Early Decision to Yale/Penn?

[BroncosCountry12]

Hello everyone, I have a pretty unique situation and am wondering if you guys think this is a good use of early decision, as I know it is generally unfavorable in med school admissions. I am currently a junior in a BS/MD program where the medical school is ranked ~T20. However, I have prepared my application over the last few years to apply out, but obviously have a great backup (I don't lose my seat in the BS/MD if I choose to apply out). Therefore, if I apply out, I'd only apply to the top schools that I would rather attend than my current BS/MD.

Thus, I was wondering if I should early decision to a school like Yale or Perelman. I really like both of these schools and am thinking about EDing. My thought process is that if I don't get in, then I have a backup with my BS/MD.

Please let me know if this is a good idea. Here are my stats and EC's below (similar post to my previous one)

1. 4.0 cGPA and sGPA
2. 522 MCAT: (131, 130, 131, 130)
3. CA Residency
4. ORM (Asian)
5. Clinical experience: 200 hours volunteering (just standard patient interaction at VA hospital & cancer center), 300 hours paid Medical Assistant
6. Research Experience: ~15 pubs (mix of basic science, chart reviews, misc with a few first authors on the chart reviews and misc) - Strong point of my application
7. Shadowing: 100 hours (~60 hours general surgery, 40 hours oncology)
8. 300 non clinical volunteering hours
9. Other extracurricular activities:
   1. Founded a non profit to provide free medical education lecture series and health checkups for rural villages in India, legitimate non profit that received news coverage and government recognition in India – very important to me
   2. Founded a medical instrument company with members of my research lab (Have majority stake), have patent and FDA approval for product, company valued at ~$20 million
   3. have a youtube channel where I do NFL film analysis (my personal hobby that I have a passion for lol)
   4. Biology TA
   5. Member of a sustainability club in college

Thank you for reading and replying!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Have you asked them if they actually accept ED apps?

 

[BroncosCountry12]

Have you asked them if they actually accept ED apps?

Their websites say they do ED admissions. Is there any inquiring I have to do beyond that?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Their websites say they do ED admissions. Is there any inquiring I have to do beyond that?

Ask directly. Some schools limit who can apply ED or they discourage using ED.

 

[BroncosCountry12]

Ask directly. Some schools limit who can apply ED or they discourage using ED.

Understood thanks so much

 

[a_distant_dream]

So in addition to your outstanding stats, you have 15 pubs, founded a nationally recognized nonprofit, and founded a company with an 8-figure valuation? Major props - I'd be surprised if any top school didn't bite.

 

[BroncosCountry12]

So in addition to your outstanding stats, you have 15 pubs, founded a nationally recognized nonprofit, and founded a company with an 8-figure valuation? Major props - I'd be surprised if any top school didn't bite.

Thank you I appreciate it But as I'm sure you can guess it required a lot of luck and meeting the right people at the right time

 

[deleted1119806]

completely agree with @a_distant_dream, your application (assuming youre a geniune person and its written well) will attract top schools

no harm in trying, especially since your backup is Baylor, Feinberg, Pitt, or Case which are all fantastic. however, ED to this caliber of schools requires serious ties and meaning, not just the fact that you are geographically close and they are elite. think on that and re-evaluate if you actually want to ED, apply normally, or stay in your program

 

[sheepsitter]

Normally people don’t ED without having had contact with the admissions office first- maybe set up a meeting with them to discuss?

 

[BroncosCountry12]

Normally people don’t ED without having had contact with the admissions office first- maybe set up a meeting with them to discuss?

Thank you for the advice. Does the admissions office give a reliable answer about your chances? Like will they be honest and tell you they want you to apply even if they don't plan on admitting you?

 

[deleted1095841]

You seem to have a strong application. But admissions is 90% luck. I would recommend applying more broadly than just Perelman and Yale. Even if you're "good enough" for both, they may just pass you up due to randomness. There are people who get into Harvard but not Perelman. If you're going through the effort of applying, apply to at least 20 schools.

 

[sheepsitter]

Thank you for the advice. Does the admissions office give a reliable answer about your chances? Like will they be honest and tell you they want you to apply even if they don't plan on admitting you?

From what I understand they’ll be honest but there’s honestly no way to promise how any individual school will act. You could set up a meeting and see what they say. Depending on that, you could choose to ED, or like other people suggested, apply in the regular pool only to schools you would take over your current T20 A. I’d suggest looking into schools that offer merit scholarships or schools whose names/programs look super pretty to you. Otherwise I don’t know if it’s worth the effort- applying kind of sucks tbh lol.

 

[BroncosCountry12]

From what I understand they’ll be honest but there’s honestly no way to promise how any individual school will act. You could set up a meeting and see what they say. Depending on that, you could choose to ED, or like other people suggested, apply in the regular pool only to schools you would take over your current T20 A. I’d suggest looking into schools that offer merit scholarships or schools whose names/programs look super pretty to you. Otherwise I don’t know if it’s worth the effort- applying kind of sucks tbh lol.

Thank you so much for the advice. Based on people's feedback, I think I'm leaning just applying the regular route (only to the ~10 schools I'd attend over my current A).

Do you have any idea what ED % acceptance rates are? I'm having trouble finding this

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

For Yale, they told me that they would highly recommend against ED unless you have a personal reason to only attend Yale. Not sure about Perelman. I don't think your odds increase by applying ED to these schools.

 

[CHCl3]

OP is a great example of the fact that there are indeed levels to this game... lol

 

[superdesperate]

genuine question here: how on earth have you done so much when you're only a junior in college? 15 publications? a non profit that gets media coverage? are you trolling or do traditional applicants like this actually exist?

 

[pre-spring]

genuine question here: how on earth have you done so much when you're only a junior in college? 15 publications? a non profit that gets media coverage? are you trolling or do traditional applicants like this actually exist?

Was honestly wondering the same thing as well, I didn’t really think it was even possible to have such an application.

On a side note, what do you plan to do with your company once you move to another school. If you have major stock in a 20mil company, that’s at least 5-6 million. Wouldn’t it be better to focus trying to grow that rather than switching now, i don’t think a Yale and Penn MD is better that a couple of million dollars.

 

[BroncosCountry12]

genuine question here: how on earth have you done so much when you're only a junior in college? 15 publications? a non profit that gets media coverage? are you trolling or do traditional applicants like this actually exist?

I swear it's not a troll LOL. For the 15 pubs, I got lucky as hell with my lab. My PI was a resident and there were med students in the lab so they all had as much if not more incentive than me to publish and be productive. And it was a research-driven specialty, so I got my name added to a lot of stuff. Plus they gave me a lot of freedom so I was able to start review papers and chart reviews on my own and get my PI's approval/have him edit it once I was done.

For the non-profit, it was somewhat already started in high school and the media coverage was local (should have specified, apologies for that). This was honestly not terribly difficult as talking to the right people in India gets you pretty far.

For the startup, it was founded with members of my research group. I got it started early freshman year and the regulatory process has been surprisingly efficient because it's a very simple product and does not require too too much data (tbh talking to my PI we weren't sure how it wasn't already invented).

 

[BroncosCountry12]

Was honestly wondering the same thing as well, I didn’t really think it was even possible to have such an application.

On a side note, what do you plan to do with your company once you move to another school. If you have major stock in a 20mil company, that’s at least 5-6 million. Wouldn’t it be better to focus trying to grow that rather than switching now, i don’t think a Yale and Penn MD is better that a couple of million dollars.

I initially thought about that too with the company but right now we're moving to an exit. We're planning on licensing the patent and collecting royalties on each unit sold, so my work is pretty much done. It'll hopefully be good passive income that I can invest/pay off my loans with.

I said before though, there was a ton of luck and a lot of skipped classes to build my resume LMAO