Looking for school list help: 514 MCAT, 3.83 cGPA, 3.73 sGPA

[kiterpoly]

Hi all, I'm applying next cycle and looking for help with my school list. I'm interested schools with strong immunology or infectious disease research and need help making my list less top-heavy. Any feedback is much appreciated! Thank you in advance!

EDIT: Forgot to add that I'm currently a senior undergrad, planning to do NIH post-bac during gap year
EDIT 2: Mistakenly wrote that Duke superscores MCATs - fixed this. Also updated list based on feedback.
EDIT 3: Moved Vanderbilt in list, added some safeties. List got long after this, so cut some reaches (in strikethrough).

1. MCAT: 513 --> 515
2. cGPA: 3.83, sGPA: 3.73
3. Undergraduate School: T20 undergrad, studying engineering
4. Research: 2500+ hrs, 2 publications (both second author), 4 posters, honors thesis, Goldwater scholarship
5. Clinical volunteering: 150 hrs hospital volunteer, 50 hrs patient musician
6. Shadowing: 100 hrs across 5 specialties
7. Non-clinical volunteering: 300+ hrs mentoring kids in science/math (club leader)
8. Other Extracurriculars: 75 hrs illustrating for school magazine, 100+ hrs as school magazine organizer (club leader), 100 hrs in music group (not main leader, but in leadership position)
9. Employment: 800+ hrs as TA, 200 hrs as peer tutor, 200+ hrs student consultant, 200+ hrs service job
10. Demographic: In-state in MO, Asian

School List:
Long Reach (MCAT and GPA <10 percentile)
WashU
UPenn
Hopkins
Harvard
UChicago
Reach (MCAT or GPA between 10-50 percentile)
Stanford
Cornell
UCSF
UCSD
UTSW
ICahn
UPitt
UW (but not in-state here)
Yale
Vanderbilt (superscores MCAT according to website, but still holistic)
Columbia
Duke
UCLA
UMichigan
Target
Emory
UMaryland
UWisconsin
BU
Hofstra
UColorado
UMinnesota
UNC
UMass
UT Houston
Safety/Low Target
Mizzou (state school)
Kansas
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wayne State
Indiana

On the MD forums, I was looking at the WARS calculator, which recommended I add more Category 3 and Category 4 scores, but from the MD/PhD side, I wasn't sure if I should still add these if they don't align the best with my research interests.

Category 3 WARS Schools
Ohio State
Dartmouth (low yield)
Einstein
Category 4 WARS Schools
Cincinnati
Stony Brook
VCU
Western MI
EVMS (no MD/PhD program)
Vermont (no MD/PhD program)
WVU
Wake Forest

Thanks for reading! Please let me know if there are any questions I can answer.

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[deleted728364]

Can’t offer you advice, but question for all:


According to MSAR, some schools (like UChicago) have OP’s stats between their 10th and 50th percentile for matriculants, but below 10th for accepted applicants. Which set of numbers should we use when making our school list?

 

[JoaoMoutinho]

How far apart were your mcat test dates?

I would take off Dartmouth (very low yield app), and maybe make sure that places like WVU and UVM or EVMS in your bottom list even have MD/PhD programs. For your reaches, I would really seriously consider which ones are best matches for research and maybe focus your application there. Do any of your research mentors have connections at any of those schools?

One reach you could consider adding is Yale, given the strength of their immunology faculty, though this is already a very top heavy list.

Maryland is definitely a good target school. Consider adding UMass (they have some excellent faculty in immunology and infectious disease) and UT Houston/MD Anderson (strong in cancer immunology, not sure about other aspects).

Fencer will probably link this soon, but look at the AAMC facts tables for MD/PhD programs. Apply to programs that have a lower number of applications per matriculant.

 

[MSTPadvocate]

Um...my program doesn't "superscore". I consider all tests.

 

[kiterpoly]

Thanks everyone for replying! I'm still new to posting on SDN so apologies for any formatting blips here:

Which set of numbers should we use when making our school list?

For my list, I used all accepted applicants instead of matriculants, since I figured accepted might have a larger sample set of people. I'm also unsure which would be best though.

How far apart were your mcat test dates?

5 months apart (March --> August) I was considering applying last cycle with a June/July exam with a late application, but later decided to take a gap year and pushed the test to August.

I would take off Dartmouth (very low yield app), and maybe make sure that places like WVU and UVM or EVMS in your bottom list even have MD/PhD programs. For your reaches, I would really seriously consider which ones are best matches for research and maybe focus your application there. Do any of your research mentors have connections at any of those schools?

Thank you for feedback!
Removing: Dartmouth
Adding: Yale (maybe), UMass, and UT Houston/MD Anderson
Other: WVU has an MD/PhD program but UVM and EVMS do not. Good catch, thank you!
I think my research mentors have connections to at least half of my reach/long reach schools. I'll cross-check their collaborations on papers, ask them collaborators about the remaining schools, and then perhaps remove any schools with no connections? Just to double check, does "connections" refer to other PIs that my research mentors are friends with, or instead other program directors?
I've been looking at some of the AAMC Facts tables and will be sure to loop back to num applicants/matriculant.

Um...my program doesn't "superscore". I consider all tests.

Ah, my apologies! I initially found the superscore information here, but now realized the link is outdated (last updated July 2018).
I just checked Vanderbilt's and Duke's websites and saw that Vanderbilt still superscores, but Duke does not. I'll edit my initial post to fix this.

 

[EvoMed]

I don’t think anyone is “Superscoring”, you’ll be viewed holistically. You should be above almost everyone’s MCAT cutoff.

Your a strong applicant and will probably end up at a good program. But just in case something unseen (interview skills, etc) happen to work against you, you might want to consider adding a few more safeties. Your ratio is top heavy

 

[kiterpoly]

I don’t think anyone is “Superscoring”, you’ll be viewed holistically.

Got it. I'll take the Vanderbilt superscore with a grain of salt and consider them back on my Reach list.

you might want to consider adding a few more safeties. Your ratio is top heavy

I definitely agree with this! I'm looking for some help in adding more targets/safeties. I initially ruled out some schools just out of geography because I'm hoping to go to a school outside the Midwest, but I think I will need to reconsider and add some schools back in.

Thinking of perhaps:
Kansas
Medical College of Wisconsin
Wayne State
Indiana