School List Help (ORM)

[premedthrowaway3514]

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[Mr.Smile12]

Hello! I was just wondering if you guys had any advice on school lists and schools to add - right now it’s a little top heavy so I was looking for more mid tier schools to apply to (preferably in the Northeast but I'm open to other locations). Also looking for advice on areas of weakness or locations to improve on in the final 3 months before the cycle!

Year in school: Senior - graduating this May (Summa cum laude)!
Country/state of residence: US - born and raised in Massachusetts. ORM - Asian
Undergraduate Institution: Top 40 - Private school
Schools to which you are applying: (29 total)
Yale
Cornell
NYU
John Hopkins
Harvard
Upenn
UChicago
Duke
Northwestern
Columbia
WashU
Mayo
Stanford (maybe)
Mount Sinai
Emory
University of Rochester
Albert Einstein
Case Western
Boston University
Jefferson
Hofstra
Stony Brook
U Michigan
Albany
Drexel
Georgetown
Dartmouth
Downstate
University of Massachusetts
Cumulative GPA: 3.97
Science GPA:4.00
MCAT Scores:524 (132/129/131/132)
Research – include any abstracts/posters/publications and how you were credited (eg. First Author, senior author, etc):
Currently I have done approximately 1200-1500 hours of research - I received a stipend in my Junior year for the course of the year as an award. I have one fourth author publication in press, one fifth author that is in preparation, one first author that is also in preparation and one other paper that is being planned that will be finished in the next 3-4 months (likely 4th author). No posters or abstracts though. I’ve also had experience training some students and coordinating other lab members and have also had an active role in mice perfusions/harvesting. Currently running my own projects and doing my own data analysis.
Volunteering (clinical) – include hours/sites:
650 hours as a patient escort and as a coordinator for the high school program (will likely be up to 700 by the application period). Helped run orientations, award ceremonies and trained other volunteers (both high school and adult) as well. I also have 80 hours at another hospital working as an administrative volunteer and as a patient escort there.
Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties:
64 hours in (12 hours) Psychiatry, (40) Oncology and in (12 hours) pediatrics
Non-clinical volunteering:
120 hours working at a food bank for the past 4 years, 30 hours as part of an volunteer organization and another 30 hours working as a secretary and president of another volunteer club (only downside is I stopped working in both clubs since sophomore year).
Extracurricular activities:
For me, my main extracurricular activity was as a TA in multiple classes for three years (I taught for one semester for each of the courses). I taught general chemistry (250 hours), general biology (200 hours), taught as a lecturer for general biology (250 hours) and am now teaching as a personal tutor in a program that is free of charge and is affiliated with my university (150 hours) - last 1.5 years. In my lecturer position, I helped lead the team and I have trained other tutors as a personal tutor. This semester, I started mentoring 2-3 students (15 hours total). Finally, also a member of the Premed Honors society - I usually commit around 15 hours a semester (45 total). Finally, I love working out! No official positions or clubs but I usually work out 2-3 times a week and competed in an athletic competition in sophomore summer - completed it but wasn’t ranked (but eh, I did it for fun, happy to have had the experience)
Employment history: I was paid for my research in Junior year and all my TA/Lecturer/tutor gigs.
Please include time span and weekly commitment for volunteering/research/shadowing/extracurriculars.:
For my major hospital commitment (650 hours total), it’s been around 3-6 hours a week for the past 4 years (joined in high school but not including those hours). My other hospital gig was for a period of 3 months during the summer and 2 months in the winter (so like 8 hours a week). I started research 2 years ago, I’ve been averaging 15 hours a week and up to 25-30 hours when I have a lot of free time. For general volunteering - both my clubs were done in freshman-sophomore year year but I’ve been periodically volunteering at the food bank about once a month for 4-5 hours each time for the past 4 years. For my teaching positions, I taught each of the TA/Lecturer positions for 1 semester and have been doing my tutoring for the past 1.5 years (about 4-6 hours a week). Finally, shadowing is basically pretty spread out through my four years with 18 hours in the my sophomore year and then 46 hours this year. Mentoring and honors society is highly spread out but about 3-4 hours a month.
Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): Yes - one of my parents is currently a nurse.
Specialty of interest:No idea - most likely somewhere I can specialize, I’m leaning towards oncology after seeing how much cool research can be done there but I’m really open to any field which is involved with new therapeutics and growing research.
Shadowing experience: 65 hours across multiple fields, 40 hours in oncology this year and saw a lot of clinical research, meetings and patient interaction
Interest in rural health (y/n): Kinda - not entirely sure, I wouldn’t be adverse to it but I would still like to specialize first before I opt into rural health.

Either way, thanks for reading! I appreciate any comments

How much networking have you done with the schools? Any students you know at those schools? Suggestions from your research supervisors?

Mid tiers should include all schools in your state or where you qualify as a resident.

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[tessellations]

Some additional mid tiers you could add are Tufts (especially as a MA resident), Wake Forest, Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Miami.

 

[premedthrowaway3514]

How much networking have you done with the schools? Any students you know at those schools? Suggestions from your research supervisors?

Mid tiers should include all schools in your state or where you qualify as a resident.

Sent from my SM-N960U using SDN mobile

Unfortunately, not much networking with the schools., or knowing the students. Some suggestions from my PI was to apply to Mayo/Cornell/NYU for the free tuition....but that's pretty applicable to a lot of people lol.

So, for a mass resident, out of curiosity - would this mean applying to schools like Tufts? I've heard Tufts is faiirly low yield right? I'm currently applying to Harvard, BU and Umass but I didn't have tufts since i thought it was low yield but I'd appreciate any advice!

 

[premedthrowaway3514]

Some additional mid tiers you could add are Tufts (especially as a MA resident), Wake Forest, Ohio State, Cincinnati, and Miami.

Oooooo gotcha, thanks for those I'll take a look at those schools!

 

[tessellations]

Oh, I would also consider adding Pittsburgh.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Unfortunately, not much networking with the schools., or knowing the students. Some suggestions from my PI was to apply to Mayo/Cornell/NYU for the free tuition....but that's pretty applicable to a lot of people lol.

So, for a mass resident, out of curiosity - would this mean applying to schools like Tufts? I've heard Tufts is faiirly low yield right? I'm currently applying to Harvard, BU and Umass but I didn't have tufts since i thought it was low yield but I'd appreciate any advice!

Clearly your metrics are going to bring your application some attention, so it's going to be the qualitative stuff (your essays and experiences) that you need to make sure resonates with the people who will read your application. If you're in-state MA, I wouldn't think that Tufts would push your app side, but I'll defer to other people who may have better insight on that. What you don't really know if whether a so-called mid-tier may entice you to change your mind with a significant scholarship that they know a top-tier school is much less likely to give you.

It's very important though that you get a handle on each school's learning environment and how students maintain their focus without burning out. Get that from connecting with current students (here or through networking through AMSA chapters). Mission of the school and clinical opportunities are very important to help you sort your schools according to your preference, not the "rankings."