MD Ooo me next! MCAT 515, s/cGPA3.71

[Welshman]

I've been delaying making one of these for some reason.. maybe I'm worried I'm being too optimistic..

1. s/cGPA: 3.7, top 15% of class if that matters
2. MCAT: 515 (129/127/129/130)
3. State of residence: Florida
4. Ethnicity: Welsh 😉
5. Undergraduate institution: Top 40, the most infamous school for grade deflation lol
6. Clinical experience: EMT ~375 hours
7. Research experience and productivity: ~600 hours, no pub but will be defending a thesis in two weeks
8. Shadowing ~50 by June 1st, Currently, 20: 8 Cardiology, 8 Preventative medicine, 4 GI, and I've obviously been exposed to EM a bit
9. Non-clinical volunteering: ~120 primarily through teaching kids and mentoring HS students
10. Other extracurricular activities: ~750 Student IT consultant (service oriented job)

I feel like 515 is right on the border of being a really good MCAT score so I might be overestimating myself. In that case be brutally honest, I know med schools will be..
I came up with a list of schools I'd attend if accepted and where I fall into the 10%-90% range.
In the end, I'm probably looking to apply to ~25 schools so I really appreciate feedback on which are realistic or if there are any I should add

Reach:

• Harvard
• Cornell
• Northwestern
• U Chicago
• Vanderbilt
• Stanford
• NW
• NYU
• Ichan
• Duke
• Columbia
• Yale
• Mayo
• Duke

Target:

• All Florida schools
• BU
• Brown
  
• Tufts
• Dartmouth
• U Mich
• Uva
• Dartmouth
• Albany medical college
• St louis university school of medicine
• Emory
• University of Iowa
• Tufts
• Georgetown
• George Washington
• Wake Forrest
  
• Drexel
• Temple
• UCSF
• Tulane

Saftey:

• FSU
• Albany
• Virginia Commonwealth
• Quinnipiac
• FIU
• FAU
• NYMC

Thanks guys

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[jcorpsmanMD]

You seem to have a lot of reach schools imo. You have any unique medical experience(s)? Any clearly defined leadership positions? Your numbers are definitely great. Your EC's are good but not great. I would definitely trim the reach schools list unless you have plenty of money to throw away. But your app looks good 🙂

 

[Welshman]

You seem to have a lot of reach schools imo. You have any unique medical experience(s)? Any clearly defined leadership positions? Your numbers are definitely great. Your EC's are good but not great. I would definitely trim the reach schools list unless you have plenty of money to throw away. But your app looks good 🙂

I definitely want to trim a lot of schools, which ones do you think I have best or least chance at?

 

[deev04]

I think your app looks good, but >50% of your list probably falls into the reach end of the spectrum. As long as you include all of the Florida state schools and the schools in your safety and target (with revisions) categories, I think you have a good chance at success. Your target list seems off. UMich, UCSF are definitely reaches. Emory, BU, Tufts, Georgetown, GW are all either pretty high stat schools or very low yield. Probably still worth an app.

If you're looking to trim, start with Brown (not a Brown undergrad, non-trad, tons of volunteering) and Mayo (service focused) and maybe Dartmouth is you're not non-trad. Most schools in your reach category will likely be very low yield given your ECs. Hard to predict which ones more so than others but probably Harvard/Stanford/UCSF (need something stellar), Vanderbilt (tend to be high stat), Yale/Columbia/UMich. Borderline impossible to predict outcomes at this level though, so if you have the money to through in some reaches, prioritizing your preferences wouldn't be a bad way to go about it.

Reach:

Bolded schools I think you should remove

• Harvard (donation)
• Cornell
• Northwestern
• U Chicago
• Vanderbilt (like high stats)
• Stanford (donation)
• NW
• NYU
• Ichan
• Duke
• Columbia (pretty unlikely)
• Yale (pretty unlikely)
• Mayo (don't match mission)
• UCSF (usually pretty stellar ECs)
• U Mich (pretty unlikely)

Target:

• All Florida schools (yes!)
• BU
• Brown (low yield unless Brown undergrad or non-trad, strong commitment to underserved)
  
• Tufts
• Dartmouth (~75% non-trad)
• Uva
• Emory
• University of Iowa
• Georgetown
• George Washington
• Wake Forrest
  
• Drexel
• Temple
• Tulane

Saftey:

• FSU
• Albany
• Virginia Commonwealth
• Quinnipiac
• FIU
• FAU
• NYMC

 

[Welshman]

I think your app looks good, but >50% of your list probably falls into the reach end of the spectrum. As long as you include all of the Florida state schools and the schools in your safety and target (with revisions) categories, I think you have a good chance at success. Your target list seems off. UMich, UCSF are definitely reaches. Emory, BU, Tufts, Georgetown, GW are all either pretty high stat schools or very low yield. Probably still worth an app.

If you're looking to trim, start with Brown (not a Brown undergrad, non-trad, tons of volunteering) and Mayo (service focused) and maybe Dartmouth is you're not non-trad. Most schools in your reach category will likely be very low yield given your ECs. Hard to predict which ones more so than others but probably Harvard/Stanford/UCSF (need something stellar), Vanderbilt (tend to be high stat), Yale/Columbia/UMich. Borderline impossible to predict outcomes at this level though, so if you have the money to through in some reaches, prioritizing your preferences wouldn't be a bad way to go about it.

Just looked up this post to find some old info, it turned out that Brown was my first II! though im currently on their waitlist. Funny how that worked out lol.

 

[candbgirl]

Just looked up this post to find some old info, it turned out that Brown was my first II! though im currently on their waitlist. Funny how that worked out lol.

So where did you end up applying? How is your cycle going? How many II, any acceptances, waitlists(other than Brown) or rejections? It’s helpful to future applicants when people come back and add something after they apply. So thanks for that. Good luck as the cycle plays out.

 

[Welshman]

You can check my sig for some info but here's a list of my schools and the decisions so far. I did a bad job of cutting down my list....

Schools Status

1. Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Waitlisted
2. George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci Reject
3. Mayo Clinic School of Medicine AZ Reject
4. Boston University School of Medicine Reject
5. Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Reject
6. Georgetown University School of Medicine Reject
7. Tulane University School of Medicine Reject
8. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Reject
9. UCSF Reject
10. Hofstra Reject
11. Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Reject
12. Cornell Reject
13. Mayo Clinic School of Medicine MN Reject
14. University of Minnesota Reject
15. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Scien II
16. Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine II
17. New York Medical College Hold
18. The University of Miami School of Medicine Hold
19. FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine ACCEPTED
20. Harvard Medical School
21. University of Central Florida COM
22. University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine
23. Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
24. Drexel University College of Medicine
25. Emory University School of Medicine
26. Saint Louis University School of Medicine
27. Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
28. Tufts University School of Medicine
29. University of Florida
30. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Den
31. U Vm
32. Yale School of Medicine
33. USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
34. Albert Einstein
35. Louisville
36. Albany Medical College
37. Ichan

 

[candbgirl]

Thanks.

 

[AnythingButCARS]

You can check my sig for some info but here's a list of my schools and the decisions so far. I did a bad job of cutting down my list....

Schools Status

1. Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University Waitlisted
2. George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci Reject
3. Mayo Clinic School of Medicine AZ Reject
4. Boston University School of Medicine Reject
5. Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Reject
6. Georgetown University School of Medicine Reject
7. Tulane University School of Medicine Reject
8. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Reject
9. UCSF Reject
10. Hofstra Reject
11. Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Reject
12. Cornell Reject
13. Mayo Clinic School of Medicine MN Reject
14. University of Minnesota Reject
15. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Scien II
16. Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine II
17. New York Medical College Hold
18. The University of Miami School of Medicine Hold
19. FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine ACCEPTED
20. Harvard Medical School
21. University of Central Florida COM
22. University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine
23. Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
24. Drexel University College of Medicine
25. Emory University School of Medicine
26. Saint Louis University School of Medicine
27. Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
28. Tufts University School of Medicine
29. University of Florida
30. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Den
31. U Vm
32. Yale School of Medicine
33. USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
34. Albert Einstein
35. Louisville
36. Albany Medical College
37. Ichan

Sorry to dig up this old thread. I am in the same boat with a 515 and 3.7 c/s GPA from a top 5 public school that is also notorious for grade deflation and I am wondering how the rest of your app list turned out for you.

 

[The Deep]

I think your app looks good, but >50% of your list probably falls into the reach end of the spectrum. As long as you include all of the Florida state schools and the schools in your safety and target (with revisions) categories, I think you have a good chance at success. Your target list seems off. UMich, UCSF are definitely reaches. Emory, BU, Tufts, Georgetown, GW are all either pretty high stat schools or very low yield. Probably still worth an app.

If you're looking to trim, start with Brown (not a Brown undergrad, non-trad, tons of volunteering) and Mayo (service focused) and maybe Dartmouth is you're not non-trad. Most schools in your reach category will likely be very low yield given your ECs. Hard to predict which ones more so than others but probably Harvard/Stanford/UCSF (need something stellar), Vanderbilt (tend to be high stat), Yale/Columbia/UMich. Borderline impossible to predict outcomes at this level though, so if you have the money to through in some reaches, prioritizing your preferences wouldn't be a bad way to go about it.

So what counts as “non-traditional” for Dartmouth? Is taking 2-3 gap years enough?

 

[gyngyn]

So what counts as “non-traditional” for Dartmouth? Is taking 2-3 gap years enough?

It depends on what you did during those years...

 

[The Deep]

It depends on what you did during those years...

So non-traditional doesn’t just imply taking a certain numbers of years off in-between college and applying to medical school?

 

[gyngyn]

So non-traditional doesn’t just imply taking a certain numbers of years off in-between college and applying to medical school?

It implies another experience that adds to the class.

 

[9blade]

If you're looking to trim, start with Brown (not a Brown undergrad, non-trad, tons of volunteering) and Mayo (service focused) and maybe Dartmouth is you're not non-trad.

wait...you're saying Brown and Dartmouth both like Non-trads? I'm a non-trad who will be applying in 2020 to matriculate in 2021, so I'm thinking of a school list. I did some pretty cool **** in my years away from school. Traveled abroad and did humanitarian work, worked for a biotech company, started a company, etc...