Help with my MSTP List?

[existingsteak]

• #1

Hey guys! I'm hoping that y'all could offer some edits/comments to my med school list given my stats. I hope to apply for MSTP programs throughout the US:

State Residency: CA

GPA: 3.84

MCAT: 522

Major: Biochemistry

University Prestige: Ranked Top 75 in USNWR

SEC Factors: Low-income mixed-race

Clinical Volunteering: over 300 hrs.

Volunteering: President of science education organization. Devoted over 500 hrs

Shadowing: ~50 hrs in ICU. ~5 hrs in general surgery. ~2hrs in radiology. <-- will work on this during gap year.

Pubs: 1 first-author in Science Advances and several conference presentations (in both undergraduate and professional societies). Spent all four years in college working in a lab at my college, and 3 summers working at JHU medical school.

Major Awards: Goldwater, Fulbright, Thermo Fisher Scholarship

School List is listed below:

Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Columbia, UCSF, UCLA, Weill Cornell, Mayo, UMich, Duke, Yale, Emory, Baylor, UCI, USC, Icahn, UCSD, UChicago, Case Western, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, WashU, Kaiser

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[931kra]

• #1

Hey guys! I'm hoping that y'all could offer some edits/comments to my med school list given my stats. I hope to apply for MSTP programs throughout the US:

State Residency: CA

GPA: 3.84

MCAT: 522

Major: Biochemistry

University Prestige: Ranked Top 75 in USNWR

SEC Factors: Low-income mixed-race

Volunteering: President of science education organization. Devoted over 500 hrs

Shadowing: ~50 hrs in ICU. ~5 hrs in general surgery. ~2hrs in radiology. <-- will work on this during gap year.

Pubs: 1 first-author in Science Advances and several conference presentations (in both undergraduate and professional societies)

Major Awards: Goldwater, Fulbright, Thermo Fisher Scholarship

School List is listed below:

Harvard, Stanford, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Columbia, UCSF, UCLA, Weill Cornell, Mayo, UMich, Duke, Yale, Emory, Baylor, UCI, USC, Icahn, UCSD, UChicago, Case Western, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, WashU, Kaiser

Do you have any clinical volunteering? Everything looks pretty solid besides a noticeable lack of clinical volunteering.

Can you elaborate on your research experience? How many different labs have you worked in? How many hours/years (roughly)? Is there a sustained commitment to research over the course of your undergrad (and possibly beyond) career? Pubs are great but sustained efforts are also very important.

Your list is also quite top-heavy (even for an applicant like yourself with such great stats!) so I would recommend some more "mid-tier" options that are around UCI-level.

Good luck! Have you submitted already?

 

[existingsteak]

Do you have any clinical volunteering? Everything looks pretty solid besides a noticeable lack of clinical volunteering.

Can you elaborate on your research experience? How many different labs have you worked in? How many hours/years (roughly)? Is there a sustained commitment to research over the course of your undergrad (and possibly beyond) career? Pubs are great but sustained efforts are also very important.

Your list is also quite top-heavy (even for an applicant like yourself with such great stats!) so I would recommend some more "mid-tier" options that are around UCI-level.

Good luck! Have you submitted already?

Thank you for your response! I've devoted over 300 hrs in clinical volunteering transporting patients. For my research experience, I spent ~700 hrs working in a lab on machine-learning and cancer (this was my first-author) from freshman to senior year. I also spent 3 summers studying pulmonary hypertension in a bench lab starting from freshman summer to junior summer. That publication is tentative, though. I'm going to pursue more research opportunities on my Fulbright in the 2020-2021 year. And, thank you I will certainly add more mid-tier options.

 

[931kra]

Thank you for your response! I've devoted over 300 hrs in clinical volunteering transporting patients. For my research experience, I spent ~700 hrs working in a lab on machine-learning and cancer (this was my first-author) from freshman to senior year. I also spent 3 summers studying pulmonary hypertension in a bench lab starting from freshman summer to junior summer. That publication is tentative, though. I'm going to pursue more research opportunities on my Fulbright in the 2020-2021 year. And, thank you I will certainly add more mid-tier options.

You're welcome! And that is a substantive amount of clinical volunteering; kudos! That should be more than adequate for what MSTPs desire. Your research experience also sounds solid--just make sure you write compelling essays and understand how to bring those two research experiences together into a cohesive narrative

 

[shacoleblanconly]

Agree with Natgeo about adding some mid tier programs. I look forward to seeing your name all over the II list this cycle

 

[mdphd2021]

Do you have any clinical volunteering? Everything looks pretty solid besides a noticeable lack of clinical volunteering.

Can you elaborate on your research experience? How many different labs have you worked in? How many hours/years (roughly)? Is there a sustained commitment to research over the course of your undergrad (and possibly beyond) career? Pubs are great but sustained efforts are also very important.

Your list is also quite top-heavy (even for an applicant like yourself with such great stats!) so I would recommend some more "mid-tier" options that are around UCI-level.

Good luck! Have you submitted already?

What are some of those "mid-tier" options, other than UCI? Everything looks so competitive, I'm having a hard time finding good target schools!