Help with my school list

[musik2468]

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I'm narrowing down my school list in preparation for submitting my primary next week, and I'd really appreciate any advice I can get.

I'm applying to matriculate straight out of college. My basic stats are:
GPA: 3.98
MCAT: 40R
Research: 2.5 years, one pub (not first author), multiple poster presentations at major conferences
A few national awards
Volunteering, teaching, shadowing, and lots of non-medical ECs

I'm planning to apply MD/PhD only, and I'm focusing on MSTPs. Here is my current list:

Stanford
UCLA
UCSF
UCSD
Northwestern
Harvard
UMich
WashU
Columbia
Cornell/Tri-I
Duke
UPenn
UPitt
U of Washington
Vanderbilt
Emory
Case Western
Hopkins
UVA
UChicago
UNC

Is this list too top-heavy? Any suggestions? I'd like to keep it to around 20 or fewer schools.
Thanks!

 

[eighty-twenty]

You'll be fine. Just get a couple strong, personal letters and don't mess up the interviews.

 

[Ombret]

Top-heavy??? It sounds like you will be a shoo-in. Don't get cocky, but unless you are also a sex offender, I think you will have your pick of the top programs. Interviewing at all of these places will bankrupt AND exhaust you. Narrow it down to ten that you would truly be excited to attend. No one can do this for you, it depends on your interests, regional bias etc., but just blindly I would possibly prune off Northwestern, UCSD, UNC, UVA, Emory for starters. No offense meant to any of these programs, all are respectable, but the odds that you will choose these out of a menu that includes (I predict) most of the bigger name programs are pretty long.

 

[Shifty B]

Top-heavy??? It sounds like you will be a shoo-in. Don't get cocky, but unless you are also a sex offender, I think you will have your pick of the top programs. Interviewing at all of these places will bankrupt AND exhaust you. Narrow it down to ten that you would truly be excited to attend. No one can do this for you, it depends on your interests, regional bias etc., but just blindly I would possibly prune off Northwestern, UCSD, UNC, UVA, Emory for starters. No offense meant to any of these programs, all are respectable, but the odds that you will choose these out of a menu that includes (I predict) most of the bigger name programs are pretty long.

I agree. If you are half-way normal in an interview setting, you probably don't even need to apply to this many places. Or, you can apply to them all and then decide which interviews you want to take. Maybe prune a bit based on your specific research interests, because every program (even the very top programs) has weaknesses in some areas. Another method for cutting it down can be geography. Don't apply places you couldn't see yourself ending up.

 

[ChirasBartlett]

Agree with above. You will have a choice at any of the top programs. Do well in your interviews. I would apply to as many schools as possible and then be more selective when it comes down to choosing which schools you want to interview. The interview process is really tiring, especially if you are doing MD-PhD interviews (which are 2 days as opposed to 1 day for MD-only).

 

[musik2468]

Thanks so much for your replies. As far as I know, I'm pretty normal in interviews, and I'm not a convicted killer or anything, so hopefully I'll be fine. Just ready to turn the primary in and get this looonngggg process started!

 

[erikreinertsen]

Thanks so much for your replies. As far as I know, I'm pretty normal in interviews, and I'm not a convicted killer or anything, so hopefully I'll be fine. Just ready to turn the primary in and get this looonngggg process started!

Incredibly impressive stats. The few people I know who are close to that told me ~20 schools is safe, and even less for MD/PhD. Not that I'd know firsthand. Best of luck, and hopefully see you at the interviews 🙂

 

[eighty-twenty]

In regard to Ombret's suggestion about pruning programs, I would look at the labs rather than the "big names". For example, I would keep Emory on the list if you're at all interested in Immunology or Infectious Diseases (look up Rafi Ahmed and see how much grant funding he has and you'll see what I mean, CDC is right there). UCSD has Roger Tsien and has the Salk and Scripps--not bad places to collaborate with.

 

[Choculitis]

I was just about to post something like this haha. Which ones did you end up cutting? I have pretty similar stats and most of those schools on my list—basically all the top 10 and then a few others that have really strong Bioengineering departments (Baylor/Rice, Emory/Georgia Tech, and UCSD), and Cornell, Mt Sinai, and NYU because I think it would be sweet to live in Manhattan. I'm planning on interviewing at my top choices relatively early so that if I get in to one I can cancel most of my other interviews. E.g. WashU gives acceptances starting in November, so if I get in there I'll cancel everywhere other than Harvard, Stanford, and a couple others.