Help with school list? (1 OK, 2 excellent)

[uniqenam]

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Hi all, just wondering if you guys could help me pare down my list a little bit. Here are my stats:

GPA: 3.76 (sGPA sameish)
MCAT: 37S
Research: 4 years in exercise phys/vascular bio lab, 1 first-author abstract/oral presentation at international conference, 1 non-first author abstract, 1 first-author pub which will be getting final acceptance within the next few weeks (about to send in revisions).

Should I add more safety/lower MD/PhD programs?

Here's the list (all MD/PhD):
UPenn
UCSF
WUSTL
Yale
Duke
Pritzker
Umich
UWash
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Indiana University
Wisconsin
Ohio State U
UCSD
Northwestern
Emory
Stanford
UNC
Pittsburgh
Cornell (Tri-inst)
CWRU
Mayo
Univ. of Maryland
UAB

"Safety" list (two schools close to my + wife's family):
Wayne State
Michigan State

Also, with my stats is it worth it to spend the money applying to somewhere like JHU or Harvard? I feel my GPA/research isn't really good enough. Thanks people!

 

[zaq]

.

 

[Piper9132]

If you are applying UPenn and Yale, why would you not also apply to JHU and Harvard? They are in the same "tier" and you may end up like me (got an interview to JHU and Yale, but not Penn, Harvard, UCSF, etc. etc.) It is a random process. Apply broadly! Consider adding Nebraska as a super safety (but still a really great program nonetheless, the students and directors are amazing and the med school is really beautiful and has an ice skating rink outside haha) and then maybe places like MUSC and Minnesota as safety schools too.

 

[uniqenam]

If you are applying UPenn and Yale, why would you not also apply to JHU and Harvard? They are in the same "tier" and you may end up like me (got an interview to JHU and Yale, but not Penn, Harvard, UCSF, etc. etc.) It is a random process. Apply broadly! Consider adding Nebraska as a super safety (but still a really great program nonetheless, the students and directors are amazing and the med school is really beautiful and has an ice skating rink outside haha) and then maybe places like MUSC and Minnesota as safety schools too.

Thanks for the advice...I wasn't sure if my GPA would sort of auto-screen me out of JHU/Harvard, but be OK w/ UPenn/Yale (my GPA is closer to their matriculant average). Thanks for the advice, I think I'll add Nebraska/Minny as safety schools.