Roast my school list: nontrad and high stats

[stayathomemom]

Thanks for the help y'all have provided previously. I have a wonky school list due to my nontraditional circumstances and I'd love to hear about any that I should eliminate and why.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.91/3.90
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 520 (129/129/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): OR (graduated college in ND)
4. Ethnicity and/or race: "Other"
5. Undergraduate institution or category: podunk state school, BS Biology, 2004; taken 16 credit recently at a CC (4.0)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): >500 hours clinical volunteering, mostly in a maternity unit, also free clinic, inpatient medicine, ED
7. Research experience and productivity: Employed by a group that did non-science research (education) but did not do the research per se
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 50 hours total: 5 in ICU (intensivist) and 45 in internal medicine. COVID cancelled my outpatient primary care opportunity.
9. Non-clinical volunteering: >150 hrs at homeless youth NPO, lots and lots of community volunteering as a parent
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): ~8 years in church ministry leadership/teaching, 2 years in a PTA board role, host family for foreign exchange students, 2 years as writer for a collective writing project for mothers
11. Relevant honors or awards: several collegiate merit awards, dean's list all semesters, summa cum laude
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I have not had paid employment since 2006 and have not had any type of career role.
13. Edit: also, I am strongly interested in primary care. I'm not opposed to rural medicine but I'm not committing to anything.

Many of the schools previously suggested for me not feasible for my situation. My evaluation of schools is something like this:
1. Can we provide our school-aged children a good quality of life? (COL, schools, how urban it is)
2. Is it not in the "south"? (defined however my spouse feels like defining it I guess)
3. Do I fit the requirements for time taken between fulfilling prerequisites and application, and LOR requirements? (I only have 1 faculty LOR, and 3 overall) (This excludes schools like Duke, U of Chicago, Quinnipiac, and more)
4. This is one I don't follow as closely because I'm so picky about the above criteria: Do I fit the mission?

Here's my list:

Case Western Reserve
Creighton
Dartmouth
Geisinger
Kaiser
Loma Linda U
Loyola Stritch
Mayo
MC of Wisconsin
NYU Long Island
OHSU
The Ohio State
U of Cincinnati
U of Colorado
U of Iowa
U of Michigan
U of Minn
U of Rochester
U of Vermont
Vanderbilt
W Michigan U
Wake Forest
Yale

Thanks again. This is the last post re: my school list, I promise.

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[stayathomemom]

I'm just going to assume nobody has any dissent and I'm going to go with this list.

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

I've got no input on your school list, I just wanted to say good luck this cycle! You have an amazing application, definitely makes me curious about your story. I'm definitely going to quickly stalk your old posts to see if you go into more detail about it

 

[GreenDuck12]

What about USC, UCSD, Utah, UW, UCSF

 

[harvard_of_the_west]

Not sure where you reside on the faith/religion spectrum, but if you're not Seventh Day Adventist, I wouldn't apply to Loma Linda. Your stats are certainly competitive, but they really prefer SDA students > devout Christian students >>>> everyone else. It's a very religious atmosphere and students pledge to an honor code that is much more stringent than any other medical schools in order to maintain that atmosphere.

Regardless, you've got great schools on that list! Good luck!

 

[stayathomemom]

I've got no input on your school list, I just wanted to say good luck this cycle! You have an amazing application, definitely makes me curious about your story. I'm definitely going to quickly stalk your old posts to see if you go into more detail about it

Aw, thanks! Do you want to read my PS to hear the meat of the story? Not asking for feedback, just in case you thought I was trying to sneak a review in there LOL

What about USC, UCSD, Utah, UW, UCSF

USC, UCSD, UW, UCSF: No affordable housing in good school districts within reasonable commuting distance to the school (To head off any points about the Cali schools in my list: Kaiser: free tuition offsets housing costs, Loma Linda: closer to affordable housing on the edge of the LA metro area and I feel I fit their mission better)
Utah: So few seats available for OOS students that I wasn't sure it would be prudent.

Not sure where you reside on the faith/religion spectrum, but if you're not Seventh Day Adventist, I wouldn't apply to Loma Linda. Your stats are certainly competitive, but they really prefer SDA students > devout Christian students >>>> everyone else. It's a very religious atmosphere and students pledge to an honor code that is much more stringent than any other medical schools in order to maintain that atmosphere.

Regardless, you've got great schools on that list! Good luck!

I'm not SDA but I am a devout Christian, and I have no issues with their honor code. Thanks for the heads up though, that would be a rough surprise for some people haha!

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

Aw, thanks! Do you want to read my PS to hear the meat of the story? Not asking for feedback, just in case you thought I was trying to sneak a review in there LOL

Sure! If you dont mind feel free to PM it

 

[tl;dr]

Thanks for the help y'all have provided previously. I have a wonky school list due to my nontraditional circumstances and I'd love to hear about any that I should eliminate and why.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.91/3.90
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 520 (129/129/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): OR (graduated college in ND)
4. Ethnicity and/or race: "Other"
5. Undergraduate institution or category: podunk state school, BS Biology, 2004; taken 16 credit recently at a CC (4.0)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): >500 hours clinical volunteering, mostly in a maternity unit, also free clinic, inpatient medicine, ED
7. Research experience and productivity: Employed by a group that did non-science research (education) but did not do the research per se
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 50 hours total: 5 in ICU (intensivist) and 45 in internal medicine. COVID cancelled my outpatient primary care opportunity.
9. Non-clinical volunteering: >150 hrs at homeless youth NPO, lots and lots of community volunteering as a parent
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): ~8 years in church ministry leadership/teaching, 2 years in a PTA board role, host family for foreign exchange students, 2 years as writer for a collective writing project for mothers
11. Relevant honors or awards: several collegiate merit awards, dean's list all semesters, summa cum laude
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I have not had paid employment since 2006 and have not had any type of career role.
13. Edit: also, I am strongly interested in primary care. I'm not opposed to rural medicine but I'm not committing to anything.

Many of the schools previously suggested for me not feasible for my situation. My evaluation of schools is something like this:
1. Can we provide our school-aged children a good quality of life? (COL, schools, how urban it is)
2. Is it not in the "south"? (defined however my spouse feels like defining it I guess)
3. Do I fit the requirements for time taken between fulfilling prerequisites and application, and LOR requirements? (I only have 1 faculty LOR, and 3 overall) (This excludes schools like Duke, U of Chicago, Quinnipiac, and more)
4. This is one I don't follow as closely because I'm so picky about the above criteria: Do I fit the mission?

Here's my list:

Case Western Reserve
Creighton
Dartmouth
Geisinger
Kaiser
Loma Linda U
Loyola Stritch
Mayo
MC of Wisconsin
NYU Long Island
OHSU
The Ohio State
U of Cincinnati
U of Colorado
U of Iowa
U of Michigan
U of Minn
U of Rochester
U of Vermont
Vanderbilt
W Michigan U
Wake Forest
Yale

Thanks again. This is the last post re: my school list, I promise.

Pretty good list... assuming you've checked MSAR or websites to make sure OOS acceptance rates for all those are reasonable.

There's a few on there though that I question meeting your criteria:

- Vanderbilt: expensive, urban, AND south (at least by my definition)
- Loma Linda: crappy location, nasty urban sprawl of the Inland Empire, not cheap
- U Colorado: urban urban urban expensive expensive expensive
- Loyola: expensive, Chicago urban sprawl

A couple more you could add that meet your criteria (I actually have a really similar set of criteria... although for residency apps next year... and was a non-trad that went MD-PhD):

- Pitt
- WVU
- UW Madison
- Hopkins (the suburbs of Baltimore are actually pretty nice, and affordable)
- UNC (borderline south...)
- UConn (not sure what OOS acceptance rate is)
- IUPUI (can go to satellite campuses outside of Indy too)
- Louisville (maybe UK too, but I think they're more preferential in-state)
- Stony Brook
- Buffalo
- UVA
- VCU
- VT Carilion

Your LOR issue might come up for some of those... not sure. Been out of the game too long. You have such a solid app though that I would reach out to admissions at any place you're interested in and inquire about the LOR deal before scratching them off the list completely.

 

[Goro]

Thanks for the help y'all have provided previously. I have a wonky school list due to my nontraditional circumstances and I'd love to hear about any that I should eliminate and why.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.91/3.90
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 520 (129/129/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): OR (graduated college in ND)
4. Ethnicity and/or race: "Other"
5. Undergraduate institution or category: podunk state school, BS Biology, 2004; taken 16 credit recently at a CC (4.0)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): >500 hours clinical volunteering, mostly in a maternity unit, also free clinic, inpatient medicine, ED
7. Research experience and productivity: Employed by a group that did non-science research (education) but did not do the research per se
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 50 hours total: 5 in ICU (intensivist) and 45 in internal medicine. COVID cancelled my outpatient primary care opportunity.
9. Non-clinical volunteering: >150 hrs at homeless youth NPO, lots and lots of community volunteering as a parent
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): ~8 years in church ministry leadership/teaching, 2 years in a PTA board role, host family for foreign exchange students, 2 years as writer for a collective writing project for mothers
11. Relevant honors or awards: several collegiate merit awards, dean's list all semesters, summa cum laude
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I have not had paid employment since 2006 and have not had any type of career role.
13. Edit: also, I am strongly interested in primary care. I'm not opposed to rural medicine but I'm not committing to anything.

Many of the schools previously suggested for me not feasible for my situation. My evaluation of schools is something like this:
1. Can we provide our school-aged children a good quality of life? (COL, schools, how urban it is)
2. Is it not in the "south"? (defined however my spouse feels like defining it I guess)
3. Do I fit the requirements for time taken between fulfilling prerequisites and application, and LOR requirements? (I only have 1 faculty LOR, and 3 overall) (This excludes schools like Duke, U of Chicago, Quinnipiac, and more)
4. This is one I don't follow as closely because I'm so picky about the above criteria: Do I fit the mission?

Here's my list:

Case Western Reserve
Creighton
Dartmouth
Loma Linda U (only if you are SDA or extremely devout Christian)
Loyola Stritch
Mayo
MC of Wisconsin
NYU Long Island
OHSU
The Ohio State
U of Cincinnati
U of Colorado
U of Iowa
U of Michigan
U of Rochester
U of Vermont
Vanderbilt
W Michigan U
Wake Forest
Yale

U ND might be doable
That's a pretty small list. Add some DO schools to broaden your net.

 

[mdtobhopefully]

Thanks for the help y'all have provided previously. I have a wonky school list due to my nontraditional circumstances and I'd love to hear about any that I should eliminate and why.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.91/3.90
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 520 (129/129/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): OR (graduated college in ND)
4. Ethnicity and/or race: "Other"
5. Undergraduate institution or category: podunk state school, BS Biology, 2004; taken 16 credit recently at a CC (4.0)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): >500 hours clinical volunteering, mostly in a maternity unit, also free clinic, inpatient medicine, ED
7. Research experience and productivity: Employed by a group that did non-science research (education) but did not do the research per se
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 50 hours total: 5 in ICU (intensivist) and 45 in internal medicine. COVID cancelled my outpatient primary care opportunity.
9. Non-clinical volunteering: >150 hrs at homeless youth NPO, lots and lots of community volunteering as a parent
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): ~8 years in church ministry leadership/teaching, 2 years in a PTA board role, host family for foreign exchange students, 2 years as writer for a collective writing project for mothers
11. Relevant honors or awards: several collegiate merit awards, dean's list all semesters, summa cum laude
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I have not had paid employment since 2006 and have not had any type of career role.
13. Edit: also, I am strongly interested in primary care. I'm not opposed to rural medicine but I'm not committing to anything.

Many of the schools previously suggested for me not feasible for my situation. My evaluation of schools is something like this:
1. Can we provide our school-aged children a good quality of life? (COL, schools, how urban it is)
2. Is it not in the "south"? (defined however my spouse feels like defining it I guess)
3. Do I fit the requirements for time taken between fulfilling prerequisites and application, and LOR requirements? (I only have 1 faculty LOR, and 3 overall) (This excludes schools like Duke, U of Chicago, Quinnipiac, and more)
4. This is one I don't follow as closely because I'm so picky about the above criteria: Do I fit the mission?

Here's my list:

Case Western Reserve
Creighton
Dartmouth
Geisinger
Kaiser
Loma Linda U
Loyola Stritch
Mayo
MC of Wisconsin
NYU Long Island
OHSU
The Ohio State
U of Cincinnati
U of Colorado
U of Iowa
U of Michigan
U of Minn
U of Rochester
U of Vermont
Vanderbilt
W Michigan U
Wake Forest
Yale

Thanks again. This is the last post re: my school list, I promise.

I think you have a very strong application and there isn't much you can improve upon. Shoot for the stars! Best of luck and keep us posted!