WAMC/school list help (3.99 GPA, 516 MCAT, CT)

[futureMD2321]

Hi everyone! I'm looking for feedback on my school list and wanted to make sure it was balanced so that I'm not shooting myself in the foot. Any help is appreciated, thank you!!

• 3.99 GPA
• 516 MCAT (129/124/132/131) I know the CARS is a rough score and I'm hoping that the 516 still holds weight
• White male, CT resident, ties to NY (lived there until I was 12)
• T50 undergrad, 1 "gap year" -> I have one semester of classes left, so I guess one semester gap
• activities
  • 1250 research hours (one 6-month full time job in a biotech startup and a summer internship in a lab studying IBD) -> no posters or publications
  • 1000 hours as a research coordinator (didn't have direct patient interaction, but enrolled/interviewed patients over the phone)
  • 150 clinical hours as a volunteer in the hospital where I visited the inpatient floors and spent all of this time directly talking/comforting patients -> another 200 planned in application year
  • 100 hours non-clinical volunteering (50 as part of big brothers big sisters and 50 volunteering in a food kitchen and serving food to homeless population) -> another 200 planned in application year
  • 1250 hours as part of club baseball team (on team for 4 years, was captain and president of the team for 2)
  • 250 hours as a summer baseball coach
  • 70 hours of shadowing (3 specialties)
• FWIW I also had an experience with IBD that lead to two surgeries and this was a huge motivation for being pre-med

School list

1. Harvard
2. UCSF
3. Weill Cornell
4. Yale
5. Pittsburgh
6. Icahn
7. BU
8. Maryland
9. Rochester
10. Brown
11. Albert Einstein
12. Dartmouth
13. Tufts
14. UCONN
15. George Washington
16. Stony Brook
17. Thomas Jefferson
18. UVM
19. Hofstra
20. Temple
21. Hackensack Meridian
22. New York Medical College
23. Albany
24. SUNY Downstate
25. Quinnipiac

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[Mr.Smile12]

My concerns are that your clinical and non-clinical volunteering are subpar compared to applicants with GPA/MCAT metrics like yours. With 200 hours in each category planned, you would be in a stronger position if you waited a year... though if you were happy to apply to your state school at UConn or Quinnipiac, you might get interviewed. Perhaps other schools in the region, bu the lack of experience can impede getting an offer sooner than you like.

With 2000+ hours of research, you would be in a stronger position for a research-based masters or PhD program IMO. Other aspects of service that you describe spin off of your baseball involvement.

 

[Faha]

You are not competitive for top tier schools with your clinical and non clinical hours, where you would be competing with applicants with many hundreds or thousands of hours of each. I suggest these schools with your stats and ECS:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Icahn
3. BU
4. Rochester
5. Dartmouth
6. Tufts
7. UCONN
8. George Washington
9. Stony Brook
10. Thomas Jefferson
11. UVM
12. Hofstra
13. Temple
14. Hackensack Meridian
15. New York Medical College
16. Albany
17. SUNY Downstate
18. Quinnipiac
19. Drexel
20. Jefferson
21. George Washington
22. Virginia Commonwealth
23. Wake Forest
24. USF Morsani
25. TCU
26. Rosalind Franklin
27. Medical College Wisconsin
28. Western Michigan
29. Oakland Beaumont
30. UMass

 

[futureMD2321]

You are not competitive for top tier schools with your clinical and non clinical hours, where you would be competing with applicants with many hundreds or thousands of hours of each. I suggest these schools with your stats and ECS:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Icahn
3. BU
4. Rochester
5. Dartmouth
6. Tufts
7. UCONN
8. George Washington
9. Stony Brook
10. Thomas Jefferson
11. UVM
12. Hofstra
13. Temple
14. Hackensack Meridian
15. New York Medical College
16. Albany
17. SUNY Downstate
18. Quinnipiac
19. Drexel
20. Jefferson
21. George Washington
22. Virginia Commonwealth
23. Wake Forest
24. USF Morsani
25. TCU
26. Rosalind Franklin
27. Medical College Wisconsin
28. Western Michigan
29. Oakland Beaumont
30. UMass

Thank you for the feedback. I kinda figured T10-15s were out of my league, but would having connections to one of them help at all? 300 of my research hours came from working in a lab at Cornell and I have a letter of rec from the PI of that lab and my dad is a current high level physician there. I don’t expect it to outweigh my low hours, but would those connections hold any weight?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the feedback. I kinda figured T10-15s were out of my league, but would having connections to one of them help at all? 300 of my research hours came from working in a lab at Cornell and I have a letter of rec from the PI of that lab and my dad is a current high level physician there. I don’t expect it to outweigh my low hours, but would those connections hold any weight?

There are safeguards to ensure that your legacy/privilege status does not give too much of an advantage, but there's a chance IMO.

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[Faha]

Thank you for the feedback. I kinda figured T10-15s were out of my league, but would having connections to one of them help at all? 300 of my research hours came from working in a lab at Cornell and I have a letter of rec from the PI of that lab and my dad is a current high level physician there. I don’t expect it to outweigh my low hours, but would those connections hold any weight?

Cornell is worth trying.

 

[futureMD2321]

My concerns are that your clinical and non-clinical volunteering are subpar compared to applicants with GPA/MCAT metrics like yours. With 200 hours in each category planned, you would be in a stronger position if you waited a year... though if you were happy to apply to your state school at UConn or Quinnipiac, you might get interviewed. Perhaps other schools in the region, bu the lack of experience can impede getting an offer sooner than you like.

With 2000+ hours of research, you would be in a stronger position for a research-based masters or PhD program IMO. Other aspects of service that you describe spin off of your baseball involvement.

Just to be extra neurotic, I know the hours are low but I also think I can speak on them very well because of how involved I was. It’s mentioned in both my personal statement and most meaningful essay so it’s not like I just did it to do it and check a box, but they did have a large impact on my desire for being a physician. Not sure if how meaningful they were to me can make up for the limited hours, but I’m hoping my essays make up for that fact.