WAMC/School list help - WAMC: ORM, 3.90, 525, low research

[WAMC3367]

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I'm 90% sure I should apply MD only and start looking at concurrent MS or MPH programs, as I don't think I have the experience necessary to convince a committee to bet on me and I don't want to take more than one gap year as MCAT will expire for some schools if I take 2. However, I'm really interested in biostatistics (major and intended PhD) so I honestly wouldn't mind going to a lower PD ranked school in order to do that. In that vein, would it be likely for me to get into any MD/PhD (fine with non-MSTP as long as its funded) program, and if so where should I focus on applying? I copied the rest of my post over from the pre-med WAMC thread. I included my initial MD school list from admit.org.

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS

• 3.90 cGPA and 3.88 sGPA (current senior, planning on applying 2025 cycle)

2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown

• 525 (132 CP, 130 CARS, 131 BB, 132 PS)

3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)

• NC

4. Ethnicity and/or race

• ORM(Asian)

5. Undergraduate institution or category

• UNC, Biostatistics major

6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)

• 980 total hours
  • 930 paid clinical hours (EMT - a mix of transport and EMS)
  • 50 volunteer hours (EMT clinicals)

7. Research experience and productivity

• 1120 total hours
  • 460 hours (senior thesis - will also be published in a relevant journal)
  • 60 hours (systematic review scut work - no productivity)
  • 600 hours (computational lab that went nowhere - no productivity)

8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• 80 hours (gastroenterology, oncology, family medicine, nephrology, cardiology)

9. Non-clinical volunteering

• 450 hours total
  • Certified application counselor at a student-run clinic (250 hours)
  • Helped homeless members of the community reach their financial/housing goals (150 hours)
  • Miscellaneous volunteering through a pre-health organization (50 hours)

10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)

• Major student association leadership and departmental committee membership (250 hours)
• Student-run clinic leadership (150 hours)
• Plan for gap year is to either work as a research assistant or ED tech

11. Relevant honors or awards

• Phi Beta Kappa

12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

• Thread is using statistics to better lives, in most of my extracurriculars, and all where I had leadership positions, I used statistics to gain insights about or streamline the work. I also want to apply to some MD-PhD programs - I realize my research is nowhere near enough to probably even pass a screen, and I don't want to take more than one gap year, but I am still interested in knowing if some programs are more forgiving in that regard.

My current list from admit.org is as follows:

Reach

• Duke
• Harvard
• Hopkins
• UPenn
• Columbia
• Stanford
• UCSF
• Cornell
• NYU
• Yale
• WashU
• Mayo Clinic

Target

• UNC
• USF
• Dartmouth
• UTSW
• Northwestern
• UPitt
• Icahn
• Case Western
• UVA
• UChicago
• Emory
• UCLA
• UMich

Baseline

• ECU
• Iowa
• Hofstra
• USC
• Cincinnati
• Tufts
• Wake Forest
• Colorado
• BU
• Brown

 

[Fencer]

You are well rounded for MD application, but you might be able to make a strong case for MD/PhD with essays and letters of recommendation. It is your pick; after all, you have over 1000 hours of research, which is kind of the cut-off. You are likely to receive interest from your reach list for both programs, and might even get an offer of acceptance from one of them. You haven't done your homework regarding MD/PhD programs (or MD) as several in your target such as USF and Dartmouth are not in the same league and have much fewer MD/PhD spots.

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 7 applicants every year since 2018, we used to take 4-5 prior to that. We just received an Impact Score of top 5% in our T32 MSTP renewal, and we will be adding an extra slot per year (now 8/yr since 2022). Examine NIH funding tables at the Blue Ridge or NIH websites, 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. MSTPs do not care for state of residence, MD programs do, particularly state schools. Texas is 90% MD class who is resident, but <25% in-state for MD/PhD.

 

[effervescent-nerd]

I don't think your number of research hours is a red flag as long as you can communicate your research well. I had around the same number of hours as you, and I've gotten 5 MD/PhD II's for this cycle so far, and they're still rolling in. Got one today, in fact! Best of luck, keep up the good work, and happy Halloween!