do i have enough safeties? vanderbilt or pritzker? un-well-rounded MCAT score?

[doctorious]

i'm sorry to start another thread like this, but i guess i just need some personal reassurance...

here's my info:
California resident (UC graduate)
East Asian female
9 verbal, 14 bio, 14 phys, Q
3.83 BCPM, 3.86 Total
EC's:
study abroad in Italy for 1 qtr
(future) 9-week healthcare internship in Tanzania
9 months working in surgeon's office/clinic
1.5 yrs research
1 yr college chemistry tutor
community service, hospital volunteering
other part-time jobs (cafe, rec center)

is my school list too ambitious? :
harvard
upenn
duke
stanford
ucsf
yale
columbia
cornell
northwestern
mount sinai
dartmouth
BU
tufts
georgetown

i want to add one more... U.of Chicago Pritzker or Vanderbilt?

for the higher - tier schools... is my 9 on the verbal MCAT going to really throw me off (some schools say they do not consider any below the national mean = 10)? i know i could have gotten at least a 10, but on the day of the test there was a major distraction when this girl's pager went off and the proctor spent the last 15 minutes of the section trying to turn it off. since it wasn't a huge deal and 9 is borderline, i chose not to explain this in my personal statement. but is it necessary to explain this to help my chances (in 2nd's)?

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[Old ortho]

You have great stats. But you are applying strictly to top 15. As a Cali resident which is competitive, why not add a few mid tier schoos such as Albert Einstein, NYU, UC-Irvine, UC-Davis? And UCLA too?

 

[spanamit]

You have excellent stats. Why don't you apply to all the other UCs? In state would really help you out here.

 

[Law2Doc]

You have great stats. But you are applying strictly to top 15. As a Cali resident which is competitive, why not add a few mid tier schoos such as Albert Einstein, NYU, UC-Irvine, UC-Davis? And UCLA too?

I agree. While I think you ought to get a bunch of great interviews with your stats, sometimes great applicants don't wow the top schools in terms of "good fit", compelling essays, etc, so you still want to consider a few "down to earth" places as well. Particularly so since you are a CA applicant and so have no less competitive state school to balance out your app. Also, if you are going to add "safeties", they need to be not the Boston, DC schools which get absurd amount of applications because they are the most popular east coast locales, so consider swapping one or more of the last three for others, unless you are really interested in them (other than as backups - which I am guessing based on your other choices). Also, not sure I ever heard anyone referring to Vanderbilt or Pritzker as a safety, if that is what you are saying (they are both ranked top 20 by USNews). And no, I definitely wouldn't address a 9 in VR in my essays if I were you.

 

[moomix906]

most people i know which such a comparable record interviewed at almost every school on a list as yours, but then were only accepted outright at one to a few schools and were waitlisted by most(most ultimately got off one top waitlist). You certainly have the record to follow that path, but Im sure you would prefer the peace of mind and flexibility that adding some schools with lower averages would afford you. Vanderbilt and Chicago would not improve your overall acceptance odds. I'm guessing your 'safeties' are Sinai, Georgetown, BU, tufts, Dartmouth. None of those are really good safety choices - they get boatloads of apps and are significantly more competitive than a lot of people think they are strictly based on ranking or numbers. What if you get waitlisted at the top schools and then those schools decide you didn't sound interested enough? Your application is good enough that I'd be willing to bet you'd be admitted to at least a few of the top schools, but its a question of whether you want to risk it and be the kid who got waitlisted everywhere

 

[EBI831]

your stats look great but that 9 might be a hindrance. so apply early as in now. add a few more UCs or maybe about 2 safeties (it's not that i don't think you'll get in to the ones you have now , it's just that this process is random and waitlists abound). as for vandy or pritzker, it's really about what kind of school you are looking for. judging from my experience, vandy has a more preppy make-up and high school (in a good way ie amusement park/fun place to be at least what i thought of highschool) feel, a new sleek curriculum, and but doesn't seem that into health disparities and international medical experiences (but this is just what i gathered) for all ie there are options for this in the EMPHASIS program if you're interested ,so if its the relaxed environment that you crave, go for it. pritzker is gonna love that tanzania course if you decide to take it, has a more mission like feel ie very into underserved communities, service, health issues, and the student's individuality, and on a traditional curriculum schedule which is also scheduled to be amended starting with the C/O 2012. you can't go wrong with either but i think the deciding factor is going to be the feel you get from the school as well as the city factor.

 

[Meeher]

Interviewed at both Pritzker and Vanderbilt and felt more comfortable at Vandy. Both are great schools, so I echo EB's claim that it is about what you prefer. Why not just apply to both? I was kind of turned off by the Pritzker student body, but again, that is a matter of opinion (and I'm basing this off of a small sample size)--seemed more pretentious than most schools'. I was also not a fan of the integration with the bio department, but some people like that. I have a few friends going to Pritz. and they all love it so it's really a matter of preference. Vandy has research built into the curriculum and a pretty supportive administration but it isnt in a big city like Chicago, which can be a turn-off. Nashville has better weather though and that's important for me considering I'm coming from CA .

It's a hard choice to make since both are pretty similar reputation-wise. You need to go deeper and check out their curriculums and emphases to really decide. What's cool with Vandy is that it gets a lot of cool cases (especially in its Childrens Hospital) because it is the prominent university hospital in TN and arguably the mid-south region. A doctor told us cases come as far away as Montana and Idaho because Vandy is one of three or four hospitals in the nation that does this rare procedure. UChicago has to share with Northwestern and sometimes Loyola, but I think Pritzker, due to its location, likes to emphasize more low-income care, which is admirable too. Good luck!

 

[WurangBlang]

That is some good competitive stats(even for being cali res, and asian). I think you will def. get into some...

9 on verbal is not a good score, but it's not bad at all (i know some people who got into top-tier schools with low verbal score). I suggest you apply ASAP and apply to some of other UCs.

 

[Ihateverbal]

don't make the same mistaeks as those who I knwo did...

They got confident because they had a good GPA (3.7+) and MCAT (33+) and appleid to top 20 schools only...now they are reapplying...

Don't limit yourself to the top 20, unless you know that you'd be happy reapplying if you don't get in.

 

[cal_girl]

I would add a few more schools like MCW, Einstein, .. somewhat mid-tiers schools too...
Don't risk yourself just for top schools...

 

[Bluesmurf314]

for the higher - tier schools... is my 9 on the verbal MCAT going to really throw me off (some schools say they do not consider any below the national mean = 10)? i know i could have gotten at least a 10, but on the day of the test there was a major distraction when this girl's pager went off and the proctor spent the last 15 minutes of the section trying to turn it off. since it wasn't a huge deal and 9 is borderline, i chose not to explain this in my personal statement. but is it necessary to explain this to help my chances (in 2nd's)?

I say, it would sound like an excuse. Perhaps if they ask about it in the interview you could mention the pager thing (would have made me pretty po'd if it had been my MCAT - we had a phone as well but it was removed pretty quick.) In the 2ndaries though, I'd say no - what I've heard is that a 7 starts setting off alarms, not so much a 9 though.

 

[doctorious]

I say, it would sound like an excuse. Perhaps if they ask about it in the interview you could mention the pager thing (would have made me pretty po'd if it had been my MCAT - we had a phone as well but it was removed pretty quick.) In the 2ndaries though, I'd say no - what I've heard is that a 7 starts setting off alarms, not so much a 9 though.

thanks for the input! yeah, i totally agree. that's what i thought it might have come off as too. man, you'd think from taking exams and even going to movie theaters people would learn how to turn off their pagers/cell phones!

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i've added pritzker, u. pittsburgh (i know neither of these schools are even remotely close to being safeties, but as i researched more on them i came to like them a lot), and NYMC.

other mid/lower tier schools i've been considering include Wake Forest, Loyola, Rosalind Franklin, Tulane, and St. Louis University. but as much as i don't want to become one of those stories and not being accepted anywhere, i am reluctant to add (and pay for) any more to my list of 17 schools. frankly i'm pretty tired of going through all the school's websites, the MSAR, and AMSA's student surveys. so.. any tips for those 5 schools?

p.s. as i had recently read r536's thread about "safeties" and the hostility she received from others, i want to add that i hope nobody is offended by my use of the word "safety" with certain schools. it takes a LOT of perusing on SDN to learn (the hard way) that med school applications = ginormous crapshoot, and that safeties do not exist.

 

[Old ortho]

thanks for the input! yeah, i totally agree. that's what i thought it might have come off as too. man, you'd think from taking exams and even going to movie theaters people would learn how to turn off their pagers/cell phones!

--

i've added pritzker, u. pittsburgh (i know neither of these schools are even remotely close to being safeties, but as i researched more on them i came to like them a lot), and NYMC.

other mid/lower tier schools i've been considering include Wake Forest, Loyola, Rosalind Franklin, Tulane, and St. Louis University. but as much as i don't want to become one of those stories and not being accepted anywhere, i am reluctant to add (and pay for) any more to my list of 17 schools. frankly i'm pretty tired of going through all the school's websites, the MSAR, and AMSA's student surveys. so.. any tips for those 5 schools?

p.s. as i had recently read r536's thread about "safeties" and the hostility she received from others, i want to add that i hope nobody is offended by my use of the word "safety" with certain schools. it takes a LOT of perusing on SDN to learn (the hard way) that med school applications = ginormous crapshoot, and that safeties do not exist.

No offense to NYMC students, but your stats may be too good for NYMC, and they may think you are using them as a backup safety school and resent it. Are you sure you don't want to apply to another UC or even Vanderbilt instead?

 

[geekOCD]

I would go far enough to say that nymc will definitely not consider your application. The "lower tier" and "mid-lower" tier schools get a TON of applications, mainly because upper, middle, and lower tier people apply to those schools. One of the first ways they cut their applicant pool is by ditching all the "just applying as a safety" applications, which yours obviously is b/c your numbers are too high. That's one of the reasons why there's no real "safeties" in the med school game...good applicants are "shocked" every year at how they didn't get an interview from the lower tier schools but got ones from upper tiers...

 

[WiscDoc]

I echo what alot of the previous posters said...apply to mid-teir schools. Rosalind Franklin is like the LOWEST teir and one of the worst in the country (no offense RFU students, but your accredditation is in the air all the time).

Instead of applying to this school, apply to good schools with lesser stats (MCW and Loyola would be good examples).

Finally, we are you soo hung up on getting into one of the top 15 schools in the country? At the end, your grades in med school and board scores are all that matter. Having a good school name is good, but it most likley won't be a good enough reason to make you graduate of 2013 instead of 2012. Find a place that you will be happy at and that you have a great chance at, and apply there. just my 2 cents. Best of luck.

 

[doctorious]

Thanks to everyone's input and feedback! I ended up applying to a total of 19 schools. Time to get crackin' on the secondaries...