Unbalanced sGPA and cGPA. Uneasy about school list. WAMC

[TimeSpace1]

Hello all. I am currently a senior in undergrad and working on developing my school list. Unfortunately my cGPA and sGPA are rather unbalanced due to poor decisions made during high school (dual-credit). This leaves me pretty confused about what schools to apply to. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!

cGPA: 3.81
sGPA: 3.91

MCAT: 517 (128/127/131/131)
State of residence: IN
Race: White
Undergraduate Institution: Standard state school
Clinical Experience:

• 100 hours of patient escort in a hospital
• 100 hours CNA in an old-persons home
• 50 hours doing triage in an overseas clinic (I know its not the best experience with voluntourism and all, but I was a naive freshman, I didn't know any better).

Research Experience:

• 1,000 hours in a cancer lab. Working on second author manuscript, might be accepted in time for applications. First author poster.
• 500 hours in a fly lab. No papers or posters to show for this.

Shadowing:

• ~50 hours pediatrics
• ~100 hours in different sub-specialties (I haven't broken them down yet because this was a while ago) **note the 100 hours in different sub-specialties was done overseas**

Non-clinical Volunteering:

• ~100 hours tutoring foreign born English language learning students at a local preschool
• ~100 hours working for a high school for adults helping adults get their GEDs.
• Should have another 300 hours of volunteering at a Boys and Girls Club, however most of this will occur during my gap year, after I submit my primary.

Tutoring:
TA in an inorganic chemistry course for a semester.

Other:
Vice president of fundraising of a club for 1 year
Director of technology and communications for the same club for another year

Honors/Awards:
Dean's list.
Acceptance to Phi Beta Kappa society.
Honestly nothing very noteworthy.

Current school list

Reaches:
Hopkins
Harvard
Upenn
Pritzker
Columbia
Duke
Yale

Standard:
Michigan
Pitt
Cornell
Mt Sinai
Emory
Einstein
Hofstra
Ohio State
Rochester
Case
Brown
Dartmouth

"Safeties":
Indiana
Wayne State
Cincinnati
Wake Forest
Oakland
Western Mich
Vermont
WVU
Jefferson

Any schools I should add/drop? I have a feeling my application might be too top-heavy, especially given my unbalanced GPAs. This list also consists of 28 schools, and I hope to cut that down to about 20-25, but I am having a very hard time selecting which schools to leave out. Very confused, and all help is appreciated!

Thank you all so much in advance!!!

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[Faha]

There is nothing wrong with your GPA's. They are fine for any school on your list and you should receive several interviews.

 

[TimeSpace1]

There is nothing wrong with your GPA's. They are fine for any school on your list and you should receive several interviews.

@Faha Thank you very much for your input, I greatly appreciate it. Do you see any schools that I could cut out given the size of my school list?

 

[TimeSpace1]

@Goro @gyngyn @LizzyM @gorowannabe Any thoughts? Any input on schools to cut out or add would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much for your help!

 

[Faha]

You could remove Vermont, West Virginia and Wake Forest unless you have a strong desire to live in those areas.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

You might want more clinical volunteering. Your GPAs won't hold you back anywhere, not even Harvard or NYU.

 

[lalalallala]

the GPAs are great - the 0.1 difference in them is not note worthy. I wouldn't put that freshman year triage experience. I think you need more clinical experiences. Your app just overall lacks interest - I am not trying to be rude but I think your essays will need to be really good and anything interesting about yourself will need to be emphasized. As a ORM with a great MCAT but not 520+ that some top schools are expecting of their ORMS, I don't know that you will really stand out to a lot of those top schools. Not saying don't apply - just saying work on crafting that app

 

[lalalallala]

I would also adjust your safeties. Many of those are state schools and can't possibly all be in your state of residence. Pay attention to how many OOS school those people are accepting and what the stats are for those OOS acceptances. I would also say to try to be cognizant of what sort of fit you want. You have everything from very research heavy schools to schools focused on producing primary care physicians for their state. You will want to craft your app telling a story about who you are and what you want to do and that app likely won't appeal to every school on that list equally depending on their varying missions

I think Cornell and Mt Sinai and Pitt and MI aren't necessarily 'standard'. I would think of those more as possible reaches and try to add more schools along the lines of Jefferson

 

[TimeSpace1]

I would also adjust your safeties. Many of those are state schools and can't possibly all be in your state of residence. Pay attention to how many OOS school those people are accepting and what the stats are for those OOS acceptances. I would also say to try to be cognizant of what sort of fit you want. You have everything from very research heavy schools to schools focused on producing primary care physicians for their state. You will want to craft your app telling a story about who you are and what you want to do and that app likely won't appeal to every school on that list equally depending on their varying missions

I think Cornell and Mt Sinai and Pitt and MI aren't necessarily 'standard'. I would think of those more as possible reaches and try to add more schools along the lines of Jefferson

Thank you for the constructive criticism, it actually really helps. I guess to address each point, I will be scribing during my gap year, so that should take care of clinical experience (even though most of it will be after I submit my app....). As far as the schools I am applying to, I did feel like my list was a little top heavy, but I don't really know what to take out or add in. I know I might need some more lower-tier schools, but I just don't know which ones would be best for my app.

 

[lalalallala]

Thank you for the constructive criticism, it actually really helps. I guess to address each point, I will be scribing during my gap year, so that should take care of clinical experience (even though most of it will be after I submit my app....). As far as the schools I am applying to, I did feel like my list was a little top heavy, but I don't really know what to take out or add in. I know I might need some more lower-tier schools, but I just don't know which ones would be best for my app.

I wasn't trying to imply that you don't have a shot for those top schools - I more so meant that Michigan, Pitt, Cornell, Mt Sinai are very difficult to get in to and even if your stats line up that doesn't mean you can at all bank on getting in to these.

The schools you listed in that mid tier range:
Michigan
Pitt
Cornell
Mt Sinai
Emory
Einstein
Hofstra
Ohio State
Rochester
Case
Brown
Dartmouth

As far as what lower schools you can add - this is a problem many people have - because the schools with lower stats are often public schools that favor their own in state people. I don't know what state you are, but if you go through MSAR and adjust the avg MCAT and GPA to a bit below yours and then adjust the MCAT and GPA graphs for those schools to OOS applicants and see how many OOS applicants matriculate you can get a better idea of your chances. For example, ⅔ of Albany's matriculants were OOS and the avg GPA for OOS was 3.6 and the avg MCAT for OOS was 511. You would have to be able to convince them that you really wanted to go there or else they might not waste an II on you - but that is an example of a school which looking at MSAR (I don't actually know anything about Albany) would seem to be a good lower tier option. WVU also seems to accept a fair amount OOS but again you will have to argue you can fit their mission. Brown accepts a lot of their own students so that may not be worth it if you but again all up to you.

Hofstra and Einstein seem to be good schools for you to apply to.

NYMC, Penn State, Tufts (get a lot of applications though), GW (get a lot of applications though), Tulane (get a lot of applications though), Miami, VCU, Virginia Tech?

 

[Gilakend]

I agree, some of your "standard" schools (Michigan, Cornell, Sinai, Case, Pitt) aren't necessarily reaches but also aren't necessarily schools I would feel comfortable with taking up such a large number of my "targets" just due to that they are T20 which are unpredictable. Also, I imagine when the new MSAR comes out some of their stats will increase further. Definitely apply to them, but add in more schools around the 512-515 median MCAT range.

Overall I think your app cycle will be extremely successful, but top schools are very unpredictable which is why I recommend adding in some more mid-tiers.