MD Final School List Help

[tubular008]

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How do you do fellow kids...

Hoping I can get some feedback as I finalize the finishing touches on my conclusive school list. Any feedback is welcome, especially schools that are bad fits or ones I should swap in. Thanks!

State: AL
Other Ties: UT
School: Public
ORM? Yes
Major: Biology
GPA: cGPA: 4.0; sGPA: 4.0
MCAT: 525
ECs:
Research

• 700 hours from undergrad across 3 experiences, one 2nd-author pub, one poster. One is MME.
• 2000 (+2000 projected) hours as research assistant (gap years), 1 high impact mid-author pub, 1-2 more by interview time

Clinical Paid

• 110 hours as a MA for one year of school

Clinical Volunteering

• 200 hours in a free clinic, MME

Non-clinical Paid

• 550 hours tutoring other students in core sciences and such, MME
• 200 hours as a lab technician (organizing and making materials for labs)

Non-clinical Volunteering

• 160 hours plus ~60 projected as tutor for K-12 (combining prior activity and current one as very similar)
  • Includes leadership position from college
• 30 hours with another service club
• 55 hours animal shelter volunteering
• 20 hours plus 60 projected working with an organization challenging food insecurity

Shadowing

• 50ish hours across 4 specialties, though no true primary care. More projected as it is ongoing.

Hobbies

• Fitness (marathons, triathlons, and such)
• Cooking/Baking
• Art

Other

• Summer Study Abroad
• Several university awards, nothing crazy

LORs:

• Not gonna list specifics since I can’t really speak to content, but cover all 3 MMEs, major research experience post grad, a physician letter, and 2 professors, one known for writing good letters.

School List (US News Order, for lack of any better way to order):

1. Harvard
2. Johns Hopkins
3. UPenn
4. Columbia
5. UCSF
6. Stanford
7. WashU
8. Duke
9. Vanderbilt
10. Yale
11. NYU
12. Weill Cornell
13. Northwestern
14. Michigan
15. Mayo
16. UCLA
17. UCSD
18. Emory
19. UTSW
20. Case Western
21. Colorado
22. UNC
23. Ohio State
24. Virginia
25. Boston University
26. Rochester
27. UAB
28. Cincinnati
29. Utah
30. Wisconsin
31. Albert Einstein
32. Wake Forest
33. Dartmouth
34. Tufts
35. Hofstra
36. Temple
37. Tennessee

I am most likely to cut UNC (not very OOS friendly) and Utah (same, and expensive) at the moment.

Thanks again for any input!

 

[Faha]

You should receive several interviews. Remove UNC and Utah. Your lack of clinical volunteering hours (outside of tutoring) will limit your chances for interviews at top tier schools where you will be competing against applicants with many hundreds or thousands of hours. Your excellent stats will draw attention at some schools.

 

[ClashRoyaleKing]

Temple is another school you could remove (too high of stats/lack of non-clinical volunteering outside of tutoring). If UTSW is the only TMDSAS school you're applying to, it might be worth removing it because the TMDSAS application is longer and more challenging (at least I thought) compared to AMCAS.

UC Irvine might be a school to add.

 

[tubular008]

Temple is another school you could remove (too high of stats/lack of non-clinical volunteering outside of tutoring). If UTSW is the only TMDSAS school you're applying to, it might be worth removing it because the TMDSAS application is longer and more challenging (at least I thought) compared to AMCAS.

UC Irvine might be a school to add.

Makes sense. I was trying to round out more mid tier schools but it's hard to know where yield protection may apply.

As far as TMDSAS if I go through with it (application half done) I'll add some other schools with no secondary fees, so it would not be just one. But this is helpful advice!

 

[ClashRoyaleKing]

Makes sense. I was trying to round out more mid tier schools but it's hard to know where yield protection may apply.

As far as TMDSAS if I go through with it (application half done) I'll add some other schools with no secondary fees, so it would not be just one. But this is helpful advice!

Schools with no secondary fees? Do tell which ones those are!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Your EC are weak if you are trying to play in the brand school pool. I think you have a strong profile but your description reads heavy research and satisfactory/meh other ECs. You likely are withholding more details that could secure an interview, so I am not sure what additional information you want.

 

[tubular008]

Schools with no secondary fees? Do tell which ones those are!

My phrasing may have implied there are more than reality, hah! Right now the plan would be UTSW (no fee) and Long (no secondary!). I think 1-2 others are free or at least don't publish their fee costs.

 

[tubular008]

Your EC are weak if you are trying to play in the brand school pool. I think you have a strong profile but your description reads heavy research and satisfactory/meh other ECs. You likely are withholding more details that could secure an interview, so I am not sure what additional information you want.

That is likely a fair assessment from adcom POV. My hope is that stats and research (current work is translational and thus more patient-centric than basic science) will be a driving force, as well as great LORs. I know I am not the kind of applicant with a 'wow' number of hours, but I have aimed to emphasize quality and think my writing (which has been well reviewed) will show that. But yeah, we'll see!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

That is likely a fair assessment from adcom POV. My hope is that stats and research (current work is translational and thus more patient-centric than basic science) will be a driving force, as well as great LORs. I know I am not the kind of applicant with a 'wow' number of hours, but I have aimed to emphasize quality and think my writing (which has been well reviewed) will show that. But yeah, we'll see!

Don't underestimate how competitive the 520+/3.9x pool is. Hope is not a good strategy. You need to be strong across the board. You don't need "wow" hours... you need a "wow" profile. In a sea of high-performing individuals, it could take that small difference to move you to a different priority group (or step on the ladder).

I advise from probabilities since we don't have your actual application. We just want to identify those areas of concern.