Please advise on selection

[elegantorchid]

Hi I am a premedical student in my 5th year of college. I had 3 interviews last cycle but was not accepted into any schools. This year I applied a bit earlier but not as early as I had hoped because my school sent out the committee letter very late (Sept 20). In any case I finished all my current apps and I was looking for more schools I thought I had a chance for. My current list of schools are:

U of M, Columbia, Sinai, NYU, Cornell, Albert, Rochester, Case Western

Albany, NYMC, Upstate, Buffalo, Downstate, Stony Brook, U Vermont, Wayne State, Saint Louis ,
Creighton

Hosfra

I have a 35Q, 3.68 cGPA, 3.5 sGPA. I shadowed/volunteered at a private radiation oncology clinic full time for about one month and also did another month this summer at a hospital. I have one year of research and 2 publications. aaand thats about it. I hope you can offer some advise on some other schools that I could apply to. I really want to get in this year so I want to apply more broadly. As you can see I have lots of schools that are out of my reach but I applied anyways mostly because I just felt like I should apply to all NY schools. Thank you for your help (and reading this lenghty post!)

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[gmcguitar4]

hmm.. you should still have been filling out secondaries all the while..its getting pretty late for this cycle as well.

Do you know what went wrong on those interviews? That should be something to address asap if you don't.

 

[elegantorchid]

yeah I have been filling out apps actually but from what I have heard schools don't look at your app until its complete so I'm not sure how much "earlier" I was this cycle.

I think I have a general idea of what went wrong during the interviews. I had interviews from Upstate, NYMC, and Stony Brook (my undergrad). I also think I wrote very weak primary + secondary app essays.

 

[TriagePreMed]

It sounds like way too little in terms of EC for any of the top schools you have applied to. I would definitely wipe out all the top universities from that list and expand the bottom tier. Without some strong volunteering, I don't see your application falling on the better side of the fence. In fact, I'm surprised about the 3 interviews.

 

[sector9]

What have you done in the past year to improve your application?

 

[elegantorchid]

It sounds like way too little in terms of EC for any of the top schools you have applied to. I would definitely wipe out all the top universities from that list and expand the bottom tier. Without some strong volunteering, I don't see your application falling on the better side of the fence. In fact, I'm surprised about the 3 interviews.

Yeah my I think my EC's are kinda weak but I actually have done other stuff. I was a peer mentor for a year at University of Michigan before I transferred. I volutneer regularly at a summer program. I am trying to expand the bottom tier because I also do not feel that I have a good chance with any of the top schools (but I've already applied anyways and finished their apps).

Last year when I applied I had roughly 300 hours of volunteer/shadow at a radiation oncology clinic and this summer i added another 300 or so hours at the radiation oncology department of a hospital. I also plan to take up research again after the 2 year break.

what are some other schools you think I could be competitive at?