Help with school list please.

[bdaly123]

Hi I have a preliminary school list so far, but I still have to cut a lot of them. I'm aiming for 20-25 schools in total.

My GPA is 4.0, my MCAT is 514 (unfortunately I took it twice and got the same score both times because the first time I took it I got a 124 on CARS bc didn't finish the section)

500-600 hours of clinical volunteering (at my primary care doctor's office and at hospitals)
100 hours of nonclinical volunteering (coaching youth basketball, special olympics, soup kitchen, habitat for humanity)
Leadership: Not much unfortunately. I was tutoring coordinator for an organization.

Research: MGH for three years, 1 summer at mayo clinic, and 2 years at my school. Currently taking gap year and will be doing research at another hospital in Boston. Started doing research my junior year of high school. Probably only one third or fourth author publication by the time of my application.

ORM, I'm from Mass, went to Univ. of Illinois.

So far: Safety: Uconn, Illinois, Vermont, Quinnipiac, Temple, Stony Brook, Thomas Jefferson, Indiana, Florida, Maryland, UMASS

Target: Tufts, Wake Forest, Darmouth, Einstein, Wisconsin, Georgetown, BU, Oregon, UNC, Brown, USC, Ohio State, Iowa

Reach: Virginia, Mayo, Cornell, Duke, Mt. Sinai, Case Western, UC San Diego, NYU, Pittsburgh, Michigan.

Applying but probably don't have a chance: Northwestern, Stanford, UCSF, Harvard (only because parents work at MGH, and two of my past PI's are harvard professors, don't expect to get in but going to apply anyways).

If anyone has any suggestions for schools to remove or other schools to add, please let me know. Thanks!

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[RogueBanana]

What kind of non-clinical volunteering do you have? That'll have a huge effect on my advice

 

[Mednight]

OP states their non clinical experiences

What kind of non-clinical volunteering do you have? That'll have a huge effect on my advice

 

[RogueBanana]

OP states their non clinical experiences

My bad, Missed that part.

OK so,

Add NYMC to safeties
remove UCONN from safeties (they take so few OOS students you'd have a better chance at Johns Hopkins)
Consider adding GW (though they are lower yield)

Take out Georgetown ( @Jalby)

Take out any school you don't think you'd attend if offered an acceptance

Cut down your reach list to 3-5 schools. There's absolutely no reason to apply to 10 reach schools unless you enjoy burning through money.

Take a hard look at your "target" schools and really think which ones you would like to attend. Check the curriculum, check the location, etc...

I knew I wanted to stay in the northeast, so I didn't apply anywhere west of Chicago. You may want the opposite, or you may want to go to school on the west coast.

We can't make those kinds of decisions for you.

Also, I would strongly recommend getting more non-clinical volunteering, its one of the most important factors to ADCOMS as determined by AAMC surveys. You should do something consistently throughout your gap year. Its not so much about the hours but about showing a long term commitment to the community.

 

[Faha]

From your list all of these are reasonable:
Safety: Illinois, Vermont, Quinnipiac, Temple, Stony Brook, Thomas Jefferson, Indiana, UMASS
Target: Tufts, Wake Forest, Darmouth, Einstein, Medical College of Wisconsin, Georgetown, BU, Brown, USC, Ohio State, Iowa
Reach: Virginia, Mayo, Duke, Mt. Sinai, Case Western, Pittsburgh
You could add Rochester, St. Louis, Tulane, Hofstra

 

[bdaly123]

My bad, Missed that part.

OK so,

Add NYMC to safeties
remove UCONN from safeties (they take so few OOS students you'd have a better chance at Johns Hopkins)
Consider adding GW (though they are lower yield)

Take out Georgetown ( @Jalby)

Take out any school you don't think you'd attend if offered an acceptance

Cut down your reach list to 3-5 schools. There's absolutely no reason to apply to 10 reach schools unless you enjoy burning through money.

Take a hard look at your "target" schools and really think which ones you would like to attend. Check the curriculum, check the location, etc...

I knew I wanted to stay in the northeast, so I didn't apply anywhere west of Chicago. You may want the opposite, or you may want to go to school on the west coast.

We can't make those kinds of decisions for you.

Also, I would strongly recommend getting more non-clinical volunteering, its one of the most important factors to ADCOMS as determined by AAMC surveys. You should do something consistently throughout your gap year. Its not so much about the hours but about showing a long term commitment to the community.

For the reach schools, most of them are within 1 LizzyM score of my score so that's why I'm applying to all of them. The average mcat scores for those schools are usually around 35, and avg gpa is 3.8.

Why would you take out Georgetown? Any particular reason?

Hmm ok I'll look into GW and will add NYMC

 

[bdaly123]

From your list all of these are reasonable:
Safety: Illinois, Vermont, Quinnipiac, Temple, Stony Brook, Thomas Jefferson, Indiana, UMASS
Target: Tufts, Wake Forest, Darmouth, Einstein, Medical College of Wisconsin, Georgetown, BU, Brown, USC, Ohio State, Iowa
Reach: Virginia, Mayo, Duke, Mt. Sinai, Case Western, Pittsburgh
You could add Rochester, St. Louis, Tulane, Hofstra

Can you explain why you took out the schools you did? Also would the schools you suggested be safeties, targets, or reaches? Thanks!

 

[Faha]

Can you explain why you took out the schools you did? Also would the schools you suggested be safeties, targets, or reaches? Thanks!

Some are state schools that give a strong preference to their own residents (i.e. Florida, Oregon). Others are very competitive. The ones I added are safeties or targets.

 

[RogueBanana]

For the reach schools, most of them are within 1 LizzyM score of my score so that's why I'm applying to all of them. The average mcat scores for those schools are usually around 35, and avg gpa is 3.8.

Why would you take out Georgetown? Any particular reason?

Hmm ok I'll look into GW and will add NYMC

If you can afford that then go for it. But if you are going to apply to all of them that suggests you are considering removing only schools from your target & safety brackets. You'd have a top-heavy list with reduced chance of acceptance.

For most applicants, money is the limiting factor. If you can afford to apply to all of these schools (and can deal with filling out all the secondaries in the summer) then go for it.

Schools like UCSD, Mayo, Cornell, Duke, NYU need more than stats. Research may give you a slight boost at these schools, but for most schools research is not a deciding factor. Your ECs need to be absolutely stellar to have a shot at these schools.

By that I mean:
- Lots of consistent volunteering with disadvantaged groups in your community (preferably eventually having a leadership role)
- Lots of clinical experience (you should be good here)
- Having navigated significant cultural or social obstacles to make it to medicine
- Leadership experience (the top 25s love leadership)

Here's a handy chart of what ADCOMS care about:

Being ORM, having an MCAT retake with no improvement (which doesn't look good) and not having leadership will make this harder for you.

 

[bdaly123]

If you can afford that then go for it. But if you are going to apply to all of them that suggests you are considering removing only schools from your target & safety brackets. You'd have a top-heavy list with reduced chance of acceptance.

For most applicants, money is the limiting factor. If you can afford to apply to all of these schools (and can deal with filling out all the secondaries in the summer) then go for it.

Schools like UCSD, Mayo, Cornell, Duke, NYU need more than stats. Research may give you a slight boost at these schools, but for most schools research is not a deciding factor. Your ECs need to be absolutely stellar to have a shot at these schools.

By that I mean:
- Lots of consistent volunteering with disadvantaged groups in your community (preferably eventually having a leadership role)
- Lots of clinical experience (you should be good here)
- Having navigated significant cultural or social obstacles to make it to medicine
- Leadership experience (the top 25s love leadership)

Here's a handy chart of what ADCOMS care about:

Being ORM, having an MCAT retake with no improvement (which doesn't look good) and not having leadership will make this harder for you.

Ok thanks that chart is very helpful. I will take out some reaches based on city, curriculum, etc once I do more research on all the shools.

What would you suggest that I do during my gap year to help improve my leadership?

Also why remove Georgetown? The stats there are a pretty good match for mine I thought.

 

[RogueBanana]

Ok thanks that chart is very helpful. I will take out some reaches based on city, curriculum, etc once I do more research on all the shools.

What would you suggest that I do during my gap year to help improve my leadership?

Also why remove Georgetown? The stats there are a pretty good match for mine I thought.

Start an organization or take a leadership role in a current organization. It's easier to get leadership exp. in undergrad because you can join a club and be an officer. In the real world, ask your job/PI for an individual project, take the lead on something, start a clothing/book drive.

SDN has an.....um... interesting view of Georgetown. There's a thread by @Jalby on his poor experience with their ADCOM that is probably the longest running thread, maybe ever.

 

[Jalby]

I didn't look through your list closely, but I would be sure to apply to every school in Boston and within 100 miles. You can't get into Harvard, but the fact your parents work in Boston gives you a huge advantage there.

So when I applied to Tufts, they asked if you have any connection. It turns out that my grandmothers maiden name is Tufts and my great great great great grandfather founded the school. I put that down and they didn't even give me a interview.