School list advice please!

[ShrewLover]

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Hello!

This is my first time using SDN, so apologies if I am breaking any rules or etiquette.

I would like to add more target/baseline schools to my list, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what schools would be target/baseline. Also, does my list seem reasonable?

These are my stats:
CT Resident, Female, ORM
526, 3.99
Clinical Volunteering: 200 hrs (Help in PACU) + 300 hrs (collegiate EMS)
Non-clinical Volunteering: Not much...
Clinical Paid: None right now, but I'm taking the gap year to work as EMT/MA starting in January.
Research: 1500 hrs; 1 middle-author pub, 2 first-author abstracts, 1 poster presentation
Shadow: 30 hrs (Anesthesiology, GI, ENT)
Other ECs: Rock climbing team (we compete but it's not very serious lol), TA for two biology classes, ResLife Leader (organize the RAs)

This is my list so far.

Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[wysdoc]

There is no Oregon State MD school, just a veterinary school. OHSU Md school favors those with regional connections.
You have a strong application in most areas except nonclinical community service/volunteering. Use some of your time during the gap year to get involved with service in your community and accumulate at least 150-200 hours before you apply

 

[Faha]

You should accumulate 200+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank or homeless shelter before you submit your application. Some schools screen at 150 hours and top tier schools expect more. Delete Oregon unless you have a strong connection to the state. Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
UConn
Yale
Quinnipiac
Dartmouth
Brown
Tufts
Harvard
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
New York Medical College
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
Pittsburgh
Jefferson
Cincinnati
U Virginia
Duke
Emory
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Mayo
Stanford
UCLA

 

[ShrewLover]

There is no Oregon State MD school, just a veterinary school. OHSU Md school favors those with regional connections.
You have a strong application in most areas except nonclinical community service/volunteering. Use some of your time during the gap year to get involved with service in your community and accumulate at least 150-200 hours before you apply

Okay thank you for letting me know! Yes, I will definitely take some time to do community service during my gap year

 

[ShrewLover]

You should accumulate 200+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank or homeless shelter before you submit your application. Some schools screen at 150 hours and top tier schools expect more. Delete Oregon unless you have a strong connection to the state. Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
UConn
Yale
Quinnipiac
Dartmouth
Brown
Tufts
Harvard
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
New York Medical College
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
Pittsburgh
Jefferson
Cincinnati
U Virginia
Duke
Emory
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Mayo
Stanford
UCLA

Thank you so much for the list!!! A lot of these schools seem to be very top heavy though, which makes me a bit nervous. Do you think it would be worthwhile to add some other schools but send sincere interest letter

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Have you talked with your prehealth advisors? I'm not convinced you have enough clinical experience to hang with applicants at the reach schools you aspire to attend. Shadowing is light (30 hours) without primary care. Zero non-clinical volunteering will screen you out at most schools. Promised or future hours count little on an application. Basically you have the chops for pursuing an academic research career, probably masters or Ph.D. Nothing makes you stand out for the brand-name schools other than your metrics, and without a clear purpose as a physician, it would be easy for admissions committees to say "thank you next."

 

[ShrewLover]

Have you talked with your prehealth advisors? I'm not convinced you have enough clinical experience to hang with applicants at the reach schools you aspire to attend. Shadowing is light (30 hours) without primary care. Zero non-clinical volunteering will screen you out at most schools. Promised or future hours count little on an application. Basically you have the chops for pursuing an academic research career, probably masters or Ph.D. Nothing makes you stand out for the brand-name schools other than your metrics, and without a clear purpose as a physician, it would be easy for admissions committees to say "thank you next."

I’ve talked a bit with my prehealth advisors but for certain targeted questions rather than my application as a whole. Yes, I absolutely agree that my clinical hours are low + little volunteer experience. I plan on upping those hours during my gap year since I plan to graduate this December and start working immediately after as MA/EMT and do more volunteering. Do you think 5 months full-time + volunteering on the side would be enough to cover my bases? Should I apply to more “lower tier” schools (and if so, what are those schools).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I’ve talked a bit with my prehealth advisors but for certain targeted questions rather than my application as a whole. Yes, I absolutely agree that my clinical hours are low + little volunteer experience. I plan on upping those hours during my gap year since I plan to graduate this December and start working immediately after as MA/EMT and do more volunteering. Do you think 5 months full-time + volunteering on the side would be enough to cover my bases? Should I apply to more “lower tier” schools (and if so, what are those schools).

I encourage you to take the time to find out what they know. Plenty of online advice will scare you with potential fatal flaws from people with similar metrics; those application critics cannot interpret your academic accomplishments in the context of your peers (past and present). Your advisors are there for a reason, and I urge you to leverage the advantages of your situation. Your college tuition pays for this resource and their time. (You can decide later if their advice is sound or not.)

Again, I don't have complete information about what you have done so I can always be wrong, but my impression is that you're too focused on getting into medical school and not on what it means to be a medical student or resident. Are you really comfortable being around sick people who are in pain and not the most compliant people who listen to you? I'm not sure how much you have stretched outside your comfort zone from the activities listed. As a rock climber, you know the importance of planning, preparation, and NOT RUSHING into preventable errors.

You have a time limit on your MCAT score as most schools want a score taken within 3 years of matriculation. Just having a gap year and saying 5 months is "enough" for a solid profile for the brand-name schools you are opining to attend. You are not a cake that needs to be baked for 20 minutes before you are "done."

Can you tell me who cares about you becoming a doctor... their doctor (exclude family and friends, we all root for you to succeed)? Show me the activities where you have made impactful connections to people who are in real pain or jeopardy, especially those off campus. Tell us what you learned and how you are their witness to your future medical school peers and teachers.

In the applicant pool you wish to swim in, a 526 has no advantage over a 521. Everyone's got a 3.9 and could be PBK/Latin honors. You need us to want you as a student, resident, alumnus, or fellow faculty member with our school's "brand" on you, and not be just an interchangeable part who can succeed in "any" school. IMO, you SHOULD get attention, and you should do the recruitment rounds and make the schools want to recruit you. But to do that, you need more than just flashing your metrics. Trust me that UConn, Quinnipiac, and Yale shouldn't "yield protect" against your application, but they want to know you aren't just using them as leverage for another school you'd rather go to.

Admissions Committees: The Art of the Decision | Student Doctor Network | SDN

Faculty serve three to four year terms on admissions committees, so they can vary significantly year-to-year with shifting priorities over time.

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[ShrewLover]

Can you tell me who cares about you becoming a doctor... their doctor (exclude family and friends, we all root for you to succeed)? Show me the activities where you have made impactful connections to people who are in real pain or jeopardy, especially those off campus. Tell us what you learned and how you are their witness to your future medical school peers and teachers

This was really insightful. I selfishly had never thought of it in this way before, but I will try to do so in the future. Thank you.

You need us to want you as a student, resident, alumnus, or fellow faculty member with our school's "brand" on you, and not be just an interchangeable part who can succeed in "any" school. IMO, you SHOULD get attention, and you should do the recruitment rounds and make the schools want to recruit you.

How do I go about figuring out what a school's "brand" is? Admittedly, I am still very early in my school researching, so I am probably missing something, but I would expect that many medical schools advertise and/or want similar things.