Hello all,
Looking for help with making a school list, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. Here are my stats and a little bit of basic info.
cGPA: 3.4
sGPA: 3.3
Grad GPA: 3.8 (so far) I still have one more year to go.
MCAT: 115, not overly happy about it but not terribly bummed either. Not interested in retaking tbh.
LizzyM: 68
WARs: 78
- A large public university, not prestigious, but fairly well known.
- Multiple leadership roles, from the president of a large multicultural organization, volunteer coordinator, etc.
- Non-clinical volunteering- >1500 hours (traveling volunteer services, fraternity community service, youth minority mentoring, underserved communities etc.)
- Patient contact volunteering- ~250 hours (hospital, underserved clinic)
- Shadowing- approximately 100-150 hours (neurology). I know this is one area to strengthen before next summer, so I will begin shadowing a primary care doctor in January.
- research (undergrad—published in top journal second author—impact factor 8.055), currently working on a manuscript for publication in clinical research. Poster presentations at UG institution and poster at the largest national conference in my field.
- research graduate school (currently working on two papers, one is a literature review that I plan to complete within the next month and pray for a publication haha).
- URM, Black male, from a lower socioeconomic bracket.
- Awards- won the highest award from my undergraduate university, Fulbright finalist (research)—but Covid, so I am reapplying, here's hoping I get lucky twice.
- Languages: I speak French relatively decent (2.5 years in college), and I am gaining proficiency in German. I still kick myself for not learning Spanish.
- Mississippi/Alabama resident (weird I know, but I grew up in MS and attended college in Alabama and was granted in-state tuition due to the proximity of my undergrad to my hometown.)
Considered MD/Ph.D but my GPA is unrealistic for it. I have gained a newfound appreciation for public health, especially with everything that's going on so possible MD/MPH. I am currently a graduate student in the department of neurosurgery working on MS research.
Truthfully I am incredibly nervous about applying with my uGPA. I discovered that I have incredibly bad testing anxiety, to the point of vomiting during a final once so I never performed my best on tests in undergrad. During grad school, I accepted that I had a problem and got help managing my anxiety. I hope this doesn't come off as an excuse at all because I definitely should have spoken up about it sooner, but you live and you learn.
Lastly, I have a skeleton of a school list. My goal is approximately 15-20 schools. (Looking into the AAMC Fee Assistance Program).
University of Mississippi
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Baylor College of Medicine
Case Western
Duke
Emory
Howard
Mayo
Oregon Health Sciences University
UNC-Chapel Hill
Tulane
Cincinnati
UMichigan
UMiami
UPitt
South Alabama
University of Virginia
Wake Forest
Dartmouth
Morehouse
***Ideal would be UChicago, Standford, Northwestern, Emory, or Vanderbilt but I fear that I'm well under their competitive applicants.
Willing to add/remove/swap any. I'd love any advice, especially from ADCOMS.
Looking for help with making a school list, so any advice will be greatly appreciated. Here are my stats and a little bit of basic info.
cGPA: 3.4
sGPA: 3.3
Grad GPA: 3.8 (so far) I still have one more year to go.
MCAT: 115, not overly happy about it but not terribly bummed either. Not interested in retaking tbh.
LizzyM: 68
WARs: 78
- A large public university, not prestigious, but fairly well known.
- Multiple leadership roles, from the president of a large multicultural organization, volunteer coordinator, etc.
- Non-clinical volunteering- >1500 hours (traveling volunteer services, fraternity community service, youth minority mentoring, underserved communities etc.)
- Patient contact volunteering- ~250 hours (hospital, underserved clinic)
- Shadowing- approximately 100-150 hours (neurology). I know this is one area to strengthen before next summer, so I will begin shadowing a primary care doctor in January.
- research (undergrad—published in top journal second author—impact factor 8.055), currently working on a manuscript for publication in clinical research. Poster presentations at UG institution and poster at the largest national conference in my field.
- research graduate school (currently working on two papers, one is a literature review that I plan to complete within the next month and pray for a publication haha).
- URM, Black male, from a lower socioeconomic bracket.
- Awards- won the highest award from my undergraduate university, Fulbright finalist (research)—but Covid, so I am reapplying, here's hoping I get lucky twice.
- Languages: I speak French relatively decent (2.5 years in college), and I am gaining proficiency in German. I still kick myself for not learning Spanish.
- Mississippi/Alabama resident (weird I know, but I grew up in MS and attended college in Alabama and was granted in-state tuition due to the proximity of my undergrad to my hometown.)
Considered MD/Ph.D but my GPA is unrealistic for it. I have gained a newfound appreciation for public health, especially with everything that's going on so possible MD/MPH. I am currently a graduate student in the department of neurosurgery working on MS research.
Truthfully I am incredibly nervous about applying with my uGPA. I discovered that I have incredibly bad testing anxiety, to the point of vomiting during a final once so I never performed my best on tests in undergrad. During grad school, I accepted that I had a problem and got help managing my anxiety. I hope this doesn't come off as an excuse at all because I definitely should have spoken up about it sooner, but you live and you learn.
Lastly, I have a skeleton of a school list. My goal is approximately 15-20 schools. (Looking into the AAMC Fee Assistance Program).
University of Mississippi
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Baylor College of Medicine
Case Western
Duke
Emory
Howard
Mayo
Oregon Health Sciences University
UNC-Chapel Hill
Tulane
Cincinnati
UMichigan
UMiami
UPitt
South Alabama
University of Virginia
Wake Forest
Dartmouth
Morehouse
***Ideal would be UChicago, Standford, Northwestern, Emory, or Vanderbilt but I fear that I'm well under their competitive applicants.
Willing to add/remove/swap any. I'd love any advice, especially from ADCOMS.