Medical Can you help with school list?

[tantacles]

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Hello! I was wondering if I could receive any help with my school list. I'm posting here for privacy/anonymity reasons if that would be okay? Also, any tips to improve my application would be welcome as well. I'm looking to apply to around 40ish schools to give myself the best chance of getting in somewhere.

Background: Asian male, senior
State: California
School: Top 10 public school in California
sGPA: 3.95
cGPA: 3.94
I have two MCAT scores, unfortunately
Attempt 1: 507 (129/123/126/129)
Attempt 2: 520 (132/128/130/130)

Experiences:

Health Organization focused on serving the underserved community in the areas around my university
-Staff Member: Health Fair Director (Junior/Senior Year ~600 hours, not sure how to quantify this however)
-organized and managed health fairs for the underserved population
-Intern for Medical Outreach Director (Soph year) (Planning a mission trip ~100 hours)
-Intern for Health Fair Director (Soph year) (~100 hours)
-Other Miscellaneous things:
-Mentor for underclassmen (had two mentees)
-Community Service: senior nursing home volunteering, blood pressure sites at supermarkets) (~200)

Clinical Research with Schizophrenia Patients (400 hours [Junior/Senior Year])
-Data entry, Patient testing, data scoring, no pubs/posters

Cancer Lab Research (200 hours [Soph Year]
-IHC, PCR, Sanger Sequencing, no pubs/posters

Hospital Volunteering (400 hours)

VA Simulation internship (don't have a specific hour count, but did it during breaks between quarters since first year)
-worked with the simulation team in organizing simulations in the ICU and OR for resident teams, learned some ACLS, CPR, Lucas Training, talked and analyzed about interesting complicated cases

Specialist Shadowing [Anesthesia, Uroligical Surgery, Neurosurgery, Cardiathoracic Surgery, Orthopedics] (200 hours)

Primary Care Shadowing at a local clinic (100 hours)

Soup Kitchen Volunteer in my hometown
-started this when I was in 6th grade and did it all the way through high school, kept coming back over my college year during breaks
-need help quantifying this

Awards
-Dean's List every quarter
-CSC Volunteer of the Quarter (CSC is the university organization that oversees many of the community service organizations in my school)
-Hospital Volunteer of the Quarter

Hobbies: Play instruments, sing, play basketball, IM flag football
-Part of a culture night show for my ethnic group where I'm part of traditional dances, modern dancing, and singing

Gap Year: UCSF clinical research, continue shadowing, and find a part time job

Currently in List
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
California University School of Medicine
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin
Creighton University School of Medicine
Hofstra University School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
George Washington University School of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Keck School of Medicine at USC
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Medical College of Wisconsin
New York University School of Medicine
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Stanford University School of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
UC Davis School of Medicine
UC Irvine School of Medicine
UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
UCSD School of Medicine
UCSF School of Medicine
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Illinois College of Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
University of Rochester School of Medicine
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine
Ohio State University College of Medicine
Mayo Clinic
Western Michigan University Stryker School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Kaiser

I feel like my list is too top heavy, but I still want to shoot my shot unless it's really not worth it. To have more "safeties," I was thinking of also having
Quinnipiac
NYMC
Penn State
Vermont
Tulane
Wayne State
but this would ultimately push my list to 50.

Let me know what I should add and/or cut. Thank you very much for the help.

You do not need 50 schools, and with your stats and extracurriculars, a list of 20-25 schools should be more than enough to secure an appropriate number of interviews, and the sky's the limit.. Which schools should you cut out? Well, it's kind of hard to say. I think you could start by delineating some location preferences. Big city vs. rural vs. suburban? Coastal vs. midwest? Then start cutting schools that don't fit your preferences. I would suggest having 10 "top" schools, 5-7 "mid-tier" schools, and 3-5 schools with average stats below yours as a vague guide. You can then add on more top schools if you feel that prestige of school has a large impact. There are no true safeties, but with a good personal statement, you should get a second look from almost every place you apply.

 

[tantacles]

Thanks so much for the reply. I was just worried if I should be very conservative being an asian from California with two MCAT scores.
I guess for me i would prefer to be in a big city or suburbia, but only because I haven't really experienced a very rural setting. But I would not be choosey/picky enough to not want to go to a rural area for medical school. It would kind of be the same mentality for coastal versus middle of country. I'd prefer to be in the coasts, but I wouldn't mind being in the midwest. I do have family in both coasts, as well as in Illinois, which could be sources of support for wherever I hopefully end up.

Sounds great. I suggest trimming to 20-25 schools, focusing on coasts, large cities, and Illinois, and then reposting your new list.

The fact that you have 2 MCAT scores shouldn't matter much; the fact that you were able to improve and claim an exceptional score is truly what matters.