Please Critique My School List

[Throwaway8576]

Hi everyone,

Here is some info about me as well as my school list, please tell me if there are any schools I should consider adding to it.

Demographics
Age: 22
Sex: Male
Race: White
Home State: California
First Time Applicant

Education
Degree: BSc in Biology with a chemistry minor from a California State School
Grad school: none
Cumulative GPA: 3.48
Science GPA: 3.46
Non-Science GPA: 3.53
MCAT Score: 516 (132/128/128/128)
LizzyM Score: 69.80

Extra Curriculars
1. 1,800 hours of laboratory research experience (Possible future publication in the works but I did not include it as part of my application)
2. 150 hours as a physiotherapy clinic volunteer
3. Two years (2,000 hours) as a Resident Advisor
4. 500 hours of tutoring with both special needs children and college students
5. 200 hours of volunteer work with my church group

Letters of Recommendation
1. Pre-med committee letter recommending me as a "recommended" applicant
2. Two letters from PhD science professors
3. One letter from the Primary Investigator of my research who is also a PhD science Professor
4. No MD letters

School List
1. Albany Medical College
2. CA Northstate Univ COM
3. Central Michigan University College of Medicine
4. Drexel University College of Medicine
5. Florida State University
6. Keck Sch. of Med.University of Southern California
7. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
8. LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans
9. Northeast Ohio Medical University
10. Oregon Health and Science University
11. Quinnipiac University SOM
12. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
13. The University of Toledo College of Medicine
14. Tulane University School of Medicine
15. University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson
16. University of California, Davis School of Medicine
17. University of California-Riverside School of Medicine
18. Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
19. Wayne State University School of Medicine
20. Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine


These are the schools I have decided to apply to at this point. If there are any other schools that I am a good candidate for, please let me know which those are so that I can look into them and see if I should apply there as well.

I know the typical advice is to apply to all of the schools in your home state but I'm not sure if I should make an exception because my home state is California.

Also, how would you rate my competitiveness as a candidate? Do I have a solid chance at an acceptance at one of these schools? Are there any weak areas of my application? If so, what things can I do to improve on them for the future?

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[779663]

I can't really help you much since I'm a D.O student, but the best advice you'll get on here is gonna come from @gyngyn @Goro and @LizzyM

Gyngyn especially could be helpful to you since I believe he or she is an expert on California applicants and can likely beat address your question on whether it's worth your time to apply to every California MD school or not

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Your GPA is a bit weak, but that's a nice Mcat and your extracurriculars seem good. Maybe lacking a bit of clinical experience, depending on the nature of what you did in the physiotherapy clinic. Any shadowing?

I think you should consider applying for the USF Select program. You would be a good fit for that - friendly to OOS, emphasize leadership and interesting ec's over stats. A bunch of Californians in this program. Just throwing it out there.

You should also apply to UCLA and UCSF in my opinion. You never know.

Others to consider, just because with your stats and being a CA resident you will probably need a high number of apps to get in: Georgetown, George Washington, Jefferson & Temple (since you're already applying to Drexel..), Tufts (check their tuition first), VA Tech, Miami, VCU, Oakland (since you obviously don't mind Michigan with your inclusion of Wayne and Wright state), Rush (since you already picked Loyola and Rosie), SLU, Medical College of Wisconsin, Creighton, even Vermont, maybe others. You want to cast a wide net to give yourself the best chance of getting in. Obviously you don't need like 40 apps, but check these out and see if you like them. I imagine you've already looked at many of these though..

I would not apply to Florida State, they're not friendly to out of state applicants. NEOMED, Toledo, and LSU may be similar.

 

[halamadrid17]

Ditto about FSU and LSU. Not OOS friendly

 

[DrHart]

Drop neomed, toledo and wright state would be a maybe


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[Goro]

I suggest

1. Albany Medical College
4. Drexel University College of Medicine
7. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
11. Quinnipiac University SOM
12. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
14. Tulane University School of Medicine
16. University of California, Davis School of Medicine
17. University of California-Riverside School of Medicine (ONLY if you're from the Inland Empire)
18. Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
Temple
Jefferson
UCI
Creighton
BU
VCU
EVMS
Wake
Rush
Gtown
GWU
NYMC
Any DO school