Need helping picking schools

[stansbury]

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I feel totally lost!!
I need advice on which schools I will be competitive at. I looked at the MSAR and thought I knew what schools were good for me. But when I showed my list to my pre med advisor, he said they weren't good choices.
My choices: Boston university, Tufts, NYU, Emory, Tulane, and few others.

Major: Biology, Minors: Chemistry, Psychology, and Business

This is my situation:
Cumulative GPA: 3.66
BCPM: 3.66

Gpa fresh: 3.03 Gpa Soph: 3.61 Gpa Junior:3.88 GPA Senior: 3.91

Good LOTR's, Good extracurricular activities, good research.

MCAT:
Took the mcat once, got a 25.
Took at again this april, my score should be between 29-32. I know thats a pretty big range. So that could change my schoold choices alot.


If you need further info on my situation to make a better suggestion let me know.
I can use any and all the advice I can get.

 

[Archimedes]

apply to schools you want to go to. Schools that you know that you will like. And that you know you will work hard at. Dissect their programs, and really criticize them. They're doing that to your application right? One good turn, deserves another 😀

On a serious note, keep more back-ups. What are your back-ups?

 

[riceman04]

I feel totally lost!!
I need advice on which schools I will be competitive at. I looked at the MSAR and thought I knew what schools were good for me. But when I showed my list to my pre med advisor, he said they weren't good choices.
My choices: Boston university, Tufts, NYU, Emory, Tulane, and few others.

Major: Biology, Minors: Chemistry, Psychology, and Business

This is my situation:
Cumulative GPA: 3.66
BCPM: 3.66

Gpa fresh: 3.03 Gpa Soph: 3.61 Gpa Junior:3.88 GPA Senior: 3.91

Good LOTR's, Good extracurricular activities, good research.


MCAT:
Took the mcat once, got a 25.
Took at again this april, my score should be between 29-32. I know thats a pretty big range. So that could change my schoold choices alot.


If you need further info on my situation to make a better suggestion let me know.
I can use any and all the advice I can get.

I used a set of factors to choose where I apply. Here are my 13 factors
1. Tuition + fees max score:0.0 min score: -0.1 (if tuition was just way above the average private school tuition)

2. curriculum max score:1.0 min score: 0.0
3. affiliated hospital + clinic # max score: 0.35 min score: 0.0
4. selection factors max score: 0.0 min score: -0.5 (usually for state schools with outrageous state pref not in my favor of course)

5. Location max: 0.2 min: 0.0
6. Financial Aid max: 0.3 min: 0.0
7. Diversity max: 1.0 min: 0.0
8. Dual Degree Options max: 0.55 min: 0.0
9. Student Support (services) max: 1.0 min: 0.0
10. Housing max: 0.15 min: 0.0
11. Class Size max: 0.5 min: -0.5
12. Acceptance (rolling, late rolling, not rolling etc) max: 0.0 min: -0.1
13.Miscellaneous (just extra things that I felt were intriguing or just plain sorry) max: +0.35 min: -0.35


MAX score (not including Miscellaneous): 5.0 Min score (non including miscellaneous): -1.3

This really helped me b/c I was sooooooooooooooo indecisive about where to apply. But when I wrote it all out on paper and took the time to do this, it really helped.

So what I did was I first skimmed over all the schools in the MSAR that I felt I could consider. Then I took those schools, reviewed each website, and used a my ranking system to score them based on my personal preferences.

Of course there were schools that I did not subject to such a scrutinizing process b/c I just knew that I wanted to apply there regardless. i used this process for most of them. I am still in the process of getting rid of a few. I am having a hard time choosing between the last few schools, so I am just trying to finish the remainder of my app and then come back and choose.

Hope this helps

 

[stansbury]

first of all, thanks for the advice. Looks like you had a very deliberate way of picking schools.
1. But when you looked at the schools in the MSAR, how did you pick schools initially?
2. Do you have any recommendations on schools just by looking at my numbers?

 

[riceman04]

first of all, thanks for the advice. Looks like you had a very deliberate way of picking schools.
1. But when you looked at the schools in the MSAR, how did you pick schools initially?
2. Do you have any recommendations on schools just by looking at my numbers?

So when I initially looked at the schools in MSAR I usually skimmed, but slowed down to read about the curriculum, selection factors (only really focused on whether or not state pref was given. I did not consider #'s b/c I did not feel that would really help me determine my chances), and their diversity statement. All other things I just glanced over.

I did not like most state schools.
I ended up with a good selection of schools (both public and private). I do not feel it is too top heavy either.

I focused on diversity b/c I am a URM (I hope your opinion of me has not changed. I hate to say that and I do not mean to sound so politically incorrect, but I feel like there are so many people on this website who dont take me seriously b/c I am a URM...... I had to get that off my chest........I told you I am a URM b/c of my strong interest in diversity)

 

[riceman04]

first of all, thanks for the advice. Looks like you had a very deliberate way of picking schools.
1. But when you looked at the schools in the MSAR, how did you pick schools initially?
2. Do you have any recommendations on schools just by looking at my numbers?

About your numbers: they are great. And the fact that you show such a trend shows your dedication. That looks really great!!!! My grades jumped dramatically too like yours.

About schools that you should apply to: I am not a big fan of telling a person what schools to which he/she should apply b/c to a point YOU NEVER KNOW. I just suggest you make sure you have a balanced list of schools (and I think you will find that will occurr natrually if you use some type of system b/c some schools will have programs that are of more significant interest than those at othe schools (even though the school may not be ranked as high).

cya

 

[stansbury]

rice, do you have a list of schools you plan on applying to if so which ones?

 

[sunnyjohn]

....
I focused on diversity b/c I am a URM (I hope your opinion of me has not changed. I hate to say that and I do not mean to sound so politically incorrect, but I feel like there are so many people on this website who dont take me seriously b/c I am a URM...... I had to get that off my chest........I told you I am a URM b/c of my strong interest in diversity)

Ahh, riceman, I take you seriously(hehe)
Mainly cause you were smart enough to go to school in TEJAS!
😛

 

[riceman04]

Ahh, riceman, I take you seriously(hehe)
Mainly cause you were smart enough to go to school in TEJAS!
😛

lol!!! 😀 😀 😀

 

[riceman04]

rice, do you have a list of schools you plan on applying to if so which ones?

here is my list (it is not ranked and will not be until after interviews):
1. USC
2. Yale
3. George Washington
4. Howard
5. Morehouse
6. Emory
7. Tufts
8. U. Mich
9. Wash U.
10. Columbia
11. Case
12. Drexel
13. Penn St.
14. Temple
15. UPenn
16. U Pitt.
17. Meharry
18. Baylor
19. Harvard
20. Northwestern
21. Mt. Sinai
22. Duke
23. New York Medical College
24. Albert Einstein
25. NYU
26. Loyola
27. Ohio St.
28. U Chicago
29. Boston U
30-32 (maybe a few UC's or UT schools)

(but my list will be somewhere around 25-30)

 

[Law2Doc]

MCAT:
Took the mcat once, got a 25.
Took at again this april, my score should be between 29-32. I know thats a pretty big range. So that could change my school choices alot.

I can use any and all the advice I can get.

You probably should sit tight until you get the April MCAT scores - How you did will totally dictate where you should apply. I wouldn't rush to get applications out until you have a score to accompany the 25, or you might not get secondaries. For April, you might conceivably have done significantly higher or lower than your expected range, since you don't actually know which questions were experimental, etc. In the meantime you can use Riceman's analysis to narrow the pool of schools a bit. Also figure out geographically where you want to end up (I assume the entire east coast is fine, from your list?). You also should probably line up a handful of the lower end unranked schools to use as backups - the one's you listed looked pretty "non-safety".

 

[Kazema]

Just worry about finishing filling out the AMCAS for now, don't fill out the schools part yet, and wait for the MCAT scores to be released.

Alternatively, you can just pick a couple schools that you know for sure you will apply to, and wait for your MCAT score to add more later. It doesn't matter too much either way, a few weeks delay is not going to make much difference at all. Submitting AMCAS by the end of June (or even like mid-July) is still pretty early, and you'll definitely be able to send in your secondaries before the August MCAT'ers get their scores.

 

[stansbury]

Everyone I got my mcat score, I got a 32, i'm so happy. What schools do you think I should apply to now.

Here are my stats again.

Major: Biology, Minors: Chemistry, Psychology, and Business

This is my situation:
Cumulative GPA: 3.66
BCPM: 3.66

Gpa fresh: 3.03 Gpa Soph: 3.61 Gpa Junior:3.88 GPA Senior: 3.91

Good LOTR's, Good extracurricular activities, good research.

MCAT:
Took the mcat once, got a 25.

 

[riceman04]

Everyone I got my mcat score, I got a 32, i'm so happy. What schools do you think I should apply to now.

Here are my stats again.

Major: Biology, Minors: Chemistry, Psychology, and Business

This is my situation:
Cumulative GPA: 3.66
BCPM: 3.66

Gpa fresh: 3.03 Gpa Soph: 3.61 Gpa Junior:3.88 GPA Senior: 3.91

Good LOTR's, Good extracurricular activities, good research.

MCAT:
Took the mcat once, got a 25.

You should apply to the top tier schools for sure, plus all the other schools that you like.
You have great stats, and your trend is outstanding.
How did you improve your MCAT score by 7 pts?

 

[stansbury]

You should apply to the top tier schools for sure, plus all the other schools that you like.
You have great stats, and your trend is outstanding.
How did you improve your MCAT score by 7 pts?

I did the princeton review course, (but I used that the first time also). I really followed the course this time and did every single homework assignment, except the writing because we all know that your writing score is pretty much useless.

I didn't find the class lecture totally helpful, but I did find that by doing all the work and meticolously looking over my mistakes, my scores jumped up quite a bit.

In the prior mcat, I only got a 7 on verbal and 8 on bio, this time around I got a 11 on verbal and bio.

If you want me to tell you how exactly i went about studying, i would be more that happy to, but i dont think anyone else would care to read about that.

 

[volcanicglass]

Hey riceman, what college are you at? (I'm also a URM from rice from your class, so now I'm just damned curious!)

 

[riceman04]

Hey riceman, what college are you at? (I'm also a URM from rice from your class, so now I'm just damned curious!)

Marteeeeeeeeeeeezeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!MARTEL


Who is this??

 

[MollyMalone]

I did the princeton review course, (but I used that the first time also). I really followed the course this time and did every single homework assignment, except the writing because we all know that your writing score is pretty much useless.

I didn't find the class lecture totally helpful, but I did find that by doing all the work and meticolously looking over my mistakes, my scores jumped up quite a bit.

In the prior mcat, I only got a 7 on verbal and 8 on bio, this time around I got a 11 on verbal and bio.

If you want me to tell you how exactly i went about studying, i would be more that happy to, but i dont think anyone else would care to read about that.

Congratulations! I think lots of people over in the MCAT forum would be really interested in knowing how you accomplished your excellent score!