Need help narrowing down my list!!

[123GO]

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- MA Resident, female (non minority)
- cGPA-3.8, sGPA -3.8
- MCAT (2013)- 26, MCAT (2014) 31 (11V/10PS/10BS)
- Work in a blood transfusion lab full time for 3 years after graduating with a bachelors in medical lab science so many clinical hours
-Over 200 hours volunteering in hospital
- religious education teacher for 2 years
- mentor for middle school science fair project, mentor for future students at college. mentor for grade school
- tutor for genetics and chemistry
- 2 years college level athletics (with awards for all-scholastic teams)
- mentor for marathon team raising money for cancer research, (avid runner)
- work as a lifeguard
-work as a certified nursing assistant
- various other volunteering
- no research and should have decent letters of recommendation nothing stellar
-approx 30 hours shadowing a couple of different doctors

This is my list so far. I would really appreciate help eliminating schools that are an extreme reach, or adding schools that might be a good match that I have not listed. I basically do not want to be throwing my money away at schools that I have pretty much no chance at.

1. Umass Medical School

2. BU

3. Tufts

4. Frank H. Netter MD School of medicine at Quinnipiac

5. Drexel

6. Jefferson

7. Cooper Medical School

8. Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University

9. Loyola

10. Temple

11. The Commonwealth Medical College

12. The Warren Alpert School of Brown University

13. University of Vermont

14. Eastern Virginia Medical School

15. Virginia Commonwealth

16. Marshall University

17. Tulane

18. George Washington


DO Schools

1. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

2. Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine

3. University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

Anyone have any idea about what Umass Medical School likes in an application? This is my top school and my MCAT scores are slightly lower than their average so I was not sure if there was anything else I could add to my app to make it more appealing to specifically them.

Also does anyone know how detrimental having to retake the MCAT and only improving from a 26 to a 31 will be?

Any Help is Appreciated!!!!!

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

Your MCAT improvement is substantial. I believe the StDev is something like 3.5, so going up 5 points is fantastic. Assuming you're from Eastern MA (if you're from Western MA, you're probably set), there are a couple pieces of your app that could hurt. UMass seems to like volunteering, particularly with the underserved. There is a large primary care focus, and showing community work is a big plus. The lack of research will be a minus, but probably not as much at UMass as at Brown or GW. If I were you, I'd add a few NY schools like Albany, Upstate, Downstate, NYMC, Einstein, and Hofstra to improve your chances. Good luck!