School list advice

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Don't mention anything from high school, I have heard that adcoms only care abouut what you have done in college. Remember to make things personal. This isn't a laundry list of how you ticked the boxes. You did each thing for a reason. Remember your application is a pitch of who you are and what you are about. Make that message clear.

Most accepted applicants at even top tier institutions don't have publications at the time they matriculate. If it concerns you then why not take a couple gap years in a lab?

You have good stats, I would take off a few of your least favorable schools and potentially swap others.I don't know anything about neuroscience or what you prefer in a program or in life. From your list it is also hard to infer. You should think critically about what kind of setting you want to spend the next 7-9 years - a city, a suburb, the northeast, the midwest, etc. Do you care if you need a car? will have to have live in student housing? After that I would evaluate whether the schools on my list have a strong dept in what i want to study. At a baseline, you shouldn't apply to a school that has fewer than 3-4 faculty you would want to work with. That is a minimum, IMO. you never know who is going to retire, isn't taking students, isn't funded, or might just be a jerk. Use the NIH REPORTER tool to find out if those faculty have good sources of funding (i.e. R01).

I wouldn't apply anywhere that isn't fully funded, either. Boston University and NY medical college aren't worth it unless you absolutely want to be in those spots or money isn't important you.

It is also worthwhile to look at program sizes. The AAMC publishes data on the number of MD/PhD applicants and matriculated students to each program. It may not be worthwhile to apply to a program that only has two seats, or maybe you don't want to be part of 16 person program either. Conversely you may not want to be a part of a 160 person program.

Good luck!!

-Tilapia
 
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