Sorry!!
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How many MD/PhD programs?
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You'd be a reasonable candidate for any school. I'd apply every MSTP that's geographically of interest to you then narrow it down on the interview trail.
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I'm gonna move this to the MD/PhD forum as you'll get more responses there.
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There is no universal answer to the "how many schools" question.
On paper, you look like a good applicant, but I would suggest that you take a good, long, objective look at your non-tangibles before you come up with a number. Is it easy for you to talk to people? Are you a confident and competent writer? Have you bonded with faculty members who are likely to write glowing recommendations for you? Have you really taken the reins on your current research projects? Do you radiate excitement when talking about science? Are you good at explaining your projects to non-experts without losing them?
If the answer to all of those questions is yes, then you are likely to be an all around great applicant, and you can probably apply to 8-10 schools fairly safely. If you are lacking in any of those areas, tack on a few extra schools. If you are lacking in many of those areas, open up a new credit line, and apply anywhere you can. There is no reason to sell yourself short by applying too narrowly, but there is also no reason to throw your money away on places you don't like because of some misplaced sense of self-doubt.
On paper, you look like a good applicant, but I would suggest that you take a good, long, objective look at your non-tangibles before you come up with a number. Is it easy for you to talk to people? Are you a confident and competent writer? Have you bonded with faculty members who are likely to write glowing recommendations for you? Have you really taken the reins on your current research projects? Do you radiate excitement when talking about science? Are you good at explaining your projects to non-experts without losing them?
If the answer to all of those questions is yes, then you are likely to be an all around great applicant, and you can probably apply to 8-10 schools fairly safely. If you are lacking in any of those areas, tack on a few extra schools. If you are lacking in many of those areas, open up a new credit line, and apply anywhere you can. There is no reason to sell yourself short by applying too narrowly, but there is also no reason to throw your money away on places you don't like because of some misplaced sense of self-doubt.
So far, I've made a list of 18, including my state school. Is that too many? I believe I'll have strong LORs and a unique essay. Should I narrow it down to 15 to save on application fees and potential interview costs? Assuming there's no chance I'd interview/matriculate to those schools if I were admitted to a school higher on my preference list (but these are also the more competitive schools).
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Better to include a lot of schools including safeties (even if you end up withdrawing from them) than to potentially get rejected across the board, feel like crap and wait for a year to apply again IMO
Could you guys recommend a few schools that would be considered safeties for me? I know the MCAT/GPA averages for these schools, but I'm not sure how to assess what can be considered a safety.
edit: preferably schools in states that border the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean 🙂
edit: preferably schools in states that border the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean 🙂
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I agree with this except a few like Emory and Dartmouth. It would probably be best to do some Google searches of faculty you would be interested in working with. I'm not sure if you're still interested in molecular genetics but, off the top of my head, the UT Houston and UNC are good with this
A good start:
http://graduate-school.phds.org/ran...____________________________________________U
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Emory is MSTP-funded. Their current grant runs through 2012, and they will certainly get a renewal. Almost any program is good in 'molecular genetics,' which is a strikingly meaningless term nowadays. Pubmed searches would be more informative than google searches, unless you use Google Scholar, which is a great database. Most lab webpages are extremely outdated, whereas current publications are only slightly outdated to probable lab projects.
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