MD Trimming school list - 3.63 cGPA, 36 MCAT, ORM in California

[unnumzaan]

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Hi everyone, I need a bit of help trimming down my school list. I built a list while studying for my MCAT and was conservative about it, but my score came out today and was near the top end of my expectations.

Asian male, California resident
Graduated 2012 from a big UC
First time applicant

Major: Microbiology
cGPA: 3.63
sGPA: ~3.60
MCAT: 36 (12/12/12. first take, a month ago)
LORs: 1 professor who was my major advisor, PI, and took a class with, 1 professor I took a small lab class with, 1 supervising scientist at the biotech I worked at, 1 director at the biotech I worked at. Overall should be decent.

Extracurriculars:
Research (oldest to recent):
- 1 year at molecular biology lab, learned my way around the lab for the first time.
- 1 summer industry internship at a big biotech. Poster presentation.
- 1 year at another lab on campus, working on project related to the industry internship. Poster presentation.
- 1.5 years working in the biotech industry. Took time off to study for MCAT, returning to this job shortly.

- 75 hours volunteering in post-partum unit of hospital, rounding menus from new mothers.
- 75 hours volunteering in another hospital, working visitor control in front lobby, patient discharge, deliveries, etc. Ongoing.
- 100 hours as a volunteer scribe in a free clinic with all kinds of specialties represented. Great clinical experience! Ongoing.
- 75 hours leading my own ESL class with a volunteer program at local library. Ongoing.
- Shadowed a podiatrist and an orthopedic surgeon for about 8 hours each in clinic and OR. Will try to find more shadowing before interview season.

So here is the list of 35 schools I had before my MCAT score. I think a lot of the schools are questionable, and I'm looking to trim down to 25-30 schools. I put the most questionable ones in bold, with my comments.

Instates:
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF - Maybe not lol
UCD
UCI
USC

OOS publics that might be CA friendly:
SUNY Stony Brook - Anecdotal, I know three girls from my undergrad who went here.
SUNY Downstate - Similar to above, heard through the grapevine they like UC grads with decent #s
Ohio State
U of Vermont - They only had 88 instate applicants last year? What.
U of Cincinnati
VCU - MCAT too high? Their 90th percentile is a 35.

OOS Privates:
MCW
Temple
Tufts
Jefferson
Rush U
Albany
Drexel
Rosalind Franklin
Georgetown
George Washington
Albert Einstein
BU
Rochester
St. Louis U
Hofstra
Tulane
Creighton
U Miami
NYMC
U Pitt
Duke
Baylor
Penn State

My general concern with the privates is having too many high volume and/or low MCAT schools but I'm not sure which ones to cut and which ones to keep out of that gang.

Which schools would you cut first, and are there any missing ones that I should definitely add? Thanks so much!

 

[gyngyn]

Hi everyone, I need a bit of help trimming down my school list. I built a list while studying for my MCAT and was conservative about it, but my score came out today and was near the top end of my expectations.

Asian male, California resident
Graduated 2012 from a big UC
First time applicant

Major: Microbiology
cGPA: 3.63
sGPA: ~3.60
MCAT: 36 (12/12/12. first take, a month ago)
LORs: 1 professor who was my major advisor, PI, and took a class with, 1 professor I took a small lab class with, 1 supervising scientist at the biotech I worked at, 1 director at the biotech I worked at. Overall should be decent.

Extracurriculars:
Research (oldest to recent):
- 1 year at molecular biology lab, learned my way around the lab for the first time.
- 1 summer industry internship at a big biotech. Poster presentation.
- 1 year at another lab on campus, working on project related to the industry internship. Poster presentation.
- 1.5 years working in the biotech industry. Took time off to study for MCAT, returning to this job shortly.

- 75 hours volunteering in post-partum unit of hospital, rounding menus from new mothers.
- 75 hours volunteering in another hospital, working visitor control in front lobby, patient discharge, deliveries, etc. Ongoing.
- 100 hours as a volunteer scribe in a free clinic with all kinds of specialties represented. Great clinical experience! Ongoing.
- 75 hours leading my own ESL class with a volunteer program at local library. Ongoing.
- Shadowed a podiatrist and an orthopedic surgeon for about 8 hours each in clinic and OR. Will try to find more shadowing before interview season.

So here is the list of 35 schools I had before my MCAT score. I think a lot of the schools are questionable, and I'm looking to trim down to 25-30 schools. I put the most questionable ones in bold, with my comments.

Instates:
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF - Maybe not lol
UCD
UCI
USC

OOS publics that might be CA friendly:
SUNY Stony Brook - Anecdotal, I know three girls from my undergrad who went here.
SUNY Downstate - Similar to above, heard through the grapevine they like UC grads with decent #s
Ohio State
U of Vermont - They only had 88 instate applicants last year? What.
U of Cincinnati
VCU - MCAT too high? Their 90th percentile is a 35.

OOS Privates:
MCW
Temple
Tufts
Jefferson
Rush U
Albany
Drexel
Rosalind Franklin
Georgetown
George Washington
Albert Einstein
BU
Rochester
St. Louis U
Hofstra
Tulane
Creighton
U Miami
NYMC
U Pitt
Duke
Baylor
Penn State

My general concern with the privates is having too many high volume and/or low MCAT schools but I'm not sure which ones to cut and which ones to keep out of that gang.

Which schools would you cut first, and are there any missing ones that I should definitely add? Thanks so much!

Keep Einstein, BU, Baylor, UM, Tulane, and Tufts and maybe Rochester and Pit (in addition to IS schools.).

 

[unnumzaan]

Keep Einstein, BU, Baylor, UM, Tulane, and Tufts and maybe Rochester and Pit (in addition to IS schools.).

Thanks for the prompt reply! So you would agree with removing the bolded ones from my list? I'm also thinking of adding Case Western as another mid-high tier school. Anyone else care to weigh in?

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks for the prompt reply! So you would agree with removing the bolded ones from my list? I'm also thinking of adding Case Western as another mid-high tier school. Anyone else care to weigh in?

Case is a good choice.

 

[lmn]

H
OOS Privates:
MCW
Temple
Tufts
Jefferson
Rush U
Albany
Drexel
Rosalind Franklin
Georgetown
George Washington
Albert Einstein
BU
Rochester
St. Louis U
Hofstra
Tulane
Creighton
U Miami
NYMC
U Pitt
Duke
Baylor
Penn State

I personally would drop Temple, Albany, Drexel, Georgetown, GW, NYMC at least.

 

[unnumzaan]

I personally would drop Temple, Albany, Drexel, Georgetown, GW, NYMC at least.

Haha wow. I spent the past hour with the MSAR and my list and those 6 are the exact ones I tagged as orange. VCU, Rush, Rosalind, and Hofstra are red.

I do have a question though. In most of these threads, I see people recommending against applying to schools like Drexel, Georgetown, GW, etc. because of their high volume. What kind of applicant would be recommended to apply to those schools?

 

[lmn]

Haha wow. I spent the past hour with the MSAR and my list and those 6 are the exact ones I tagged as orange. VCU, Rush, Rosalind, and Hofstra are red.

I do have a question though. In most of these threads, I see people recommending against applying to schools like Drexel, Georgetown, GW, etc. because of their high volume. What kind of applicant would be recommended to apply to those schools?

IMO, maybe only the ones that have too low of stats for other schools but these ones fall in their range and they have EC's that would attract the schools to them, or people with plenty of money to put into apps and already have a good/full list and just want to add more schools on, or people who understand the low chances but have some strong connection to the school. It's not that they are necessarily "bad" choices themselves, it is more that most people have limited budgets/time for secondaries and there are schools with better chances that they can add instead of those.

 

[Goro]

Goro suggests

UCLA
UCD
UCI
USC
U of Vermont - They only had 88 instate applicants last year? What.
U CO
U AR
U NV (maybe)
MCW
Tufts
Albert Einstein
BU
Mt Sinai
Dartmouth
Rochester
St. Louis U
Hofstra
Va Tech
Tulane
Creighton
U Miami
Vanderbilt
U Pitt
Duke
Emory
Loyola
Northwestern

 

[unnumzaan]

Are Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada especially friendly to CA? Their total OOS acceptance numbers don't look good enough by themselves.

Similarly, I'd love to hear some opinions on whether or not the SUNY-CA friendliness is substantial enough to warrant an application.

 

[unnumzaan]

Hmm, looking through WAMC posts with stats similar to mine, it seems that mid-high tier schools like Vanderbilt, Northwestern, NYU, Baylor, Mt. Sinai get recommended nearly universally despite the applicant being around or even below the 10th percentile for GPA. Isn't that pretty much a sign for no-go? Going off the 2015 MSAR, it actually seems like Columbia is the most lenient on GPA out of all the typical reach schools despite being perceived as more difficult to get into than the mid-high tier schools I listed earlier.

I'm conflicted on how much emphasis to place on the numbers and how much by perception. Coming from a science background and having never visited any of these schools, I'm inclined to go with the former.

 

[gyngyn]

Hmm, looking through WAMC posts with stats similar to mine, it seems that mid-high tier schools like Vanderbilt, Northwestern, NYU, Baylor, Mt. Sinai get recommended nearly universally despite the applicant being around or even below the 10th percentile for GPA. Isn't that pretty much a sign for no-go? Going off the 2015 MSAR, it actually seems like Columbia is the most lenient on GPA out of all the typical reach schools despite being perceived as more difficult to get into than the mid-high tier schools I listed earlier.

I'm conflicted on how much emphasis to place on the numbers and how much by perception. Coming from a science background and having never visited any of these schools, I'm inclined to go with the former.

Go with the numbers.

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

Hmm, looking through WAMC posts with stats similar to mine, it seems that mid-high tier schools like Vanderbilt, Northwestern, NYU, Baylor, Mt. Sinai get recommended nearly universally despite the applicant being around or even below the 10th percentile for GPA. Isn't that pretty much a sign for no-go? Going off the 2015 MSAR, it actually seems like Columbia is the most lenient on GPA out of all the typical reach schools despite being perceived as more difficult to get into than the mid-high tier schools I listed earlier.

I'm conflicted on how much emphasis to place on the numbers and how much by perception. Coming from a science background and having never visited any of these schools, I'm inclined to go with the former.

n=1, but with the same GPA and a similar MCAT, I was ok at 2 of the 6 schools you mentioned. As long as you apply broadly, nothing wrong with reaching a bit. When GPA is around 3.6, as long as you have shown some consistency throughout your undergrad, or have an upward trend, adcoms seem to take the MCAT as an indicator that you'll be able to handle the coursework. Just what I have noticed about the process!
Good luck!

 

[zzxxzz]

Hmm, looking through WAMC posts with stats similar to mine, it seems that mid-high tier schools like Vanderbilt, Northwestern, NYU, Baylor, Mt. Sinai get recommended nearly universally despite the applicant being around or even below the 10th percentile for GPA. Isn't that pretty much a sign for no-go? Going off the 2015 MSAR, it actually seems like Columbia is the most lenient on GPA out of all the typical reach schools despite being perceived as more difficult to get into than the mid-high tier schools I listed earlier.

I'm conflicted on how much emphasis to place on the numbers and how much by perception. Coming from a science background and having never visited any of these schools, I'm inclined to go with the former.

Many people with your numbers also have very strong upward trends (e.g. 3.0 freshman year, 3.8s after that) after a rough first year. That's partially how they have average GPAs but high MCATs. Do you have a strong upward trend?

 

[unnumzaan]

n=1, but with the same GPA and a similar MCAT, I was ok at 2 of the 6 schools you mentioned. As long as you apply broadly, nothing wrong with reaching a bit. When GPA is around 3.6, as long as you have shown some consistency throughout your undergrad, or have an upward trend, adcoms seem to take the MCAT as an indicator that you'll be able to handle the coursework. Just what I have noticed about the process!
Good luck!

Thanks man, those are encouraging words. Although I have to say, from your MDapps, your MCAT is significantly stronger than mine. I understand diminishing returns and all, but it would be a crime against your accomplishment to equate a 36 and a 40!

Many people with your numbers also have very strong upward trends (e.g. 3.0 freshman year, 3.8s after that) after a rough first year. That's partially how they have average GPAs but high MCATs. Do you have a strong upward trend?

That makes sense. Unfortunately, I have a fairly flat trend. Yay for consistency?

 

[unnumzaan]

Now that the cycle is over, I wanted to make a post-mortem for the progeny.

I ended up applying to 39 schools, which in hindsight was probably too many. I could have comfortably cut down to the 30-32 schools without much loss.

Schools I now question applying to:
Georgetown - expensive and low yield
Tulane - expensive and bad fit for me culturally. I think they saw this before I did.
SUNY Buffalo - low OOS yield and climate
Vermont - expensive, really slow processing speed this year. Wasn't "complete" until January I think
Baylor - Regret isn't the right word, but the OOS bar is set even higher than the MSAR number would suggest

Interviewed at:
Pitt
SUNY Downstate
Hofstra
Iowa (late interview)
OSU (late interview)

Accepted to Hofstra, waitlisted at other four, with eventual acceptance to Pitt, where I will be matriculating.

Mistakes/Easily corrected weaknesses in app:
- Not enough formal shadowing. Two interviewers toed around this issue a bit. I highly recommend 40+ hours of formal shadowing, just to check that box and not worry about it bringing you down.
- Submitting late. Primary was in July 4th, secondaries completed in the first two weeks of August. I think I could have gotten a couple more interviews if I had been more on top of my primary submission. I was fortunate that AMCAS processing was relatively fast this year, or things would have been worse.
- Not realizing what I should package/market myself as until the last interview when my interviewer, the dean, straight up told me what he perceived to be the upsides of my application. Facepalm moment.
- Getting panicky and adding a bunch of schools as I was finishing my secondaries. They ended up being mostly reaches because I was simultaneously greedy...silly combination.
- Not prewriting secondaries. I submitted 3-4 secondaries a night for two weeks while working, which got exhausting towards the end. I'm sure the quality of some secondaries suffered as a result.

Good luck to future applicants! I am happy to answer any questions via PM. And thank you @gyngyn and @Goro for your advice last summer.

 

[gyngyn]

Yeah! Pitt is a great school. Congrats.
And thank you for the advice for future SDNers.

 

[Goro]

Good luck! I am very happy for you!
Goro

Now that the cycle is over, I wanted to make a post-mortem for the progeny.

I ended up applying to 39 schools, which in hindsight was probably too many. I could have comfortably cut down to the 30-32 schools without much loss.

Schools I now question applying to:
Georgetown - expensive and low yield
Tulane - expensive and bad fit for me culturally. I think they saw this before I did.
SUNY Buffalo - low OOS yield and climate
Vermont - expensive, really slow processing speed this year. Wasn't "complete" until January I think
Baylor - Regret isn't the right word, but the OOS bar is set even higher than the MSAR number would suggest

Interviewed at:
Pitt
SUNY Downstate
Hofstra
Iowa (late interview)
OSU (late interview)

Accepted to Hofstra, waitlisted at other four, with eventual acceptance to Pitt, where I will be matriculating.

Mistakes/Easily corrected weaknesses in app:
- Not enough formal shadowing. Two interviewers toed around this issue a bit. I highly recommend 40+ hours of formal shadowing, just to check that box and not worry about it bringing you down.
- Submitting late. Primary was in July 4th, secondaries completed in the first two weeks of August. I think I could have gotten a couple more interviews if I had been more on top of my primary submission. I was fortunate that AMCAS processing was relatively fast this year, or things would have been worse.
- Not realizing what I should package/market myself as until the last interview when my interviewer, the dean, straight up told me what he perceived to be the upsides of my application. Facepalm moment.
- Getting panicky and adding a bunch of schools as I was finishing my secondaries. They ended up being mostly reaches because I was simultaneously greedy...silly combination.
- Not prewriting secondaries. I submitted 3-4 secondaries a night for two weeks while working, which got exhausting towards the end. I'm sure the quality of some secondaries suffered as a result.

Good luck to future applicants! I am happy to answer any questions via PM. And thank you @gyngyn and @Goro for your advice last summer.

 

[ResidencyHopeful123]

Now that the cycle is over, I wanted to make a post-mortem for the progeny.

I ended up applying to 39 schools, which in hindsight was probably too many. I could have comfortably cut down to the 30-32 schools without much loss.

Schools I now question applying to:
Georgetown - expensive and low yield
Tulane - expensive and bad fit for me culturally. I think they saw this before I did.
SUNY Buffalo - low OOS yield and climate
Vermont - expensive, really slow processing speed this year. Wasn't "complete" until January I think
Baylor - Regret isn't the right word, but the OOS bar is set even higher than the MSAR number would suggest

Interviewed at:
Pitt
SUNY Downstate
Hofstra
Iowa (late interview)
OSU (late interview)

Accepted to Hofstra, waitlisted at other four, with eventual acceptance to Pitt, where I will be matriculating.

Mistakes/Easily corrected weaknesses in app:
- Not enough formal shadowing. Two interviewers toed around this issue a bit. I highly recommend 40+ hours of formal shadowing, just to check that box and not worry about it bringing you down.
- Submitting late. Primary was in July 4th, secondaries completed in the first two weeks of August. I think I could have gotten a couple more interviews if I had been more on top of my primary submission. I was fortunate that AMCAS processing was relatively fast this year, or things would have been worse.
- Not realizing what I should package/market myself as until the last interview when my interviewer, the dean, straight up told me what he perceived to be the upsides of my application. Facepalm moment.
- Getting panicky and adding a bunch of schools as I was finishing my secondaries. They ended up being mostly reaches because I was simultaneously greedy...silly combination.
- Not prewriting secondaries. I submitted 3-4 secondaries a night for two weeks while working, which got exhausting towards the end. I'm sure the quality of some secondaries suffered as a result.

Good luck to future applicants! I am happy to answer any questions via PM. And thank you @gyngyn and @Goro for your advice last summer.

Hey, I think we have quite similar applications (I will be applying this year). Apologies if this is the wrong space to ask, but do you mind telling us how you think you should have marketed yourself?

Thank you!

 

[binderpaper]

helpful!