WAMC: please help with school list

[Gwynbleidd]

Hey all, I've been working on my school list and really need some help paring it down a little. Currently have close to 40 schools and would like to avoid extra secondaries if I can help it. I have the MSAR but stuck mostly to GPA and MCAT when picking them out, so please let me know if any schools are glaringly OOS-unfriendly (or wouldn't be good picks otherwise). Thanks in advance!

• ⁠State/Country of Residence: MA
• ⁠Ties to other States/Regions: Family in Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania
• ⁠URM? (Y/N): No
• ⁠Cumulative GPA: 3.98
• ⁠Science GPA: 3.98
• ⁠MCAT Score(s): 516
• ⁠Research Experience: None
• ⁠Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer): Paid, working for a cardiologist. Projected to have 1500-2000+ clinical hours by the time of application.
• ⁠Physician Shadowing: ~50 hours shadowing cardiology, ~10 hours general surgery
• ⁠Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- Projected 150+ hours at a therapeutic equestrian center for veterans and individuals with disabilities
- 50 hours volunteer note-taking with disability services
- 250 hours at an animal hospital freshman year of college (pivotal activity for my transition from pre-vet --> pre-med, discussed in my PS)
• ⁠Other Extracurricular Activities: Member of college's riding team for 3.5 years, ~50 hours of TAing, peer mentoring club
• ⁠Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N): No
• ⁠Interest in Primary Care (Y/N): Not right now but could change!
• ⁠Interest in Rural Health (Y/N): Possibly

Target Schools:

UVM
UMass
Quinnipiac
UConn
BU
Tufts
Stony Brook
Rochester
SUNY Upstate
Pitt
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
Rutgers
UCincinnati
Western MI
Albany
Case Western
Rosalind Franklin
Hofstra
Drexel
VCU
Emory
Geisinger
George Washington U
Temple
Ohio State
Wayne State
St Louis University
Creighton

Reach Schools:

University of Pennsylvania (family ties to PA)
WashU
Kaiser
Brown
Mayo***
Cornell
Dartmouth
UNC Chapel Hill***
Wake Forest

*** = not sure about these because my UG institution has had VERY little acceptances from them in the last 3 years (like <4% of my school's applicants admitted). Also, is it even worth applying to Mayo with no research? lol

I would appreciate any help I could receive!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools from your list:

Target Schools:

UVM
UMass
Quinnipiac
BU
Tufts
Rochester
Pitt
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
U Cincinnati
Western MI
Albany
Case Western
Rosalind Franklin
Hofstra
Drexel
VCU
Emory
George Washington U
Temple
Ohio State
Wayne State
St Louis University
Creighton

Reach Schools:

Kaiser
Brown
Mayo***
Cornell
Dartmouth
Wake Forest
I removed several state public schools that accept few non residents.

 

[Banco]

Great application. I think your initial list is okay, but there are certainly a few state schools that would be low yield: Suny Upstate, Rutgers are likely not worth it. For Penn State make sure to emphasize your ties.

from your reaches I’d say brown, Dartmouth, and wake forest are actually matches and you should add them. With lack of research and relatively low MCAT for them, Penn and WashU are far reaches.

 

[Gwynbleidd]

Great application. I think your initial list is okay, but there are certainly a few state schools that would be low yield: Suny Upstate, Rutgers are likely not worth it. For Penn State make sure to emphasize your ties.

from your reaches I’d say brown, Dartmouth, and wake forest are actually matches and you should add them. With lack of research and relatively low MCAT for them, Penn and WashU are far reaches.

I wasn’t that into Rutgers anyway lol so I’ll yank them off the list. Thanks for your help!

 

[Gwynbleidd]

I suggest these schools from your list:

Target Schools:

UVM
UMass
Quinnipiac
BU
Tufts
Rochester
Pitt
Thomas Jefferson
Penn State
U Cincinnati
Western MI
Albany
Case Western
Rosalind Franklin
Hofstra
Drexel
VCU
Emory
George Washington U
Temple
Ohio State
Wayne State
St Louis University
Creighton

Reach Schools:

Kaiser
Brown
Mayo***
Cornell
Dartmouth
Wake Forest
I removed several state public schools that accept few non residents.

Thank you so much Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Mayo + no research?

 

[Faha]

Thank you so much Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on Mayo + no research?

With your GPA it is worth trying.

 

[Gwynbleidd]

With your GPA it is worth trying.

Awesome, thank you both for your help!