Med School list help?

[illdil33]

Hi guys,

Applying for the 2017 cycle, need to finalize my list by June 24th I think.
I'm a CA resident, graduate from UCLA cGPA = 3.79 sGPA = 3.72. 516 MCAT. Solid extracurriculars, one publication. Let me know if I should add or delete any!

Albany
Albert Einstein
Baylor
Boston
Drexel
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard
Icahn at Mount Sinai
Keck USC
Temple
Loyola
Mayo
Wisconsin
NY medical college
Ohio state
Penn state
St. Louis U
Sidney Kimmel at Thomas Jefferson
Stanford
Downstate NY
Tufts
U of Arizona
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Riverside
UCSD
UCSF
U of Central Florida
U of Louisville
U of Maryland
U of Miami
U of Michigan
U of Rochester
U of Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Wake Forest
Wayne state
Cornell

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[CaliforniaDreamer]

Did your post say something different? I saw a post about how your mom knows a guy who can get you a full ride to Cal Northstate (and your post is tagged as "Northstate").

 

[illdil33]

Did your post say something different? I saw a post about how your mom knows a guy who can get you a full ride to Cal Northstate (and your post is tagged as "Northstate").

Yeah my bad, I thought I changed it I was gonna create two posts, but I decided to just ask Northstate students, unless you have some insight.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Yeah my bad, I thought I changed it I was gonna create two posts, but I decided to just ask Northstate students, unless you have some insight.

I think that with your stats, no one on this forum will recommend that you attend Northstate.

 

[nwts]

I think 4o schools is far too many for you. Generally speaking, the only people who should apply to that many schools are people who have below average stats for an accepted student and need to cast a wide net. You have above average stats, so I'd say you should cut the number of schools in half. I realize that you're from California, but 40 still seems like an awful lot for a person with your stats.

 

[Mansamusa]

At first glance, I would cut Albany, VCU, Penn State, UCF, UofL, Wayne State, and maybe UW (I dont know whether or not they accept a lot of CA students)

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Cut UMD. Have you looked at the instate preference for your public schools?


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[Cotterpin]

SUNY Downstate also has a pretty strong in state preference, so you might want to cut that. Unless you have legit ties to NYC, maybe.

 

[Goro]

Of you list, I recommend:


Albert Einstein
Baylor
Boston
Duke
Georgetown
Harvard (OR Yale)
Icahn at Mount Sinai (OR NYU)
Keck USC
Temple
Mayo (OR Case)
Ohio state
St. Louis U
Sidney Kimmel at Thomas Jefferson
Stanford
Downstate NY (OR SUNY-SB)
U of Arizona
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Riverside (ONLY if you're from the Inland Empire)
UCSD
UCSF
U of Miami
U of Michigan
U of Rochester (OR Hofstra OR Emory)
Wake
Cornell (OR Columbia)

Consider Pitt and/or Northwestern as well

 

[illdil33]

Thanks for all the input, guys! Yeah maybe i'll shoot for somewhere in the 30's then? I do want to be cautious, I don't want to apply again and I hear of people who make the mistake of applying to only upper-tier schools with my stats ending up acceptance-less.

On a separate note, as I was discussing above, I have a family friend who may be able to get me a full ride to California Northstate. I know there seems to be a lot of unknown about that school. I'm wondering if you guys have any input?

If I don't go there, but secure that scholarship, can I use that to get more financial aid from the school I do go to?

 

[nwts]

Thanks for all the input, guys! Yeah maybe i'll shoot for somewhere in the 30's then? I do want to be cautious, I don't want to apply again and I hear of people who make the mistake of applying to only upper-tier schools with my stats ending up acceptance-less.

On a separate note, as I was discussing above, I have a family friend who may be able to get me a full ride to California Northstate. I know there seems to be a lot of unknown about that school. I'm wondering if you guys have any input?

If I don't go there, but secure that scholarship, can I use that to get more financial aid from the school I do go to?

You can always contact a school that has accepted you, let them know that another school has given you a scholarship, and ask if they will give you anything. Whether or not this works is completely a case by case thing. Even if someone else tells you that they have had success doing this at the specific school you want to ask, it is still very possible that the school will not give you anything. It doesn't hurt to ask, but just be sure you aren't banking on using this scholarship to get you a scholarship at a different school as this is never a reliable thing.

 

[mrpeduncle]

Using scholarship offers from one school to negotiate a better offer from another school is hit or miss, depending on the school. I tried to use my UCLA Geffen scholarship to negotiate a better offer from UCSF and didn't have any luck. And Stanford explicitly stated in my financial aid award letter that they will not attempt to match offers from other schools...they are strictly need based. I guess there's no harm in trying to negotiate, but don't get your hopes up.

 

[Mansamusa]

SUNY Downstate also has a pretty strong in state preference, so you might want to cut that. Unless you have legit ties to NYC, maybe.

Downstate has a decent number of OOS students and many of them are from CA. So I don't think it's a terrible choice for an OOS student

 

[WedgeDawg]

WAMC to go we

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Thanks for all the input, guys! Yeah maybe i'll shoot for somewhere in the 30's then? I do want to be cautious, I don't want to apply again and I hear of people who make the mistake of applying to only upper-tier schools with my stats ending up acceptance-less.

On a separate note, as I was discussing above, I have a family friend who may be able to get me a full ride to California Northstate. I know there seems to be a lot of unknown about that school. I'm wondering if you guys have any input?

If I don't go there, but secure that scholarship, can I use that to get more financial aid from the school I do go to?

You deserve better than Northstate. Not a chance you should go there. Remember that if you apply to 30+ schools that your secondaries will flood in and your writing will most likely suffer. Personally I say no more than 25, but that's just what I would do.

 

[illdil33]

Just an update to anyone interested who helped me make the list,
I ended up applying to about 36 schools. I've interviewed at University of Michigan, Ohio State, Mount Sinai, and Downstate. Deferred at all of them so far. Waiting on a post-interview decision at Hofstra. And, have interviews at Saint Louis University and USC later this month. I don't think my writing suffered much, if at all with this many schools, so I'm glad I applied to so many. I didn't realize how hard it would be just to get one acceptance...Anyways thanks for all the input!

 

[illdil33]

Hey guys, if anyone sees this still. I could use some input

So from the last post, I finished my SLU and USC interviews, still waiting on decisions for those. I'm basically waitlisted at all the other schools so far. And, I have two more interviews still, California Northstate and Albert Einstein. Altogether, I have 9 II's and the first 5 have turned into waitlists. I don't feel like my interviewing skills are bad, but there's no way to know for sure. I can say I have definitely improved and I'm hopeful for the SLU and USC decisions soon.

But what I need help with. I'm obviously gonna try my best to prepare and kill my last two interviews, but what could very realistically happen is I end up on 9 waitlists. If that happens, I'm thinking my interviewing skills definitely aren't good, right?

My biggest questions

1. If that happens, what are my chances of getting off one of the waitlists.
2. When should I start making a Plan B? and any suggestions, I really have no clue what I would do if not accepted.

I'm getting really nervous. Thanks for the help!

If anyone has historic trends to help answer my questions, my 9 schools are:

UMichigan
Mount Sinai
Ohio State
Hofstra
SUNY Downstate
USC
SLU
Cal Northstate
Albert Einstein

 

[Faha]

If you are on 9 wait lists the chances are very high you will receive an acceptance. There is a lot of movement after May 1st when those with multiple acceptances must decline all but one.

 

[illdil33]

I got into USC!!! Wooooo thanks everyone for all the help! Couldn't have done it without all of your input