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I think you have a decent shot at the 50 "top 20" schools, including your in state options. Primary Care gets covered with your work with community clinics so hopefully you'll get more hours there before you go off for the summer.

Community service improvement: anything that gets you further from health-adjacent will help you if you want to focus on something. How much can you really stretch from your comfort zone, especially getting off campus? Through your clinic you can probably connect with other non profit organizations who help with food delivery, followup with home services, shelter help, transportation, job services, etc. Understand the social work side, and then I think you'd be hard to ignore.

Check your list for OOS chances and mission fit with the MSAR and other help from your prehealth advisor team.
 
... Do you have any concerns about my <1000 research hours?
Not really. But what concerns you about it? That it's chemistry on nanotechnology and not more "medical" or "bench"? Honestly if you do research, we just want to be sure you know what you did and why it is important. With your presentations, I don't think I'm worried about it. Other committee members would care even less.

Also, what do you mean by.... at the 50 "top 20"? Sorry if I missed something obvious. New to this forum.
A hard tier of top 20 is a myth. Among academics, there are probably 40 to 50 schools we all consider great "brands" but we also know how it is often inflated. Mission fit is much more important.

What do you think about my school list? Some of the schools on my list have a much lower MCAT/GPA mean scores. I heard some schools might yield protect and reject.
Check the MSAR. I defer to others who can do that analysis. You should be networking with students to find those schools where you would feel most comfortable.
 
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Thank you for your encouragement.
Apply to all in my list or all top 20 schools?
Can you specify why not WashU? Because of research hours or something else?
I personally think there’s no harm in applying all T20s that you could see yourself at (ie don’t apply to NYU if you couldn’t live in the city) plus the other ones ones on.

You should apply to WashU in St. Louis not university of Washington in Washington state
 
Thank you so much. That is very helpful. I can surely follow your advice and improve my community service hours before leaving to study abroad.

Do you have any concerns about my <1000 research hours?
Also, what do you mean by.... at the 50 "top 20"? Sorry if I missed something obvious. New to this forum.

What do you think about my school list? Some of the schools on my list have a much lower MCAT/GPA mean scores. I heard some schools might yield protect and reject.
You were productive with the research hours you had, which is what is important.

Penn State and Wake are likely to interview candidates who they think would ultimately matriculate there.

I suggest:

Harvard
NYU, Grossman
Duke
UVA
Johns Hopkins
Wash U, St. Louis.
Yale
U Penn
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Icahn/Mount Sinai
U Chicago
Mayo
Emory
Boston University
Brown
Colorado
Albert Einstein
VCU
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Sidney Kimmel
Eastern Virginia
Rochester
Iowa
U of Wisconsin
Vermont
Hofstra
Kaiser
Keck
Columbia
Case
SLU


My additions in bold. Baylor and UTSW are options too if you’re open to filling out TMDAS. In total, that is 35 if you apply to all of them. I would recommend not exceeding that to save both on money and the energy needed to fill out secondaries.
 
Decent chance at t20’s in the lower end of the range, think Pitt and Chicago. Don’t think you have a lot of uniqueness to be a contender at the top range of the t20. Also that 126 doesn’t look too pretty.
 
Decent chance at t20’s in the lower end of the range, think Pitt and Chicago. Don’t think you have a lot of uniqueness to be a contender at the top range of the t20. Also that 126 doesn’t look too pretty.
Thank you for your honest reply.
I can surely remove Penn State.
Is there anyway I can enhance my app for upper Top20?
 
Thank you for your honest reply.
I can surely remove Penn State.
Is there anyway I can enhance my app for upper Top20?
You need to find your niche to set yourself apart. That can be anything. You can’t strengthen yourself to get into those schools at this point. You need to craft an outstanding application.
 
You need to find your niche to set yourself apart. That can be anything. You can’t strengthen yourself to get into those schools at this point. You need to craft an outstanding application.
Got it. How I present myself is important. Thanks.
 
Thank you. I appreciate your contribution.
I'm not interested in applying on the west coast or in Texas.

The Columbia prerequisites include one year of intensive English. I have not taken that and have no plans for the future. That was the reason I took off UPitt. Do you think it's a good idea to include them again?
I may consider Case, SLU, and Hofstra.

I understand that Wake and Penn State may yield protect based on your reply. Thank you again.
If both Columbia and Pitt have that, then keep them off. You could include Dartmouth, UMass and/or Stony Brook if you prefer staying on the East Coast.
 
If both Columbia and Pitt have that, then keep them off. You could include Dartmouth, UMass and/or Stony Brook if you prefer staying on the East Coast.
Thanks. I will keep them in mind, especially UMass, which is close to home. Stony Brook is also a great option.

YoungMoneyMint: By the way- just checked. Even Cornell has a writing-intensive English requirement. But Michigan can be a good addition.

Very constructive post. Appreciate all help rendered.
 
Great! Just FYI, Mayo MN is in quite possible the worst location lol (speaking as someone who would likely matriculate there if accepted.) So if you have them on, most other schools are in relatively great locations, including Michigan.
 
Great! Just FYI, Mayo MN is in quite possible the worst location lol (speaking as someone who would likely matriculate there if accepted.) So if you have them on, most other schools are in relatively great locations, including Michigan.
Fully agree. I am updating the list based on the suggestions above. How many schools should I apply? I wanted to keep it 25-28 earlier but looks like it is going beyond that.
 
I applied to 35, which i thought was definitely overkill. Similar stats to yours, except slightly higher CARS and you had a much more productive time in research. I would limit it to 30—mostly T30 with the additional schools provided by chillymd. @Goro and @Faha are the school list kings though, so I will defer to their judgement.
 
I applied to 35, which i thought was definitely overkill. Similar stats to yours, except slightly higher CARS and you had a much more productive time in research. I would limit it to 30—mostly T30 with the additional schools provided by chillymd. @Goro and @Faha are the school list kings though, so I will defer to their judgement.
That is helpful. Appreciate it.
 
You were productive with the research hours you had, which is what is important.

Penn State and Wake are likely to interview candidates who they think would ultimately matriculate there.

I suggest:

Harvard
NYU, Grossman
Duke
UVA
Johns Hopkins
Wash U, St. Louis.
Yale
U Penn
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Icahn/Mount Sinai
U Chicago
Mayo
Emory
Boston University
Brown
Colorado
Albert Einstein
VCU
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Sidney Kimmel
Eastern Virginia
Rochester
Iowa
U of Wisconsin
Vermont
Hofstra
Kaiser
Keck
Columbia
Case
SLU


My additions in bold. Baylor and UTSW are options too if you’re open to filling out TMDAS. In total, that is 35 if you apply to all of them. I would recommend not exceeding that to save both on money and the energy needed to fill out secondaries.
OP, I agree with this list.
Also consider:
SUNY.SB
Stanford
Pitt
U MI
all Manhattan Titans
U Rochester
USF/Morsani
 
OP, I agree with this list.
Also consider:
SUNY.SB
Stanford
Pitt
U MI
all Manhattan Titans
U Rochester
USF/Morsani
Thank you so much for your valuable contribution. I can tailor my list accordingly.
 
You need to find your niche to set yourself apart. That can be anything. You can’t strengthen yourself to get into those schools at this point. You need to craft an outstanding application.
There's fairly little OP can do in the next year to enhance their application, and letting such a high MCAT expire might not be a great move. Things like Peace Corps or Teach for America might add to the OP's application if they were already considering something like this, but are too intense as commitments to be done simply to boost one's application.
 
There's fairly little OP can do in the next year to enhance their application, and letting such a high MCAT expire might not be a great move. Things like Peace Corps or Teach for America might add to the OP's application if they were already considering something like this, but are too intense as commitments to be done simply to boost one's application.
Unless the OP applies and gets accepted during the application cycle. Deferral policies may be favorable to complete the commitment, though I agree the applicant is in a better position if that person was already participating.
 
Thank you, everyone.
 
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