Help with school list CA Resident (516 MCAT, 3.91 GPA)

[shawshankredemption]

Hi guys! I was hoping I could get some suggestions on my school list. Please let me know if I’m missing a school I should apply to, or if there is a school I should remove. Thank you!

I’m a CA resident at a public in-state university with ties to California’s Central Valley. Biology (B.S.) Honors Minor in Interdisciplinary Studies. South Asian.

cGPA:3.91

sGPA: 3.94

MCAT: 516 (128/131/127/130)

Clinical Experience:

• 250 hours volunteering in an ER
  
  
• 100 hours of volunteering in a free medical clinic in Tijuana, Mexico as a member of Flying Samaritan’s (if any of you are familiar with the organization)
  
  
• 100 hours volunteering with Family Health Centers of San Diego
  

Shadowing Experience:

• Shadowed roughly 150 hours across multiple specialities, such as: cardiology, pediatrics, emergency medicine, ophthalmology, hematology/oncology and family medicine; listed in order from greatest hours to fewest hours.
  

Research Experience:

• Roughly 1000 hours in a heart research lab at my university. (Great LOR from distinguished professor)
  
  
• Second author publication
  
  
• Keck summer research fellowship, around 100 hours (Great LOR)
  

Non-Clinical Volunteering:

• I volunteered for two weeks in a food kitchen in Lisbon, about 5 hours/day with IVHQ. It was a really impactful trip and I will list it as a significant EC on my applications.
  

Leadership Experience:

• I have extensive leadership experience in something that I will not list, because if I do it will reveal my real name and I prefer to keep my privacy. It is a big part of my application and something that really sets me apart. I will list it as a significant EC on my med school apps. (Great LOR from Dean of the College of Science)

Awards:

• Full-ride academic scholarship (merit-based)
  

School List:

Pretty big list, I definitely need to cut it down. I feel like I have too many reaches. Thank you again for your time!

Reach:

UCLA
UCSF
UCSD
USC
Yale
Harvard
Albert Einstein
Stanford
Duke
Johns Hopkins
University of Chicago
Mayo Clinic
U of Pittsburgh
UW
Cornell
Columbia
NYU
UPenn


Match:

UCD
UCI
Boston University
Dartmouth
George Washington
Georgetown
Penn State
Sidney Kimmel
Icahn Mt. Sinai
Brown
Tufts
U of Arizona
U of Illinois
U of Miami
UNC Chapel Hill
Wayne State

Safe:

Drexel
Rosalind Franklin
Oakland Beaumont

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[Bryant088]

This is a good list, but it's probably a bit much.
Schools I would consider dropping: Penn St, Rosalind Franklin, OUWB, UNC, UW
Schools I would consider adding: Case Western (for sure), Ohio State, Stony Brook, SUNY Downstate, Saint Louis, MCW, UVA, U Cincinnati, UMich

 

[Kingsmen2018]

Agree with the above poster. Be advised that adcoms look to ur bio section of the mcat most heavily. You are definitely a solid candidate. But don’t over estimate your chances now. Goodluck!

 

[shawshankredemption]

This is a good list, but it's probably a bit much.
Schools I would consider dropping: Penn St, Rosalind Franklin, OUWB, UNC, UW
Schools I would consider adding: Case Western (for sure), Ohio State, Stony Brook, SUNY Downstate, Saint Louis, MCW, UVA, U Cincinnati, UMich

Thank you for your reply, Bryant088! I prefer to have some 'safety' schools which is why I have Rosalind Franklin and OUWB, is there any reason in particular I should drop them? Also, I will add the schools you suggested, thank you for those!

 

[shawshankredemption]

Agree with the above poster. Be advised that adcoms look to ur bio section of the mcat most heavily. You are definitely a solid candidate. But don’t over estimate your chances now. Goodluck!

Thanks for your reply Kingsmen! When I first received my scores I was concerned about my B&B score as well, but then I heard that individual subscores aren't as important as overall scores. In your opinion, are there any schools I should drop based off of my bio score? My list is too big imo, so I am looking to cut down. Thank you again!

 

[nywst]

I'm not sure if mt. sinai should be considered a "match".

 

[shawshankredemption]

I'm not sure if mt. sinai should be considered a "match".

I agree, just checked the MSAR, adding Mt. Sinai to my 'reach' group as well lol. Do you have any suggestions on schools that you consider to be a 'match' that I do not have listed? I feel like I have too many reaches, thanks for the feedback!

 

[Bryant088]

Thank you for your reply, Bryant088! I prefer to have some 'safety' schools which is why I have Rosalind Franklin and OUWB, is there any reason in particular I should drop them? Also, I will add the schools you suggested, thank you for those!

Because I'm confident you'll get into way better schools

 

[nywst]

they are also probably not worth the effort seeing as how they interview very few OOS applicants and many IS applicants.

 

[shawshankredemption]

Because I'm confident you'll get into way better schools

Thank you for the vote of confidence Bryant! I'll follow your suggestions

 

[shawshankredemption]

they are also probably not worth the effort seeing as how they interview very few OOS applicants and many IS applicants.

Based on the MSAR they interview about 14% of both IS and OOS applicants, so I just want to give it a shot. Do you have input on the other schools I have listed? Congratulations on the MD acceptance btw, just saw it!

 

[nywst]

We may be looking at different numbers? My MSAR says RF interviews 6% OOS and 28% IS and Penn state interviews 8% OOS and 23% IS. I didnt check OUWB, for some reason i thought we were talking about penn state and RF only.

 

[Bryant088]

We may be looking at different numbers? My MSAR says RF interviews 6% OOS and 28% IS and Penn state interviews 8% OOS and 23% IS. I didnt check OUWB, for some reason i thought we were talking about penn state and RF only.

I'm not too sure about Penn State, but OUWB and Rosalind Franklin take plenty of CA applicants each cycle

 

[MDPedigree]

Agree with the above poster. Be advised that adcoms look to ur bio section of the mcat most heavily. You are definitely a solid candidate. But don’t over estimate your chances now. Goodluck!

How do you know this? I have heard this too somewhere else before. Just curious

 

[shawshankredemption]

We may be looking at different numbers? My MSAR says RF interviews 6% OOS and 28% IS and Penn state interviews 8% OOS and 23% IS. I didnt check OUWB, for some reason i thought we were talking about penn state and RF only.

My bad, I thought you were saying to not apply to Mt. Sinai because they interview too few OOS applicants. The numbers I stated were Mt. Sinai's interview stats. I didn't check for RF and OUWB, but a handful of students from the class before me have gotten accepted to those schools as CA residents.

 

[shawshankredemption]

How do you know this? I have heard this too somewhere else before. Just curious

Yeah, I have heard that that they look at subscores, but most people have said that subscores don't matter and some have said CARS matters the most? I hope CARS matters the most, but that might just be wishful thinking lol

 

[MDPedigree]

Yeah, I have heard that that they look at subscores, but most people have said that subscores don't matter and some have said CARS matters the most? I hope CARS matters the most, but that might just be wishful thinking lol

I have heard CARS matters most to canadian schools.. Deff not true about US. US schools deff look at subsections, but I think as long as your CARS is above 125, you should be good. Ik of people who had very high MCAT's with low CARS and had a lot of success. It usually gets the most slack because of ESL.

I remember reading somewhere that the BIO section is most similar to the boards and maybe thats why they emphasize it? Not really sure tho.

 

[shawshankredemption]

I have heard CARS matters most to canadian schools.. Deff not true about US. US schools deff look at subsections, but I think as long as your CARS is above 125, you should be good. Ik of people who had very high MCAT's with low CARS and had a lot of success. It usually gets the most slack because of ESL.

I remember reading somewhere that the BIO section is most similar to the boards and maybe thats why they emphasize it? Not really sure tho.

I have heard the same about similarity to the boards. I just hope my score doesn't hurt my chances too much, because bio was one of my best sections on the practice and I thought I did well on the real one also, guess not lol

 

[nywst]

Oh yeah actually I remember from my RF interview that they explicitly say they have a big population from California. I dont remember if they said why though...

And FWIW im from new york and got an interview there so maybe its worth applying as a safetyish school.

 

[MDPedigree]

I have heard the same about similarity to the boards. I just hope my score doesn't hurt my chances too much, because bio was one of my best sections on the practice and I thought I did well on the real one also, guess not lol

I doubt anyone is going to question your MCAT score. You have a 127 which is solid. It's not like you have a 125... maybe that would raise some eyebrows. I don't think anyone is going to look twice at your score tbh. It's fairly balanced IMO.

 

[shawshankredemption]

I doubt anyone is going to question your MCAT score. You have a 127 which is solid. It's not like you have a 125... maybe that would raise some eyebrows. I don't think anyone is going to look twice at your score tbh. It's fairly balanced IMO.

Okay, I was a bit worried about my score distributions, hopefully it isn't as big a deal as I feel it is.

 

[shawshankredemption]

@nywst @bigbite @MDPedigree

Do you guys think there are any more schools to remove? My list is a bit too big and I don't want to waste time with schools where it isn't worth it. Thank you all for your replies, they have been very helpful!