Schools List -- 34R/3.90 top heavy?

[tr8]

I'm aiming to apply to ~15 schools, northwest resident at a state school. BME major, ~75 hrs shadowing in many different settings, 1.5 years of volunteering at a hospital (100+ hours), lots of non-clinical volunteer (tutoring, mentoring, environmental education, science/engineering outreach), 2.5 years of research with no pubs (I also don't think I can fit all my research experiences on my activities list). I graduated this year, and will be an Americorps member working in a community health clinic next year. I should have pretty good LORs with a decent essay.

I'm looking to finalize my list soon, and have chosen my schools mostly on fit, but finding a hard time getting excited about any "safeties," so I'm worried about my list being top heavy. Any suggestions for reaches to take out or safeties to add?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

UW
OHSU
UCSF (reach - not sure if it's worth it)
UMich
Duke
UPenn
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Case Western
OSU
USC
URochester
Wake Forest
U Arizona
Jefferson
Albany(??) or MCW (??) or Vermont (??)

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[canjosh]

You could add Tulane, Creighton, Loyola, Loma Linda, Virginia schools, NYMC, Albany, MCW. Not necessarily all of those, just giving suggestions.

 

[bravofleet4]

i think it's too top heavy. add some middle-tiers. i think your stats are closer would be more competitive there.

 

[tr8]

Thanks for the advice. I will look into the schools you mentioned.

What schools are generally considered mid-tier? I was under the impression that schools like OSU, UR, and wake forest on my list were somewhat mid-tier, and many in that range are state schools that would be difficult to get in as oos.

If I'm applying to ~15 schools at least how many should be more safe? Do I have a decent shot at the higher tier schools on my list?

Thanks so much for your help, sorry I have so many questions.

 

[Infinitydrop]

I am not against people appying top heavy because you never know what can happen and obviously stats arn't everything. However,if you are gonna do top heavy then you can't only appy to 15 schools. Which means at best you might get like 5 interviews, and that's kind of risky to me. So add a couple more mid tier schools like tufts, BU, einstein, brown, nyu, jefferson and round out to about 20 school.

I just finished applying. i was 3.8/35 from an ivy, and i was not given a interview at all by schools like tufts, jefferson, and wake, so don't assume that the low mid tiers schools will even interview you, and def don't assume a top school will interview you.

bottomline, you need to apply to more schools.

 

[ktfh]

I agree with Infinity. You need to apply to more schools. I only applied to 15 in the last round and now I'm stuck reapplying. Just spend the extra grand. It's worth it.

 

[tr8]

Oh wow, I was under the impression that average was 12, so I thought I was doing okay with 15. Guess I'll be rethinking that. My adviser also told me applying to a lot tended to give the impression that I wasn't being as selective in choosing the schools I did. And...on an Americorps budget next year, an extra grand is more than a month's worth of pay!

So instead of adding, I'm thinking I'll remove UCSF, Vanderbilt, Arizona, Jefferson, and Duke. And then I'll add MCW, Vermont, Albany (?), and UVa. And maybe NYMC or a Virginia school. Does that sound somewhat reasonable?

Does anyone know how picky Arizona is now about having state connections?