WAMC/School List - 525 MCAT, 3.99 GPA, CA ORM

[Egret_Farmer]

Hello all,

I just got my MCAT score today and I have my priorities straight, so I wanted to post my admissions profile here. Please let me know if I should adjust my school list/WAMC. (My school list was constructed before I got my MCAT results back, since one of my recommenders had requested a list. I used 518 as a placeholder MCAT, since that's how my winds were blowing at the time... Glad I don't have to remove schools, haha. Unless?)

1. cGPA: 3.99, sGPA: 3.98
   
   
2. MCAT: 525 (131/130/132/132)
   
   
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): CA
   
   
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Asian-American
   
   
5. Undergraduate institution or category: UC Berkeley
   
   
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 800+ hours
   721+ hours as a scribe for an internist at a private allergy clinic (gap year), 48+ hours as an administrative volunteer at an independent primary care clinic (gap year)
   
   
7. Research experience and productivity: 1500 hours
   1500 hours in a molecular biology lab, one 4th author publication, one honors thesis poster presented at my school symposium
   60 hours as an undergraduate research assistant for a 19th century Californian Latine archival project
   
   
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 30+ hours (aiming for 50)
   30.25 hours (in-progress) - urology, allergy/immunology, psychiatry
   
   
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 260+ hours
   40 hours with the Red Cross in Facilities, 140.25+ hours with a women's shelter, 80+ hours with a program pairing Ukrainians with English learners
   
   
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): 760+ hours
    Nonclinical employment: 400 hours as an in-home caregiver, 288.67+ hours as a front desk person/rule reinforcer for a homeless shelter (gap year)
    Teaching/tutoring: 70 hours as an undergraduate biology lab intern
    
    
11. Relevant honors or awards:
    2nd-highest achievement in my department (awarded to 4 graduates)
    Award for top graduating senior in my emphasis
    
    
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important:
    Hmm... I technically took 2 gap years: one was my senior year, and the other was for clinical experience/MCAT/more hours in other activities. Also, nothing in the leadership category, in case you were wondering 🙁. My listed hobby is "creative writing/fictional character analysis", which is basically analyzing fictional characters using the psychoanalytic frameworks of Carl Jung and other... let's say, pop psychologists. I did clarify that I don't actually believe that these frameworks are valid or reliable, and hopefully my 132 P/S shows I have at least a cursory familiarity with evidence-based psychology... I can probably think of some other hobbies if necessary. (Posted a thread about this already, haha.)
    
    Oh yeah, and here's my
    
    School List:
    UCSF
    WUSTL
    USC
    Stanford
    UCI
    UCD
    UCLA
    UCSD
    Johns Hopkins
    UPenn
    UMichigan
    Cornell
    Mayo Clinic
    Kaiser Permanente
    Emory
    NYU
    UVA
    Mt. Sinai
    Case Western - Cleveland Clinic Lerner
    Case Western
    University of Rochester
    Iowa
    Hofstra
    Western Michigan
    Vermont
    Oakland University
    Albany
    Quinnipiac
    Virginia Commonwealth
    NYMC
    Wake Forest
    Medical College of Wisconsin
    
    I applied to all of my instate schools, but you know how it is when you live in California... My list has too many top schools and not enough mid-tiers, I think? (Stanford's pretty much a throwaway due to my lack of concrete leadership, I think (checked the mission statement...), but I applied because it's technically instate.) I created this list with WARS, but I deviated a bit from the recommended proportions, I think....
    
    But yeah, let me know if there's anything I should adjust, and feel free to ask any clarifying questions 🙂.

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[diltiazemm]

Hi fellow CA applicant!

Your experiences overall look great - I'm only curious why you're classifying your experience as an in-home caregiver as non-clinical?

Also, I would consider putting a hobby in your ECs 🙂

I agree that having something you do for fun either under the hobby category or listed under artistic endeavors, athletics, etc is important to show that you are not "all work and no play" and that you have some outlet beyond the grind of pre-med/world of work.

As mentioned, sometimes it is an opportunity for the interviewer to connect with you over a common interest. In other cases, it can be a reaction of "cool.... that's so different; I'd love to hear more about that hobby".

The video production might be the most fruitful. Stock trading can be off-putting and as mentioned, "religious stuff" is generally not considered "a hobby".

I believe that every application should have "Hobbies" as one of their 15 activities. This is your chance to showcase another aspect of your life outside of academics, work, research, volunteering, etc. Your hobbies do not need to be "interesting" or uncommon - things like baking, cooking, gardening, being a foodie, etc. are perfect conversation starters (and not too revealing). If you don't want to get too personal, listing video production/editing would be a good (and uncommon) topic as well. Just my thoughts.

Listing your hobbies shows that you're a human being. A human being with interests. These are the types of things that make you interesting.

I will often ask interviewees questions based upon their Hobbies.

For you to leave this prompt blank would definitely raise an eyebrow

I'll leave the school list advising to actual adcoms!

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Hi fellow CA applicant!

Your experiences overall look great - I'm only curious why you're classifying your experience as an in-home caregiver as non-clinical?

Also, I would consider putting a hobby in your ECs 🙂




I'll leave the school list advising to actual adcoms!

Awww, thanks 🙂. Regarding my classification of caregiving, I was advised years ago to "down-code" it from clinical to nonclinical, as certain adcoms might count it against me if I tried to pass off assistance with ADLs as the former (the people I took care of were also called "clients", not "patients", my job was explicitly labeled as nonclinical within the agency...), but other adcoms might give me clinical points for it, as per their discretion. My hobby is actually included in the "anything else" section--it's a kind of creative writing hobby. (Though how creative is it when you're basically writing analytical essays? I wish I wrote more fanfiction, to be honest... I've always admired those folks' creativity. But yeah, this is kind of the "non-fiction" equivalent of that (insofar as pop psychology is non-fiction), if I had to explain further...)

 

[diltiazemm]

Awww, thanks 🙂. Regarding my classification of caregiving, I was advised years ago to "down-code" it from clinical to nonclinical, as certain adcoms might count it against me if I tried to pass off assistance with ADLs as the former (the people I took care of were also called "clients", not "patients", my job was explicitly labeled as nonclinical within the agency...), but other adcoms might give me clinical points for it, as per their discretion. My hobby is actually included in the "anything else" section--it's a kind of creative writing hobby. (Though how creative is it when you're basically writing analytical essays? I wish I wrote more fanfiction, to be honest... I've always admired those folks' creativity. But yeah, this is kind of the "non-fiction" equivalent of that (insofar as pop psychology is non-fiction), if I had to explain further...)

Oh my gosh, disregard my hobby statement 🤦‍♀️!!!! I totally forgot you said creative writing.

I would lean hard on the creative writing aspect, and maybe not so much the psychology part. I like the "character analysis" descriptor, but talking about pop-psych, validity, then having to specify that you understand evidence-based psych is a little long-winded and could potentially rub someone the wrong way.

It's a hobby, so just flesh out why it's important to you and be tactful with your description ☺️

Regarding my classification of caregiving, I was advised years ago to "down-code" it from clinical to nonclinical, as certain adcoms might count it against me if I tried to pass off assistance with ADLs as the former (the people I took care of were also called "clients", not "patients", my job was explicitly labeled as nonclinical within the agency...), but other adcoms might give me clinical points for it, as per their discretion.

Who advised you? I'm not saying that this is wrong or right, but this is similar to CNA work... I do see why it could be listed as non-clinical though - I hope an adcom can pitch in on this. By this logic, all LTC and SNF experience would be non-clinical, since we use the term "residents," not "patients."

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What happened in your last cycle? Or you didn't apply??

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Oh my gosh, disregard my hobby statement 🤦‍♀️!!!! I totally forgot you said creative writing.

I would lean hard on the creative writing aspect, and maybe not so much the psychology part. I like the "character analysis" descriptor, but talking about pop-psych, validity, then having to specify that you understand evidence-based psych is a little long-winded and could potentially rub someone the wrong way.

It's a hobby, so just flesh out why it's important to you and be tactful with your description ☺️

Yeah, I got a few comments along those lines when I described this activity to the audience here... I'm a little unsure if I should use this hobby, actually, for the reasons you mentioned. (Although the one JHU MS3 whom I paid to look my W/A section over made no comment on it, haha.) I guess I have other hobbies, but I'm afraid they might not be as interesting or involved... I mean, I do a little bit of reading. I draw, sometimes. I used to make Vocal Synthesizer covers, but every time I've mentioned that at a job interview as an answer to "What do you do in your free time?", I've gotten rejected. (And I also think it requires some explanation, and is generally kind of weird, even compared to this "creative writing" hobby.) And I haven't even made a cover in a while; guess I fizzed out a bit...

I think it's interesting that you mentioned to explain why this hobby is important to me, haha. The JHU MS3 advised in his edits that I add an explanation like "this intellectual hobby helps me improve my critical thinking, which is useful for patient assessment", but... I mean. It's Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis 😥. It's something I do because I find psychoanalysis to be a useful literary tool (quoted from a book which includes a section on the role of Freudian psychoanalysis in literature to support this idea), and I feel like it helps me think more deeply about a character's motivations and approach to the world. I genuinely believe that some of my current character insights would not have happened (at least as easily) if I didn't use these frameworks, but I see where an adcom might think, "...Oh, and one day you're going to diagnose your psychiatric patients with ENFJ, aren't you? Denied." And then, no 132 on my P/S will save me 🙁.

But yes, I will think about what this hobby offers me... I've used most of my characters trying to tactfully explain what it is, but I do have room for a reflection there, I believe. Thanks for the feedback!

Who advised you? I'm not saying that this is wrong or right, but this is similar to CNA work... I do see why it could be listed as non-clinical though - I hope an adcom can pitch in on this. By this logic, all LTC and SNF experience would be non-clinical, since we use the term "residents," not "patients."

Yeah... I'm not just an SDN resident, but a Redditor too . I think I got that advice from there, although Goro also mentioned that the person I was caring for was a "client" rather than a patient. (I've been dinged a lot by people reading my personal statement drafts for calling my clients "clients" , but I think I've found a happy medium with "resident" for my PS story. Though I just realized that I call them clients in my W/A section... Hmm.)

 

[Egret_Farmer]

What happened in your last cycle? Or you didn't apply??

Wait, this is my first cycle... What do you mean?

If you're talking about my answer for prompt 12, I mean that I took a year after graduation to work on my application a bit more (I was lacking in clinical experience, volunteering, and general life experience), meaning that I'm technically a non-traditional applicant. I didn't apply at the end of junior or senior year like a lot of people do (so I guess by the time I hear back from every school, I'll technically have taken 3 gap years?).

Sorry if I have this wrong or made it confusing; I just meant that I didn't go straight through or even apply right after graduation like a lot of people do.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Wait, this is my first cycle... What do you mean?

Okay... I thought you had applied.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Okay... I thought you had applied.

Sorry if I wrote something confusing; I added some more clarification to my reply if you want context.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Does anyone have any comments on my school list? I tried to avoid the usual blind spots (e.g. <500 hours volunteering = no Rush, not personally a big fan of Jesuit schools but will consider them for practical reasons, cost for OOS students), but is there room for improvement? For example, with school distribution among "tiers", schools I might have overlooked, schools that don't stand out as a good fit for someone with my profile for reasons I might have missed...

 

[harmonious_gazelle]

Hi fellow 525 scorer!! Just wanted to offer a friendly heads-up from someone in a similar boat — with such a high MCAT, we sometimes get compared to other 100th percentile applicants who also have standout ECs like national-level research, AmeriCorps/Teach for America, or long-term clinical involvement. This makes it a bit harder to stand out at the tippy-top schools if your ECs are strong but not quite elite, and unfortunately, it can also work against you at lower-ranked schools where you might be seen as unlikely to attend/have a poor mission fit.

I’m attending one of my state schools (tx) and I’m happy with the outcome — but I definitely learned that school list strategy matters quite a lot. I’d recommend applying to every california school, since you’re in one of the most competitive states, and then being more selective about your OOS list. Only apply to OOS schools where you could genuinely see yourself living and being happy, because if they end up being your only acceptance, you’ll be moving there. Personally, I knew I didn't want to live on the west coast (and couldn't afford OOS state school prices), so I didn't really apply to any of the california schools despite maybe being a good fit/near stat medians for some of them.

Some schools on your list — like Hofstra, Western Michigan, Vermont, Oakland, Albany, Quinnipiac, VCU, NYMC, Wake Forest, and MCW, just to list a few— tend to yield-protect based on mission fit or offer limited spots to OOS students, especially without ties. On top of that, the essays, fees, and time spent on those secondaries can add up fast. For example, according to admit.org, Medical College of Wisconsin interviewed ~500 applicants out of 6,000+ — and a big chunk of those are probably in-state. Is that a school you’d realistically attend at full OOS price?

I’d suggest trimming down your list to focus on:

• All CA schools (very important)
• OOS schools with strong financial aid or missions that truly fit your background
• Dream schools where you’d be thrilled to attend

You have an awesome profile — just be strategic so your effort and money go toward schools that are most likely to appreciate your app. Secondary burnout is very real, and although I was tenacious last year too, I do believe that there are diminishing returns to submitting more and more apps. Either way, hope it works out for you and best of luck!!

 

[Faha]

Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats. I suggest these schools from your list:
UCSF
WUSTL
USC
Stanford
UCI
UCD
UCLA
UCSD
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
UMichigan
Cornell
Mayo Clinic
Kaiser Permanente
Emory
NYU
UVA
Mt. Sinai
Case Western - Cleveland Clinic Lerner
Case Western
University of Rochester
Iowa
Hofstra
Vermont
You could add these schools:
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Duke
Einstein (free tuition)
NYU (free tuition)
Yale
Boston University
Tufts

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I agree that you need to be selective. Make the schools recruit you by showing they understand your "hobby" and how they feel it might value their community. Think if you want to leverage this by doing more medical humanities experiences? I think I shared the Medical Improv team at Northwestern (and it has spread to other campuses), but there are many schools that incorporate narrative medicine. You should be able to pick them out and decide if this is what you want to do while in medical school before going to residency.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Hi fellow 525 scorer!! Just wanted to offer a friendly heads-up from someone in a similar boat — with such a high MCAT, we sometimes get compared to other 100th percentile applicants who also have standout ECs like national-level research, AmeriCorps/Teach for America, or long-term clinical involvement. This makes it a bit harder to stand out at the tippy-top schools if your ECs are strong but not quite elite, and unfortunately, it can also work against you at lower-ranked schools where you might be seen as unlikely to attend/have a poor mission fit.

I’m attending one of my state schools (tx) and I’m happy with the outcome — but I definitely learned that school list strategy matters quite a lot. I’d recommend applying to every california school, since you’re in one of the most competitive states, and then being more selective about your OOS list. Only apply to OOS schools where you could genuinely see yourself living and being happy, because if they end up being your only acceptance, you’ll be moving there. Personally, I knew I didn't want to live on the west coast (and couldn't afford OOS state school prices), so I didn't really apply to any of the california schools despite maybe being a good fit/near stat medians for some of them.

Some schools on your list — like Hofstra, Western Michigan, Vermont, Oakland, Albany, Quinnipiac, VCU, NYMC, Wake Forest, and MCW, just to list a few— tend to yield-protect based on mission fit or offer limited spots to OOS students, especially without ties. On top of that, the essays, fees, and time spent on those secondaries can add up fast. For example, according to admit.org, Medical College of Wisconsin interviewed ~500 applicants out of 6,000+ — and a big chunk of those are probably in-state. Is that a school you’d realistically attend at full OOS price?

I’d suggest trimming down your list to focus on:

• All CA schools (very important)
• OOS schools with strong financial aid or missions that truly fit your background
• Dream schools where you’d be thrilled to attend

You have an awesome profile — just be strategic so your effort and money go toward schools that are most likely to appreciate your app. Secondary burnout is very real, and although I was tenacious last year too, I do believe that there are diminishing returns to submitting more and more apps. Either way, hope it works out for you and best of luck!!

Thank you so much for the advice! I didn't think about yield/resource protection, but I did think about whether I'd want to live there or not! Some schools were in the middle of nowhere, etc., high tuition, low OOS acceptance rates, and I used the premed Reddit's school list page to cut down my list a bit. I heard nice things about Quinnipiac's school culture too... Too bad about that one.

Yeah, some of these schools are there because I wanted to meet the 35% recommended by WARS, though. (Haven't rechecked my score...) Thanks for the heads-up about MCW's in-state bias--I hadn't gotten that information before. I would have been okay attending that school if it were my only acceptance, I think, but people's replies are helping me a lot here. I've been thinking about prewriting my secondaries, so hopefully that helps with the burnout... A week's turnaround time sure is something.

Could you help me a bit with "background", though? I guess my application's geared towards primary care (my PS is definitely leaning that way), but do my ECs indicate any particular mission fit?

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Some of the schools on your list will "yield protect" with your stats. I suggest these schools from your list:
UCSF
WUSTL
USC
Stanford
UCI
UCD
UCLA
UCSD
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
UMichigan
Cornell
Mayo Clinic
Kaiser Permanente
Emory
NYU
UVA
Mt. Sinai
Case Western - Cleveland Clinic Lerner
Case Western
University of Rochester
Iowa
Hofstra
Vermont
You could add these schools:
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Duke
Einstein (free tuition)
NYU (free tuition)
Yale
Boston University
Tufts

Thank you so much for the pointers! I previously decided against adding some of these schools before, both for silly reasons (heard about Duke's secondaries) and practical ones (WARS distribution recommendation), but I am definitely going to reconsider the ones you suggested 🙂.

Edit: I just checked admit.org, and it told me that UVermont would yield-protect me. Should I consider removing this school from my list?

 

[harmonious_gazelle]

Thank you so much for the advice! I didn't think about yield/resource protection, but I did think about whether I'd want to live there or not! Some schools were in the middle of nowhere, etc., high tuition, low OOS acceptance rates, and I used the premed Reddit's school list page to cut down my list a bit. I heard nice things about Quinnipiac's school culture too... Too bad about that one.

Yeah, some of these schools are there because I wanted to meet the 35% recommended by WARS, though. (Haven't rechecked my score...) Thanks for the heads-up about MCW's in-state bias--I hadn't gotten that information before. I would have been okay attending that school if it were my only acceptance, I think, but people's replies are helping me a lot here. I've been thinking about prewriting my secondaries, so hopefully that helps with the burnout... A week's turnaround time sure is something.

Could you help me a bit with "background", though? I guess my application's geared towards primary care (my PS is definitely leaning that way), but do my ECs indicate any particular mission fit?

You're welcome! From what you've shared on this post, it seems like you're an applicant who has accomplished all of the requirements/expectations for getting into medical school. Now it's all about how you reflect on things.

It's more meaningful for reflection in your application if YOU take time to introspect about what you want to do, and figure out how to write about your experiences to support that.

For example, if you were a TA, you could use an angle of "I want to pursue academic medicine and medical education because I love teaching!" Or, you could say "As a TA I found myself interested in the nuances of [whichever course you were a TA for] and you want to do research in that field." Or you could spin it as "being a TA taught me the value of listening to students and seeing their background -- I helped a student who was struggling with ____ and it made me think about how we could make our course more [accessible/interactive/etc]." There's so many ways to spin a single activity based on what you think your goals/strengths are.

My listed hobby is "creative writing/fictional character analysis", which is basically analyzing fictional characters using the psychoanalytic frameworks of Carl Jung and other... let's say, pop psychologists. I did clarify that I don't actually believe that these frameworks are valid or reliable, and hopefully my 132 P/S shows I have at least a cursory familiarity with evidence-based psychology... I can probably think of some other hobbies if necessary. (Posted a thread about this already, haha.)

This is my personal take: I would not include this. Or, I would lean heavily into creative writing as a hobby and omit the psychoanalysis part entirely. You never know who your interviewer might be and if they could take this hobby the wrong way. Some hobbies I have seen people mention include birdwatching, beekeeping, crochet/knitting, gardening, painting, etc. Try to err on the side of putting yourself in the best possible light both in the way you describe yourself/your activities and what you choose to include on your application.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

I agree that you need to be selective. Make the schools recruit you by showing they understand your "hobby" and how they feel it might value their community. Think if you want to leverage this by doing more medical humanities experiences? I think I shared the Medical Improv team at Northwestern (and it has spread to other campuses), but there are many schools that incorporate narrative medicine. You should be able to pick them out and decide if this is what you want to do while in medical school before going to residency.

Oh... Is this a risky strategy? I've always been a little risk-adverse (flaw of mine, haha--wish I did more in undergrad but was afraid of spreading myself too thin), but I'm a little worried about asking this much from schools. "Beggars can't be choosers" and all that... But Faha already suggested that I revise my list to account for yield/resource protection, so I will try to be more confident about this hobby, and my application in general 🙂.

I did look up "narrative medicine" just now, and... I'm a little surprised how well the concept fits my interests, actually! The Wikipedia page was a little uncanny--close reading is basically my hobby tbh; I know paying close attention to patient histories is important for any field, but this really mixes the literary analysis in there :0. I see that USC and Columbia offer guidance in this field (USC MS, Columbia Division), so this is definitely something I'll be thinking about! (@Faha Do you think Columbia is a plausible choice for me, or know about narrative medicine as a possible fit parameter?)

I am a little worried that I don't have the ECs to back an interest in medical humanities up, though... I did some archival research, yeah, and I write as part of my hobby, but this is the first time I've actively looked into narrative medicine. I also looked into the Medical Improv program you mentioned, and it actually sounds really fun. I kind of wish I was a theater kid back when I had the time... But yeah, I wish I did more humanities-related stuff in college (so I wouldn't have so many "what-ifs", if nothing else...), and I hope I can make a good case for wanting to do that in medical school.

Thanks for introducing me to this concept! I kind of have a recurring problem where I tell myself I'll do more fun stuff once I start high school, college, etc., but maybe I'll actually make good on that promise once I enter medical school. I'm used to just hunkering down and studying, but I hope that I'll actually branch out this time. You've definitely given me something specific to look at while school-searching, so I'll be sure to talk about it during interviews 🙂.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

You're welcome! From what you've shared on this post, it seems like you're an applicant who has accomplished all of the requirements/expectations for getting into medical school. Now it's all about how you reflect on things.

It's more meaningful for reflection in your application if YOU take time to introspect about what you want to do, and figure out how to write about your experiences to support that.

For example, if you were a TA, you could use an angle of "I want to pursue academic medicine and medical education because I love teaching!" Or, you could say "As a TA I found myself interested in the nuances of [whichever course you were a TA for] and you want to do research in that field." Or you could spin it as "being a TA taught me the value of listening to students and seeing their background -- I helped a student who was struggling with ____ and it made me think about how we could make our course more [accessible/interactive/etc]." There's so many ways to spin a single activity based on what you think your goals/strengths are.



This is my personal take: I would not include this. Or, I would lean heavily into creative writing as a hobby and omit the psychoanalysis part entirely. You never know who your interviewer might be and if they could take this hobby the wrong way. Some hobbies I have seen people mention include birdwatching, beekeeping, crochet/knitting, gardening, painting, etc. Try to err on the side of putting yourself in the best possible light both in the way you describe yourself/your activities and what you choose to include on your application.

Hmm-mmmm.... 🤔

I agree that you need to be selective. Make the schools recruit you by showing they understand your "hobby" and how they feel it might value their community. Think if you want to leverage this by doing more medical humanities experiences? I think I shared the Medical Improv team at Northwestern (and it has spread to other campuses), but there are many schools that incorporate narrative medicine. You should be able to pick them out and decide if this is what you want to do while in medical school before going to residency.

Uh oh. 🙁.

On a more serious note, I've been wavering on this hobby because I'm worried that it might be polarizing. I'm concerned that I'm not in the position to pick and choose schools (seen those 4.0 528 reject stories too), but I trust that adcoms generally know what's "too far" for schools...

The psychoanalysis part is certainly a Part of my hobby... I thought it might be eye-catching because psychoanalysis is definitely a part of the history of psychology, and is even covered by Khan Academy (if in cursory detail) as preparation for the MCAT. I can certainly explain in detail how trait psychology theories are often iffy in terms of validity and reliability--perhaps if I'm not immediately screened out with this hobby 🙂0), it could make for an interesting interview topic. I don't think my application is that unique, so I'm concerned about putting a hobby that's too "boring", I guess. (Though I think I saw a post from an adcom saying not to worry about that?)

But yeah, I see your point. I could leave out the Jung "Psychological Types" mention in my W/A and just talk about character analysis... I'll admit that I'm personally attached to this part of my hobby (been involved since middle school), and I do think psychoanalysis is an interesting topic, as well as an interesting part of psychology history. But yes... "Try to err on the side of putting yourself in the best possible light both in the way you describe yourself/your activities and what you choose to include on your application." There's certainly a more conventional spin I could put on this hobby, and I think I will do that. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Faha]

Thank you so much for the pointers! I previously decided against adding some of these schools before, both for silly reasons (heard about Duke's secondaries) and practical ones (WARS distribution recommendation), but I am definitely going to reconsider the ones you suggested 🙂.

Edit: I just checked admit.org, and it told me that UVermont would yield-protect me. Should I consider removing this school from my list?

You can include Vermont. I have heard otherwise.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Add Harvard.

You're a solid to strong candidate for literally any school in the country. Platinum grade rock star. Congratulations.

 

[Egret_Farmer]

Add Harvard.

You're a solid to strong candidate for literally any school in the country. Platinum grade rock star. Congratulations.

Thank you so much for the positivity :,). I recognize you from some recent threads, and I wanted to say I've noticed all the encouragement you've been giving people and appreciate your vote of confidence myself. I suppose I can apply to Harvard haha; it's (hopefully) a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all.