Lacking in research?

Inuranic, NEVER ever compare yourself to anybody in this forum. Schools care about the scientist in you and how committed you are to this path, not so much if you have had 3 or 13 different research experiences. They take into account your undergrad and what kind of opportunities you had there, believe me. If you show through your application that you are independent (within your level of training, nobody expects you to be at the postdoctoral level nor should you pretend to be somebody you are not because they can identify that crap easily) and, most importantly, motivated and decided, then you are good to go. You already wrote a grant and got it funded, so make sure you emphasize that.

Make sure you apply to some dream schools too, don't count yourself out before even seeing how good you are. If you have killer letters of recommendation, that will put you with the most competitive applicants. Allow yourself to dream big. I was told MANY times over interviews that schools were looking for POTENTIAL, and they can identify that given what you have done with the opportunities available to you. Just my two cents.

 

You'll be fine. Don't worry.

 

i don't see any reason why you should be aiming low...you should aim across the board for where you want to go. you don't want to shortchange yourself by simply not applying to great schools.

as a side note, i think your research sounds really in depth and much more significant than many people's experiences. the area you might want to improve is your mcat, since it seems that some schools have some kind of filter going where they only look at apps with a certain mcat score or above.

 

Don't start picking schools until you actually get your MCAT score back. I scored 6 points higher on the real exam than on my last practice test. I averaged on practice exams where you are now and did much better. Some students do much worse.

I agree with the posters above. My application was similar to yours yet I felt the same way you do here. I applied to mostly the wrong schools for me, though it worked out since I got into my top choice anyways (a top tier school). I definately now feel like I aimed too low and just seeing some of these other schools would have been more useful than some of the middle of nowhere places I applied.

 

I improved 2 points from my highest practice, and some of my friends even 3-4. So if you are now around 32-33, then you can shoot for a 35, which is pretty solid. I agree on waiting until you get your MCAT before making any decisions.

 

My kinda un-scientific suggestion is, if you manage to score >= 34, there's nowhere you shouldn't apply. MCAT seems to matter a bit less in this process than straight MD.

 

I'm pretty sure you have more research experience than the average MSTPer. It's important that you had independent projects. Make sure your advisor points this out on the recs and you emphasize it as well.

 

That's the impression I get too. It seems that once you're in the mid-30's, nobody really cares what you got on the MCAT.

 

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