Qualities to be competitive enough to apply to the top 10 med school

[Raihan Mirza]

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I am currently a freshmen at a State University. I plan on applying to top med schools like John Hopkins and Harvard. However besides having competitive MCAT scores and a high GPA I still see people geting rejected to top medical school. I hear many people in this forum say, oh you should do more research or get more clinical experience. Can someone please be more specific on how gain more clinical experience. Like before applying how many hours of clinical experience should one have or what is the minimum amount of research one should do? How many articles should a person try to publish? What other qualities should an average premed with say a 35 MCAT score and a 3.5 GPA have to make them competitive for the top 10 medical schools? Advice from students already enrolled in a top 10 medical school would greatly GREATLY be appreciated.

 

[old_boy]

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[Law2Doc]

I am currently a freshmen at a State University. I plan on applying to top med schools like John Hopkins and Harvard. However besides having competitive MCAT scores and a high GPA I still see people geting rejected to top medical school. I hear many people in this forum say, oh you should do more research or get more clinical experience. Can someone please be more specific on how gain more clinical experience. Like before applying how many hours of clinical experience should one have or what is the minimum amount of research one should do? How many articles should a person try to publish? What other qualities should an average premed with say a 35 MCAT score and a 3.5 GPA have to make them competitive for the top 10 medical schools? Advice from students already enrolled in a top 10 medical school would greatly GREATLY be appreciated.

If you are looking for the "minimum amounts" you need you are already going about it all wrong. There is no specific ECs or quantity you should have. You need to make yourself into a unique and interesting applicant, as well as have high stats. But no one can tell you how to make yourself unique and interesting because there is no single formula. Folks who have gotten into such places tend to have extensive ECs that demonstrate their dynamic abilities and qualities. (The "average premed" does not have a 35 MCAT BTW, but an average matriculant to one of the top few schools will have greater than a 3.5 usually).

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

I know I'll get **** for this but good luck getting into a top ten if you're coming from a state school. Before I started applying, I told my pre-health advisor that I wanted to apply to Columbia and Brown. He cut me off mid sentence and told me not to waste my money. Curious, I ask why, to which he responds, "they don't take state schoolers." Well, that's one person's opinion and I eventually didn't apply to those two schools for other reasons (AP credit problems). I researched a bit and it seems as though no one from my school has made it to an Ivy. People with better stats than me didn't even get interviews. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. The best school I heard of thus far was WUSTL and that kid got a 42 on the MCAT. I knew him myself; brilliant SOB.

Of course, there is always a chance you can make it if you have a balance of a great GPA/MCAT score/research background/volunteering/leadership/writing ability/interviewing skills.

 

[pjl2505]

It was my personal experience that the top 20 seem to prefer a research background to a clinical one. I had extensive research on my application and less than 100 hours shadowing (minimal volunteer work), and found the top 20 to be more receptive for interviews than other schools that are less reputed for research.

 

[ssquared]

I am currently a freshmen at a State University. I plan on applying to top med schools like John Hopkins and Harvard. However besides having competitive MCAT scores and a high GPA I still see people geting rejected to top medical school. I hear many people in this forum say, oh you should do more research or get more clinical experience. Can someone please be more specific on how gain more clinical experience. Like before applying how many hours of clinical experience should one have or what is the minimum amount of research one should do? How many articles should a person try to publish? What other qualities should an average premed with say a 35 MCAT score and a 3.5 GPA have to make them competitive for the top 10 medical schools? Advice from students already enrolled in a top 10 medical school would greatly GREATLY be appreciated.

Second the thought that it's Johns Hopkins. I hear that if you get the name wrong, they automatically blacklist you. 😛

But what I think really sets apart the people who do get into the top schools is devotion to something. They didn't just volunteer at a soup kitchen, they made their own foundation to fund soup kitchens all over their home state. Stellar scores, GPA, and research don't hurt. And humility is extremely important. (Not saying that you are) but being arrogant is a surefire way to get rejected post-interview.

There's more to life than a Top-10, but more power to you if you want to go that route. Good luck.

 

[Dookter]

I know I'll get **** for this but good luck getting into a top ten if you're coming from a state school. Before I started applying, I told my pre-health advisor that I wanted to apply to Columbia and Brown. He cut me off mid sentence and told me not to waste my money. Curious, I ask why, to which he responds, "they don't take state schoolers." Well, that's one person's opinion and I eventually didn't apply to those two schools for other reasons (AP credit problems). I researched a bit and it seems as though no one from my school has made it to an Ivy. People with better stats than me didn't even get interviews. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. The best school I heard of thus far was WUSTL and that kid got a 42 on the MCAT. I knew him myself; brilliant SOB.

Of course, there is always a chance you can make it if you have a balance of a great GPA/MCAT score/research background/volunteering/leadership/writing ability/interviewing skills.

Top 10's do take a lot of state school kids...or at least my class has a lot of state school kids, including me.

 

[diosa428]

Try checking out mdapplicants.com. You can do a search for people accepted to certain schools, and you can look at what their applications looked like.

 

[Law2Doc]

Try checking out mdapplicants.com. You can do a search for people accepted to certain schools, and you can look at what their applications looked like.

But bear in mind that that represents a very self selected group (the vast majority of applicants don't post profiles), and contains quite a few false or exaggerated entries.

 

[gotmeds?]

I know I'll get **** for this but good luck getting into a top ten if you're coming from a state school. Before I started applying, I told my pre-health advisor that I wanted to apply to Columbia and Brown. He cut me off mid sentence and told me not to waste my money. Curious, I ask why, to which he responds, "they don't take state schoolers." Well, that's one person's opinion and I eventually didn't apply to those two schools for other reasons (AP credit problems). I researched a bit and it seems as though no one from my school has made it to an Ivy. People with better stats than me didn't even get interviews. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. The best school I heard of thus far was WUSTL and that kid got a 42 on the MCAT. I knew him myself; brilliant SOB.

Of course, there is always a chance you can make it if you have a balance of a great GPA/MCAT score/research background/volunteering/leadership/writing ability/interviewing skills.

You know, it's funny you should mention Columbia. When I interviewed there, they had a big list posted right outside the waiting room that had everyone's name and what school they attended. There were only two public schools on the whole list: ULCA and UC Berkeley. Everyone else came from ivies.

 

[QofQuimica]

Top 10's do take a lot of state school kids...or at least my class has a lot of state school kids, including me.

Agree. Medical schools are not charities. They want the best students they can get, period. (Note that "best" includes students who have strong stats, but is not EXCLUSIVELY defined by having high stats.) It absolutely isn't true that highly accomplished graduates of state schools don't get interviewed and accepted by top ten schools.

 

[jojo_1981]

I think the best advice I could give on how to get into a Top 10 school is that you have to work really hard at being AWESOME.

Notice the caps there, because I don't mean you're run-of-the-mill awesomeness that translates into good grades, good MCATs, yadda yadda yadda. What I mean is the kind of AWESOME that sets you above and beyond your peers and makes those schools in the Top 10 start to prick up their ears and take notice when your application slides across the desk.

Being AWESOME, however, is very difficult to accomplish in any sort of planned, once-a-week for 4 hours kind of way. Half of the work in becoming AWESOME is just figuring out the things that truly inspire and invigorate you. Only after that can you put your energies into these things and become AWESOME at what you do - be it climbing Mt. Everest with no oxygen, saving those African babies, or coming up with the cure for cancer (or go for the trifecta - that might even get you a scholarship from a Top 10).

 

[NervousNed]

knowing how to make green tea 😀

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

Top 10's do take a lot of state school kids...or at least my class has a lot of state school kids, including me.

Which is why I never said it was impossible. Like the example I gave, someone from my state school got into a Top 10 (a top 5 even), however it is my firm belief that a state schooler has to work even harder to compensate for the school name.

 

[Dookter]

Which is why I never said it was impossible. Like the example I gave, someone from my state school got into a Top 10 (a top 5 even), however it is my firm belief that a state schooler has to work even harder to compensate for the school name.

Your original post made it sounds like a long-shot. I won't disagree that you might have to work harder...but it is certainly not a long-shot since so many people do it. I got into a top 10....oh, and also the same "top 5" you talked about in your original post. I know I'm not some freak of nature, and I know I'm not alone. A LOT of state school kids get into big name schools. I don't just know this from MDapps, etc. I know it b/c I know these people personally.

 

[omegaxx]

If you rock, you rock regardless of whether you go to Yale or a place called Green River College for the Residents of Green River County.

Getting into top 10 schools can be like a crapshot at times. Luck, i.e. who your interviewer is and how he/she clicks with you, is something you have no control over. However, what you can have control over are the stuff you put into your AMCAS: very solid GPAs and MCATs; meaningful activities showing your passion, commitment, responsibility and/or leadership; LORs from people who know you well and have many good things to say about you; and a well-articulated PS in which you pull all of the above elements together into the image of someone they would want in their class, i.e. smart, enthusiastic about learning and changing the world, personable, determined, and a team worker.

 

[cgscribe]

I did undergrad at a state school and got interviews at a majority of the top schools I applied to (HMS, Yale, Hopkins, UCSF). I'll admit, having strong numbers and being a URM can help you. But other than that, I'd second basically what everybody says here: MCAT near 35, 3.8 or higher gpa, at least some clinical, at least some research in human/medical area (publications being a huge positive), and then have something extraordinary about your profile. Whether that's a commitment to underserved, having amazing volunteer work, etc. The Ivies and top schools have the benefit of being able to weed out their interviewees by strong numbers, then they're looking for people who have something unique and stellar about them. I was amazed to hear what some fellow interviewees had done (worldwide travel, ground-breaking research, Olympians). Best of luck.

 

[Snipe99x]

You don't have to do any groundbreaking research or save babies in Africa to get into a top 10 med school.

Off topic- but what if you do go and save babies in Africa? I'm thinking about volunteering a summer in Africa and I'm wondering how good it would look on a med school app?

 

[Anastasis]

It was my personal experience that the top 20 seem to prefer a research background to a clinical one. I had extensive research on my application and less than 100 hours shadowing (minimal volunteer work), and found the top 20 to be more receptive for interviews than other schools that are less reputed for research.

I think it kind of depends on the top 10 that you're referring to. Baylor has a track system and there are tracks for international health and care of the underserved (as well as research). Research is a big plus to the application but I wouldn't say that if your application leans more to the clinical side that you should forget about the top 10 - just make sure the rest of your application is strong.

 

[gotmeds?]

Off topic- but what if you do go and save babies in Africa? I'm thinking about volunteering a summer in Africa and I'm wondering how good it would look on a med school app?

It'll look like you have rich parents.

 

[omegaxx]

Off topic- but what if you do go and save babies in Africa? I'm thinking about volunteering a summer in Africa and I'm wondering how good it would look on a med school app?

Don't do it just to make your CV look good. Adcoms can smell that a mile away.

 

[TheRealMD]

Off topic- but what if you do go and save babies in Africa? I'm thinking about volunteering a summer in Africa and I'm wondering how good it would look on a med school app?

That's cliche and it will be hard to get something substantial out of it. Unless you have some actual connection for helping these people, you can't just go around and be a "do-gooder".

I say this because you want to avoid doing things JUST because you want to put them on a med school app. That's a red-flag. As cool as it may sound to "go save babies in Africa", you need to have a personal connection with what you are doing (or at least explain it well) or something like this can be seen as a negative, even if it's a positive thing.

Well, at least learn something from your experience besides "babies are dying, I want to save them!!!" 🙄

 

[MrBurns10]

Off topic- but what if you do go and save babies in Africa? I'm thinking about volunteering a summer in Africa and I'm wondering how good it would look on a med school app?

Yeah, I agree with the posters above me. Don't do it just for your CV. Going to Africa totally worked for a classmate of mine (following a year in which he was not accepted to med school), but I think it turned out to be a tremendous experience for him.