Last minute advice with School List?

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student4life0800

Full Member
10+ Year Member
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Stats:

MCAT: 38

GPA: 3.56 sGPA: 3.62

EC's

120 Hrs volunteering @ Children's Hospital

Teaching Assistant for Intro Bio for 3 Semesters

Research for 2 years and working on publishing paper currently

Shadowed 60 hrs

Volunteered in the OR for 40 hrs

Job as an MCAT tutor

And worked during school

Current List

  • Brown University

  • Case Western

  • University of Colorado

  • Columbia University

  • Dartmouth University

  • Duke University

  • Emory University

  • George Washington University

  • Georgetown University

  • Loyola

  • Ohio State

  • Rush

  • Tulane

  • UCLA

  • UCSD

  • UCSF

  • UNC

  • University of Miami

  • University of Utah

  • USC
MAYBES

  • Albert Einstein
  • Baylor
  • Boston
  • Chicago @ Rosalind Franklin
  • Drexel
  • Florida International
  • Mayo
  • Mount Sinai
  • Northwestern
  • NYMC
  • Penn State
  • Wisconsin
  • Temple University
  • Tufts
  • University of Arizona
  • Wake Forest
  • Virginia Tech
  • Thomas Jefferson University
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Cornell
  • Oregon Health and Science University
  • University of Cincinnati
Any schools that you would move from my maybes to the list or remove from my current list? Or any that I didn't list that you would add.

I am looking to apply to 25, I appreciate the input!
 
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I essentially agree with Goro's list, but I'll add some of my own comments on your list.

Remove Brown: they interview 3% of applicants and aren't worth the time, money, or effort to apply for so little probability of reward.

Remove UNC: extreme in-state bias.

Of your maybes, I would look into considering any the following:

  • Albert Einstein
  • Boston
  • Drexel
  • Mount Sinai
  • Northwestern
  • NYMC
  • Penn State
  • Temple University
  • Tufts
  • University of Arizona (look into both)
  • Wake Forest
  • Virginia Tech
  • Thomas Jefferson University
  • University of Pittsburgh
  • Cornell
  • University of Cincinnati
You're okay for any of these, but don't add too many because you don't want your list of secondaries to become unmanageable (which can happen very quickly).

As for the California schools, your stats are good enough for them, but they are remarkably hard to get into, boasting absurdly low acceptance rates and a very large pool of highly qualified applicants. UCSF is probably the best for OOS favorability of the UCs, but your best chance at a California school will unquestionably be through USC-Keck.
 
Do you think that if my gpa is below the 10th percentile, but close like at northwestern, I should still apply?

I would personally advise against it if you are removing other, more likely schools, to include these ones, but it's up to you. Keep in mind that if you're below the 10th percentile, more than 90% of admitted students have higher stats than you in that regard, and the ones that don't usually have something else that makes up for that.