michigan

Drexel

Wake Forest

Dartmouth

SUNY Downstate

Emory

Indiana University School of Medicine

Jefferson

George Washington University

SUNY Upstate

Georgetown University

Penn State

University of Cincinnati

University of Colorado

Boston University School of Medicine

Albert Einstein COM

SUNY Stony Brook

University of Iowa

University of Rochester

Pittsburg

University of Massachusetts

Mt. Sinai

Case Western

Duke University

Weill Cornell