School list help!!!

[ojy77511]

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Guys! I am trying to come up with a list. Help will be appreciated.

Undergrad: Top 10 public (UC)
California resident

cgpa: 3.71 sgpa: 3.63, biology and psychology double major.

MCAT: 513 (127/128/128/130), one attempt.

Research:
1 yr psyc research - published in an undergraduate journal.
1.5 yr biology research - manuscript coming up (lower author)
2 research conferences (school lvl)
$4000 research scholarship

Clinical volunteering: 220 hrs in many departments.

Non-clinical volunteering: 170+ for helping mentally disabled children, homeless shelter. Community service at a religious institution.

Shadowing: 50 hrs, two specialties.

ECs: School research journal editor (1 yr), School extension English teacher (1 yr), bio TA (1 yr), restaurant work experiences.

Several school awards

List:

Reaches:
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCD
Rochester
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Einstein

Target:
Tufts
Wake forest
Thomas Jefferson
UIC
Oakland
University of Arizona
Arizona College of Medicine
Temple
Medical College of Wisconsin
St. Louis
Virginia Commonwealth
Loyola
Penn State


Trying to trim the list and add more target schools. Any suggestions? Thank you.







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[GrapesofRath]

Delete Rutgers and Brown for sure to start
GW RFU Drexel and NYMC aren't going to be particularly high yield another source to trim your list
UCSF UCSD UCLA Emory and CWRU are all going to be definite reaches here. Couple dream schools are fine but this is another area to trim your list
I would make room for UIC Oakland and both Arizona schools. Temple Penn St Dartmouth Gtown and Hofstra would be some schools I would look to swap out for them

 

[ojy77511]

Thank you for the reply! I did some editing and I have to fill up 9 more schools. Do you have any suggestions high yield medical schools for me with my stats?


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[GrapesofRath]

Highest yield for you will be schools that get <10k apps with an mcat median around roughly 31-33 and are OOS friendly. MSAR has all the answers you need for that. I gave some suggestions above in terms of schools I'd swap in that I think are highest yield here( ie UIC Oakland etc)

 

[WedgeDawg]

I agree with Grapes on nearly everything, but I would actually keep all the relevant UC schools because you are 1) coming from them and 2) they pre-screen secondaries anyway, so if you aren't competitive, all you're losing is the AMCAS application fee and not the secondary effort + fee. It's also possible that you may be the type of applicant who needs to apply to some of the traditional low-yield schools (Jefferson, Temple, Penn State, etc etc etc) if you run out of non-low-yield schools to pick from, just by virtue of your stats and state of residence.

 

[GrapesofRath]

I agree with Grapes on nearly everything, but I would actually keep all the relevant UC schools because you are 1) coming from them and 2) they pre-screen secondaries anyway, so if you aren't competitive, all you're losing is the AMCAS application fee and not the secondary effort + fee. It's also possible that you may be the type of applicant who needs to apply to some of the traditional low-yield schools (Jefferson, Temple, Penn State, etc etc etc) if you run out of non-low-yield schools to pick from, just by virtue of your stats and state of residence.

It just comes down to how many schools you want to apply to. OP wanted to trim their list which is why I brought those up. If you only want to apply to say 18 schools then I wouldnt waste a spot on the Drexels or GWs of the world. If you are looking to apply to say 28 schools, then you have room to include those.

I'd tell someone in this case quickly calculate out the OOS app/matriculant ratio for each of these schools they want to consider. The lower the ratio, the higher yield it will be compared to a school with similar stats that has a higher ratio. Schools that get >10k apps almost always come up short here(exception being Jefferson). Those in the midwest with far fewer apps often have the best ratios. Schools like Creighton, USF, Wayne State, Cincinnati etc are going to be more favorable in terms of yield than the GW's, Hofstra's, Penn State's of the world.

 

[ojy77511]

Sounds good! Thank you!


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[Faha]

For target schools you could add:
Quinnipiac
Hofstra
Albany
New York Medical College
Drexel
Western Michigan
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton

 

[DoctorInVivo]

Apply to every school in California. For application purposes, activities are distinguished as medical vs. non-medical volunteering; helping mentally disabled children would fall under the medical volunteering category.

Also, MSAR will be your best friend through this application process. Look for OOS schools in which your MCAT/GPA falls within their MCAT/GPA range. Then look to see if that school interviews a large number of OOS applicants and apply. Good luck!


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[ojy77511]

Apply to every school in California. For application purposes, activities are distinguished as medical vs. non-medical volunteering; helping mentally disabled children would fall under the medical volunteering category.

Also, MSAR will be your best friend through this application process. Look for OOS schools in which your MCAT/GPA falls within their MCAT/GPA range. Then look to see if that school interviews a large number of OOS applicants and apply. Good luck!


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I helped mentally disabled children not from a clinical setting or hospital. It was a religious institution. Is that still clinical hrs?


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[DoctorInVivo]

Again, AMCAS doesn't distinguish activities as clinical vs. non-clinical. They differentiate them as medical vs. non-medical. And IMO, helping disabled children would go down as a medical activity. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.


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[ojy77511]

Yea.. Can someone confirm this??


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