Any comments?

[MDmaybe]

Just got my MCAT scores back and am trying to finalize my list. Here are some of my stats:

Overall GPA: 3.70
science GPA: 3.57
MCAT: 35P (PS-11, BS-11, VR-13)
Ivy league school
Oregon resident

Pretty standard ECs: I've worked in three labs (two during the summers at home, one as an independent study during the school year). Published some work in a conference journal. Volunteered at the hospital and done some shadowing. Tutoring high school kids, student radio DJ, etc.

This is my current list. Too top heavy? I am certainly not against adding or subtracting a few schools. I'd really like to know if I'm not considering a school that maybe I should be.

Uchicago
Cornell
Columbia
Northwestern
Stanford
Mt. Sinai
USC
Tufts
Boston
OHSU
Mayo
Einstein
Rush
GWU
Jefferson
Temple
Georgetown

THANKS!!

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[canjosh]

Just got my MCAT scores back and am trying to finalize my list. Here are some of my stats:

Overall GPA: 3.70
science GPA: 3.57
MCAT: 35P (PS-11, BS-11, VR-13)
Ivy league school
Oregon resident

This is my current list. Too top heavy? I am certainly not against adding or subtracting a few schools. I'd really like to know if I'm not considering a school that maybe I should be.

Uchicago
Cornell
Columbia
Northwestern
Stanford
Mt. Sinai
USC
Tufts
Boston
OHSU
Mayo
Einstein
Rush
GWU
Jefferson
Temple
Georgetown

THANKS!!

In my experience, if someone feels that they're too top heavy...they usually are.

There are going to be a lot of applicants in your stats range or better at many of your schools. What makes you stand out? You said your ECs are 'standard', so I assume that those aren't anything special from your perspective. The research may help you stand out if it's substantive. Also, your 13VR shines brightly!

Mostly, you should be looking to add private schools, or those public schools which matriculate >30% OOS.

Consider these:
Albany
SUNY
Tulane
Creighton
Loma Linda
EVMS
VCU

Those came to mind rather quickly, so do some research on those, and consider where you'd tolerate living for 4 years.

 

[MDmaybe]

Thanks for the adivce!

I should probably be a bit more clear. What I meant by "standard" ECs was that it seems like everyone does hospital volunteering/shadowing/research, not that these experiences were mundane or useless in anyway.

 

[camaras2480]

Albany
SUNY
Tulane
Creighton
Loma Linda
EVMS
VCU

Yeah, I would add 4-5 of those schools in place of 4-5 of these schools:

Uchicago
Cornell
Columbia
Northwestern
Stanford
Boston
Mayo

 

[canjosh]

Thanks for the adivce!

I should probably be a bit more clear. What I meant by "standard" ECs was that it seems like everyone does hospital volunteering/shadowing/research, not that these experiences were mundane or useless in anyway.

Yeah, that was kinda my concern. It sounded earlier like I was saying that your ECs weren't meaningful to you. I was trying to say that if your ECs are 'standard', they won't really boost your app much. And since you have a somewhat top heavy list, I was trying to identify something in your app that would give your objective stats a boost above other students at those most competitive schools. Not sure if that makes sense...but just wanted to clarify that I wasn't trying to say that you haven't found meaning in your ECs!

 

[camaras2480]

Yeah, that was kinda my concern. It sounded earlier like I was saying that your ECs weren't meaningful to you. I was trying to say that if your ECs are 'standard', they won't really boost your app much. And since you have a somewhat top heavy list, I was trying to identify something in your app that would give your objective stats a boost above other students at those most competitive schools. Not sure if that makes sense...but just wanted to clarify that I wasn't trying to say that you haven't found meaning in your ECs!

Makes sense to me!