School list help

[tzha224]

Hi all,

I am a Canadian at a top 20 US college. My MCAT got rescheduled so many times so unfortunately i don't have an exact answer as to what my official score is (will be released on the 7th but i am hoping to start prewriting secondaries with a rather rough school list).

Here is some information:

• Major: Biology + physics
• cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS
  • cGPA: 3.95
  • sGPA: 3.94
  • Upward trend, most A-s in first semester
• MCAT score(s) and breakdown
  • From the official practice exams: 520, 521, 517, 515, 515 (Let's say 515 on actual?)
• State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
  • Canada
• Ethnicity and/or race
  • Asian
  • Gender: Female
• Undergraduate institution or category
  • Top 20
• Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
  • All unpaid
  • A children's hospital - 60
  • A collective group practice - 42
  • Dental clinic - 64
• Research experience and productivity
  • At Canadian University in high school (continued during summer and for two months after starting college, so i listed) - 1000 hours - 1 first author paper published in hs, will have a second first author paper by end of calendar year
  • At that top 20 institution - 1200 hours - 1 paper + 1 review (conditionally accepted), 2 grants
  • At Harvard - 400 hours last summer, interning there again this summer and summer after (research program deferral) - 1 clinical report, 1 submitted paper
  • To summarize: 3 published papers + 1 conditionally accepted
• Shadowing experience and specialties represented
  • 26 - neonatologist
  • 12 - AD specialist
  • 24 - endodontist
• Non-clinical volunteering
  • None
• Paid employment (not medical/clinical)
  • Tutoring - physics elective
• Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
  • Research ambassador - 60 hours
  • president and founder of club - 300 hours
• Relevant honors or awards
  • Dean's List - every semester except 1st
  • PBK
  • Scholarship for a student pursuing a career in pediatrics
• LOR (do have committee letter)
  • 2 from faculty - 1 non-science, 1 science
  • 1 faculty advisor to the club
  • 1 PI at my school
  • 1 Harvard PI
  • 1 high school PI (though wondering if i should just be submitting this to Harvard - only school that requires a letter from all research PIs for even straight MDs as far as i know)

School list?:

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[beachbum75]

You have a lot of top-ranked schools on your list which is fine but you definitely should add some mid-tier schools as well. You should pick your top 5 or so favorites from that list that you think you have the best shot at and then add more schools that are not T20. I'm not 100% sure about what schools accept Canadian applicants and how many so I won't add any specific to your list but you should check out MSAR and see what it says about Canadian applicants.

 

[tzha224]

Hey there! Thanks for the suggestion! It's kind of funny actually, I feel like most of the schools that I am eligible to apply to are in the T20 (except UCSF and NYU - which i'm kind of salty about lol) so it sort of ended up happening after adding about 2/3 of the American schools that I can apply to to my list.

I'm not entirely sure if you might be willing but if you are, do you happen to have any suggestions for schools that tend to like research experiences quite a bit? Here is a list of the other schools that I can apply to that aren't on my list (and that are not public schools since I heard that those don't tend to accept Canadians - i didn't end up excluding much btw, just 2 or 3 total i think):

 

[proudofmykids]

there is a very big difference between a 515 and 520 mcat for T20 school percentiles.
I’d wait until you get score and then launch your app. It will still be plenty early by mid July.
Your ECs are strong but with a glaring Zero hours non-clinical. Can you commit to some organization to hit 100hrs or more?

 

[candbgirl]

You really can’t make a list until you have a real MCAT. There is no sense in even speculating. Applying to the top tier is a crap shoot at best. When are you taking the MCAT? Let us know when you get your score back. But beach bum is right. If you score very well on the MCAT pick a few of your favorites from that list . And a FYI- Morehouse, Meharry and Howard focus on specific populations. If you don’t have significant service to those populations you probably shouldn’t apply to those three.

 

[tzha224]

there is a very big difference between a 515 and 520 mcat for T20 school percentiles.
I’d wait until you get score and then launch your app. It will still be plenty early by mid July.
Your ECs are strong but with a glaring Zero hours non-clinical. Can you commit to some organization to hit 100hrs or more?

Gotcha! I'll wait and see then. I'm not sure if I can. I've signed up for an organization after returning home after my school switched to remote learning but haven't heard back.

 

[tzha224]

You really can’t make a list until you have a real MCAT. There is no sense in even speculating. Applying to the top tier is a crap shoot at best. When are you taking the MCAT? Let us know when you get your score back. But beach bum is right. If you score very well on the MCAT pick a few of your favorites from that list . And a FYI- Morehouse, Meharry and Howard focus on specific populations. If you don’t have significant service to those populations you probably shouldn’t apply to those three.

I already took the MCAT on the 5th. Will be hearing back on the 7th. Thanks for the FYI, I wasn't aware of that and I'll remove those from my list then!