Help narrowing down a school list and gauging competitiveness

[MacroPhagoCytosis]

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Help pls 🙂 Questions at the bottom

3.97, 526, junior applying straight through from a large state school

Research: 3300ish hours by the time I apply, 4800ish by the time I matriculate, same lab since high school, includes 5 fully-funded full-time summers. One 4th-author IF>4 paper, 1st-author and 2nd-author papers hopefully will be submitted in the next 4 months but who knows. I have some “other/not real” papers (that have dois): scicomm piece, university undergrad research journal.

Posters/Presentations: 16 conferences (mix of national professional, national undergrad, regional professional, and institutional/other local ones), mix of oral and poster, won 6 presentation awards, 2 travel awards. I LOVE presenting my research.

Awards: Goldwater as a soph, full COA merit scholarship to undergrad, 2 research fellowship/funding awards (one institutional, one professional society), 2 field-specific national undergrad research awards, other misc awards related to fencing/other research stuff etc.

Other experiences (not including projected hours): ~100 hrs clinical volunteering (also 200 hrs of hospital/doctors office volunteering from high school which I’ll mention in my PS but not activities), 30 hrs shadowing, 70 hrs nonclinical volunteering, 70 hrs tutoring (not sure if this really counts as part of my nonclinical volunteering), 450 hrs fencing team captain, 400 hrs cofounded undergrad research journal + class to teach undergrads how to peer review, 100 hrs mentoring + other teaching.

Research interests: inflammation, neuroinflammation, innate immune system, chronic inflammation, inflammatory disorders, but I’d lowkey be happy at any immunology lab besides microbio (and maybe cancer) ones

Career Goals: Nobel Prize (I'm only half-joking), leader in academia, director of an MD-PhD program, all that good stuff

School List:
Reaches: Harvard, Stanford, Penn, JHU, Columbia, UCLA, UCSF, WashU, Duke, UPitt, Yale, Northwestern, Vandy, Emory, Mayo, NYU, Tri-I, UWash
Targets (if such a thing exists): Case, UNC, Iowa, Ohio State, Rochester, NJMS, RWJ, UMich, Mt. Sinai, UVA, USC Keck, Temple

I have absolutely zero idea how to gauge my competitiveness for my reaches, or how to narrow down this list. I am the least picky and probably the most will-be-happy-anywhere person so the only thing definitively “out” for me is Texas and Florida. I would prefer something with an undergrad attached (cause I’m big on mentoring/teaching) but it's not a dealbreaker.

Am I wasting my money applying to basically every T20 school? Am I not applying to enough mid/low tier schools? Is my clinical/non-clinical volunteering enough? Is it terrible if none of my most meaningful activities on my app will be clinical? Will coming from a state school and taking no gap years make it incredibly difficult for me to get into those tippy top T5/10 schools? For the career goals I am envisioning, how necessary is it to even go to one of those schools (cause according to the people I see in those places now, it seems pretty necessary)?

 

[ShinySephiroth]

You have an obviously bright future ahead of you! Congrats! My one thought is, even MD/PhD, your clinical hours might be a little low. I could see some ad comms saying "why not just do a PhD? You need more clinic exposure to show us 'why MD?'... and also show himself why he needs the MD..." I'm not saying they will with your stats, but it is possible at the higher institutions that have the liberty to pick whomever they want. To be extra sure, maybe drop down your involvement in one of your other ECs temporarily to increase your time working and/or volunteering in a clinic setting (probably needing to project out on the primary) to ensure your app for this year has that. If you're willing to wait (I understand completely if not), perhaps waiting till the 22-23 after you've added those hours could help.

Again, not saying I'm right - just a perspective to consider. Either way, I'm sure you'll slay. You've worked very hard and you're set up for a successful life!

 

[MacroPhagoCytosis]

You have an obviously bright future ahead of you! Congrats! My one thought is, even MD/PhD, your clinical hours might be a little low. I could see some ad comms saying "why not just do a PhD? You need more clinic exposure to show us 'why MD?'... and also show himself why he needs the MD..." I'm not saying they will with your stats, but it is possible at the higher institutions that have the liberty to pick whomever they want. To be extra sure, maybe drop down your involvement in one of your other ECs temporarily to increase your time working and/or volunteering in a clinic setting (probably needing to project out on the primary) to ensure your app for this year has that. If you're willing to wait (I understand completely if not), perhaps waiting till the 22-23 after you've added those hours could help.

Again, not saying I'm right - just a perspective to consider. Either way, I'm sure you'll slay. You've worked very hard and you're set up for a successful life!

Thank you! (and *her)

I agree, the clinical aspect is definitely where I'm most lacking, and when I project out my hours it'll be around 175-200hrs and some more shadowing hopefully. In your opinion, if I present a compelling enough "why medicine" story in my personal statement, would it make up for the lack of hours? And any advice on narrowing my school list?

 

[BRTC200]

First: wow. Congratulations on accomplishing so much within such a short time, it is truly impressive to say the least. I have just completed my application cycle this past year, also as a junior applying as a traditional applicant with *maybe* 2/3 the application you have (3.95/519 CA ORM). Of note, I had 0 clinical experience or volunteering hours and 100 hours of shadowing experience to represent my exposure to medicine. My school list was solely T25 and I received 2 MD/PhD interviews from T15s and an MD-only II from Harvard. Ultimately, I received one acceptance, actually at one of the schools you listed as a "reach." Nail your writing and tell your genuine story and I have no doubt you're in contention for the best of the best. Feel free to PM if you'd like to discuss any further, and best of luck! Hope to see you on the other side soon.

 

[gnΩhmChild]

Congratulations on what looks like an application that will be competitive anywhere. Here's my two cents from someone matriculating at one of your reach schools this summer:

Am I wasting my money applying to basically every T20 school? Given the degree to which admissions decisions are out of your control - no, in my opinion. I also applied to thirty schools, interviewed at some target schools and some reach schools, got ghosted by some target schools and reach schools, and ended up getting my first acceptance at the highest ranked school I interviewed at. What I'm trying to say is I'd be hesitant about trying to be overly strategic - shoot your shot if you have the financial resources to do so and think you'll have the bandwidth to complete all the secondaries in a timely manner.

Am I not applying to enough mid/low tier schools? Possibly. I'd consider Michigan UNC, and UVA more in the reach group rather than target group. If you're trying to shave off some schools in order to add some more to the target group, I'd encourage you to really, really think hard about where you want to spend your 20s. Clearly you're a badass when it comes to 'professional' activites- I'd imagine you pursue things outside of the professional sphere with similar intensity (e.g fencing). What schools/cities would facilitate you growing as a person, not just physician and scientist? Ultimately that's what my decision about where matriculate came down to.

Is my clinical/non-clinical volunteering enough? Its 'enough' if you can integrate it into your narrative about why you want to be a physician scientist. Numbers-wise you have more than I did at the time of application, but events during my limited hours were pivotal moments in my narrative.

Is it terrible if none of my most meaningful activities on my app will be clinical? Terrible - probably not, but also maybe not typical. I had research, clinical volunteering experience, and non-clinical volunteering experience as my 3. If you decide that you won't have a clinical activity in your top 3, the question that will be asked is 'why you do want to be a doctor' and 'do you really want to be a doctor'? Therefore, you will have to unambiguously answer those questions elsewhere for the reader. You should absolutely get advice from more senior people than me about this. I based my strategy on what I had read on this forum.

Will coming from a state school and taking no gap years make it incredibly difficult for me to get into those tippy top T5/10 schools? It's difficult for anybody to get into T5/T10 schools. Ask yourself the opposite question, barring a Nobel price or Olympic medal, CNS papers, or something along those lines, what could you do in the next one or two years that would ~measurably~ increase your chances of T5/T10? Personally I asked myself the same question and decided that I wasn't going to bet one or two years for an effect I couldn't measure.

For the career goals I am envisioning, how necessary is it to even go to one of those schools (cause according to the people I see in those places now, it seems pretty necessary)? I don't think I'm qualified to give my opinion on this.

Happy to discuss anything if you want, and good luck!