School list help, CA resident

[solarwinggx]

I'm a nontraditional applicant who applied in 2016-2017 and didn't get into any schools; here's my post a few years back (Rejected 2017 cycle, what to do next? ),
Im going to apply this year and would like some help generating a school list.

1. cGPA: 3.69; sGPA: 3.85 (CC classes i took in high school weighed me down + Junior semester didnt go so smoothly for me after transferring to UC Berkeley, but I brought GPA back up senior year )
2. MCAT: 515 (130/126/131/128)
3. State of residence: CA, Green Card holder (Canadian Citizen)
4. Race: Asian - Taiwanese
5. Undergraduate institution: UC Berkeley
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   ~570 hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED prepping rooms, serving patients food and providing general assistance to nurses
   ~120 hours (1 year) doing medical outreach for under-served communities in Merced and Modesto
   +300 hours (10 months) as a part time EMT-BLS (this is my job currently)
7. Research experience and productivity:
   ~500 hours (1 year) in evolutionary biology lab with PI (studying beetles) w/ paper published in 2017
   ~1500 hours(1.5 years) in a cancer biology lab with Post-doc (did my honors thesis in this lab).
   ~2000 hours (1 years) as a full time lab manager/research associate for a lab
   ~700+ hours (9 months) as a full time Research associate for a Biotech company based at NASA - I was making transgenic mice and rats
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
   100+ hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED shadowing (I could follow any doctors and nurses whenever it was appropriate, but there wasnt 1 doctor i followed consistently, it was whomever was available during my shift)
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   +200 hours (1.5 years) Volunteer for San Quentin State Prison as a Math/Science Tutor for college credit transferable classes
   +200 hours (2 years) Science education outreach for schools with low to zero science programs + Mentoring Middle School students to help them design their own science experiments.
   ~100 hours (1 year) doing science education outreach for minorities (SACNAS)
   
   
10. Other extracurricular activities:
    ~240 hours (1 year)working as a math tutor in community college
    ~700 hours (1 year) as a cashier while going to school to support myself
    
    
11. Relevant honors or awards:
    Graduated with Honors

LizzyM - 71
WARS - 73

School list:

California schools:
California Northstate University College of Medicine
California University of Science and Medicine-School of Medicine
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Keck school of Medicine

OOS schools:
Colorado
oregon
creighton
MCW
Wisconsin school of med/pub
St louis
Geisel
vermont
MAssachu
tufts
Conneticut
quinnipac
rowan
rutgers
rutgers john
seton
maryland
Carle Illinois
Chicago Med Franklin
Illinois
Rush
western michigan
wayne state
Oakland University William Beaumont
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
cincinnati
ohio state
toledo
boonshoft
sidney kimmel
lewis katz
drexel
pennstate
Geisinger Commonwealth
Zucker Hofstra Northwell
Einstein
Rochester
Stony Brook
SUNY Downstate
SUNY Upstate
New York Medical
albany medical college


I prefer to get into a Canadian medical school, but given that i'm not a resident of any of the provinces, i think my chances are pretty slim there. If anyone else thinks otherwise, i'd be happy to hear your rational. UBC is my dream school because i grew up in vancouver

I wont be applying to schools from these states
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, W. Virginia, Virginia, D.C.
Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah

I also realize this school list is super long, im really really really bad a picking schools, and besides the UC's, Ivy leagues (which im out of the league for), washington, oregon, Canadian schools, im not super familiar with schools at all. I used the MSAR + the previous year's % of OOS students to come up with the list. If you have other metrics, i'd highly appreciate your advice!

Thanks so much you guys 😀

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[Faha]

You can remove many of the OOS state public schools such as :
UConn
UMass
SUNY Upstate
Toledo
Michigan State
Central Michigan
Rutgers
Rowan
U Wisconsin
Boonshoft
Oregon
Maryland
You could add these schools:
NOVA MD
Loyola
George Washington
Georgetown
Loma Linda

 

[Goro]

I'm a nontraditional applicant who applied in 2016-2017 and didn't get into any schools; here's my post a few years back (Rejected 2017 cycle, what to do next? ),
Im going to apply this year and would like some help generating a school list.

1. cGPA: 3.69; sGPA: 3.85 (CC classes i took in high school weighed me down + Junior semester didnt go so smoothly for me after transferring to UC Berkeley, but I brought GPA back up senior year )
2. MCAT: 515 (130/126/131/128)
3. State of residence: CA, Green Card holder (Canadian Citizen)
4. Race: Asian - Taiwanese
5. Undergraduate institution: UC Berkeley
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   ~570 hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED prepping rooms, serving patients food and providing general assistance to nurses
   ~120 hours (1 year) doing medical outreach for under-served communities in Merced and Modesto
   +300 hours (10 months) as a part time EMT-BLS (this is my job currently)
7. Research experience and productivity:
   ~500 hours (1 year) in evolutionary biology lab with PI (studying beetles) w/ paper published in 2017
   ~1500 hours(1.5 years) in a cancer biology lab with Post-doc (did my honors thesis in this lab).
   ~2000 hours (1 years) as a full time lab manager/research associate for a lab
   ~700+ hours (9 months) as a full time Research associate for a Biotech company based at NASA - I was making transgenic mice and rats
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
   100+ hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED shadowing (I could follow any doctors and nurses whenever it was appropriate, but there wasnt 1 doctor i followed consistently, it was whomever was available during my shift)
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   +200 hours (1.5 years) Volunteer for San Quentin State Prison as a Math/Science Tutor for college credit transferable classes
   +200 hours (2 years) Science education outreach for schools with low to zero science programs + Mentoring Middle School students to help them design their own science experiments.
   ~100 hours (1 year) doing science education outreach for minorities (SACNAS)
   
   
10. Other extracurricular activities:
    ~240 hours (1 year)working as a math tutor in community college
    ~700 hours (1 year) as a cashier while going to school to support myself
    
    
11. Relevant honors or awards:
    Graduated with Honors

LizzyM - 71
WARS - 73

School list:

California schools:
California Northstate University College of Medicine
California University of Science and Medicine-School of Medicine
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Keck school of Medicine

OOS schools:
Colorado
oregon
creighton
MCW
Wisconsin school of med/pub
St louis
Geisel
vermont
MAssachu
tufts
Conneticut
quinnipac
rowan
rutgers
rutgers john
seton
maryland
Carle Illinois
Chicago Med Franklin
Illinois
Rush
western michigan
wayne state
Oakland University William Beaumont
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
cincinnati
ohio state
toledo
boonshoft
sidney kimmel
lewis katz
drexel
pennstate
Geisinger Commonwealth
Zucker Hofstra Northwell
Einstein
Rochester
Stony Brook
SUNY Downstate
SUNY Upstate
New York Medical
albany medical college


I prefer to get into a Canadian medical school, but given that i'm not a resident of any of the provinces, i think my chances are pretty slim there. If anyone else thinks otherwise, i'd be happy to hear your rational. UBC is my dream school because i grew up in vancouver

I wont be applying to schools from these states
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, W. Virginia, Virginia, D.C.
Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Hawaii, Nevada, Utah

I also realize this school list is super long, im really really really bad a picking schools, and besides the UC's, Ivy leagues (which im out of the league for), washington, oregon, Canadian schools, im not super familiar with schools at all. I used the MSAR + the previous year's % of OOS students to come up with the list. If you have other metrics, i'd highly appreciate your advice!

Thanks so much you guys 😀

Here is a more reasonable list:
ALL UCs, but UCR ONLY IF you're from the Inland Empire
Mt Sinai
Mayo (maybe)
U MI
Case
U VM
U Toledo
U Cincy
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
USC/Keck
Dartmouth
Seton Hall
MCW
Loyola
Emory
BU
Duke
Pitt
Hofstra
Tufts
Oakland-B
Western MI
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser

Rewrite all essays and have multiple eyeballs vet them.
As you're on your second app cycle, add DO schools to your list if you get no love by November

 

[solarwinggx]

Im wondering why you included these universities? they are out of my stat range according to the MSRA
Boston University
Duke
Pitts
Icahn
Mayo
Case western

I also dont have any DO shadowing experience, isnt it too late even if i can get into that now? at least the LoR wont be any good

 

[gyngyn]

Are you aware that Northstate has chosen to refuse access to federal loans and payback mechanisms to its students?

Where did you get interviews in your previous cycle?
Is that your only MCAT?

 

[LukaDoncicLuk]

@Goro

Kindly would disagree with only applying to UCR if you are from the inland empire. I have no connections to the IE and received a secondary from them this past cycle. I know many of my friends also received secondaries from them despite having no connections to the IE. There is a moderate screen for secondaries so it could certainly be worth applying to if you are a California resident.

 

[Goro]

@Goro

Kindly would disagree with only applying to UCR if you are from the inland empire. I have no connections to the IE and received a secondary from them this past cycle. I know many of my friends also received secondaries from them despite having no connections to the IE. There is a moderate screen for secondaries so it could certainly be worth applying to if you are a California resident.

Secondaries are often a tax on the hopelessly naive, if not pathologically optimistic.

UCR also like people who went to UCR UG, so lack of Inland Empire origins aren't 100% exclusive.

 

[solarwinggx]

Are you aware that Northstate has chosen to refuse access to federal loans and payback mechanisms to its students?

Where did you get interviews in your previous cycle?
Is that your only MCAT?

No im not aware of that, what does that mean?

I got 0 interviews the previous cycle

My MCAT history is as follows:
2015: 30
2018: 504
2019: 515

 

[solarwinggx]

Here is a more reasonable list:
ALL UCs, but UCR ONLY IF you're from the Inland Empire
Mt Sinai
Mayo (maybe)
U MI
Case
U VM
U Toledo
U Cincy
Miami
St. Louis
Albany
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
EVMS
Wake Forest
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
USC/Keck
Dartmouth
Seton Hall
MCW
Loyola
Emory
BU
Duke
Pitt
Hofstra
Tufts
Oakland-B
Western MI
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser

Rewrite all essays and have multiple eyeballs vet them.
As you're on your second app cycle, add DO schools to your list if you get no love by November

Im wondering why you included these universities? they are out of my stat range according to the MSRA
Boston University
Duke
Pitts
Icahn
Mayo
Case western

I also dont have any DO shadowing experience, isnt it too late even if i can get into that now? at least the LoR wont be any good

 

[Goro]

Im wondering why you included these universities? they are out of my stat range according to the MSRA
Boston University
Duke
Pitts
Icahn
Mayo
Case western

I also dont have any DO shadowing experience, isnt it too late even if i can get into that now? at least the LoR wont be any good

MSAR, not MRSA! Damn autocorrect, right?

It would have been helpful if you had specified that you were a 3x MCAT taker. That changes the equation. I was working on your 515 score along. AAMC recommend that scores be averaged and that's what we do at my school, so I will modify the list as below. But as a teaching moment, Duke's median is 518 for acceptees. A 515 is at the 25th %ile. How is that "out of range?"

It is not too late to shadow a DO and get a LOR. You have until you start applying, right? And then you can always update. Lacking the experince and LOR won't hurt at most schools, but having it will help.

Suggest:
Rochester
Albert Einstein (maybe)
Emory (maybe)
Pitt (maybe)
U Toledo
U VM
Miami
Tufts
George Washington
Georgetown
SLU
Albany
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
MCW
VCU
EVMS
Wayne State
Wake Forest
Netter
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Loyola
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Oakland-B
Seton Hall
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser
TCU
UCI
UCD
Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me.

 

[solarwinggx]

MSAR, not MRSA! Damn autocorrect, right?

It would have been helpful if you had specified that you were a 3x MCAT taker. That changes the equation. I was working on your 515 score along. AAMC recommend that scores be averaged and that's what we do at my school, so I will modify the list as below. But as a teaching moment, Duke's median is 518 for acceptees. A 515 is at the 25th %ile. How is that "out of range?"

It is not too late to shadow a DO and get a LOR. You have until you start applying, right? And then you can always update. Lacking the experince and LOR won't hurt at most schools, but having it will help.

Suggest:
Rochester
Albert Einstein (maybe)
Emory (maybe)
Pitt (maybe)
U Toledo
U VM
Miami
Tufts
George Washington
Georgetown
SLU
Albany
Rush
Rosy Franklin
NYMC
MCW
VCU
EVMS
Wayne State
Wake Forest
Netter
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Creighton
Tulane
Loyola
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Oakland-B
Seton Hall
Nova MD
CUSM
Kaiser
TCU
UCI
UCD
Any DO program. I can't recommend Touro-NY, Nova, Wm Carey, LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me.

Thank you for the list

most schools average your scores? i thought they look at your most recent score when considering an applicant, you're saying the median i should be looking at is 509.5? whats the rational behind averaging scores?

 

[Goro]

Thank you for the list

most schools average your scores? i thought they look at your most recent score when considering an applicant, you're saying the median i should be looking at is 509.5? whats the rational behind averaging scores?

Some schools take the most recent score, or superscore, but even then, theres is no telling what's important to individual screeners or interviewers.

Average of scores is more accurate of performance than most recent score, according to data from AAMC.

Given the nice jump to 515, I added a bit and considered you a 511.

But as a teaching moment, Quoting the wise Homeskool: Taking the MCAT is like getting married: ideally you only do it once, and the more times you do it the worse you start looking to suitors with good judgment.

 

[gyngyn]

most schools average your scores? i thought they look at your most recent score when considering an applicant, you're saying the median i should be looking at is 509.5? whats the rational behind averaging scores?

The AAMC (the people who write the questions and grade the test) recommend that we average scores.
This was based on an analysis of subsequent performance of those with multiple scores.

It was apparent from your outcome that there had to be other variables in play.

 

[gyngyn]

No im not aware of that, what does that mean?

It means that you will have to take out personal loans if you go there and that most of the ways in which debt can be discharged are not available to you.

 

[solarwinggx]

Some schools take the most recent score, or superscore, but even then, theres is no telling what's important to individual screeners or interviewers.

Average of scores is more accurate of performance than most recent score, according to data from AAMC.

Given the nice jump to 515, I added a bit and considered you a 511.

But as a teaching moment, Quoting the wise Homeskool: Taking the MCAT is like getting married: ideally you only do it once, and the more times you do it the worse you start looking to suitors with good judgment.

LOL

I laughing but im also sad

 

[solarwinggx]

The AAMC (the people who write the questions and grade the test) recommend that we average scores.
This was based on an analysis of subsequent performance of those with multiple scores.

It was apparent from your outcome that there had to be other variables in play.

What other variables are you thinking about?
Last time you helped me with my application, you said my school list isnt good. What do you think of the list I have this time? which schools would you take off?

It means that you will have to take out personal loans if you go there and that most of the ways in which debt can be discharged are not available to you.

Oh ok, thanks for explaining that

 

[gyngyn]

What other variables are you thinking about?

Your list above should have been good for at least a few interviews with a single MCAT of 515 (especially OOS).
I presumed that there must have been a complicating variable (multiple MCAT scores is a common one).