Re-applicant 3.8, 33/32, School list help?

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Cytonic1378

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Hi all, I've probably posted before but this is likely everything that will be on my application this time around. I am a reapplicant with no interviews around last time. I'm honestly still confused and frustrated about what happened last cycle but what can you do but try again. Any help on the school list would be super great!

Graduated June 2015 with Biochemistry B.S.
GPA: 3.82 Overall and science
MCAT: 33 (first time), 32 (second time a few months later), was scoring higher on practices and I rushed it because of time constraints but it is what it is
Asian, male, California - bam 🙁

1. 600+ hours so far working as a fulltime/almost fulltime ER medical scribe, will definitely be working past 1500+ hours eventually by next year.
2. 60+ hours so far doing culturally based stroke intervention research in Mandarin and performing clinical tasks like blood draw/blood pressure.
3. ~250 hours as a social worker at a homeless mobile clinic
4. ~200 hours as a mentor/tutor for disadvantaged youth, also a site coordinator who helped plan and develop site modules for interns
5. ~200 hours doing research with mice, statin/lipid/metabolism research, no publications
6. ~250 hours helping develop a lab researching C. elegans behavior, leader of the thermotaxis group that helped train and recruit new student researchers, one poster presentation, no publications
7. ~300+ hours paid working as an administrative assistant in a humanities department
8. 60 hours shadowing different pulmonologists in a clinic.
9. 50 hours volunteering in API health fairs, translating for Mandarin and performing basic clinical tasks
10. 100 hours of pharmacy volunteering with a pharmacy tech license, convinced me not to go into pharmacy and instead medicine lol, should this be included?
11. Freelance photographer with own set-up business taking graduation photos/portraiture work
12. Avid musician with lots of involvement in different organizations/classes in undergrad

Above average LOR at best because I was dumb enough to not establish super close relationships with professors.
Assuming a well-developed PS

School list so far, I might not even apply to reach schools tbh seeing as how I did last cycle... I just want one school to love me 🙁

Albany
Einstein
Boston
Buffalo
DGSOM
Drexel
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Hofstra - North shore
USC
Loyola
Miami
Mount Sinai
NYMC
NYU
Penn State
Franklin
Rush
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts
UCSD
UCD
UCI
UCR
U of Michigan
U of Rochester
Brown
Wake Forest

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
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Where did you apply this past cycle? You could add these schools where you have a chance for an interview with your stats:
Quinnipiac
Vermont
GW
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
California Northstate
Roseman (new school tentative for 2017)
 
Something's off if what you listed is what you applied with last year and you couldnt get a single II from this list(even though it didnt have enough realistic targets). Written parts of the app and how you presented yourself in your app would be the first obvious place to look at.
 
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@Faha - Thanks! I will look into those schools.

@GrapesofRath
For last time, I applied to (on the current list) Albert Einstein, Boston, DGSOM, Drexel, Dartmouth, Hofstra, Penn State, Rosalind Franklin, Rush, Thomas Jefferson, Tufts, UCSD, UCI, UCR, U of Michigan, U of Rochester, Brown and a whole bunch of other schools that I took off because of reach schools or aren't that friendly to OOS. I really tried to be conservative this time around and will probably only apply to schools that I think I have somewhat of a chance at getting an interview.

@gyngyn - This is my second time applying. Could you recommend some schools that I have a decent chance at?
 
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Dude, we're like carbon copies (except you got better GPA)! Asian male + Cali did me in last cycle as well. If its in ur books, I would actually consider changing your race (oops can't LOL) or changing your state of residency (totally can do). I was trying to look for a job outside my state anyway, so it was pretty easy to change my residency. You just have to work for a year in another state.
 
Bump.

My school list so far, any suggestions?

Albany
Albert Einstein
Drexel
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Hofstra-North shore
USC
Loyola
Miami
Mount Sinai
NYMC
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts
UCSD
UCD
UCI
UCR
UCLA
U of Mich
U of Roch
Brown
Wake Forest
Northstate California
St. Louis
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Vermont
Quinnipac
 
Bump.

My school list so far, any suggestions?

Albany
Albert Einstein
Drexel
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Hofstra-North shore
USC
Loyola
Miami
Mount Sinai
NYMC
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts
UCSD
UCD
UCI
UCR
UCLA
U of Mich
U of Roch
Brown
Wake Forest
Northstate California
St. Louis
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Vermont
Quinnipac
Pretty good list, I would remove Mt Sinai (37 MCAT average) and do more research on Northstate, this school has a negative reputation with providing loans to students for tuition costs.

I bet the unsuccessful first cycle had to do with getting a worse MCAT score the second time around. Why did you retake a 33 🙁
 
Pretty good list, I would remove Mt Sinai (37 MCAT average) and do more research on Northstate, this school has a negative reputation with providing loans to students for tuition costs.

I bet the unsuccessful first cycle had to do with getting a worse MCAT score the second time around. Why did you retake a 33 🙁

Thanks! will do.

I retook it because I was dumb. I was scoring higher on practice tests so I decided to retake it a few months later in a rushed state before school started, which clearly was not a good decision and I couldn't retake before I applied last cycle because of school 🙁 I wouldn't taken the new MCAT if I knew what my results were going to be last cycle....
 
I think adcoms may have a perception of someone who retakes a 33, so I would go out of my way in written portions to distance myself from those notions.
 
You had 6-7 schools on your old list you could probably call "targets". That's not enough but with these stats it's high enough you should ask yourself what might have gone wrong and more importantly what improvements have you made to your app now. I dont think it's an EC issue

I would delete the schools you are a reapplicant at except for Jefferson and UCR if youre from the IE. Maybe keep Penn St and Drexel
Delete the schools on your list with a 34+ median MCAT
You should really spend more time looking into Northstate more before thinking about including it.

That leaves about a dozen schools left on your list. All of them are probably fine. You can find probably a half dozen more OOS friendly with an MCAT median around 31-32 in MSAR that you arent a reapplicant at that are worth looking into
 
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Delete: Consider deleting:
Albany
Albert Einstein
Drexel
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Hofstra-North shore
USC

Loyola
Miami
Mount Sinai

NYMC
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Temple
Thomas Jefferson
Tufts
UCSD
UCD
UCI
UCR (unless you are from the IE)
UCLA
U of Mich
U of Roch
Brown

Wake Forest
Northstate California
St. Louis
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Vermont
Quinnipac

I know you are going to keep the UC's anyway...
 
I recommend:

U VM
USF Morsani (maybe)
Duke (maybe)
Case (maybe)
Mayo (maybe)
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush (note: very service/experience oriented with a 150hr service requirement. Avg student has 800 hours of community service, and >1800 hours of health care exposure.)
Rosy Franklin
BU
MCW
Hofstra
NYMC
VCU
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
George Washington
Emory
USC/Keck
Tulane
Dartmouth
Loyola
Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.
UCD
UCI
UCR IF you're from the Inland Empire
UCLA (maybe)
Any DO program, starting with Western and Touro-CA
 
Hi guys, if I could get any help cutting down on these hopefully target schools that'd be great 🙂, will be applying to other reach schools + CA schools.
* denotes re-applicant

Albany
Albert Einstein*
Drexel*
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Hofstra - Northwell*
Indiana University
Buffalo
Temple
Loyola
Medical College of Wisconsin
Michigan State
Morehouse
NYMC
Oakland Beaumont
Oregon Health and Science
Penn State*
Quinnipac
Rosalind Franklin*
Jefferson*
Stony Brook
Commonwealth Medical College
Ohio State*
Vermont
Tufts*
Tulane
U of A - Arizona
U of Maryland
U of Rochester*
U of Utah
USF Health Morsani
Virginia Commonwealth
Wake Forest
West Virginia
Western Michigan

On a side note, I recently talked to an admissions director who told me everything on my application was great, even my LORs which I thought maybe had a problem, and thought I would have gotten into a California school and that's why I didn't get an interview. I don't even know what to say 🙁 real struggles
 
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