WAMC/Balancing School List (4.0, 523)

[earthwormpal]

Hi everyone! I am graduating in just a few weeks and will be applying this cycle. I just got my MCAT score back recently, so now I need to quickly formulate a school list so that I can prepare my application and start pre-writing secondaries once I submit my primary. I have high state, but I'm not sure about the if my ECs are good enough for top schools. I am hoping for some advice about how many schools of each tier I should include (T10, T20, T50, etc.) in my school list and how competitive I am for T20s. I hope to apply to around 25-30 schools.

1. 4.0 cGPA and 4.0 sGPA. I will get grades from my spring classes, so it is possible this will decrease a bit if I get any A- or B+s but not be much.

2. 523 MCAT (131, 130, 131, 131)

3. Location: GA resident. Gone to college in PA and will be living here for my gap year but keeping my residency in GA.

4. Race/Ethnicity: White, non-hispanic

5. Undergrad school: T30 small liberal arts college

6. Clinical experience: 270 total. 220 hours volunteering outpatient clinic over 2.5 years, 50 hours hospice volunteer over 1 year. This is the part of my application that I know isn't the highest amount of hours, but the hospice volunteering has been very meaningful.

7. Research experience: 1700 hours overall. 400 hours in biochemistry lab for summer, 400 hours in translational biology lab for summer, 900 hours in immunology lab over 2.5 years including one summer. Once I graduate I will have 3 posters, 3 abstracts, 2 presentations, and an honors thesis done. I think my research is very unique because I was actually the one to come up with my own project in the immunology lab and the specific area of research to work on as a sophomore research student as my PI gave me a lot of latitude over what I wanted to do for my eventual thesis. This project ended up leading to the lab's first large grant, a 3 year grant from the NIH. I don't have the most flashy results or a publication, but I've laid the groundwork for a large project that many people are now working on and worked on my own project/the lab's main project at a level that I don't think a lot of undergrads have done before.

8. Shadowing: 105 hours shadowing. 80 hours at a Children's hospital shadowing hospitalists, a general pediatrician, and a peds ER doc. 25 hours shadowing a general pediatrician serving an underserved population.

9. Non-clinical volunteering: 350 hours leading underserved Latinx middle schoolers in STEM enrichment activities (over 4 years). This year I am one of the coordinators, which is considered a job, but the majority of the hours is still volunteering so that's how I'm counting it.

10. Other activities: Hall Advisor job 200 hours, summer camp counselor job 400 hours, music 1500 hours, Leadership 350 hours in student government over 4 years (2 medium level roles), study abroad for public health one semester. For my gap year, I'll be taking some type of clinical job but I am not sure yet. I hope to get an Americorps job working in healthcare with underserved communities.

11. Awards: two awards from my school, one for the highest GPA in my class (shared) and one award given to one junior in the class for studying science / their scientific research

12. Anything else: I am disabled and LGBT, and these will be clear in my app. My disability/health struggles is a huge part of why I am going into medicine. I know I have to be careful with framing this, so I am being truthful about the fact that I had more going on healthwise as a kid that affected me a lot but now I'm very healthy and want to help others who are struggling like I was. I'm very interested in peds because of this. Basically I'm saying my health struggles are in the past and I've overcome them and want to help others. In general, my application is going to be focused on research and serving underserved communities as these are the things I'm really passionate about.

As for advice/what I'm looking for from this thread, I'm really looking to see how competitive my ECs are for T20s and how I should balance my school list in terms of schools from different rankings/categories.

So far, I plan on applying to all the schools in Georgia (MCG, Emory, Morehouse, and Mercer) since I'm a GA resident and Philly (Drexel, Thomas Jefferson, UPenn, Temple) as this is where I am going to be for my gap year and am in the area for college and would like to stay. I cannot drive, so I also plan to factor in location to my school list and will probably apply to a lot of schools in NYC/Chicago and on the east coast in general.

Thanks for your help!

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[AJS59]

Your app is pretty good to go as is for applying MD; I don't see any obvious holes.

As for T20s...I think you have a shot but don't stake your application on them. I think you are in the "pack fodder" range with regards to your ECs but you do also have a fairly unique background to support you. I'd say do some research into the T20s and pick out which ones think fit your "mission fit" the best. Also be sure to focus on privates and OOS-friendly public schools when adding to your list for schools outside of Georgia.

One way to potentially formulate a list if you're passionate about LGBTQ health is checking your list against that of the MSPA (Medical Student Pride Alliance) and see which schools have chapters; they may also be able to give you some more specific advice as you construct your primary and secondaries. I am not certain if a similar organization exists for medical students with disabilities, but others on this forum probably do.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

... I am not certain if a similar organization exists for medical students with disabilities, but others on this forum probably do.

There is.

MSDCI

msdci.org

To the OP: is a committee letter in play? What feedback have you gotten from your prehealth advisors?

What worries you most about your ECs? Do you have your preliminary school list?

Building Your Best School List - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

You don't need to disclose here, but what accommodations do you anticipate medical schools should give you? Did you get accommodations for your exams? Have your secured them for Casper or PREview? What is the process to request accommodations for your interviews?

If you are limited with transportation, I can see why the Boston to Washington corridor should interest you. I don't know how state politics affects your choice to stay in Georgia.

MD/PhD doesn't interest you?

 

[earthwormpal]

To the OP: is a committee letter in play? What feedback have you gotten from your prehealth advisors?

Yes, my school essentially does committee letters. My prehealth advisor is pretty involved since it’s a small school and knows that I’ll be disclosing my background with my disability etc. and is supportive of it. I’m going to meet with her soon to make sure the way I’m talking about it is appropriate.

What worries you most about your ECs? Do you have your preliminary school list?

If anything, I would say my clinical hours worry me as they’re sufficient but not a lot. I can’t really change anything at this point so I’m more just looking to get an idea of how competitive they are since I know my stats are competitive for top schools. I don’t have a preliminary school list yet. That’s why I’m here because I’m trying to figure out how I should balance my list with T20s T50s low tiers etc. like how many/what percentage of those. Once I know that then I feel like I’ll be able to choose the best ones for me based on missions/locations but I just don’t want to make my list too top heavy or sell myself short either.

You don't need to disclose here, but what accommodations do you anticipate medical schools should give you? Did you get accommodations for your exams? Have your secured them for Casper or PREview? What is the process to request accommodations for your interviews?

I won’t go into this too much detail, but I have a long history of getting accommodations so I have a good handle on the process. I haven’t gotten them yet for Casper/Preview but I’ll start that process. I shouldn’t need any for interviews.

MD/PhD doesn't interest you?

No, I do not want a PhD. I’ve been doing research in undergrad because I enjoy it but I know I don’t want to make it the majority of my career. I want to still be involved in research and do it as part of my career but not the main thing, and I’d like to do more clinic or social science based research for my career, not basic research like I’m doing now.

Basically what my main question is how to balance my school list based on how competitive I am. If I apply to 25-30 schools how many T20s would be reasonable, mid tiers, low tiers, for instance. I can figure out which are best from there I just don’t know how to make my list balanced for my stats/app.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
Medical College Georgia
Mercer
Emory
USF Morsani
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
U Michigan
Case Western
Cincinnati
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Rochester
Dartmouth
Brown
Harvard
Yale
Boston University
Tufts
Mayo
USC Keck
UCSF

 

[awood]

I'm just another premed, so don't view my suggestion as authoritative. However, I'd suggest maybe using admit.org to get a rough list of schools going based on stats, residency, etc. and integrate that with the input from here and mission fit as needed? This is just a suggestion though and you don't need to do this but you may find it helpful.