Help on School List for MD/PhD

[n8db8]

Hello all, here are my stats and my current MD/PhD school list. Please let me know if you would change anything or have any suggestions.

My stats:
sGPA: 3.73
cGPA: 3.75
MCAT: 515. 128CP /126CARS (ouch)/130 BB/131 PS

Texas Resident

Research:
*3 month summer experience in a Drosophila behavioral genetics lab (no pub or poster)
*2.5 years in a Drosophila immunology lab- (first authorship publication, 1 oral, 2 posters (1 local,1 itnl))
*6 months on a project on Zika virus- ( Coauthor pub, 2 coauthors on talks, went to Brazil for conference)
*Given responsibility to train a new undergraduate student who recently joined the lab to work on my project .
*Received 2 undergraduate research fellowships to fund my research

Other Experiences:
*CEO and co-founder of a insect-protective clothing start-up for women
*Was a TA for Organic Chemistry 1, General Chemistry 2, and Biochemistry 1 for a year and a half
*Tutored struggling elementary school students in math and reading for 2 years
*Shadowed heart surgeons at a children's hospital for 2 weeks
*Shadowed all specialties during a 2 week all inclusive program at an academic hospital
*Volunteer at local hospital for 1 semester (and ongoing)
*Won an award for being one of the top 3 chemistry students in General Chemistry 1 and 2
*Part of a pre-health organization on campus
*Marathoner

LOR
3 exceptional letters from my PI's and the Professor I TA for
1-2 good letters

Potential School List:
UT Southwestern
UCSF
Yale
Harvard
Medical University South Carolina
Houston- Health Science Center
Mount Sinai
MC Wisconsin
UCSD
Michigin
Wash U St L
U Rochester
Iowa Carver
Colorado Denver
U Indiana School of Med
U Wisconsin
U Mass
Pitt
Case Western
Einstein
U Minnesota
Oregon HSU
UTSA
Texas A&M

I have accepted a research associate position in my current lab for next year and plan on continuing volunteering at my local hospital as well.

Thank you so much,

N8B8

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[Lucca]

Hello fellow Texan. I'd say your chances are pretty good with this list. 24 schools is quite a lot, but if you can afford it, probably not impossible to manage when secondaries roll around. Have you narrowed down by the kind of research you want to do? As a Texan, I also wanted to ask: Why no Baylor?

 

[n8db8]

Howdy! Yeah I agree that it is a lot and I will probably narrow it down slightly more based on research focus. I am mainly interested in neuro-immunology, and so will probably pursue the PhD in immunology. Funny that you said that, I realized immediately after posting that I forgot to put Baylor on there! My GPA is a little low for them, but definitely still plan on applying.

 

[Lucca]

Howdy! Yeah I agree that it is a lot and I will probably narrow it down slightly more based on research focus. I am mainly interested in neuro-immunology, and so will probably pursue the PhD in immunology. Funny that you said that, I realized immediately after posting that I forgot to put Baylor on there! My GPA is a little low for them, but definitely still plan on applying.

From this description it looks like your research experience will be strong enough to attract attention (2+ years, some leadership role in lab, pub + poster). Your MCAT will be about average at every MSTP and a little below average the very top, as will your GPA. But, at the end of the day, I think it is research experience that matters most for this process.

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

University of Nebraska has a group of researchers doing some pretty cool stuff with neuro-AIDS and other neuroimmunology stuff. IIRC the Gendelman lab is the big one driving that project, and there is a whole group of PIs working on related stuff over there now.

 

[n8db8]

Joao, thanks so much for the advice man! I just looked up his lab and it seems right up my alley. You at U Nebraska now?

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

Joao, thanks so much for the advice man! I just looked up his lab and it seems right up my alley. You at U Nebraska now?

No, I interviewed there a couple months ago and really liked it. I interviewed with one of the other PIs that works on neuro-HIV and neuro-AIDS and was really impressed with her. I got the impression that they're an underrated program that is trying to grow. It seems that they are really strong in some areas, but that other areas are lacking. If you're really interested in the whole neuro-AIDS thing, then I would definitely send them an application.

EDIT: Like I said, most of what I know is from interviewing there rather than actually going there, but feel free to PM me with any other questions.