Having a hard time selecting schools

[Arian0Anderson]

I think I've determined that I am an average to above average med-school applicant having a hard time determining which schools i would like to attend. Here is a quick rundown of my stats for reference:

35Q
3.6cGPA 3.75sGPA
Male
100+ hours non-medical volunteering (low income HS tutor)
50 hours medical volunteering (ER and med-surg ward)
Biology Tutor 3 years and Lab TA 1 year
8x NCAA varsity XC and TF athlete, 2x captain, all-league
School year research on yeast Ca+2 homeostasis
Summer full time research on T cells, conference presentations, thesis (not publishing)
Go to a small liberal arts college (does that matter? quality of UG education?)
Washington resident
1/2 Mexican-American, 1/2 White
Working in the Americorps for my gap year (do they care?)
Jaw-dropping good looks and can charm the teeth off an alligator (Joke)


That's about all i can think of for now...

Here are the schools I am looking at:
University of Washington
Oregon Health and Sciences U
Stanford
UCSF
Dartmouth

I realize Stanford and UCSF (maybe Dartmouth?) are a reach, while UW and OHSU I think I have a pretty good shot. I'm trying to take the classic approach:
1Goal
2Decent Odds
3Good Odds
4Fall back

but I don't know where each school falls for me or what schools to plug into the other categories. I'm looking to apply to 8-12 schools and think I want to do internal med or family practice.

Any advice on schools, my app, or my life in general would be greatly appreciated. Be as critical as possible...

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[vayntraubinator]

I think I've determined that I am an average to above average med-school applicant having a hard time determining which schools i would like to attend. Here is a quick rundown of my stats for reference:

35Q
3.6cGPA 3.75sGPA
Male
100+ hours non-medical volunteering (low income HS tutor)
50 hours medical volunteering (ER and med-surg ward)
Biology Tutor 3 years and Lab TA 1 year
8x NCAA varsity XC and TF athlete, 2x captain, all-league
School year research on yeast Ca+2 homeostasis
Summer full time research on T cells, conference presentations, thesis (not publishing)
Go to a small liberal arts college (does that matter? quality of UG education?)
Washington resident
1/2 Mexican-American, 1/2 White
Working in the Americorps for my gap year (do they care?)
Jaw-dropping good looks and can charm the teeth off an alligator (Joke)


That's about all i can think of for now...

Here are the schools I am looking at:
University of Washington
Oregon Health and Sciences U
Stanford
UCSF
Dartmouth

I realize Stanford and UCSF (maybe Dartmouth?) are a reach, while UW and OHSU I think I have a pretty good shot. I'm trying to take the classic approach:
1Goal
2Decent Odds
3Good Odds
4Fall back

but I don't know where each school falls for me or what schools to plug into the other categories. I'm looking to apply to 8-12 schools and think I want to do internal med or family practice.

Any advice on schools, my app, or my life in general would be greatly appreciated. Be as critical as possible...

You have a really good shot anywhere.

Get an MSAR see which schools you like the most, and see yourself attending. Use the LizzyM spreadsheet or MSAR to rank the schools to your stats. Other than your gpa, I don't see holes. You can acquire more shadowing and volunteering but otherwise, your americorps work will key you in some goldpoints. Between my friends who've gone through the process, we find athletes have a big plus so sell other points of yourself well. You are very well-rounded

 

[Catalystik]

What are your plans for physician shadowing? You need that before you apply. And keep gaining clinical experience as yours is still on the sparse side.

 

[Arian0Anderson]

What are your plans for physician shadowing? You need that before you apply. And keep gaining clinical experience as yours is still on the sparse side.

Actually I shadowed a PA for a big time surgeon in my home town. It was like 25 hours but obviously shadowing a PA is different than an MD. I assume its still worth mentioning? I also spent a day following a neurologist and a nephrologist but the next couple weeks i'm going to try to observe a surgery or two.

 

[Catalystik]

It's fine to mention the PA shadowing, along with the rest. Besides what you've mentioned, see if you can spend some time with a primary care office-based doc (peds, internal medicine, family med, etc.). Note that 50 hours of physician shadowing are the average total hours listed.