"safety" schools suggestion?

[r536]

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i know there's no such thing as safety school... but which schools are consider "mid-tier" for an average applicant?

thanks

 

[proclivity]

i know there's no such thing as safety school... but which schools are consider "mid-tier" for an average applicant?

thanks

you should probably tell us your current selections.

 

[JRockdown]

Also, mid-tier for an average applicant would basically be the schools they have an average chance of getting into.....where does safety come in?

 

[r536]

oh yes of course.... this is my current selection



Baylor College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York University
Northwestern University
Stanford University
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of Pennsylvania


and these are my stats...

Age: 23
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: East Asian-American
Home State: CA

Undergraduate Institution: UC
Area of Study:Biological/Life Sciences

Application Year: 2008
MCAT Score: VR 9, PS 14, BS 13, Q
BCPM GPA: 3.89
Overall GPA: 3.75

Brief Profile:
research 2+ years at UCSF
volunteering (both clinical 3 mths and community based 2 years)
chem dept store room student assistant 1 year
chem tutor 1 year
congressional award
a couple scholarships (not really significant ones...)
worked at a restaurant during freshman year



i'm hoping to apply for a couple more safety schools... in places not too cold....

 

[enigma85]

case western, pittsburgh, aecom, loyola, jefferson, emory come to mind

 

[Abilene85]

i'm hoping to apply for a couple more safety schools... in places not too cold....

case western, pittsburgh

But they're great schools.

 

[mahasanti]

case western, pittsburgh, emory come to mind

HAHA.. don't know if those are safety schools... All top 25...

 

[medstuddude]

oh yes of course.... this is my current selection



Baylor College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York University
Northwestern University
Stanford University
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of Pennsylvania


and these are my stats...

Age: 23
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: East Asian-American
Home State: CA

Undergraduate Institution: UC
Area of Study:Biological/Life Sciences

Application Year: 2008
MCAT Score: VR 9, PS 14, BS 13, Q
BCPM GPA: 3.89
Overall GPA: 3.75

Brief Profile:
research 2+ years at UCSF
volunteering (both clinical 3 mths and community based 2 years)
chem dept store room student assistant 1 year
chem tutor 1 year
congressional award
a couple scholarships (not really significant ones...)
worked at a restaurant during freshman year



i'm hoping to apply for a couple more safety schools... in places not too cold....

Nice! Are you ChinesE?

 

[sle3pyguii]

Nice! Are you ChinesE?

 

[r536]

Nice! Are you ChinesE?

yes i am
and is that a problem?

 

[notdeadyet]

i'm hoping to apply for a couple more safety schools... in places not too cold....

That's the trick. My wife, who's been very supportive through all this, only made two requests for locations for us to relocate to: not the south and nowhere that has cold winters.

I think you'll find that for Californians, aside from our state schools and U of Miami, that limits the options a bit.

 

[munnabhai]

Nice! Are you ChinesE?

dude... smart asian chick... thats hot... no need to go nitpicking between the nationalities

(playful post - nobody be offended)

 

[Hassler]

oh yes of course.... this is my current selection



Baylor College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Johns Hopkins University
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York University
Northwestern University
Stanford University
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of California, San Francisco
University of Pennsylvania


and these are my stats...

Age: 23
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: East Asian-American
Home State: CA

Undergraduate Institution: UC
Area of Study:Biological/Life Sciences

Application Year: 2008
MCAT Score: VR 9, PS 14, BS 13, Q
BCPM GPA: 3.89
Overall GPA: 3.75

Brief Profile:
research 2+ years at UCSF
volunteering (both clinical 3 mths and community based 2 years)
chem dept store room student assistant 1 year
chem tutor 1 year
congressional award
a couple scholarships (not really significant ones...)
worked at a restaurant during freshman year



i'm hoping to apply for a couple more safety schools... in places not too cold....

Definitely apply to some "safety" schools because your selection is very top-heavy right now. I have the exact MCAT distribution as yours but w/ a higher GPA (3.9). EC's similar to yours. Same race (Chinese). And I got into 1 school only (Cincinnati) out of 27 that I applied to a year ago. Perhaps you'll be more successful than me, but it's good to have some back-ups just in case.

I would suggest Ohio schools (Ohio State, Cincinnati) because they accept a significant % of out of state applicants and you get in-state tuition after 1 year，private schools such as St. Louis, Drexel, Rosalind Franklin, Eastern Virginia, NYMC, etc.

 

[postbacker]

Definitely apply to some "safety" schools because your selection is very top-heavy right now. I have the exact MCAT distribution as yours but w/ a higher GPA (3.9). EC's similar to yours. Same race (Chinese). And I got into 1 school only (Cincinnati) out of 27 that I applied to a year ago.

Whoa, more info please...what happened? When did you apply? Where did you apply?

 

[littlealex]

I'm curious too Hassler. How many places were you interviewed at?

 

[travelingdoctor]

Whoa, more info please...what happened? When did you apply? Where did you apply?

From experience, its not uncommon for people with great EC and GPA and MCAT to only get 1 acceptance if that. Remember, you are applying to schools to some of which have 15,000 other people applying. This is why many qualified people dont get in the first or even second time around.

 

[postbacker]

From experience, its not uncommon for people with great EC and GPA and MCAT to only get 1 acceptance if that. Remember, you are applying to schools to some of which have 15,000 other people applying. This is why many qualified people dont get in the first or even second time around.

Sorry, that is bullsh#t.

This person had a 3.9, 36 MCAT, good ECs, and applied to 27 schools...something else must be going on here...either they applied late, or they applied strictly to #1-27 in the USNews, or maybe something else - let's let the poster speak for themselves...maybe they got on a bunch of waitlists, too...not enough info yet to conclude anything.

Regardless, it is not "common" for an applicant with those stats, assuming they applied broadly and early, to get only 1 acceptance "if that" as you say...

And name the schools that are getting 15,000 apps...more BS...

 

[sagemedecon]

I would add USC, Albert Einstein, Georgetown, Tufts, Wake Forest, University of Chicago, and Vanderbilt to your list.

 

[Robizzle]

It's called having a good personality.

 

[Xypathos]

That's the trick. My wife, who's been very supportive through all this, only made two requests for locations for us to relocate to: not the south and nowhere that has cold winters.

I think you'll find that for Californians, aside from our state schools and U of Miami, that limits the options a bit.

Out of curiousity, why doesn't your wife like the south?

 

[Hassler]

I'm curious too Hassler. How many places were you interviewed at?

Applied for admission to the class of 2006. Applied late (Sept/Oct), but I did get 15 interview offers. Since I got accepted to Cincinnati in Nov, I only went to 10 of those interviews (schools that are "better" than Cincy). Of those, I got waitlisted by 4, but none of those waitlists moved.

Honestly, I know I'm probably a poor interviewee, so I'm just happy that I'm going to be an MSII this fall 🙂

I'm not saying the OP is going to suffer the same fate as me. Just pointing out that it's nice to have "safeties" because you never know what's gonna happen, and Cincy isn't a bad school by the way.

 

[HreComesTheSun]

Sorry, that is bullsh#t.

This person had a 3.9, 36 MCAT, good ECs, and applied to 27 schools...something else must be going on here...either they applied late, or they applied strictly to #1-27 in the USNews, or maybe something else - let's let the poster speak for themselves...maybe they got on a bunch of waitlists, too...not enough info yet to conclude anything.

Regardless, it is not "common" for an applicant with those stats, assuming they applied broadly and early, to get only 1 acceptance "if that" as you say...

don't assume that someone with great numbers has good essay writing skills or interview skills...messing up on those can really kill an otherwise great app. my friend has similar gpa but higher mcat than the OP...only 2 interview offers, and his last hope this year is a waitlist at one school. didn't apply late, but not early either.

travelingdoctor didn't say this was common, he was merely saying that it does happen

OP, just out of curiosity, if you are looking for nice weather, why didn't you have USC on your list?? i noticed you have nyu and nu, and it shares similar rankings with those schools

 

[postbacker]

don't assume that someone with great numbers has good essay writing skills or interview skills...messing up on those can really kill an otherwise great app. my friend has similar gpa but higher mcat than the OP...only 2 interview offers, and his last hope this year is a waitlist at one school. didn't apply late, but not early either.

travelingdoctor didn't say this was common, he was merely saying that it does happen

OP, just out of curiosity, if you are looking for nice weather, why didn't you have USC on your list?? i noticed you have nyu and nu, and it shares similar rankings with those schools

If you are going to defend what he said, use his words - he said it is "not uncommon" - what exactly does that mean to you? To me, if somethig is "not uncommon," it is common. If he had meant to say that it does happen infrequently, or on occasion, or something suggesting less than often, or something along those lines, that would be something else...and then he further exaggerated his point by claiming that some med schools get 15k apps - still waiting for that response...

 

[postbacker]

Applied for admission to the class of 2006. Applied late (Sept/Oct), but I did get 15 interview offers. Since I got accepted to Cincinnati in Nov, I only went to 10 of those interviews (schools that are "better" than Cincy). Of those, I got waitlisted by 4, but none of those waitlists moved.

Honestly, I know I'm probably a poor interviewee, so I'm just happy that I'm going to be an MSII this fall 🙂

I'm not saying the OP is going to suffer the same fate as me. Just pointing out that it's nice to have "safeties" because you never know what's gonna happen, and Cincy isn't a bad school by the way.

Thank you, Hassler, for clearing this up.

Late app, poor interviewee...clears it up for me.

 

[TopDocChick]

My interpretation of "not uncommon" is that it is neither commmon nor uncommon - maybe somewhere around the 50% mark. just my $.02

 

[postbacker]

My interpretation of "not uncommon" is that it is neither commmon nor uncommon - maybe somewhere around the 50% mark. just my $.02

I accept that definition, but I still don't think it applied to the situation (i.e., I think it was an exaggeration) and when he supported his opinion with the exaggerated fact about the # of apps at some schools, I saw a pattern...anyway, the poster in question cleared up his problem about the 27 apps with 1 acceptance, and it all makes more sense to me...

 

[Hassler]

I accept that definition, but I still don't think it applied to the situation (i.e., I think it was an exaggeration) and when he supported his opinion with the exaggerated fact about the # of apps at some schools, I saw a pattern...anyway, the poster in question cleared up his problem about the 27 apps with 1 acceptance, and it all makes more sense to me...

I withdrew from 10 of those 27 apps after my Nov. acceptance, so it wasn't like I was waiting to hear back from all 27 schools. Sure, I might get a few more acceptances if I went to all my interviews, but there's no point because it's not like I can attend multiple schools.

By the way, this thread is about suggestions of "safety" schools for the OP, not a discussion about whether I'm a "common" or "uncommon" example. That was more than a year ago, and I have moved on.

 

[notdeadyet]

Out of curiousity, why doesn't your wife like the south?

She didn't care for the weather in the inland south and the coastal south (with the exception of Miller) doesn't have many med schools that are kind to OOSers.

 

[patzan]

My "safety schools" were George Washington, Medical College of Wisconsin, St. Louis University. On the next tier, especially for someone from CA, Loma Linda, The Ohio State University, Emory, Tulane, UVa, and some of the others mentioned above.

Try to find out if your school has a list of all the places people have been accepted recently and that'll give you a good idea of any particular place's opinion of CA applicants. Definitely consider Vanderbilt, Pitt, Duke...you seem like a good match for any of these (and Vandy is the best of all of them, anyway).

 

[r536]

i seriously don't want to go to loma linda.... i just can't deal with a sch that asks for a LOR from a religious leader and needs you to write about spiritual growth.... no offense...i went to catholic school for 12 years and i think i had enough

thanks anyway
hopefully i can get everything done by next week....