WAMC School List Help (516/3.36)

[carson16666]

Hi, I'm just looking for help trimming down my school list to like 15-18 OOS schools. I have strong ties to only TX and AR. Thank you!

1. cGPA - 3.36 (very strong upward trend, 2.7 at community college, 3.9 at four-year school)
sGPA - 3.4 AMCAS

2. 516 (131/126/129/130)

3. Residency - Texas

4. URM/ORM - half Hispanic, half white

5. Undergraduate - Biology major in Arkansas, May '24 grad

6. Clinical hours - 200 hours working as a scribe in ER
-400 hours working as heart clinic medical assistant
-1200 hours working as neurosurgery medical assistant during gap year
-50 hours volunteering with hospice patients

7. Research - ~900 hours: about 500 for a psychology lab, 400 doing DNA replication stuff
-1 first author publication
-1 poster presentation

8. Shadowing - 30 hours in ER
-20 hours podiatry
-30 hours neurosurgery

9. Nonclinical volunteering - 100 hours in a food pantry during COVID, ~200 more at the same place during gap year
-60 hours for an organization for my school teaching kids about space

10. Extracurriculars - ~300 hours tutoring student-athletes
-I became an Eagle Scout in high school, but was active in my troop until sophomore year of college

11. Rec letters - 2 letters from biology professors
-1 letter from emergency physician I worked with
-1 letter from PI
-1 letter from psychology professor

Hobbies/interests I wrote about
-running
-motor sports
-I play piano, violin, and guitar and I'm in a band with some of my friends.
-baseball



School list. Thanks again.
1. Albany
2. Boston University
3. UCSD
4. USC
5. Rosalind Franklin
6. Hofstra
7. Drexel
8. Eastern Virginia
9. Emory
10. Geisel/Dartmouth
11. Medical College of Wisconsin
12. New York Medical College
13. Oakland
14. Vermont
15. Sidney Kimmel/Thomas Jefferson
16. Tufts
17. Brown
18. University of Central Florida
19. Pritzker
20. Colorado
21. Miami
22. Wake Forest
23. Cincinnati
24. University of Illinois
25. Temple
26. Albert Einstein

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[Faha]

OOS MD schools admit few Texas residents with your stats since they know from years of experience that Texas applicants will attend a Texas school. You could try these AMCAS schools:
TCU
Tulane
Roseman
Alice Walton
Belmont
Methodist (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
UIWSOM
OSU-COM
AZCOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
CUSOM
PCOM
LECOM
Touro-NY
NYITCOM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I also note that VCOM in the past has placed Texas applicants in a "preferred" status.

 

[carson16666]

OOS MD schools admit few Texas residents with your stats since they know from years of experience that Texas applicants will attend a Texas school. You could try these AMCAS schools:
TCU
Tulane
Roseman
Alice Walton
Belmont
Methodist (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
UIWSOM
OSU-COM
AZCOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
CUSOM
PCOM
LECOM
Touro-NY
NYITCOM

So should I just not apply to any of the schools I listed?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So should I just not apply to any of the schools I listed?

If you have a strong mission fit with any of the schools not suggested, you can pitch. We just give you a sense of probability from a big-process perspective. Just like there should be a strong reason to cite a "tie" with a state, you should have a similar argument for a school that could be "above your weight." After all, you are fighting applicant behavior history; you need to convince them you are worth the interview and an offer.

 

[carson16666]

If you have a strong mission fit with any of the schools not suggested, you can pitch. We just give you a sense of probability from a big-process perspective. Just like there should be a strong reason to cite a "tie" with a state, you should have a similar argument for a school that could be "above your weight." After all, you are fighting applicant behavior history; you need to convince them you are worth the interview and an offer.

Fair enough. I really don't want to be stuck in Texas, lol. I had feedback calls with three OOS schools and they all said I would've gotten an interview if I applied earlier, so I think I have a solid chance. Thank you, I appreciate the advice. 😎👍

 

[Faha]

So should I just not apply to any of the schools I listed?

Correct, except for all your Texas TMDSAS MD and DO schools.

 

[carson16666]

Correct, except for all your Texas TMDSAS MD and DO schools.

I feel like it's kind of crazy that I shouldn't apply to ANY of the OOS schools, especially since I got overwhelmingly positive feedback on my application from those schools. I'd probably narrow it down to like 10 based on fit.

I'm also going to be a reapplicant most of those schools, which I imagine would show interest in going OOS. I think I'm going to write a little bit about wanting to go out of state in my secondaries, would that help my chances?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I feel like it's kind of crazy that I shouldn't apply to ANY of the OOS schools, especially since I got overwhelmingly positive feedback on my application from those schools. I'd probably narrow it down to like 10 based on fit.

I'm also going to be a reapplicant most of those schools, which I imagine would show interest in going OOS. I think I'm going to write a little bit about wanting to go out of state in my secondaries, would that help my chances?

It wouldn't hurt you to test their point and apply earlier to just those three schools. Let's try that experiment. Sometimes we train our admissions staff to be nice so you could apply to us again, but the staff don't always know what the faculty wants.

 

[carson16666]

It wouldn't hurt you to test their point and apply earlier to just those three schools. Let's try that experiment. Sometimes we train our admissions staff to be nice so you could apply to us again, but the staff don't always know what the faculty wants.

Thank you. Man this process sucks...