MD School list advice (3.89c/3.95s/521 CA resident)

[mardybum]

Hi, I posted here a little while ago but have since updated my school list. I want to try and keep it at 20-25 schools if possible, and ideally I'd want to go to school in California, Chicago, or urban environments. Basically I want to know if this list is too top-heavy and if so, what lower tier schools I should add.

• 3.89 cumulative GPA
• 3.95 science GPA
• 521 MCAT (130/128/132/131)
• White, CA resident, 1st generation American
• Nontrad-ish: I was about to start a PhD program and then realized I wanted to do medicine
• ~3600 hours research, one 6th author pub, one 1st author in the works, one conference poster
• ~70 hours clinical volunteering
• ~200 hours nonclinical volunteering
• EDIT: forgot to mention ~50 hours shadowing ortho
• One year group tutor, one quarter TAing, private tutor now
• Art hobby (relevant volunteering, one shared exhibit at my university, t-shirts/poster designs for school events, etc.)

Tentative school list:

1. Stanford
2. UCSF
3. Penn
4. Columbia
5. Duke
6. NYU
7. U Chicago
8. U Michigan
9. UCLA
10. Vanderbilt
11. U Pittsburg
12. Northwestern
13. Cornell
14. UCSD
15. Baylor
16. Emory
17. Mayo
18. Case Western
19. BU
20. USC
21. Einstein
22. UC Irvine
23. Tufts
24. Davis
25. UC Riverside

The reason I didn't include Sinai was that one of my English classes was comparative literature and they don't count that under the English umbrella. Thanks in advance for any advice on how to edit this list!

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[gyngyn]

Delete Tufts, Einstein, and UCR.
Get some primary care shadowing.

 

[mardybum]

Delete Tufts, Einstein, and UCR.
Get some primary care shadowing.

Thanks! I forgot to mention I have ortho shadowing but it might be difficult to get primary care since I don't have any family members/friends in medicine. If I delete those few schools, though, what would I put as my "safety" schools?

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks! I forgot to mention I have ortho shadowing but it might be difficult to get primary care since I don't have any family members/friends in medicine. If I delete those few schools, though, what would I put as my "safety" schools?

Your state schools serve as such.
Applying to schools where your stats are above the 90th percentile are just as unlikely as applying where they are below the 10th!