School List Advice (3.95/525)

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slisthelp2020

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Hello! I was hoping to get some advice on my school list and would be grateful for any insights regarding my application. I tried to keep some things rather vague, and would also appreciate if you could avoid quoting my post. Thank you in advance!

cGPA: 3.95 sGPA: 4.0

MCAT: 525

State: Not from CA/NY/TX

Ethnicity: ORM

Undergrad: State school

Clinical:
  • ER Volunteer and leadership role (100 hrs)
  • Internship at urgent care (100 hrs)
Research:
  • Basic Science Lab (1 semester, ~180 hrs)
  • Bio.Eng/Disease Lab (1 year+summer, ~850 hrs)
    • Senior thesis on one project; 3rd author pub on another project
Shadowing:
  • Urgent care physician shadowing (with occasional primary care patients) (~40 hrs)
Non-Clinical:
  • Global health volunteering in rural Latin American country [NOT a mission or medical trip] for an NGO (~220 hrs)
  • Assisting incoming engineering students register for classes and orient with campus (~30 hrs)
Extracurriculars:
  • Leadership position and later President of global health club (3 years, ~180 hrs)
  • Leadership position for residential council (1 year, ~30 hrs)
  • TA for seminar/writing course (1 year, ~110 hrs)
  • Club that teaches science to inmates (1 semester, ~15 hrs)
  • Engineering capstone project (~100 hrs)
Employment:
  • Mentor for college-bridge program for underrepresented high school students (1 summer, ~350 hrs)
  • Worked as an RA (2 years, ~1400 hrs)
Honors/Awards:
  • 8 semester Dean's List
  • Top engineering graduate
Family Members in medicine: No

Specialty of Interest: Not sure, potentially primary care

Graduate Degrees: none

Interest in Rural Health: Not sure, potentially
___________________________________________________________

School List so Far:
NYU
UChicago
Columbia
Hopkins
UPenn
Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Duke
UCSF
Michigan
Cornell
Northwestern
Mt Sinai
Emory
UCLA
Case Western
UVA
Ohio State
Einstein
Hofstra
Dartmouth
OHSU
Rochester
USC
SUNY Downstate
UMaryland
Drexel
Wake Forest
GW
BU
+State Schools

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Congratulation on your metrics and academic accomplishments, but I'm a little disappointed in your hours. I know you're trying to keep things vague, so understand we can't give you more focused advice... but in spite of your stellar stats, you seem to have only done minimal expectations in your clinical/shadowing activities. Only 40-50 hours of urgent care shadowing... okay, box checked. ER volunteer 100 hours, checked. Not sure how to manage this urgent care internship if you are also shadowing in an urgent care environment, but... check. It's cool that you have a club where you're teaching science to inmates, but 15 hours... check. I understand if you want to keep things vague, but as a result, I'm not really excited about what you have presented.
 
You could add these schools:
Washington University
Pittsburgh
Miami
USF Morsani
You could remove GW, Wake Forest and Drexel as they will yield protect with your stats.
 
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Congratulation on your metrics and academic accomplishments, but I'm a little disappointed in your hours. I know you're trying to keep things vague, so understand we can't give you more focused advice... but in spite of your stellar stats, you seem to have only done minimal expectations in your clinical/shadowing activities. Only 40-50 hours of urgent care shadowing... okay, box checked. ER volunteer 100 hours, checked. Not sure how to manage this urgent care internship if you are also shadowing in an urgent care environment, but... check. It's cool that you have a club where you're teaching science to inmates, but 15 hours... check. I understand if you want to keep things vague, but as a result, I'm not really excited about what you have presented.
Thank you for your feedback! Yes, I can understand how my activities could come across as checking boxes. I joined the pre-med track later in my undergrad, and am just working my best to put forth an acceptable app based on the advice I received. I know I'm applying to some top tier schools, but I am not interested in prestige. Do you think I stand a reasonable chance at an acceptance anywhere this cycle?
 
You could add these schools:
Washington University
Pittsburgh
Miami
USF Morsani
You could remove GW, Wake Forest and Drexel as they will yield protect with your stats.
Thank you for the suggestions, I will remove those schools from my list and check out the ones you mentioned. I appreciate it!
 
Honestly, I think you will get into WashU/NYU/UChicago given your high MCAT.
ECs seem a bit mediocre for Stanford/UCSF/Harvard.
 
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Honestly, I think you will get into WashU/NYU/UChicago given your high MCAT.
ECs seem a bit mediocre for Stanford/UCSF/Harvard.
I agree that my ECs are rather mediocre, so thank you for letting me know which schools would be more selective in that regard. I appreciate your feedback, and I will adjust my list!
 
You could add these schools:
Washington University
Pittsburgh
Miami
USF Morsani
You could remove GW, Wake Forest and Drexel as they will yield protect with your stats.
Do those schools specifically yield protect with those stats? Or is it in general, schools around that rank yield protect those stats?
 
I doubt that it is an official policy but they know from years of experience that when they have interviewed applicants with a MCAT 525 and sGPA of 4.0 that the applicants invariably attend a high tier instead of their school ( so why interview those applicants instead of someone who may attend the school if interviewed)
 
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