Hey everybody. I have had some difficulty this application cycle, and a friend suggested I make an account on SDN to ask about the best school choices. Due to COVID I am unable to take the MCAT until June 27th, so I am still waiting on my score. I plan to apply to CMU in order to get my AMCAS application processed, and once I get my MCAT score I will send out my other applications.
In addition to posting schools to consider, if you guys have any general guidelines on how to narrow my search I would love to learn about it. It looks like some of the stickied posts deal with schools threads, so I was going to devote a lot of time looking over those.
Here is my general info, let me know if you have any questions
GPA Cum/Science: 4.0 (entering my senior year next year)
MCAT: assume for the sake of this 518-520 range (based on current results)
Ethnicity: White
Clinical Volunteering:
- Volunteer at ER/Neuro Units: 230 Hours
- Due to COVID, should hit 300 hours by the time I matriculate
Shadowing:
- 38 hours shadowing 2 ER docs
- 18 hours shadowing Orthopedic Surgeon
- 60 hours shadowing dentistry (my father is a dentist)
- 40 more hours were planned, postponed due to COVID
Nonclinical Volunteering:
- 200 hours in club supporting students with disabilities, also VP
- 60 hours at my local library
- 50 hours at Students for Orphan relief club I helped found, also VP
- 20 hours on 7Cups (only emotional support) so far, but plan to have many more as I only discovered it in wake of COVID
Research:
- 700 hours in lab over past 3 hours, over last year took a step back to become social media manager due to influx of people
- Won Grand Prize at Undergraduate Research Fair last year
- Unfortunately my PI is not proactive about publications, so I am not featured in any
Other:
- 640 hours as a TA for Biology, another 320 planned next year
- 60 hours spent privately tutoring students
- 1100 hours in construction, helped renovate a house with my father
- Piano is one of my hobbies I am listing in my application, had to teach myself for the most part and very important to me
- Honors college at MSU, Deans list every semester, Natural Science scholarship, Professorial Assistantship (exclusive program that let me start my research as a freshman)
I am very close with my letter of rec professors, so I know they will be good. I had hoped to get more hours in volunteering and shadowing, but COVID disrupted my plans. I've been heavily focusing on my PS and activities descriptions, as I know that my strong suit is academics but I don't want to rely on it.
Please let me know what you guys think, when it comes to my school list I am so overwhelmed I don't know where to begin. One of my friends recently freaked me out by saying since I have strong academics, some schools may reject me as it'll seem like they will be my safety schools. This leaves me confused as how to best choose schools where I will be competitive but not "too" competitive. Note that I am applying MD, and I do plan to apply to all schools in Michigan.
In addition to posting schools to consider, if you guys have any general guidelines on how to narrow my search I would love to learn about it. It looks like some of the stickied posts deal with schools threads, so I was going to devote a lot of time looking over those.
Here is my general info, let me know if you have any questions
GPA Cum/Science: 4.0 (entering my senior year next year)
MCAT: assume for the sake of this 518-520 range (based on current results)
Ethnicity: White
Clinical Volunteering:
- Volunteer at ER/Neuro Units: 230 Hours
- Due to COVID, should hit 300 hours by the time I matriculate
Shadowing:
- 38 hours shadowing 2 ER docs
- 18 hours shadowing Orthopedic Surgeon
- 60 hours shadowing dentistry (my father is a dentist)
- 40 more hours were planned, postponed due to COVID
Nonclinical Volunteering:
- 200 hours in club supporting students with disabilities, also VP
- 60 hours at my local library
- 50 hours at Students for Orphan relief club I helped found, also VP
- 20 hours on 7Cups (only emotional support) so far, but plan to have many more as I only discovered it in wake of COVID
Research:
- 700 hours in lab over past 3 hours, over last year took a step back to become social media manager due to influx of people
- Won Grand Prize at Undergraduate Research Fair last year
- Unfortunately my PI is not proactive about publications, so I am not featured in any
Other:
- 640 hours as a TA for Biology, another 320 planned next year
- 60 hours spent privately tutoring students
- 1100 hours in construction, helped renovate a house with my father
- Piano is one of my hobbies I am listing in my application, had to teach myself for the most part and very important to me
- Honors college at MSU, Deans list every semester, Natural Science scholarship, Professorial Assistantship (exclusive program that let me start my research as a freshman)
I am very close with my letter of rec professors, so I know they will be good. I had hoped to get more hours in volunteering and shadowing, but COVID disrupted my plans. I've been heavily focusing on my PS and activities descriptions, as I know that my strong suit is academics but I don't want to rely on it.
Please let me know what you guys think, when it comes to my school list I am so overwhelmed I don't know where to begin. One of my friends recently freaked me out by saying since I have strong academics, some schools may reject me as it'll seem like they will be my safety schools. This leaves me confused as how to best choose schools where I will be competitive but not "too" competitive. Note that I am applying MD, and I do plan to apply to all schools in Michigan.
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