Help Narrowing List - all feedback is appreciated!

[aamc90]

I want to apply to 30 +- 3 schools (seems very doable since some schools just have 1 or 2 secondary essays).
Let me know if I am missing any info (this is my first post). Thanks for the help in advance. Really appreciated.

Caucasian male, traditional, Midwest, top public school
GPA, science GPA: 3.87, 3.8. Excluding 1 bad initial semester: 3.92, 3.93
MCAT: 517
Major in Chemistry and Spanish and a minor in econ
Study Abroad in South America for 1 month
WARS score of 82 or 86.

Research of 1000+ hours. Small presentations. Second author in lower journal: in process of doing peer reviewers experiments.

Clinical:
30 at hospital. 100 additional.
100 as translator at clinic. 50 additional.
40 hours shadowing 4 specialties including live surgery. 15 probable additional depending on timing (not sure if I should include on app).

nonclinical:
A lot of leadership in orgs/fraternities that include community service and charity events. 700 hours
Soup Kitchen and other local service. 100 hours. 30 additional

Extracurricular:
intramural sports and working out
Summer part time job of helping in family store. 350 hours

Will likely apply to help teach a lab for a semester next year. Depends on availability. (not sure if I should include this on app. Please let me know what you think)

I think I would like to focus on surgery and I do care about the school being in a somewhat lively area/city.

Red in lists are schools I was thinking about removing:

University of Michigan
Wayne State

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas Health Science Center--San Antonio

Keck
University of Rochester
Albert Einstein
Upitt
Iowa
Stony
Hofstra
Boston Univ
Emory
Cincinnati
Tufts
Case
Kimmel
Miami
Wisco
Indiana University
University of Colorado
University of Maryland
Brown
Saint Louis University

Mount Sinai
Duke
UCs (LA, SF, SD)
University of Virginia
Cornell
Yale

Stanford
Northwestern
Columbia
Vanderbilt
Harvard
Baylor
Upenn
Uchicago
Mayo
john hopkins



@Faha , @Goro, @WedgeDawg and @Mr.Smile12 have been very helpful in my process so far and I would love some last minute extra help

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mvsrocks]

I'd remove UPenn and Hopkins

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ?

 

[LunaOri]

I want to apply to 30 +- 3 schools (seems very doable since some schools just have 1 or 2 secondary essays).
Let me know if I am missing any info (this is my first post). Thanks for the help in advance. Really appreciated.

Caucasian male, traditional, Midwest, top public school
GPA, science GPA: 3.87, 3.8. Excluding 1 bad initial semester: 3.92, 3.93
MCAT: 517
Major in Chemistry and Spanish and a minor in econ
Study Abroad in South America for 1 month
WARS score of 82 or 86.

Research of 1000+ hours. Small presentations. Second author in lower journal: in process of doing peer reviewers experiments.

Clinical:
30 at hospital. 100 additional.
100 as translator at clinic. 50 additional.
40 hours shadowing 4 specialties including live surgery. 15 probable additional depending on timing (not sure if I should include on app).

nonclinical:
A lot of leadership in orgs/fraternities that include community service and charity events. 700 hours
Soup Kitchen and other local service. 100 hours. 30 additional

Extracurricular:
intramural sports and working out
Summer part time job of helping in family store. 350 hours

Will likely apply to help teach a lab for a semester next year. Depends on availability. (not sure if I should include this on app. Please let me know what you think)

I think I would like to focus on surgery and I do care about the school being in a somewhat lively area/city.

Red in lists are schools I was thinking about removing:

University of Michigan
Wayne State

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas Health Science Center--San Antonio

Keck
University of Rochester
Albert Einstein
Upitt
Iowa
Stony
Hofstra
Boston Univ
Emory
Cincinnati
Tufts
Case
Kimmel
Miami
Wisco
Indiana University
University of Colorado
University of Maryland
Brown
Saint Louis University

Mount Sinai
Duke
UCs (LA, SF, SD)
University of Virginia
Cornell
Yale

Stanford
Northwestern
Columbia
Vanderbilt
Harvard
Baylor
Upenn
Uchicago
Mayo
john hopkins



@Faha , @Goro, @WedgeDawg and @Mr.Smile12 have been very helpful in my process so far and I would love some last minute extra help

Everything you have on the list after St Louis is a significant reach, so you might want to think about whether you need ALL of those schools on your list. What is your state of residence? Do you have a preferred region to go to school, or are you most concerned with the prestige of the school?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You say Midwest, so obviously standard recommendation applies: all in-states and any regional OOS schools where you have a good chance to be considered. You don't really go into any detail about your activities, so no additional help can I give.

 

[aamc90]

Where is your state of residence ?

I am from Michigan. I added some Texas schools to be able to continue working with the Hispanic population.
I am slightly concerned with prestige because I believe I would like to go into surgery.
I do not have a particular region in mind. I did try to include schools with lively cities to help with the stress though.

 

[aamc90]

You say Midwest, so obviously standard recommendation applies: all in-states and any regional OOS schools where you have a good chance to be considered. You don't really go into any detail about your activities, so no additional help can I give.

I was trying to be brief but let me know if this helps at all.
For my leadership, I have led two campus wide charity events (1 had hundreds of people, the other thousands). I also was one of the founders and co president of the club where I do my medical interpreting. I am also a social chair of another volunteering club.
My hospital volunteering is at the cancer center and I try to make patients more comfortable and hang out with the kids. I also do some cleaning and stocking shelves.
My research is paid and I have been there for two years. I help others with their projects too and help to teach newer students.
My local volunteering includes a soup kitchen, food bank, and cleaning local parks.
I have 4 strong letters mixed among my majors, research, and minor.

I kind of wanted to leave Michigan so I only did two schools, but I guess I should at least add Western and Oakland?
I was also hoping that schools would kind of ignore my bad semester and look at my higher GPA so I added some extra reach schools. I usually am I high shooter, but maybe I need to be more realistic here.


Thanks in advance and thanks to all who replied already.

 

[aamc90]

Also, I have one activity slot left. Do you think it is okay to fill it with the potential teaching position and make that it is a potential activity clear? I will most likely apply to it when the school year starts again.

 

[Faha]

Your clinical hours are low for top tier schools and schools that are looking for that exposure. I suggest these schools from your list:
University of Michigan
Wayne State
University of Rochester
Albert Einstein
Upitt
Iowa
Hofstra
Boston Univ
Cincinnati
Tufts
Case
Kimmel
Miami
Indiana University
University of Colorado
University of Maryland
Mount Sinai
Duke
University of Virginia
You should add your other Michigan schools-Michigan State, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Oakland Beaumont.
You could add these schools:
George Washington
Rochester
USF Morsani
Tulane

 

[squids82]

Also, I have one activity slot left. Do you think it is okay to fill it with the potential teaching position and make that it is a potential activity clear? I will most likely apply to it when the school year starts again.

A potential activity really isn't worth putting down in the activity section since it's not even a matter of when it will start, it's a matter of if it will start. Do you have any long-standing activities/hobbies/sports for fun that you can put down? It's also not necessary to fill up every space. With thousands of applications, I'm sure ADCOMs would appreciate not being bogged down!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Texas schools don't admit that many OOS students so you'd be enduring the TMDSAS application as a donation. Remove your Texas schools.

 

[wydoc]

Everything you have on the list after St Louis is a significant reach, so you might want to think about whether you need ALL of those schools on your list. What is your state of residence? Do you have a preferred region to go to school, or are you most concerned with the prestige of the school?

Out of curiosity, what makes you say all schools after St. Louis are significant reaches? With a 3.87 and 517 this person is right in the range for the UC schools, Virginia, Duke... pretty much above the 25th percentile for every school in the country with the exception of a small few.

 

[aamc90]

Out of curiosity, what makes you say all schools after St. Louis are significant reaches? With a 3.87 and 517 this person is right in the range for the UC schools, Virginia, Duke... pretty much above the 25th percentile for every school in the country with the exception of a small few.

I think it is because of my clinical hours. Kinda sucks that I would have had an additional 100 by now if it wasn't for COVID, but what can you do. I'm going to have an additional 200 guaranteed my senior year so hopefully the schools take that into consideration. I am just trying to decide how to show that properly on amcas since future hours are not really considered that much.

 

[aamc90]

@Goro , if you have time, do you agree with the new list? it seems like you tend to recommend shooting higher. I was hoping adcoms would be more lenient on hours since due to covid I could not get at least 100 additional clinical hours that I had scheduled to do before my application and I will get around 150-200 (99% confident) more hours before entering med school.
I wanted to add Harvard, UCLA, UCSD, Cornell, and Vanderbilt to the list.

 

[Goro]

I want to apply to 30 +- 3 schools (seems very doable since some schools just have 1 or 2 secondary essays).
Let me know if I am missing any info (this is my first post). Thanks for the help in advance. Really appreciated.

Caucasian male, traditional, Midwest, top public school
GPA, science GPA: 3.87, 3.8. Excluding 1 bad initial semester: 3.92, 3.93
MCAT: 517
Major in Chemistry and Spanish and a minor in econ
Study Abroad in South America for 1 month
WARS score of 82 or 86.

Research of 1000+ hours. Small presentations. Second author in lower journal: in process of doing peer reviewers experiments.

Clinical:
30 at hospital. 100 additional.
100 as translator at clinic. 50 additional.
40 hours shadowing 4 specialties including live surgery. 15 probable additional depending on timing (not sure if I should include on app).

nonclinical:
A lot of leadership in orgs/fraternities that include community service and charity events. 700 hours
Soup Kitchen and other local service. 100 hours. 30 additional

Extracurricular:
intramural sports and working out
Summer part time job of helping in family store. 350 hours

Will likely apply to help teach a lab for a semester next year. Depends on availability. (not sure if I should include this on app. Please let me know what you think)

I think I would like to focus on surgery and I do care about the school being in a somewhat lively area/city.

Red in lists are schools I was thinking about removing:

University of Michigan
Wayne State

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
University of Texas Health Science Center--San Antonio

Keck
University of Rochester
Albert Einstein
Upitt
Iowa
Stony
Hofstra
Boston Univ
Emory
Cincinnati
Tufts
Case
Kimmel
Miami
Wisco
Indiana University
University of Colorado
University of Maryland
Brown
Saint Louis University

Mount Sinai
Duke
UCs (LA, SF, SD)
University of Virginia
Cornell
Yale

Stanford
Northwestern
Columbia
Vanderbilt
Harvard
Baylor
Upenn
Uchicago
Mayo
john hopkins



@Faha , @Goro, @WedgeDawg and @Mr.Smile12 have been very helpful in my process so far and I would love some last minute extra help

Take a gap year and get in the clinical hours your stats deserve.