is 21 schools too many to apply to?

[anotherhopeful]

aight guys, really fast, 3.5 gpa at top 5 (According to usnews anyway) undergrad, 36R MCAT, all the usual ECs, shadowing, volunteering, tutoring, etc. no publications though.

i have these schools. oh i'm from indiana.


stanford
cornell
yale

emory
northwestern
u of chicago
case

mt sinai
NYU
U of rochester
USC
dartmouth
yeshiva
OSU
IU
tufts
wake
BU
UCincinnati
Jefferson
Tulane
Rush

Help me narrow these?

Thanks guys!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Pinkertinkle]

I think that's a good list.

 

[spidermonkey11]

I had stats slightly worse than yours and i applied to 21 schools. At the time I figured better safe than sorry. But in retrospect after the process, I really shouldve only applied to 15 or so.

There were a few schools on my list that really really really were last resorts in cities i know i wouldn't have been happy in. So my advice is to make sure you'd realistically be happy at all those schools (try not to kid yourself) and just apply to those. I mean, with your stats you're most likely going to get into at least a very good middle tier school (i say 'most likely' cause for all i know youre horrible at interviews, which im sure youre not) so if there's some expendable lower tier schools on your list, i'd drop them.

Oh, i'm also a believer in applying to reach schools. If you have the money to apply to many schools, than i say apply to many reach schools cause you really never know what someone might see in you on any random admissions committee.

 

[Rugger81]

don't worry about narrowing it down so much as making sure you like the ones you have. like my pre-med advisor warned us "this is no time to pinch pennies!"

 

[skypilot]

It's a good list. 21 seems a little excessive with your stats, but sometimes you drop schools during the secondary or interview process. By the time you finish it may be down to 18. I agree with a few more reach schools. Heck your MCAT is in the 99th percentile!

 

[anotherhopeful]

Wow, thanks for the reply guys. the only thing i'm worried about is my 3.5 gpa (i think my science might be like a 3.3 or a 3.4.

also, i don't really know what other schools to apply to in the "higher-mid" range.

i took out rush and USC, and decided to add drexler and UPitt. any ideas on those?


Thanks guys! I don't think i could've gotten this far w/o you guys. i was a ghost observer the period before the mcats in april.

 

[IllinoisStudent]

You have 36R on ur MCATs. Even if you got 14 on ur VR, you probably have an average of 11 on ur sciences. People may disagree with me, but I feel that you need to understand your sciences to do that well.. If I am the admissions officer, I wouldn't look at your GPA. You have worked hard on your extracurriculars, and now its time to relax!

Filling out secondaries for 20+ schools will require lot of time, energy and money. You might wanna reconsider.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Alcon]

Anotherhopeful,

I had a slightly lower GPA than yours, with the same MCAT (number score). Make sure to apply early... I applied pretty late and it only complicated things.

In any case, I applied to around 20 schools and got rejected from all of them* , except for 5 interviews. Where I got interviews didn't follow a clear pattern... I got rejected from USF (in-state school) but had better outcomes at UM and UF. I also got rejected from a bunch of non-top-20 private schools, but was interviewed, waitlisted, and ultimately accepted at a cooler school (Northwestern - ). Go figure.


Anyways, that's my experience. Apply to a range of schools (I see you are planning to), and don't think that you have no chance at any particular school. Anything is possible (as I recently found out).



Good luck!



*Stanford rejected me the day after my AMCAS was verified, so they probably use a numerical formula to give out secondaries. The rest were post-secondary rejections.

 

[anotherhopeful]

wow, NU? congrats!

yeah, this process is more of a crapshoot than college admissions, i've gathered.

just another question, how're the jesuit schools (yeshiva and loyola)? does it matter that thy're jesuit and i'm not?

thanks

 

[angstrom55]

21 seems fine to me. I believe some of your choices prescreen before giving out secondaries...so at least for those schools you can get a gauge of where you stand. If you're worried that 21 secondaries is a lot to do....i filled out 33. After a while..they start asking you the same questions so you can keep recycling answers....hehe.

 

[skypilot]

Wow, thanks for the reply guys. the only thing i'm worried about is my 3.5 gpa (i think my science might be like a 3.3 or a 3.4.

also, i don't really know what other schools to apply to in the "higher-mid" range.

i took out rush and USC, and decided to add drexel and UPitt. any ideas on those?

Pitt is a great school! Many people, after seeing Pitt's facilities and curriculum will decide that they would turn down higher ranked schools to go to Pitt.

 

[voltron77]

It looks good!!!!! Good luck on your application this year!!!

 

[mcjay]

The more schools on your application can only equal more choices for you. For me, I found this a good thing.

Good list of schools.