Low Tier School List Help

[farnell]

Hi everyone,

Was hoping I could get some feedback on the school list I've put together. My GPA is 3.49 (somewhat upward trend, deans list last two semesters but 3.5 in final semester), and I have yet to take the MCAT, but based on my practice scores, lets assume that I get a 30ish. I have solid research and volunteering experience. I understand that I am a pretty below average applicant, and keeping that in mind, does my list of schools seem appropriate? Again, I am not looking for reach schools here, I am interested in schools I might actually have a chance at and are also OOS friendly ( I am a PA resident,and I'm white).

Loyola U of Chicgo
Univ of Illinois at Chicago
Univ of Iowa
Tulane
Univ of Maryland
Boston U
Mich State
Wayne St
St Louis U
University of Missouri - KC
Creighton
Albany
Albert Einstein
NY Medical college
Wake Forest
Toledo
Commonwealth U
Drexel
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
Temple
Pitt
East Tennessee State
Univ of Utah
U of Vermont
Eastern Virginia
Virginia commonwealth WVU

As you may notice, I prefer schools in the eastern US, if at all possible. Do any of these seem like reaches? Alternatively, have a left any lower tier schools off of this list that I might want to consider? I am considering DO schools, but would just like help with MD schools at the moment.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help, long time lurker but first time poster!

 

[Ismet]

I don't have access to the MSAR anymore, but I think Pitt would be your only reach school based on GPA/MCAT. Some of the other schools might be very unfriendly towards OOS (WVU is one, Utah might be one). Also for Commonwealth, it helps immensely if you have ties to the Northeast PA region.

 

[farnell]

Thank you for the input!

 

[Mazdave]

Hi everyone,

Was hoping I could get some feedback on the school list I've put together. My GPA is 3.49 (somewhat upward trend, deans list last two semesters but 3.5 in final semester), and I have yet to take the MCAT, but based on my practice scores, lets assume that I get a 30ish. I have solid research and volunteering experience. I understand that I am a pretty below average applicant, and keeping that in mind, does my list of schools seem appropriate? Again, I am not looking for reach schools here, I am interested in schools I might actually have a chance at and are also OOS friendly ( I am a PA resident,and I'm white).

Loyola U of Chicgo
Univ of Illinois at Chicago - very high OOS tuition
Univ of Iowa
Tulane
Univ of Maryland
Boston U
Mich State - very high OOS tuition
Wayne St
St Louis U
University of Missouri - KC - program is BS/MD only unless that's changed very recently
Creighton
Albany
Albert Einstein - reach
NY Medical college
Wake Forest
Toledo
Commonwealth U
Drexel
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
Temple
Pitt - big reach
East Tennessee State - few or no OOS
Univ of Utah - no OOS unless URM
U of Vermont
Eastern Virginia
Virginia commonwealth
WVU - not OOS friendly

As you may notice, I prefer schools in the eastern US, if at all possible. Do any of these seem like reaches? Alternatively, have a left any lower tier schools off of this list that I might want to consider? I am considering DO schools, but would just like help with MD schools at the moment.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help, long time lurker but first time poster!

See notes on bolded schools. Overall your list is okay. Some of the schools for which you are OOS will be reaches just because they have higher standards for OOS applicants than IS, but none seem really out of place. Assuming average ECs, your GPA is in the territory where your MCAT score can make or break you.

 

[tmax619]

See notes on bolded schools. Overall your list is okay. Some of the schools for which you are OOS will be reaches just because they have higher standards for OOS applicants than IS, but none seem really out of place. Assuming average ECs, your GPA is in the territory where your MCAT score can make or break you.

I second Mazdave's opinion. Further, I have been trying to narrow down schools myself and I think Wake Forest, Toledo, and maybe even Tulane are not very OOS friendly. You should really examine the MSAR closely to see if the schools that you're thinking of applying to are OOS friendly (maybe have a calculator handy).

See if the career or student services center at your school (or other PA schools) has medical school admissions data for it's students. I went to UCSD, which does provide data on how it's students fared in applying to different schools. This, in conjunction with the MSAR, allowed me to narrow down to the schools that I may have a good shot at based on my stats and residency status.

 

[Temperature101]

Hi everyone,

Was hoping I could get some feedback on the school list I've put together. My GPA is 3.49 (somewhat upward trend, deans list last two semesters but 3.5 in final semester), and I have yet to take the MCAT, but based on my practice scores, lets assume that I get a 30ish. I have solid research and volunteering experience. I understand that I am a pretty below average applicant, and keeping that in mind, does my list of schools seem appropriate? Again, I am not looking for reach schools here, I am interested in schools I might actually have a chance at and are also OOS friendly ( I am a PA resident,and I'm white).

Loyola U of Chicgo
Univ of Illinois at Chicago
Univ of Iowa
Tulane
Univ of Maryland
Boston U
Mich State
Wayne St
St Louis U
University of Missouri - KC
Creighton
Albany
Albert Einstein
NY Medical college
Wake Forest
Toledo
Commonwealth U
Drexel
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
Temple
Pitt
East Tennessee State
Univ of Utah
U of Vermont
Eastern Virginia
Virginia commonwealth WVU

As you may notice, I prefer schools in the eastern US, if at all possible. Do any of these seem like reaches? Alternatively, have a left any lower tier schools off of this list that I might want to consider? I am considering DO schools, but would just like help with MD schools at the moment.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help, long time lurker but first time poster!

Boston U, Albert Einstein, University of Maryland are not that low tiers.
http://www.washington.edu/uaa/advising/downloads/gpamcat.pdf

 

[Mazdave]

I second Mazdave's opinion. Further, I have been trying to narrow down schools myself and I think Wake Forest, Toledo, and maybe even Tulane are not very OOS friendly. You should really examine the MSAR closely to see if the schools that you're thinking of applying to are OOS friendly (maybe have a calculator handy).

See if the career or student services center at your school (or other PA schools) has medical school admissions data for it's students. I went to UCSD, which does provide data on how it's students fared in applying to different schools. This, in conjunction with the MSAR, allowed me to narrow down to the schools that I may have a good shot at based on my stats and residency status.

Wake and Tulane are private, so they have no state preference. They both just receive a pretty large number of apps and interview a pretty small number (Tulane in particular). Toledo's class is about 1/3 OOS, which is actually pretty good for a state school. Catalystik uses 15% as a cutoff for OOS-friendly.

 

[farnell]

See notes on bolded schools. Overall your list is okay. Some of the schools for which you are OOS will be reaches just because they have higher standards for OOS applicants than IS, but none seem really out of place. Assuming average ECs, your GPA is in the territory where your MCAT score can make or break you.

This helps a lot. I have a copy of the MSAR so I will definitely double check these, especially the ones you pointed out. I figured that a handful of these might not be good schools for me, but can anyone think of some others I may want to consider?

 

[farnell]

Wake and Tulane are private, so they have no state preference. They both just receive a pretty large number of apps and interview a pretty small number (Tulane in particular). Toledo's class is about 1/3 OOS, which is actually pretty good for a state school. Catalystik uses 15% as a cutoff for OOS-friendly.

Yeah, I seemed to pick that up from the MSAR as well, so that was my reasoning there.

 

[S198]

There are some pretty good schools on that list. Drexel is noteworthy because a friend of mine from UC Berkeley who majored in psychology and was a wonderful student is now attending that one. I think Temple is well known, Wayne St. is reputable (I knew someone from Cal going there), and well, all med schools are competitive.

S