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[deleted1122705]

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[deleted1102547]

1. GPA/sGPA: 3.8
2. MCAT: 522 (131/129/131/131)
3. TX resident
4. ORM Male
5. TX public school, CS Major
6. ~150 clinical, 150 non clinical volunteering
7. ~600 hours research, 1 pub 1 poster. Doing full-time industry R&D program this summer so ~400 hrs more expected
8. 50 hours FM/pediatrics shadowing
9. TA and online CS instructor experience
10. School scholarship and research awards
11. FAP recipient

I've been seeing lots of posts about high stat applicants having trouble this cycle, so I'm trying to make a balanced school list. I'm not sure where to apply other than TX schools since many schools are not OOS friendly. My only real location preference is near an urban area/large city, the region isn't too important. I'd also like to apply to schools that have generous scholarships/grants/aid (NYU is the only one as far as I know). Could someone please suggest a "balanced" school list? Thanks!

Your MCAT is obviously great, but it isn't enough to get you into extremely competitive schools. It will not be the thing that prevents you from getting accepted, but you will need more than a very strong GPA/MCAT to get into somewhere like NYU, especially as an ORM. The fact that you have a publication will help you, but the applicants that get accepted to NYU and other elite schools will have amazing GPA/MCATs and extracurriculars. It looks like you've checked all of the boxes for extracurriculars, but they seem kinda cookie cutter. Your clinical experience seems on the low side.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't aim for some schools that are super high up there. You should just be realistic and make your school list "balanced" as you said. Everyone wants to go to an elite school with a full-ride scholarship, so you have to be more competitive than thousands of other people who are vying for those same seats. I would recommend using WedgeDawg to get an idea of how many of each caliber of schools you should apply to. WedgeDawg's Applicant Rating System (Updated Jan 2017)

Aside from Wedgedawg, I would also recommend looking at medical schools near large cities since that is your preference. You can look at MSAR and a Wikipedia list of the largest cities in the US to help you with making those choices if it is something that is truly important to you.

 

[chzsux]

Feel like for someone with your stats, your nonclinical and clinical volunteering are a little underwhelming, especially since a lot of top schools are service-focused. I would focus on trying to bump up those hours by the time you apply.

As far as schools go, there are still a lot of OOS-friendly schools that will give generous amounts of aid. For example, all of the Virginia schools (VCU, UVA, EVMS) are really OOS-friendly and there are also many private schools that fit you as well.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As a Texas resident, you need to really look at the in- state schools. Texas residents however have tended to stay at home because of the in-state discounted tuition. This means most schools will avoid Texas applicants.