Help with school list!

[iwanttobelieve]

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Hi, I just got back my MCAT score and I was wondering if someone could give me advice on schools to apply to? I bought the MSAR and have started looking through that as well but was hoping to get a better idea of a starting point.

• Background: I am a biology major at a top 5 undergrad, and am currently a junior. ORM (Asian), not low SES.
• State: Nebraska GPA: 3.73 cGPA: 3.64 MCAT: 519 (128/130/130/131)
• ~300 hours clinical volunteering (children's hospital)
• ~250 hours nonclinical volunteering (a couple of volunteering organizations that do food kitchens, plus I teach workshops about accessing health resources and communicating about mental/physical health to at-risk high schoolers)
• ~350 hours research over 1 summer (paid radiation oncology research)
• 1 first author publication, 1 third author publication, and 1 poster presentation at a clinical meeting (all from my radiation oncology research)
• ~30 hours shadowing (two specialties)
• ~50 hours working in career advancement office (short-term, I was taking a summer class and working there part-time)
• 3 leadership positions in club organizations on campus
• Honors: was on dean's list every year, and also was awarded a merit scholarship upon admission to college that provided funds for two summers worth of enrichment activities
• Other: I managed social media for a recruiting company during my freshman year, and also wrote articles about college tips for a college website.

I'm still working on my personal statement, but I've gotten some good feedback on it. Of my LORs, two should be very good, and the other two will probably be decent.

Thanks for your help!

 

[efle]

You got two authorships incl. a 1st author out of 300 hours of research? Wat

Anyways I'd apply to your state school, about a dozen of your favorite top 20s, and then another ~8-10 you'd be interested in from the 20-40 range (e.g. Case Western, USC, Rochester, Einstein, etc)

 

[iwanttobelieve]

You got two authorships incl. a 1st author out of 300 hours of research? Wat

Anyways I'd apply to your state school, about a dozen of your favorite top 20s, and then another ~8-10 you'd be interested in from the 20-40 range (e.g. Case Western, USC, Rochester, Einstein, etc)

I was very lucky about the research, since I did statistical analysis on the side for another intern's project that also got published (the third author one). Technically I worked way more than 300 hours since I continued to do work on the manuscript after my internship was finished, but I'm not sure if I should include those hours since they're not documented. Thanks for the help!

 

[efle]

I'd include hours of writeup/analysis, it's not just the data gathering that counts.

Post your tentative list when you've picked favorites!

 

[aprilfools]

I was very lucky about the research, since I did statistical analysis on the side for another intern's project that also got published (the third author one). Technically I worked way more than 300 hours since I continued to do work on the manuscript after my internship was finished, but I'm not sure if I should include those hours since they're not documented. Thanks for the help!

Yes include those hours. Your app is stellar and you shouldn't have a problem with Efle's suggested top-heavy school list. Congrats!

 

[ChrisMack390]

Definitely include the writing and such under research hours

 

[iwanttobelieve]

Yes include those hours. Your app is stellar and you shouldn't have a problem with Efle's suggested top-heavy school list. Congrats!

Thank you for the advice and encouragement!