Applicant: Am I aiming too high?

[Interferon-beta]

Hi guys,

First of all thanks for taking the time to read this!

I'm a current applicant

State: CA
Major: Biochemistry
cGPA: 4.0
sGPA: 4.0
MCAT: 37

Most significant ECs
-Research (obviously haha!):

• Published in Nature Immunology
• Competitive Research Scholarship (i.e. Howard Hugh's, Beckman, Amgen) but won't say which one
• 3 Poster Presentations

-Teaching:

• I'm currently employed by the Life Sciences Department to teach the Introduction to Molecular Biology

I've also shadowed, volunteered at Youth Outreach programs, and coached Soccer.

I'm taking a gap year to apply.
In my gap year, I will continue to pursue research and I am interning at an international clinic. I will be traveling to developing countries throughout the year to set up clinics.

My top choices are:
Harvard, Yale, UCSF, Hopkins, UCLA, Stanford, WashU, NYU, Columbia, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Mayo, Albert Einstein, Duke, UT Southwestern, USC, UPenn, among several others

Am I reaching too high with this list? I'm asking this because I'm questioning how many "safety" schools to add to the list as well.

Thanks in advance for any advice or comments

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[mTORC]

Looks great to me! Although add just a few other top-20's to be safe. Despite being a great applicant, sometimes this process is unpredictable.

 

[ValentinNarcisse]

How are Dartmouth and Georgetown among your top choices? Neither are mstp.

 

[Interferon-beta]

@ValentinNarcisse sorry I'm applying to those as MD only, but I forgot about that

 

[uniqenam]

@ValentinNarcisse sorry I'm applying to those as MD only, but I forgot about that

If you're serious about applying MD/PhD, don't even bother with MD; as long as you interview well and don't have any major red flags, you will likely have multiple MSTP acceptances. Throw in one or two safety MD/PhD schools and call it good. Is your Nature Immuno pub first author?

 

[Interferon-beta]

If you're serious about applying MD/PhD, don't even bother with MD; as long as you interview well and don't have any major red flags, you will likely have multiple MSTP acceptances. Throw in one or two safety MD/PhD schools and call it good. Is your Nature Immuno pub first author?

No I'm not first author on that one. I'll be co first on the next one though

 

[plumazul]

If you're serious about applying MD/PhD, don't even bother with MD; as long as you interview well and don't have any major red flags, you will likely have multiple MSTP acceptances. Throw in one or two safety MD/PhD schools and call it good. Is your Nature Immuno pub first author?

@Interferon-beta, I agree with this. (I still don't understand why people apply for both ) If you are including Columbia and NYU, why not Mt. Sinai and Tri-I? I would delete Einstein and consider adding a couple top state schools( like UVa), but you probably don't need more than 15 total. Best of luck.