MD/PhD - 3.82 GPA, solid ECs (MCAT pending)

[Recuerdos]

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• Studied and professionally performed classical, flamenco, Brazilian, and jazz guitar for 14+ years (have taught for about 2-3 years, recorded 4 CDs, employed by numerous organizations for events as well as private engagements like weddings, restaurants, etc)
• 100 hours hospice volunteering (+ music therapist)
• 400+ hours of medical transcriptionist at a mental health clinic
• 2 years of research (1 1/2 assisting doctorate of nursing candidate with psychiatric intervention project w/ potential publication in the near future + summer of organic chemistry research, w/ poster presentations)
• Two semesters of biology lab curriculum development (the majority of which involved independent research, but I didn't include it as research in my application because it wasn't as significant as the above).
• One semester as statistics tutor/facilitating university-sponsored study group
• One semester general chemistry TA/tutor
• ~100 hours of shadowing a psychiatrist
• Several years (~700 hours) of working as a freelance videogame journalist (maintained press contact with Nintendo, Ubisoft, SEGA, etc)

I am very passionate about psychiatry in particular, having focused the majority of my research and shadowing on this specialty (medical transcription at a mental health clinic also served to reaffirm my interest). I will be graduating with a neuroscience major.

I am applying to the following schools:

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
University of Minnesota, Duluth
Mayo Clinic
Johns Hopkins
Weill Cornell
Mount Sinai

I will be taking the MCAT in late July, but for what it's worth, I took a diagnostic without having studied at all and got a 27. I've been studying for the past few weeks and seem to remember the majority; I'll just need to brush up on physics and anatomy/physiology, so my goal is a 34 or 35. Assuming I'm able to get that score or similar on the MCAT, what are my chances for MD/PhD programs at the above schools?

 

[red doctober]

If you score a 34+ and have the right school list, your chances of getting into an MD/PhD program are quite good. However, you are going to want to apply to more schools than that, especially given the high selectivity of the programs currently on your list. I may be mistaken, but I think that the UMN-Duluth campus doesn't offer the MD/PhD. If that's the case, you're left with 5 with 2 being very high reaches IMO (Hopkins & the Tri-I). Mayo's class is only ~5 students/yr making that a huge gamble, and UMN-TC and Sinai aren't easy programs to get into either. My advice is to apply to ~20-25 programs broadly spanning the USNWR top-50 research ranking with a couple programs being non-MSTP MD/PhD programs that take a good number of MD/PhD students every year (Penn. St., OHSU, UConn for example).

 

[Recuerdos]

If you score a 34+ and have the right school list, your chances of getting into an MD/PhD program are quite good. However, you are going to want to apply to more schools than that, especially given the high selectivity of the programs currently on your list. I may be mistaken, but I think that the UMN-Duluth campus doesn't offer the MD/PhD. If that's the case, you're left with 5 with 2 being very high reaches IMO (Hopkins & the Tri-I). Mayo's class is only ~5 students/yr making that a huge gamble, and UMN-TC and Sinai aren't easy programs to get into either. My advice is to apply to ~20-25 programs broadly spanning the USNWR top-50 research ranking with a couple programs being non-MSTP MD/PhD programs that take a good number of MD/PhD students every year (Penn. St., OHSU, UConn for example).

I've already submitted my AMCAS application so I'm not sure if I can add more schools to the list. I chose these schools for very specific reasons, though -- for example, Cornell was interesting to me because of their program integrating music and medicine, and I thought that my experience as a guitarist would allow me to integrate into the student body and campus atmosphere pretty well. However, I would not be at all opposed to staying in Minnesota, specifically at the U of M Twin Cities. I took PSEO classes at the U and greatly enjoyed my time there. The U of M is definitely my top choice.

 

[red doctober]

I've already submitted my AMCAS application so I'm not sure if I can add more schools to the list. I chose these schools for very specific reasons, though -- for example, Cornell was interesting to me because of their program integrating music and medicine, and I thought that my experience as a guitarist would allow me to integrate into the student body and campus atmosphere pretty well. However, I would not be at all opposed to staying in Minnesota, specifically at the U of M Twin Cities. I took PSEO classes at the U and greatly enjoyed my time there. The U of M is definitely my top choice.

You can add more schools after your primary gets verified, and it immediately sends it to them. I will reiterate though, if you don't want to be a reapplicant, apply to more schools and more broadly. It is pretty risky applying to only 5 MSTPs, especially when some are of the most difficult to get into.