Opinions on Application Range

[derp49]

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Hello everyone, I'm looking to apply on the 2013 cycle, just wanted some thoughts. I'm not really interested in going to a top 10 school, but I've attached my potential school list below and would like to know what you all think.

cGPA: 3.63 (Pretty sure I can get it to 3.7+ by graduation [Edit]:Upward trend, didn't do great freshman year, improved soph year and straight A's junior year, going for all A's this year)
sGPA: 3.61 (Will be raising this as well...)
MCAT: 36S (PS:13/VR:11/BS:12/WS:S)

ECs:

Research:

Tons of research, started straight out of high school with the USDA-ARS and did work from soil physics (3 months 40 hrs/week), analytical chemistry (3 months 40hrs/week + 2 pubs), and most recently worked on a purple pipe reclaimed rural water project (2 months 40hrs/week). Getting LOR out of research mentor from here, she knows me very well, for about 4 years now.

Did cancer immunology research for 6 months at around 25 hrs/a week and most recently have been in a heart disease research lab for the past year, doing around 6 hours a week. Another LOR from heart disease lab (researching cardiologist writing it).

Clinicals:
Lots of shadowing, on service with chief vascular surgeon for six months, lots of time in clinic/OR/ICU (100+ hours), getting a sweet LOR out of this as well.

Have been on with chief of CT surgery at nearby hospital since July, anticipating around 80 hours total, maybe more. Probably getting a LOR from this as well.

(yes, I want to do surgical, if you couldn't tell)

Volunteering:
Big time weak spot for me, only around 50 hours hospital volunteering currently, getting more hours but slowly.

Others:
Tutor for over a year now...the "chief" tutor for biology--I organize and head curriculum development meetings with the other tutors.

Did freelance photography for quite a while, won a few awards for some of my abstract work, got paid for some commercial, modeling and band work as well. Play the drums too, for over ten years now. Avid cyclist (cycling team for 2 years).

Have one more strong LOR from science prof at my school, have another I can get from a literature professor if I don't have anyone else to round it up, but I will be able to get another from science faculty this year.


Anyhow, here is my list of schools that I'm thinking of applying to, right now it's around 25, I'm not horribly picky although I'm a CA resident and would really like to stay in state unless I get into somewhere great out of state. A couple long shot schools on here, I know.

UCSF
UCLA
UC Davis
UCI
UCSD
USC
Loma Linda
Stanford
OHSU
U Cincinatti
University of Washington- OOS
Case Western
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois
Mayo
Medical College Wisconsin
Ohio State
University of Rochester
University of Colorado
Penn State
Georgetown
University of Maryland
Wake Forest
BU
University of Toledo

Thanks for your input all

 

[sector9]

Hello everyone, I'm looking to apply on the 2013 cycle, just wanted some thoughts. I'm not really interested in going to a top 10 school, but I've attached my potential school list below and would like to know what you all think.

cGPA: 3.63 (Pretty sure I can get it to 3.7+ by graduation [Edit]:Upward trend, didn't do great freshman year, improved soph year and straight A's junior year, going for all A's this year)
sGPA: 3.61 (Will be raising this as well...)
MCAT: 36S (PS:13/VR:11/BS:12/WS:S)

ECs:

Research:

Tons of research, started straight out of high school with the USDA-ARS and did work from soil physics (3 months 40 hrs/week), analytical chemistry (3 months 40hrs/week + 2 pubs), and most recently worked on a purple pipe reclaimed rural water project (2 months 40hrs/week). Getting LOR out of research mentor from here, she knows me very well, for about 4 years now.

Did cancer immunology research for 6 months at around 25 hrs/a week and most recently have been in a heart disease research lab for the past year, doing around 6 hours a week. Another LOR from heart disease lab (researching cardiologist writing it).

Clinicals:
Lots of shadowing, on service with chief vascular surgeon for six months, lots of time in clinic/OR/ICU (100+ hours), getting a sweet LOR out of this as well.

Have been on with chief of CT surgery at nearby hospital since July, anticipating around 80 hours total, maybe more. Probably getting a LOR from this as well.

(yes, I want to do surgical, if you couldn't tell)

Volunteering:
Big time weak spot for me, only around 50 hours hospital volunteering currently, getting more hours but slowly.

Others:
Tutor for over a year now...the "chief" tutor for biology--I organize and head curriculum development meetings with the other tutors.

Did freelance photography for quite a while, won a few awards for some of my abstract work, got paid for some commercial, modeling and band work as well. Play the drums too, for over ten years now. Avid cyclist (cycling team for 2 years).

Have one more strong LOR from science prof at my school, have another I can get from a literature professor if I don't have anyone else to round it up, but I will be able to get another from science faculty this year.


Anyhow, here is my list of schools that I'm thinking of applying to, right now it's around 25, I'm not horribly picky although I'm a CA resident and would really like to stay in state unless I get into somewhere great out of state. A couple long shot schools on here, I know.

UCSF
UCLA
UC Davis
UCI
UCSD
USC
Loma Linda
Stanford
OHSU
U Cincinatti
University of Washington- OOS
Case Western
University of Wisconsin
University of Illinois
Mayo
Medical College Wisconsin
Ohio State
University of Rochester
University of Colorado
Penn State
Georgetown
University of Maryland
Wake Forest
BU
University of Toledo

Thanks for your input all

You should add some shadowing in primary care, even though you think that you want to do surgery.

Any non-clinical volunteering or leadership?

Your research does seem a little fragmented and only adds up to 14 months if I'm reading you correctly, but nothing you can do about it now

Your list looks pretty good. The only one I would absolutely take off is U of Washington unless you are a URM.

U Washington- 95% of their class is WWAMI students. The rest are URMs or Olympic athletes (jk on that last one... kind of)
Loma Linda- make sure you are familiar with their lifestyle contract before applying
OHSU- definitely try to bump up your GPA above 3.65 before applying so you can be in one of their groups with higher priority for acceptance
Illinois-OOS tuition is ridiculously expensive (like 400k+) which they don't tell you about. med students have some mandatory extra summer tuition charges or something that jacks up the price

The rest of the schools are either fine or I don't know enough about them to give feedback

 

[Catalystik]

Being the chief Bio tutor would probably cover Leadership. I suggest another 100 hours of hospital volunteering. I agree you need an office-based primary care doc to shadow, for at least a day. And what about maybe a cardiologist? Also, definitely try to get some nonmedical community service that helps the poor, even if only an hour a week. The teaching, hobbies, and Arts involvment look good. Thanks for including this important component of an application.

University of Colorado I've heard accepts 75% nontrads. As an OOS applicant, maybe rethink that one. What about adding the two Arizona MD schools? And, I read somewhere recently that Stanford prefers those with international experience. Not sure if it's true, but check it out.

 

[derp49]

You should add some shadowing in primary care, even though you think that you want to do surgery.

Any non-clinical volunteering or leadership?

Your research does seem a little fragmented and only adds up to 14 months if I'm reading you correctly, but nothing you can do about it now

Your list looks pretty good. The only one I would absolutely take off is U of Washington unless you are a URM.

U Washington- 95% of their class is WWAMI students. The rest are URMs or Olympic athletes (jk on that last one... kind of)
Loma Linda- make sure you are familiar with their lifestyle contract before applying
OHSU- definitely try to bump up your GPA above 3.65 before applying so you can be in one of their groups with higher priority for acceptance
Illinois-OOS tuition is ridiculously expensive (like 400k+) which they don't tell you about. med students have some mandatory extra summer tuition charges or something that jacks up the price

The rest of the schools are either fine or I don't know enough about them to give feedback

Thanks for your feedback, it's very helpful. Just a few questions/clarifications...

What's the rationale behind the primary care shadowing? Do schools like to see that you might have a viable interest in it because it's a hot topic right now and the demand is high? I'm about 99.9% sure I do not want to go into primary care.

For research, you didn't figure in my cards research stuff on top of the 14 months, which has been ongoing for the past 12 months, and will continue for another 9 (until graduation and application time) for a total of 35 months. All of the USDA stuff was full time research for the summers of 2008, 2009 (my work is on 2 publications from this year) and 2010. I'm also lining up a research position for my year off to hopefully get some more pubs in.

Only leadership stuff I have is for my tutoring work where I do mentoring for the high school kids and head up the bio tutoring staff for curriculum development.

Currently looking into non-clinical volunteer opportunities, trying to get on that ASAP...maybe a soup kitchen or some sort of counseling position? Any particular field of volunteering that I should be interested in?

U Wash- Damnit. I really wanted to go to Seattle. No URM.

Loma Linda- Not too keen on the whole religious affiliation thing, but it's 20 minutes from where I grew up and have a lot of family there, so I'd have good food all the time

OHSU- 3.65 isn't going to be a problem

Illinois- Damnit. This was one of my hopefuls, I'll have to look into that more.

Being the chief Bio tutor would probably cover Leadership. I suggest another 100 hours of hospital volunteering. I agree you need an office-based primary care doc to shadow, for at least a day. And what about maybe a cardiologist? Also, definitely try to get some nonmedical community service that helps the poor, even if only an hour a week. The teaching, hobbies, and Arts involvment look good. Thanks for including this important component of an application.

University of Colorado I've heard accepts 75% nontrads. As an OOS applicant, maybe rethink that one. What about adding the two Arizona MD schools? And, I read somewhere recently that Stanford prefers those with international experience. Not sure if it's true, but check it out.

Thanks for your input,

I'm going to work on the nonmedical community service and try to get my hospital hours up. I think I will be able to get around 80-100 by the time my deal is up at the hospital I'm at. I'm limited because I don't have a car for a lot of this stuff.

What is a nontrad? I'll look into the Arizona schools, I'm not riding on high hopes for Stanford, I'm basically just applying on a long shot because it's close to where I am now and I'd like to stay around here if I get in.


I know mayo is a long shot, but I'm going to try for the hell of it. Do you guys have any other schools that you'd recommend that I look into or strike off the list?

Thanks for your input.

 

[Catalystik]

1) What is a nontrad? I'll look into the Arizona schools, I'm not riding on high hopes for Stanford, I'm basically just applying on a long shot because it's close to where I am now and I'd like to stay around here if I get in.


I know mayo is a long shot, but I'm going to try for the hell of it. Do you guys have any other schools that you'd recommend that I look into or strike off the list?

A nontrad is an older applicant who had another career before deciding to apply to med school.

What about adding Rush or Rosalind Franklin instead of Illinois? And if you like warm places, look into UCentral Florida, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Tulane.

 

[derp49]

A nontrad is an older applicant who had another career before deciding to apply to med school.

What about adding Rush or Rosalind Franklin instead of Illinois? And if you like warm places, look into UCentral Florida, Miami, Virginia Tech, and Tulane.

You guys have already saved me a few hundred bucks. Loma Linda is absolutely off the list, I want to go to medical school, not home schooling where they dictate my lifestyle. University of Illinois is off the list...absurd out of state tuition. I'll begrudgingly take UW off the list, I know it's a super long shot for out of state.

Adding: Rosalind Franklin, University of Virginia, Tulane (although the tuition there may be hard to swallow)...how about GWU(also super expensive)?

I don't know if I want to jump into such a new program at VT, and I hear that the living costs for Miami are ridiculous...I met a resident who said she had to take out extra loans because her HPSP (2k/month) stipend couldn't even cover her monthly rent and living expenses.


University of Arizona not taking many out of staters? Is my data wrong?

 

[Catalystik]

how about GWU(also super expensive)?


University of Arizona not taking many out of staters? Is my data wrong?

GWU has a huge number of applicants, so applying early is a must.

Arizona just changed to two separate campuses and dramatically changed their policy on OOS matriculants.

 

[sector9]

You guys have already saved me a few hundred bucks. Loma Linda is absolutely off the list, I want to go to medical school, not home schooling where they dictate my lifestyle. University of Illinois is off the list...absurd out of state tuition. I'll begrudgingly take UW off the list, I know it's a super long shot for out of state.

Adding: Rosalind Franklin, University of Virginia, Tulane (although the tuition there may be hard to swallow)...how about GWU(also super expensive)?

I don't know if I want to jump into such a new program at VT, and I hear that the living costs for Miami are ridiculous...I met a resident who said she had to take out extra loans because her HPSP (2k/month) stipend couldn't even cover her monthly rent and living expenses.


University of Arizona not taking many out of staters? Is my data wrong?

Yeah, Arizona is taking up to 50% OOSers starting this application cycle, so the data is still way off. Last cycle they took up to 25% OOSers, and a few years ago it was 0% I believe.

Thanks for your feedback, it's very helpful. Just a few questions/clarifications...

What's the rationale behind the primary care shadowing? Do schools like to see that you might have a viable interest in it because it's a hot topic right now and the demand is high? I'm about 99.9% sure I do not want to go into primary care.

For research, you didn't figure in my cards research stuff on top of the 14 months, which has been ongoing for the past 12 months, and will continue for another 9 (until graduation and application time) for a total of 35 months. All of the USDA stuff was full time research for the summers of 2008, 2009 (my work is on 2 publications from this year) and 2010. I'm also lining up a research position for my year off to hopefully get some more pubs in.

Only leadership stuff I have is for my tutoring work where I do mentoring for the high school kids and head up the bio tutoring staff for curriculum development.

Currently looking into non-clinical volunteer opportunities, trying to get on that ASAP...maybe a soup kitchen or some sort of counseling position? Any particular field of volunteering that I should be interested in?

U Wash- Damnit. I really wanted to go to Seattle. No URM.

Loma Linda- Not too keen on the whole religious affiliation thing, but it's 20 minutes from where I grew up and have a lot of family there, so I'd have good food all the time

OHSU- 3.65 isn't going to be a problem

Illinois- Damnit. This was one of my hopefuls, I'll have to look into that more.

PCP shadowing is suggested because no one will believe you that you don't like it if you've never shadowed one at the very least, it gives you a broad base of experience in medicine (as a surgeon, you will get plenty of referrals from PCPs so it's good to know what their life is like), and because most of your 3rd year will be spent in primary care because they're required rotations.

As far as non-clinical volunteering, go for anything that you want really. There are a few threads around here where people give suggestions. Some common ones are soup kitchens, Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother Big Sister, etc. It's best if you find something you're passionate about and interested in so it's hard to give great suggestions