Critique/finalizing this school list

[donkeykong1]

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I'm getting ready to apply next week. you guys have been a great help over the years, and it would be awesome if you could help me finalize this list:

NY resident (i have some non resident ties both family and school related to ohio)

undergrad: humanities major at a tough school known for grade deflation

stats: 3.71cum/3.61sci

mcat: taken, waiting for scores. 20 practice tests ranged from 28-33, avg in middle

EC:
clinical research (1 year),
community service (3+years),
hospital volunteer (75 hours and counting),
shadowing ( 30 hours across 3 specialties)
part time job 20hr/wk (all of undergrad)

I'm applying 8-9 DO schools as well (I feel like I have a pretty good handle on these schools though).

MD/LCME accredited list: 14 MD

Hofstra
SUNY UPSTATE
U BUFFALO
SUNY DOWNSTATE
NYMC
ALBANY MED COLLEGE
STONY BROOK
WRIGHT STATE
NORTHEAST OHIO
COMMONWEALTH MED COLLEGE
DREXEL
MSU
RUSH
OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

schools that i'm considering swapping some of the ohio schools with would be tulane, vcu, mcw, creighton, rosalind franklin. would this be a good idea?

 

[donkeykong1]

bump

 

[donkeykong1]

anyone?

 

[MattyBee]

I'm getting ready to apply next week. you guys have been a great help over the years, and it would be awesome if you could help me finalize this list:

NY resident (i have some non resident ties both family and school related to ohio)

undergrad: humanities major at a tough school known for grade deflation

stats: 3.71cum/3.61sci

mcat: taken, waiting for scores. 20 practice tests ranged from 28-33, avg in middle

EC:
clinical research (1 year),
community service (3+years),
hospital volunteer (75 hours and counting),
shadowing ( 30 hours across 3 specialties)
part time job 20hr/wk (all of undergrad)

I'm applying 8-9 DO schools as well (I feel like I have a pretty good handle on these schools though).

MD/LCME accredited list: 14 MD

Hofstra
SUNY UPSTATE
U BUFFALO
SUNY DOWNSTATE
NYMC
ALBANY MED COLLEGE
STONY BROOK
WRIGHT STATE
NORTHEAST OHIO
COMMONWEALTH MED COLLEGE
DREXEL
MSU
RUSH
OAKLAND UNIVERSITY

schools that i'm considering swapping some of the ohio schools with would be tulane, vcu, mcw, creighton, rosalind franklin. would this be a good idea?

Man. 28-33 spanning over 20 practice tests. First of all that is a lot of tests. Second that is a pretty wide margin. Were you hitting pretty consistently with your last few practice tests before your test date?

In my opinion I think all the schools you have listed are pretty good fits for you. In your "worst case scenario" (28/3.7) they seem like schools that are still pretty reasonable to apply to. Obviously, you may want to change that list depending on what score you end up getting on your actual MCAT. There is one school that does standout, however. NEUCOM is a pretty tough school for OOS applicants to get into regardless of state ties. Even if you are a resident they favor applicants from the Akron, Canton and Youngstown areas. On top of that ~75% of their class are admitted through the BS/MD program making slots for direct entry even more competitive. I'd say UToledo is probably a better school to apply to than NEUCOM. They roughly have the same stats and UToledo is a lot more OOS friendly.

schools that i'm considering swapping some of the ohio schools with would be tulane, vcu, mcw, creighton, rosalind franklin. would this be a good idea?

I think picking Ohio schools is a really good idea for a couple of reason:
1. You have pretty significant ties to the state which is very helpful.
2. For most of the Ohio schools you are able to claim residency after 1 year of school. Which means you only have to pay OOS tuition for 1 year not the entire 4.

Depending on your MCAT score you should really consider adding OSU and UCinnci. Generally speaking if your MCAT score lands somewhere in your practice test range I think you have a good shot at both MD and DO schools this cycle.

As a side note you could use a little more shadowing and clinical experience. I am assuming you are going to continue raking in those hours over this cycle. Do you have any leadership or teaching experience? Those are not essential but they are pretty common ECs that many applicants tend to have.

 

[donkeykong1]

yup I have held a few leadership positions at my job over the years and will continue the clinical experience this summer.

i know my practice test range is a pretty wide margin but hopefully its above a 30 on the real thing. i only got less than a 30 on like 6/20 practice tests.

so would it be wise to swap either creighton, mcw, or rosalind franklin for neoucom?

i really can't afford to apply to more schools..

 

[MattyBee]

yup I have held a few leadership positions at my job over the years and will continue the clinical experience this summer.

i know my practice test range is a pretty wide margin but hopefully its above a 30 on the real thing. i only got less than a 30 on like 6/20 practice tests.

so would it be wise to swap either creighton, mcw, or rosalind franklin for neoucom?

i really can't afford to apply to more schools..

I was suggesting that you may want to switch it out for UToledo. Your stats seem to be a good fit for the school (http://www.utoledo.edu/med/md/classprofile.html) and the ties you have to Ohio would help. They also accept a pretty significant amount of OOS students. On top of that, I believe, you are able to apply for in-state residency after 1 year of school (you may need to check on this). If, however, you would prefer to apply to Creighton, MCW, or Rosalind Franklin instead I do not see any problem in that either. They all seem like reasonable alternates.

Are you going to wait till you get your scores back before you submit? I think the list that you have currently is good but it is definitely on the conservative side. Depending on your MCAT score you may be missing out on applying to some more competitive programs.

 

[donkeykong1]

thanks man. i don't have the cash at hand for more schools, so maybe later on if I get a good mcat score i can borrow some money for applying to more selective schools.

 

[MattyBee]

thanks man. i don't have the cash at hand for more schools, so maybe later on if I get a good mcat score i can borrow some money for applying to more selective schools.

Side note: You may want to replace MSU with one of your alternate schools. To my knowledge, MSU has extremely high OOS tuition. I overlooked that in my initial posts. Obviously, look into it before you make any decisions.

The point I was trying to make was not necessarily that you should apply to more schools but that you may want to be more selective of your schools depending on your MCAT score. I guess the question I am trying to get you to ask yourself is: If I get a 33 or even a 33+ (it happens) would I apply to this same list of schools?

In my opinion, when you initially send your application in only apply to schools that you are going to apply to regardless of your score. Once you get your scores back add the remaining schools. I believe schools receive your application 1 business day after you add them.

If you wanted to you could even wait until you got your scores back before you initially submitted. Just because you do not submit on June 1st does not make you application late. I am assuming you are going to get your scores back sometime in June (since you are currently waiting on them).

Lets say for example that deep down you really would prefer to go to medical school in a big city over places like Scranton (Commonwealth), Dayton (WSU), and Rochester (Oakland). With a 33/3.7 it may be worth your while to forgo applying to these schools and apply to some of the more competitive big city schools. With a 33/3.7 you do not have a "golden ticket" to get into any medical school. But you do have a little more leeway in choosing the schools that you would prefer to go to instead of schools that are just the most likely to accept you.

With that said, all the schools on your list will be good fits for you regardless of whether you get a 28 or 33 (besides the ones I have already mentioned). All I am saying is that since you are on a tight budget it may be worth you while to finalize your list after you get your MCAT back.

For most applicants, you can count on getting a score that is around what you have been averaging on your practice tests. But since you have such a wide margin and you did not say you were consistently hitting a certain score before you took the actual test it is hard to say what your score will be.