MCAT Score, Med School List

[ms2209]

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Hello all! I just got my MCAT score last night, and now I am trying to finalize my list of schools so that I can send off my AMCAS app. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Overall GPA: 3.8 (from Columbia Univ)
BCPM: 3.7
Non-Science: 3.8
MCAT: BS:11, VS:11, PS:10, for an overall 32S
EC'S: 3 yrs Clinical Research, Volunteer work at hospital, Columnist for school paper, Teaching Assistant, Computer Assistant on campus, 16 yrs of playing the Piano

Okay, so here's my list so far...but before I go on, I wanted to ask - is a 32S MCAT okay for top schools (as in, would I be ridiculed for applying there)? Okay, here goes:

Columbia
Harvard
JHU
UPenn
Georgetown
Jefferson
Mount Sinai
Tufts
Einstein
Univ of MD
Univ of VA
NYU
Temple
Drexel
George Washington Univ

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[efex101]

You need a good balance of top, middle, and low tiered schools. It seems that your list is heavy on top tiered schools...

 

[ChemMN]

You need a good balance of top, middle, and low tiered schools. It seems that your list is heavy on top tiered schools...

I agree completely. You need to apply to a few schools where you know you will get in. With your stats, I think you have a good shot at some of the schools on your list.

 

[ms2209]

What are some good middle/lower tier schools to add to my list? Thanks for your help!

 

[efex101]

I cannot remember off the top of my head but places like Creighton, U of Wisconsin ,MCW, etc...BUT BEWARE! if you were ONLY to get into any of the schools that you applied to would you GO? do not apply to a school just for caca and giggles...you may only end up with one acceptance (God forbid) and that may be your ONLY choice. So apply to a broad range but make sure that you would be okay going there.

 

[ms2209]

I cannot remember off the top of my head but places like Creighton, U of Wisconsin ,MCW, etc...BUT BEWARE! if you were ONLY to get into any of the schools that you applied to would you GO? do not apply to a school just for caca and giggles...you may only end up with one acceptance (God forbid) and that may be your ONLY choice. So apply to a broad range but make sure that you would be okay going there.

Okay, I will do some more research on this and refine the list. Thanks so much for your advice!!! Also, one last thing - my pre med advisor was telling me that some of the "lower tier schools" like Temple/Drexel would "overlook me because of my GPA"...and to remove those from my list. But I kept them on the list just the same...but is what my pre-med dean said true? Do people actually get overlooked because of that?

 

[efex101]

That is incorrect. I had a 4.0 and 30Q and applied to a ton of schools high,mid, low, received interviews from ALL except Harvard and Duke. Went on 11 interviews received 9 acceptances and 2 wl sooo your advisor is full of poop. My acceptances ranged the full gamut of high/mid/low....

 

[efex101]

Many times what happens with some high gpa/mcat folks getting rejected from mid to lower tiered schools is that something that the applicant put on the PS or said during interview does not mesh with the goals of the school. If you think about it...ALL schools would like to post that their incoming gpa/mcat averages are high duh...so of course they want to accept folks that can boost that number BUT they also want to accept folks that will be open and receptive to what the school stands for.

 

[Xandie]

U of Wisconsin

U of Wisconsin might be a waste of money... they do screen before offering secondaries, but it's reasonably hard to get in from out of state. I had a smiliar GPA (a little lower) and the exact same MCAT score, but I'm from the midwest and had ties to Madison and didn't get an interview.

 

[ms2209]

That is incorrect. I had a 4.0 and 30Q and applied to a ton of schools high,mid, low, received interviews from ALL except Harvard and Duke. Went on 11 interviews received 9 acceptances and 2 wl sooo your advisor is full of poop. My acceptances ranged the full gamut of high/mid/low....

Wow! Congrats, that's great! I feel so much better now...because I was freaking out thinking, if I get rejected from some schools for having stats that are too low, and from others for having stats that are too high, I'm basically screwed!

 

[efex101]

Well I guess it depends because I did receive secondaries and interviews from U of Wisconsin and they DO take a number of out of state folks.

 

[efex101]

Nah you will be fine. People tend to overthink this whole process believe me I was there last year! and say stuff like this is such a crock it is all about luck..I tend to disagree. IF you send in your applications early, did good on the MCAT, have a decent GPA, excellent LOR, EC's that are meaningful not just quantitiy but time wise, you will get in to A school, maybe only one but a medical school nonetheless.

 

[ms2209]

Nah you will be fine. People tend to overthink this whole process believe me I was there last year! and say stuff like this is such a crock it is all about luck..I tend to disagree. IF you send in your applications early, did good on the MCAT, have a decent GPA, excellent LOR, EC's that are meaningful not just quantitiy but time wise, you will get in to A school, maybe only one but a medical school nonetheless.

Thanks again for your help! I really appreciate it (in case you haven't noticed, I'm slightly neurotic 😀 )!

 

[Sean2tall]

Also, one last thing - my pre med advisor was telling me that some of the "lower tier schools" like Temple/Drexel would "overlook me because of my GPA"...and to remove those from my list. But I kept them on the list just the same...but is what my pre-med dean said true? Do people actually get overlooked because of that?

This might happen for some of the super, super stellar applicants (those beastly 39 MCAT-4.0 GPA people. . . or perhaps for you, since you come from a rather prestigious undergraduate school and have darn good numbers), but speaking from experience, Temple, Drexel, NYMC were happy to give me interviews with a 33 MCAT and 3.89 GPA. Matter of fact, Temple is where I am going! Like somebody above said, this might happen more often if it looks like you are from a million miles away and just applying to Drexel as a safety.

 

[edik]

I think top-tier schools don't care about MCAT that much. I had 36, with solid GPA, and didn't get as much as an interview from the ones where I applied. I guess they are looking for the right fit of candidates more than at the numbers, whatever that might be.

 

[efex101]

That is the key McAT and GPA "may" give you an interview but may not it DOES depend on other things like research and many other facets of the application. That is why assuming anything is BAD.

 

[sunkists]

ms 2209 - you're asian aren't ya? maybe of biased (of course i'm biased) but i've always thought that being asian hurts the application a little based on reverse affirmative action. maybe.

i don't think its bad though... just annoying. and your numbers are high enough that you won't have to worry.

 

[hoping2004]

your MCAT score is not too low for the top schools! i had a 31 and got interviews from cornell, upenn, upitt, ucsf, etc... so definitely shoot for some of the top schools, but as the other posters said, have a well-balanced list of top/mid/lower tier. good luck!!

Hello all! I just got my MCAT score last night, and now I am trying to finalize my list of schools so that I can send off my AMCAS app. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Overall GPA: 3.8 (from Columbia Univ)
BCPM: 3.7
Non-Science: 3.8
MCAT: BS:11, VS:11, PS:10, for an overall 32S
EC'S: 3 yrs Clinical Research, Volunteer work at hospital, Columnist for school paper, Teaching Assistant, Computer Assistant on campus, 16 yrs of playing the Piano

Okay, so here's my list so far...but before I go on, I wanted to ask - is a 32S MCAT okay for top schools (as in, would I be ridiculed for applying there)? Okay, here goes:

Columbia
Harvard
JHU
UPenn
Georgetown
Jefferson
Mount Sinai
Tufts
Einstein
Univ of MD
Univ of VA
NYU
Temple
Drexel
George Washington Univ

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[ms2209]

ms 2209 - you're asian aren't ya? maybe of biased (of course i'm biased) but i've always thought that being asian hurts the application a little based on reverse affirmative action. maybe.

i don't think its bad though... just annoying. and your numbers are high enough that you won't have to worry.

Actually nope, I'm not Asian - I'm Iranian-American!

 

[ms2209]

your MCAT score is not too low for the top schools! i had a 31 and got interviews from cornell, upenn, upitt, ucsf, etc... so definitely shoot for some of the top schools, but as the other posters said, have a well-balanced list of top/mid/lower tier. good luck!!

Thanks for the advice! BTW, if anyone has any suggestions for schools to add/take off of the list, please let me know. Any suggestions for middle/lower tier would be appreciated! Thanks 🙂

 

[skypilot]

What is your state of residency?

 

[LionInTheDark]

I'm actually of the opinion that your list looks good. Especially if money is a factor, you don't want to apply to too many schools. If you're from the area, you should do well with Drexel and Temple, and you'll probably have options from the other schools as well.

As an August MCAT taker, I had to choose what schools to apply to without knowing my score, so I put 16 schools on my AMCAS. After receiving my scores though, and after getting my first interview, I felt more confident and only completed my application at about 12 schools, which proved more than enough. Might depend if you want to choose from 3-4 acceptances or 9-10 acceptances though... From the 12 schools, I ended up with 3 acceptances- 1 top 5, 1 top 15, and Temple.

32 is a good score to go into this with, I wouldn't overdo it! Just my feeling though...

-Lion

 

[ms2209]

Thanks for the advice! BTW, my state of residence is MD.

 

[Xandie]

Well I guess it depends because I did receive secondaries and interviews from U of Wisconsin and they DO take a number of out of state folks.

According to the MSAR, they interview about 100 of 1400 out of state people.
However, their average MCAT is around 30.2 and their average GPA is a 3.73... maybe they just had no love for me.

 

[Mirror Form]

ms 2209 - you're asian aren't ya? maybe of biased (of course i'm biased) but i've always thought that being asian hurts the application a little based on reverse affirmative action. maybe.

i don't think its bad though... just annoying. and your numbers are high enough that you won't have to worry.

I've never heard of school's holding asians to higher standards than other races (besides the URM's ofcourse). Although if you're asian and have very little non-academic stuff on your transcript, it may be easier to get painted with the "this person does nothing but study" brush.

 

[mellantro]

i think you are fine, OP, although you should add more middle and lower tier schools, but you DEFINITELY have a shot at the top ones and don't let people tell you otherwise. also, i'm sure i'll come across as a jerk for saying this in some corners but i think efex is a URM non-traditional and would probably come across as a more attractive candidate to some schools versus traditional non-URMs. so apply to a decent amount and dont' worry it all works out in the end.

 

[45408]

they also give a large portion of their incoming class seats to their "medical scholars" program, which I disagree with, but......

 

[efex101]

Regardless of URMhood and non-trad status I hardly believe that it was the determining factor to get interviews at 30 schools....just fyi.

 

[pio18]

If you are female or Hispanic, you will get interviews everywhere. Otherwise, apply to as many schools as you can, all tiers. and good luck!

 

[efex101]

Where did you get that info? I know tons of females Hispanic or not that did NOT get interviews everywhere...

 

[ms2209]

I don't think being female helps anymore, because this past year for the first time, the number of female med school applicants was higher than the number of male applicants, and I think it's gotten to the point now where just being female doesn't get you any brownie points...but as a disclaimer, I haven't actually completed the process yet, so I don't know for sure, that's just the way it looks to me.

 

[efex101]

I have to agree it is not about being female, or X or Y or Z it is about the whole package...

 

[mellantro]

Regardless of URMhood and non-trad status I hardly believe that it was the determining factor to get interviews at 30 schools....just fyi.

no one said it was the determining factor, but it IS a factor and i think its a bit misleading to post advice without disclosing all facets of your application.

 

[efex101]

Me thinks you are full of it...sorry.

 

[IndyZX]

but, are you really sorry?

 

[efex101]

He he...

 

[mellantro]

ooh ouch! 🙄 get real, it's important for people on here asking for advice to realize that those factors are significant.

 

[efex101]

I think that yes everything plays a role but not everyone here giving advice is getting into details..maybe being short/skinny/fat/dark haired/light haired/hispanic/african-american/caucasian/green/purple helps or not but pointing out me because I am giving advice...sheesh...there is more to me than my ethnicity. Maybe I got in because I am a veteran of the Gulf War? hmmmm what about this...maybe I got in because I had a good gpa/mcat/lor/ec/research/published/international presenter/tutor/and the list goes on combo. I hate it when anyone tries to help here on SDN and somebody with 5 posts pipes up with..."weeeeeeelll so and so is really a URM that is WHY they got in to the schools...." forget everything else. Give me a freaking break.

 

[mellantro]

i see i've touched a nerve. for heaven's sake, calm down and take a deep breath. if you had actually read what i wrote, i specifically mentioned your non traditional background in addition to your URM status. you then went on to say that both were hardly the determining factors for landing you your 30 interviews. well, obviously they were significant, as you have just posted. thats all i'm trying to point out. i didn't just harp on your ethnicity.

stop spazzing. and i'm the one who is full of it. 🙄 ha. read your own damn post. and next time, try to read other people's posts more carefully. reading carefully will come in handy in med school.

 

[efex101]

spazzing? I was not spazzing just making some points. And by the way here is what you said "i'm sure i'll come across as a jerk" why would you think that pray tell? If you call that spazzinz wtf? I am not getting into some urinating contest with you over and out.

 

[mellantro]

yeah okay, keep telling yourself that....whatever you say, chief.

 

[KNightInBlue]

Add on the SUNYs....especially stony brook, albany, buffalo, CORNELL (why would you overlook this school? its a gem!), Rochester, Stanford, Yale.

I agree with having a third low tier, a third mid tier and the rest high tier schools. Cast wide net, so you can have your pick of acceptances later, no point in limiting yourself now.

 

[ms2209]

Add on the SUNYs....especially stony brook, albany, buffalo, CORNELL (why would you overlook this school? its a gem!), Rochester, Stanford, Yale.

I agree with having a third low tier, a third mid tier and the rest high tier schools. Cast wide net, so you can have your pick of acceptances later, no point in limiting yourself now.

Actually to be honest, I had Cornell on there initially, but then I was thinking that perhaps that would make it even worse in terms of having too many top tier schools on the list. However, now that you mentioned it, I think I will add it to the list. Thanks for the advice 🙂

 

[lakersfan]

Out of curiosity, what do you guys consider some "safety schools" that we should apply to just in case anything weird happens in teh application process. I really never thought there was a true safety school when applying to med school but people on this forum are suggesting otherwise. Thanks a bunch.

 

[adamj61]

U of Wisconsin might be a waste of money... they do screen before offering secondaries, but it's reasonably hard to get in from out of state. I had a smiliar GPA (a little lower) and the exact same MCAT score, but I'm from the midwest and had ties to Madison and didn't get an interview.

You really have no chance at wisconsin unless you have 400 hours of volunteering if you are out of state. Its a 6 point scale, we start at 3, everyone else is at 0

 

[efex101]

Yeah I did have years of volunteering so maybe that is why I received an interview offer..