MD School List Feedback: CA Res

[drewmn]

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Hi all! I was hoping to get some feedback on my school list. I have heard that if your GPA/MCAT is too far above a school's medians, they are unlikely to consider you as a viable candidate. That's got me worried if my list is too top-heavy and if I am competitive enough for those schools. Being from CA, I don't have any in-state preference. Thanks for any and all feedback!

1. cGPA: 3.96, sGPA: 3.95
2. MCAT: 524 (Chem/Phys 131, CARS 130, Bio 132, Psych/Soc 131)
3. CA Resident, Asian Male
4. UCLA, Biochem and Econ Double Major, 3rd year/no gap year
5. Clinical experience: 400hrs, social work/resource referrals in pediatrics and on org. leadership board
6. Research experience:900hrs, ophthalmology lab; senior student for post-doc's group coordinating 2 other undergrads, training and supervising one on my own project; 1 pending first author so submit by Mid-June/Early-July, 1 planned second author
   1. 75hrs: summer project in cardiology; cost-analysis/process optimization for 3D model production
7. Shadowing experience: 32hrs ophthalmology (academic medicine and private); 90hrs pediatrics (hospital)
8. Non-clinical volunteering: 94hrs recreation lead at dementia assisted-living center
9. Other extracurricular activities: employed by university as writing tutor
10. Relevant honors or awards: standard academic honors, nothing special
11. Recommenders: PI (former UCLA AdCom member, former dept. vice chair), Prof#1 (Emeritus prof @ UCLA Med School), Prof#2 (Science prof), Employer/Humanities (Writing Center Director), Activities Director for assisted-living center volunteer org.
12. Other: primary essay focuses on older adults as main patient demographic of interest; LGBT, secondaries will address desire to be involved with clinics for this demographic too. Also, I've seen conflicting answers. Are there any institutions that still consider being gay a UMR? Should this even be mentioned in my application materials? Living in SoCal all my life, my perception of its acceptability in professional settings may be very skewed...
13. School List
    1. UCSF (in-state tuition, large LGBT population nearby)
    2. UCLA (already here/familiar with institution, can continue my research)
    3. UMich (family in area)
    4. UPenn
    5. WashU
    6. Johns Hopkins
    7. UChicago (is this OOS-friendly??)
    8. Stanford (May not be worthwhile since I don't have any authorships yet)
    9. Mayo Clinic
    10. BostonU (family in area; is this OOS-friendly??)
    11. Columbia (Not keen on living in NYC)
    12. Yale
    13. Cornell
    14. UCSD (I feel like this is my most probable school... thoughts on that?)
    15. UCDavis (I've heard it's incredibly hard if you aren't somehow connected to NorCal)
    16. UVA
    17. Northwestern
    18. Mt. Sinai
    19. Case Western
    20. USC
    21. UCI
    22. Cal Northstate (there is not much info out there on this school at all....)
    23. S Florida (is this OOS-friendly??)
    24. California U (not much info out there on this one either)

 

[syn1]

I’d be really surprised if UCSF or UCLA don’t take you. Your list looks good.

 

[drewmn]

I’d be really surprised if UCSF or UCLA don’t take you. Your list looks good.

WOWOW thank you that is high praise. What are your thoughts of mentioning being gay in my secondaries? It seems an obvious choice for diversity responses, but what about schools that don't explicitly ask about diversity? LGBT populations do constitute an patient group of interest for me.

 

[Faha]

You should receive several interviews from your list.