WAMC School List Help MSTP + MD only (3.96/520)

[leanstarfish321]

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Hi everyone, new to the forum and would any appreciate feedback on school list. I am looking to apply to 75% MD/PhD and 25% MD

1. GPA: 3.96/4.00, Molecular Biology + Business Double Major
2. 520 (C/P: 131, CARS: 126, B/B: 132, P/S: 131)
3. California Resident, Indian Male
4. T30 California School
5. Clinical experience Non Volunteer: IFT EMT 500 hrs, Volunteer: MA 200 hrs.
6. Research experience and productivity: 4000 hrs, 1 third author high impact significant contributions, 1 review mid author, 2 brief reports co author, 1 first author will be submitted by application.
7. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 100 hrs: Neurology, ED, GI, Pediatric Hospitalist, Cardiology CCU.
8. Non-clinical volunteering: 200 hrs soup kitchen, homeless meal and water service, food insecurity volunteering.
9. Other extracurricular activities gap year 1: part time EMT part time RA. Gap year 2 (while applying) full time RA. Soccer, running (2 time marathoner)
10. Leadership: 2 club board leadership positions. business club experience. My angle is more so business background will inform my clinical delivery of care not something I am going to pursue anymore (no plans on MBA etc).

Current List:

Vanderbilt	Tennessee
NYU	New York
Columbia	New York
Yale	Connecticut
UChicago	Illinois
Johns Hopkins	Maryland
University of Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania
Mayo Clinic	Minnesota
Harvard	Boston
Northwestern	Illinois
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis	Missouri
Stanford	California
Mount Sinai	New York
Cornell	New York
Case Western	Ohio
Duke	North Carolina
Zucker School of Medicine	New York
UCSF	California
USC Keck	California
Boston University	Massachusetts
University of Rochester School of Medicine	New York
UCLA	California
UCI	California
Albert Einstein College of Medicine	New York
University of Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania
Kaiser Permanente	California
Brown	Rhode Island
UCSD	California
Dartmouth	New Hampshire
Tufts	Massachusetts
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill	North Carolina
Georgetown	D.C.
Albany Medical College	New York
George Washington	D.C.
University of Massachusetts T.H. Chan	Massachusetts
University of Wisconsin Madison	Wisconsin
University of Washington	Washington
Pennsylvania State University	Pennsylvania
UC Davis	California
Loma Linda	California
UC Riverside	California
University of Virginia	Virginia
Virginia Tech	Virginia
NYITCOM	New York

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[Mr.Smile12]

Previously

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Thread 'WAMC + School List Help (3.96/520) MD/MDPhD'

Mar 29, 2026

Hi everyone, new to the forum and would any appreciate feedback on school list. I am looking to apply to 75% MD/PhD and 25% MD

1. GPA: 3.96/4.00, Molecular Biology + Business Double Major
2. 520 (C/P: 131, CARS: 126, B/B: 132, P/S: 131)
3. California Resident, Indian Male
4. T30 California School
5. Clinical experience Non Volunteer: IFT EMT 500 hrs, Volunteer: MA 200 hrs.
6. Research experience and productivity: 4000 hrs, 1 third author high impact significant contributions, 1 review mid author, 2 brief reports co author, 1 first author will be submitted by application.
7. Shadowing...

• leanstarfish321
• Replies: 5
• Forum: What Are My Chances? WAMC Medical

 

[Fencer]

You can use my standard advice as several of your schools have matriculating classes of less than 4 students with high application numbers. That is a very poor use of adding another school (and potentially a $econdary application). One of your schools has discontinued their MD/PhD program. Just keep in mind that your own personal productivity during your PhD is more important for PSTP residency directors than which MSTP you trained at.

My standard advice:

I tell applicants to be very open to applying broadly. Take AAMC table B-8 in excel from the AAMC FACTS tables webpage. Calculate number of applicants per matriculating slot of all programs. Select the list of MSTP programs from the NIGMS website. Arrange the spreadsheet by size of entry class. Examine table B-12 to see if a particular year was odd with more matriculants than it seems. Check their websites. For example, my program takes 8 applicants every year, we used to take 4-5 prior to that. Examine NIH funding tables at the Blue Ridge Institute or NIH Reporter website, particularly looking at funding from the NIH Institute of your area of interest (NCI, NIA, etc.). Depending upon your stats, you will group the 53 MSTPs by groups of 15-20, and select several from each group for your list... You have to have different levels of difficulty to make sure that you get into the best program for you (interest, fit, location, etc. low in the scale is USNWR ranking or perceived prestige). Choose at least 5-10 from each tier (more in top tier if you wish)... Apply early, if you need to triage interviews, that would be a good problem to have. If you follow my advice, you will get MD/PhD acceptance early from the bottom tier, and might end up in one of your dream schools by matriculation date.

Another strategy piece... Apply EARLY but you can start with only 5 schools as you submit your Primary application. Get your transcripts (and LORs) uploaded. Once the verification process by AMCAS occurs (takes 4-6 weeks), programs receive your application, which triggers Secondary applications. If you were applying to 30 schools, that automatic trigger results in a lot of secondary applications at once. Schools monitor how quickly you reply to secondary applications (one week or so is fine, two weeks are ok, but 30 at once might take you more than that). Here is my suggestion, if you add 5 additional schools every week (or M/F), the applications will have no further delays and will appear into the respective school portals within a couple of hours triggering $econdary applications, if appropriate. That is, you are able to apply early and stage your secondary application delivery as most are automatically triggered by computers. Adding 5-10 schools per week means that within 3 weeks (+/-1 day), you can apply to 20 MD/PhD programs and be more responsive to secondaries. Very few schools/programs have no secondary applications. My school has no secondary (no added fees/barriers, just adding another school)....