Please help me finalize my list of schools!

[monkeyMD]

Here is my current list. I am applying this cycle and any input would be greatly appreciated. Please help me cut down on application costs by eliminating schools that are oos unfriendly and are real reach schools.

ALL of the CA schools (UCSD, UCSF, UCI, UCLA, UCD).
George Washington U
Georgetown U
U of Miami, Miller
Rosalind Franklin
Northwestern (*=maybe)
Rush Medical College
St. Louise University
Albany Med College
Albert Einstein
Columbia U or Cornell U (*)
Mt. Sinai School ?
NYU??
U at buffalo ??
SUNY Downstate
Stonybrook NY?????
U of Rochester
U of Cincinnati
Drexel???
Penn State U
Temple U
U of Pittsburgh
Brown U(*)
Thomas Jefferson
NYMC
Case western
Vanderbilt
(some people also have recommended that I add Hofstra, FIU, Oakland--any opinions??)

Help me eliminate schools with poor OOS acceptances, ridiculous tuition, and etc etc. I hope to stay in CA but with my stats, I know the chances are pretty slim and I don't want to become a reapplicant.

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[jab8220]

Why not just get an MSAR?

 

[sector9]

No publication in Nature??
Surely you have one in Science or PNAS then?!

JK

 

[Tapepsi]

Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai: Will be a reach for you. The average MCAT scores for accepted applicants is a 36. Your 31 falls below their 10th percentile.
Northwestern: Tuition + other costs = RIDICULOUS. Expect to pay ~85K a year (and it's only going to go up).

 

[StephBee]

ALL of the CA schools (UCSD, UCSF, UCI, UCLA, UCD).
George Washington U
Georgetown U
U of Miami, Miller
Rosalind Franklin
Northwestern (*=maybe)
Rush Medical College
St. Louise University
Albany Med College
Albert Einstein
Columbia U or Cornell U (*)
Mt. Sinai School ?
NYU??
U at buffalo ??
SUNY Downstate
Stonybrook NY?????
U of Rochester
U of Cincinnati
Drexel???
Penn State U
Temple U
U of Pittsburgh
Brown U(*)
Thomas Jefferson
NYMC
Case western
Vanderbilt
(some people also have recommended that I add Hofstra, FIU, Oakland--any opinions??)

The main question I have ish ow many schools did you want to apply to. My suggestions are to nix some of your reach schools. Case, Vandy, Brown (small class size + high numbers = less likely and they have a near 100% acceptence rate for those they interview), Stony Brook (personal opinion. I didn't like the school when I was looking there for undergrad) and Cornell. You should keep a few just to dream but augment with a few of the newer schools FIU, Oakland, Hofstra. Then again, I may be a little biased since I'm apply to a very simular set of schools with very simular stats
Why so many NY schools? I would nix Albany and Rochester. WHat about some of the other state schools? U. MD, Tulane, NYMC, Commonwealth, Wake Forest and FAU are all schools I would look into. You can gander at my list and see if it helps at all. Send me a PM if you want to talk about it more in depth. I can whip out my MSAR and give you more concrete stats on the schools you're lookin' at.

 

[monkeyMD]

I do have the MSAR but it feels like I am pulling names from thin air. No good basis to go through.

Thanks for the input.

 

[StephBee]

I feel like thats almost what all of us do. What I did was first go through my MSAR and looked through each school and decided first if i would want to live in that area for 4+ years. Then I classified each school (different colored tabs) based on their MCAT. If mine was a point or so below, it was a fit school. If it was at or above their average, it was a "safety" though that term is laughable in med school and anything with 3+ points average MCAT above mine, it was a reach (my GPA is high so I never took that into consideration). Then I went through each school I had tabbed and looked at mission statements, location again, IS/OOS (I didn't apply to any oos schools with less than a 20% OOS matriculants), and just the general feel I got from everything I read. I nixed my more reachy schools, keeping like 6-8 on my list (36 total).

I don't know if that helps you at all but that was my process and I feel like I came up with a decent well rounded list.