Help With School List

[ttothemac]

Hi everyone,

I'm a senior and looking to apply in June. I'm a Virginia resident, at a Virginia public school.

Here's my low-down:
GPA 3.88
sGPA 3.9ish
MCAT 38 (14 PS/12 BS/12 VR) M <-

Leadership
-VP and President of a club
-led freshman orientation sessions
-co-led a religious script study group
-served as freshman peer mentor
-served on residence complex council (decide what to spend hall funds on)

Research
-Member of Neuroscience/Psychology research lab for two years
-Led summer project -> poster and honors thesis

Clinical
-80ish hours of shadowing over PCP and psychiatry
-Volunteered in ER/Orthopedic ~100 hours
-Volunteer at Hospice ~100 hours

Non-clinical
-Served as a Big Brother
-Volunteer with a group to hold Science Club for an elementary school

Hobbies include creative writing, photography, and sports at pick-up, IM and club level. I've been in other cultural and religious organization just to broaden my horizon, I may mention that as a hobby/interest.

Thanks for bearing with me through that. Here's my list, which I'll hopefully trim a little:

In-state:
Eastern Virginia
Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth

OOS
Albert Einstein
Boston U
Columbia
Drexel
Duke
Emory
GW
Georgetown
Harvard
Mt Sinai
Jefferson
Johns Hopkins
Mayo
NYMC
Northwestern
Penn
Temple
Tufts
U Chicago
U Cincy
Iowa
Miami
Michigan
Pitt
Vermont
Wake Forest
Wash U
Cornell

Could you guys help me modify my list a little bit, especially with cutting down on the top-heavy trend.

Thank you!

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[Cynicalbrit]

I think your application looks pretty good. It's almost spookily similar to mine. As far as your list, I would recommend crossing out Drexel (they have a bad reputation on here), Georgetown and George Washington (10,000+ apps), and Vermont (in-state bias). Other than that, you have a few OOS public schools that I can't really comment on, and way too many safeties. I'd recommend cutting your list down to around 15, and definitely no more than 20. If you apply to 15 schools, you can probably get away with 5-8 reach schools, as long as the rest are fits/safeties. When you start trimming down your list, dont just look at where you can get in, look at where you want to go. Do you really want to go to Iowa?

Start crossing off any school that you would only attend as a last resort. If it helps, try sorting them into 3 categories (reach, fit, safety) and rank them (approximately) according to how much you like them. Then start crossing off from the bottom until you have the right mix of safety, fit, and reach schools.

Cheers

 

[Omppu27]

I think your application looks pretty good. It's almost spookily similar to mine. As far as your list, I would recommend crossing out Drexel (they have a bad reputation on here), Georgetown and George Washington (10,000+ apps), and Vermont (in-state bias). Other than that, you have a few OOS public schools that I can't really comment on, and way too many safeties. I'd recommend cutting your list down to around 15, and definitely no more than 20. If you apply to 15 schools, you can probably get away with 5-8 reach schools, as long as the rest are fits/safeties. When you start trimming down your list, dont just look at where you can get in, look at where you want to go. Do you really want to go to Iowa?

Start crossing off any school that you would only attend as a last resort. If it helps, try sorting them into 3 categories (reach, fit, safety) and rank them (approximately) according to how much you like them. Then start crossing off from the bottom until you have the right mix of safety, fit, and reach schools.

Cheers

I think he/she could still keep GT and/or GW. Lots of people apply there, but this is a competitive application...

Agreed that there are too many safeties. That could end up being a lot of wasted time/money.

 

[ttothemac]

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll cut some of the safeties and try to trim my reaches as well.

 

[iceman55]

I think your application looks pretty good. It's almost spookily similar to mine. As far as your list, I would recommend crossing out Drexel (they have a bad reputation on here), Georgetown and George Washington (10,000+ apps), and Vermont (in-state bias). Other than that, you have a few OOS public schools that I can't really comment on, and way too many safeties. I'd recommend cutting your list down to around 15, and definitely no more than 20. If you apply to 15 schools, you can probably get away with 5-8 reach schools, as long as the rest are fits/safeties. When you start trimming down your list, dont just look at where you can get in, look at where you want to go. Do you really want to go to Iowa?

Start crossing off any school that you would only attend as a last resort. If it helps, try sorting them into 3 categories (reach, fit, safety) and rank them (approximately) according to how much you like them. Then start crossing off from the bottom until you have the right mix of safety, fit, and reach schools.

Cheers

Too many safeties??? I only see about three, not including in-state schools. Temple also goes into same category as GW and Georgetown, as they get enormous amounts of applicants. I think your list is top-heavy but your a competitive applicants, so you'll be fine.

 

[iceman55]

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll cut some of the safeties and try to trim my reaches as well.

Which schools are you considering as safety school??

 

[Cynicalbrit]

Another piece of advice, just because I have approximately your numbers:
IMHO, any school with an average MCAT of 36 or higher should be considered a reach for pretty much everyone. OOS public schools may or may not be reaches, regardless of stats. Also, any school with greater than 95% matriculants having research experience should be considered a reach for anyone without significant research experience. This would include pretty much all of the top 20, though you can check the MSAR to be sure.

For you, I'd say any school with an average MCAT of 34 or below is a safety, and any with an average MCAT of 32 or below may be a bit too safe. This is based on advice LizzyM gave me in a similar thread, which may be worth a read for you:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=985348

 

[Omppu27]

Which schools are you considering as safety school??

Okay, there probably aren't too many safeties, but i do think he could get rid of a couple. For example, Vermont and UCincy. Vermont is 3.7/30 average and almost 80%OOS. Cincy is under 40% OOS but it's still a 3.55/3.6 and 32 average. By the look of his app (3.9 and 38MCAT...) i would be surprised if he applied to all these schools and only got into vermont or cincy. He is most certainly competitive for many of the higher ranked schools, thus UC and UVM would seem like a waste of time/money. Then again, if he really likes these schools for one reason or the other, then go ahead and apply.

 

[Omppu27]

For you, I'd say any school with an average MCAT of 34 or below is a safety, and any with an average MCAT of 32 or below may be a bit too safe. This is based on advice LizzyM gave me in a similar thread, which may be worth a read for you:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=985348

 

[Cynicalbrit]

I think he/she could still keep GT and/or GW. Lots of people apply there, but this is a competitive application...

Agreed that there are too many safeties. That could end up being a lot of wasted time/money.

While this application would probably be near the top of the stack for Georgetown and GW, OP should ask himself whether it's really worth it to apply to either, especially given the massive number of applications they receive. Georgetown is a religiously affiliated institution, so if the OP isn't into that sort of thing, he may want to seriously consider that before applying. GW, on the other hand, has one of the highest tuition prices in the country and isn't actually that great of a school. Not to mention the fact that DC tends to have a fairly high cost of living. So, if you really want to go there, I would say go for it, you've got a great shot. Just make sure that you really do want to go there, as there may be other schools that would be more worth the application. Speaking of which, I think GW is also known for having a ridiculously high secondary fee, though I can't confirm that myself.

 

[mcloaf]

Another vote for dropping some of the mid tier safeties.

 

[ttothemac]

Which schools are you considering as safety school??

EVMS
VCU
B.U.
Drexel
Jefferson
Cincy
Temple
Wake

I mean there aren't safeties in this game, but these are the schools I'd be more likely to expect an invite from. Not to say I would get one.

 

[ttothemac]

While this application would probably be near the top of the stack for Georgetown and GW, OP should ask himself whether it's really worth it to apply to either, especially given the massive number of applications they receive. Georgetown is a religiously affiliated institution, so if the OP isn't into that sort of thing, he may want to seriously consider that before applying. GW, on the other hand, has one of the highest tuition prices in the country and isn't actually that great of a school. Not to mention the fact that DC tends to have a fairly high cost of living. So, if you really want to go there, I would say go for it, you've got a great shot. Just make sure that you really do want to go there, as there may be other schools that would be more worth the application. Speaking of which, I think GW is also known for having a ridiculously high secondary fee, though I can't confirm that myself.

I guess the reason I most want to apply to GW or GTown is because of proximity to home. They're basically the two closest, besides Maryland.

Also, I actually forget why Iowa was on the list. I must have added it a while ago for one reason or another. I guess it's an easy place to start the trimming of my list.

 

[Cynicalbrit]

EVMS
VCU
B.U.
Drexel
Jefferson
Cincy
Temple
Wake

I mean there aren't safeties in this game, but these are the schools I'd be more likely to expect an invite from. Not to say I would get one.

I agree on pretty much all of these, but if by BU you mean Boston, I'd actually mark that as a fit (or maybe an upper safety). In any case, it's definitely not a safety in the way Jefferson is a safety. Also, NYMC should be on your list of safeties, and possibly in the category of too safe.

 

[Omppu27]

While this application would probably be near the top of the stack for Georgetown and GW, OP should ask himself whether it's really worth it to apply to either, especially given the massive number of applications they receive. Georgetown is a religiously affiliated institution, so if the OP isn't into that sort of thing, he may want to seriously consider that before applying. GW, on the other hand, has one of the highest tuition prices in the country and isn't actually that great of a school. Not to mention the fact that DC tends to have a fairly high cost of living. So, if you really want to go there, I would say go for it, you've got a great shot. Just make sure that you really do want to go there, as there may be other schools that would be more worth the application. Speaking of which, I think GW is also known for having a ridiculously high secondary fee, though I can't confirm that myself.

True, but from reading on the school specific threads it's not a big deal.

 

[iceman55]

EVMS
VCU
B.U.
Drexel
Jefferson
Cincy
Temple
Wake

I mean there aren't safeties in this game, but these are the schools I'd be more likely to expect an invite from. Not to say I would get one.

Again, aside from your state schools I would only consider Drexel and Jefferson as true safeties on list, may be cincy, but not sure.

There are many well qualified students of your caliber that want to study medicine in Boston and Philly, these are very desirable locations. Even with stats BU is not a safety, although have a solid chance. But among temple, Jefferson, and Drexel, I'd say temple gets the most applicants. These schools (aka temple) just seem to be on everybody's list, resulting in high number of qualified applicants they receive. And Wake forest is pretty darn good school that only accepts approx 125 in first year class, not sure I would consider this a safety.

 

[Cynicalbrit]

Again, aside from your state schools I would only consider Drexel and Jefferson as true safeties on list, may be cincy, but not sure.

There are many well qualified students of your caliber that want to study medicine in Boston and Philly, these are very desirable locations. Even with stats BU is not a safety, although have a solid chance. But among temple, Jefferson, and Drexel, I'd say temple gets the most applicants. These schools (aka temple) just seem to be on everybody's list, resulting in high number of qualified applicants they receive. And Wake forest is pretty darn good school that only accepts approx 125 in first year class, not sure I would consider this a safety.

Temple has a median accepted MCAT under 32 and a median GPA of 3.7

The OP is 3 points above the 90th percentile MCAT score for students admitted to Temple, and is very near their 90th percentile GPA. The only reason for which Temple might not be considered a safety is that they might reject him to protect their yield. The exact same thing can be said for Eastern Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth (both of which also have Median MCAT scores of 32 or below and 90th percentile MCAT scores of 35).