MD School List (CA-Res, 518, 3.60, URM)

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QueenParvarti

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Hey all, I'm trying to think strategically about my school list for the upcoming cycle. I am trying to cut down and see if there are other schools I am forgetting. Any help you have regarding this would be helpful. I am stealing the formatting from reddit to help organize my stats.

Year in school: Senior/1st year in a 5-year Masters Program (both at HYPS)
Country/state of residence: California, URM
Schools to which you are applying:
UC Davis
UC Irvine
Georgetown
SUNY- Downstate
Albert Einstein
Columbia
Warren Brown
SUNY- Stony Brook
Dartmouth Geisel
UCSF
University of California San Diego
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Yale
UHawaii
Icahn School of Med
Weill Cornell Medical College
NYU
UPenn
Georgewashington
UC Riverside
Drexel
UoA (Phoenix)
New York College of Med.
Kaiser
Mayo (AZ)
UNLV
Hofstra

Cumulative GPA: 3.60
Science GPA: 3.64
MCAT Scores:518

Research – include any abstracts/posters/publications and how you were credited (eg. First author, senior author, etc):
-1 summer RA position at Epi Lab (kick started a meta analysis. Had to pass the paper off to someone else to finish due to school but I am referenced in the acknowledgements section.) (300 hrs)
- 2 years+1 summer fellowship working at current lab (Comparative Neuroscience) Currently doing my senior research paper based on research I conducted. Could potentially be a publication by the end of the year. (700 hrs)

Volunteering (clinical) – include hours/sites:
-Free Health Clinic- Serves a predominantly Spanish Speaking population. Currently serve as a director for one of the departments. I presented a poster and workshop related to the work I've done at the clinic. (~700 hrs over three years)

Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties:
-Psychiatry-30 hrs
-Pediatrics-20 hrs
-Primary Care (in another country while studying abroad) - 10hrs

Non-clinical volunteering:

-Have a love for international relations and began teaching at local schools during my first year and have stuck with it (~300 hrs, was the Director during my second year.)
-Volunteered at local housing community for those with severe mental illness (~100 hrs)
-Incorporated Volunteer opportunities into my role on the Student Activities Committee (e.g. serving at local soup kitchen, creating care bags for local housing insecure people) ~70 hrs.

Extracurricular activities:
-Student Activities Committee - (VP, ~250 hrs)
-Mental Health Advocacy Group (Sec. ~200 hrs)
-Club Running Group (~150 hrs)
-LGBTQ Students of Color Group (~100)
-Served on three committees (1) Advisory Board to Student Mental Health (2) Committee to elect a new faculty member (3) Wellness Committee that meets to discuss issues related to student wellness (All combined ~25 hrs)

Employment history:
Work Study Job at Office. (4 years. ~900 hrs)
Peer Mentor Job for Underrepresented Minority Group (2 years ~200 hours)

Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): No
Specialty of interest: Psychiatry
Graduate degrees: Masters in Public Health

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You should receive several interviews from your list. Hawaii and UNLV accept few non residents with no connection to the state.
Thank you! I was hesitant about those schools for that very reason. I’ll probably cut them out!
Any other comments or suggestions are much appreciated!!
 
List is actually pretty good, I think. Decent balance of top/mid/lower tiers. I would probably shift the balance to be a little more top-heavy. Why no Harvard/Hopkins/Mayo MN? I'd cut out Hofstra/Drexel/NYCOM/etc unless you have a specific reason for wanting to go there - family close by, etc.
 
List is actually pretty good, I think. Decent balance of top/mid/lower tiers. I would probably shift the balance to be a little more top-heavy. Why no Harvard/Hopkins/Mayo MN? I'd cut out Hofstra/Drexel/NYCOM/etc unless you have a specific reason for wanting to go there - family close by, etc.

Haha. I had them on my original list but wasn’t too hot for the location of Mayo/JHU. And thank you for the advice. I was thinking Hofstra/Drexel were more matching my pure stats (based on MSAR.)
 
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deleted! have a good one!
 
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I have similar stats but a lower sGPA and from the other side of the country. What are you thinking as far as top20's?? I've been searching wildly for people who have been on this path before and most say we're fit for them but it just seems too wild to me to think that I'm in the running for Stanford and the like. That hitting you too? Are you interested in research once in MD?

Yeah I’m not sure. I’m very big on location so I am not really considering some schools like WashU or Duke... I just want to be as smart in drafting my list as possible without going too heavy on the top tiers but not selling myself short! It’s a hard balence. Hopefully ar least one CA school will give the A!
 
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