Chances for top 50 med school?

[crazypilovee]

Hi guys, please let me know what you think my chances are! i would like to go to a fairly respectable med school (cali preferred but i know it'll be very hard so i will apply broadly)


Ethnicity: Chinese
Gender: Female
Undergrad: UCLA (Honors Program & Departmental Honors)
Year: 4th
Major: Neuroscience
cGPA: 3.89
sGPA: ~3.80 i think?
MCAT: 30 (10, 10, 10, Q)
Hospital volunteering: only 30 hours so far... will work on it!
Shadowing: only 1 surgeon so far
Research:
-1 summer un-paid senior year of high school, neurosci lab at UCI
-2 summers paid 1st & 2nd year of college, neurosci lab at UCI
-research at neurosci lab since 2nd year of college, UCLA
Publications: 1 publication, 4th author
Presentations: (2 more this year most likely)
-UCLA science poster session
-UCLA Neuroscience poster session
Scholarships:
-URFP scholarship for 2 quarters of research in Junior year
-URSP scholarship for 3 quarters of research in Senior year
Extracurriculars/Hobbies:
-Officer in an Honor Society for two years
-Officer in a tutoring project for two years (we tutor incarcerated youth at a local detention camp)
-Piano
-Subtitling tv shows in Korean, Japanese, & Chinese into English online (unpaid) (dunno if i should mention this hobby of mine haha, or just how i learned to understand other languages through watching tv shows?)
Awards:
-Just one for volunteer of the quarter from the school's Community Service Commission for my tutoring in the project


so do you guys think i would have a decent chance at some of the top 50 med schools? I'm still trying to decide if i should retake the MCAT again or if i should just apply w/ my 30 next summer & focus on rounding out my app...

also any areas for improvement please let me know, thank you!

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[NinersFan0]

It looks like you have a great app going other than the MCAT (not saying your MCAT score is bad, just not great relative to the rest of your application).

Try to continue to "round out" your app during your 4th year and take the MCAT again early in the new calendar year. If you can bump up your score a few points before the application cycle I think you have a great chance for many schools.

Good luck, go bruins!

 

[crazypilovee]

It looks like you have a great app going other than the MCAT (not saying your MCAT score is bad, just not great relative to the rest of your application).

Try to continue to "round out" your app during your 4th year and take the MCAT again early in the new calendar year. If you can bump up your score a few points before the application cycle I think you have a great chance for many schools.

Good luck, go bruins!

thanks! i don't know if i have the time to study for MCAT again and also work on other parts of my application while in school though... would it hurt my chances a lot if i dont get a better score?


anyone else w/ advice?

 

[Nymphicus]

If your goal is a "top 50" (somewhat meaningless in my opinion, many many schools will likely get you right where you want to be, try not to be quick to discount them based on "rank" alone), I think you are set and don't need to retake. Your research experience is also much better than the average applicant which well help your application stand out.

One thing, for the language, if you can get any sort of official position/authorship/notation from it, that would really help. Even so, think about how your understanding of not just multiple languages, but the different cultural contexts that you must navigate to translate successfully for each different TV show will help you in working in medicine where many of the people you see will have different backgrounds from yourself.

Good essays will also help you stand out.

 

[TriagePreMed]

The medical volunteer work is lacking, but you are addressing that. The MCAT, though lower than the average at many schools, is still balanced enough. I think you're doing very well so far, and I do like the subtitles hobby. I've never heard of that.

 

[sliceofbread136]

I think your MCAT is a tad too low.... I would honestly suggest a retake because it seems to be dragging your otherwise competitive application down (in the context of top schools, you're fine for mid/low tier). I know many will disagree with me here but personally I would devote a summer to a retake.

 

[Catalystik]

I find the term Top Fifty to be meaningless, assuming you're referring to the ranking system of US News. Personally, I rank schools by their selectivity. Examples of schools where your cGPA and MCAT score would predict you'd get an interview (when ECs are in accord with the school's mission) would be:

Emory, UCentral Florida, Ohio State, Iowa, BU, UMinn,
Rochester, MCW, Miami, Einstein, SUNY Downstate, UMaryland, Loma Linda (requires lifestyle contact), Georgetown, UConn, Loyola, Stony Brook,
UKentucky, UWisc, Rush, Tufts, Cincinnati, Jefferson, Keck, Virginia Tech (newer, research focus), Temple, Colorado (prefers 500 hr clinical&nontrads), Albany, GWU,
Toledo, Wake, Creighton (no CC credit for prereqs), Nebraska, LSU-NO, NYMC, Vermont, Hofstra (newer).

 

[alexrgross]

good chances I think. Check out your scores among Mdapps profiles and see.

 

[crazypilovee]

If your goal is a "top 50" (somewhat meaningless in my opinion, many many schools will likely get you right where you want to be, try not to be quick to discount them based on "rank" alone), I think you are set and don't need to retake. Your research experience is also much better than the average applicant which well help your application stand out.

One thing, for the language, if you can get any sort of official position/authorship/notation from it, that would really help. Even so, think about how your understanding of not just multiple languages, but the different cultural contexts that you must navigate to translate successfully for each different TV show will help you in working in medicine where many of the people you see will have different backgrounds from yourself.

Good essays will also help you stand out.

yeah i definitely don't mean they have to be in the top 50 u.s. news rankings or something, i just don't want to apply to a low tier obscure med school that doesn't have much diversity and such...

thanks for the suggestions! i sub on a website (viki.com) where any registered user can subtitle tv shows they've licensed to show all over the world, although of course u will be blocked if u add wrong/bad subs. i have thousands of lines of subs and get mentioned on the tv show info page and next to the lines in the subtitling page, although it's only my username... is that okay? the subtitles are also provided to other websites like hulu and netflix so technically my work is on those streaming websites too...

The medical volunteer work is lacking, but you are addressing that. The MCAT, though lower than the average at many schools, is still balanced enough. I think you're doing very well so far, and I do like the subtitles hobby. I've never heard of that.

thanks! =]

I think your MCAT is a tad too low.... I would honestly suggest a retake because it seems to be dragging your otherwise competitive application down (in the context of top schools, you're fine for mid/low tier). I know many will disagree with me here but personally I would devote a summer to a retake.

hmm i would devote another summer to mcat studying but i want to apply during the next cycle so i dont think i have time to study for it.... maybe i can apply next year & see how things go, and if i dont get in i'll retake the mcat and apply again? would it be bad to reapply tho?

I find the term Top Fifty to be meaningless, assuming you're referring to the ranking system of US News. Personally, I rank schools by their selectivity. Examples of schools where your cGPA and MCAT score would predict you'd get an interview (when ECs are in accord with the school's mission) would be:

Emory, UCentral Florida, Ohio State, Iowa, BU, UMinn,
Rochester, MCW, Miami, Einstein, SUNY Downstate, UMaryland, Loma Linda (requires lifestyle contact), Georgetown, UConn, Loyola, Stony Brook,
UKentucky, UWisc, Rush, Tufts, Cincinnati, Jefferson, Keck, Virginia Tech (newer, research focus), Temple, Colorado (prefers 500 hr clinical&nontrads), Albany, GWU,
Toledo, Wake, Creighton (no CC credit for prereqs), Nebraska, LSU-NO, NYMC, Vermont, Hofstra (newer).

thanks for the suggestions!