Need school choices

[WingedDragon]

Hey everyone. I'm entering my senior year and beginning to apply for med schools. I took my MCATs last year (right after my sophomore year) and other than a few more classes that I need for graduation, I am ready to apply. Going through the MSARs, I was confused on where to apply. I just wanted the opinion of living people, so a friend of mine recommended me to you guys. Hopefully after I get into med school, I will be sticking around here to help the rest of you guys.

This is what I have so far:

State of residence: NJ
I prefer to get into the two NJ schools.

Academics
MCAT: 30 (10,10,10)
GPA: 3.79 cGPA and 3.77 sGPA

Research
-I started working in a lab in the summer before my freshman year, and I've continued with the work in the lab up until now and will continue to do so.
-I've also done research in the parasitology field using what I did/made in the lab described above for about 2 years (on and off during the semesters, and full time during the summers).
-I'm also planning on finding research in a medical field for this last year at college that will use the work that I did in the first lab.
-I learned how to use a confocal microscope and I even served as director/manager of the $1 million confocal microscope in my university (debating whether or not I should mention this in my app)
-I only have 1 paper published, I don't know if I will be able to publish another one before I graduate
-I've presented in many research showcases. I've won 1st place, and 3rd place in the 2 out of 5 I've presented in.


Extra Curricular
-writer in the newspaper organization in my university (about 3-4 articles per semester)
-writer in the technology magazine of my university
-Served in the student government (my sophomore and senior year. lost election in junior year)
-In bio honors society, research society, and a national honors society


Volunteering:
-I've done EMS since my freshman year so by now, I think I have close to 1,000 hours.
-I haven't done any shadowing, but I'm going to do that this summer before I send in any applications or start interviews.




people keep telling me to retake the MCAts, but after I took it my first time, I just felt like ignoring them. I know its too late now, but should I?

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[dragonfly99]

First of all, I think you've set yourself up to succeed. So congratulations.

I think you have above average research, and don't need to worry too much if you don't publish anything more before you graduate. You have a lot of science stuff on your resume, so the only caution I have is to not write up your application in such a way that a reader could stereotype you as a science nerd. Especially at some state schools, some people reading the applications seem to have a bias against people who have done a lot of research (at least that was my experience, though I'm from a different state). Just be sure that you mention your EMT experience prominently, and I do think it is a good idea if you shadow some docs.

I don't think it matters if you mention the microscope management thing vs. not. I think it's fine if you put it in there as a 1 or 2 line thing on the application...I don't think it's what you'll get asked about during the interview. They'll ask you about the EMT thing, and your research, probably, and perhaps about the student government. That is my guess.

The MCAT score is definitely not bad, especially not for a first attempt.
I think that you can go with what you have, particularly since you want to stay in state for med school. I don't think it would be wrong to retake the test, but it doesn't sound like you are enthused about studying for it all summer, and besides the score would probably come too late to help a lot with this year's applications. You have a balanced score 10/10/10, which can be helpful since certain schools have cutoffs of certain numbers (8,9, 10, whatever). I doubt that many have cutoffs >10 for a section. This means you are unlikely to get screened out by many places. It might help you guess your chances @your state school if you look at the average MCAT score for accepted people @those two schools.

Finally, I think that even if you mainly want to go to your state schools, you should apply broadly (like 10-15 schools) unless you are just not willing to go out of state, and would rather wait another year if you don't get into one of your state schools. You want to leave yourself a backup plan. It's much easier to get an acceptance if you apply to plenty of schools, b/c you just never know about the randomness of this whole process.

 

[WingedDragon]

hi, thanks for your response!
I will be applying to at least 15 schools, that's no doubt. I'm just not sure which ones.
Also, I'm a bit worried in that med school applications also involves luck. How much of it is based on luck? I mean, can my research, mcat, and gpa only take me so far? Now I'm regretting not retaking the MCAT :-(