hillbillybuck
New Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2024
- Messages
- 4
- Reaction score
- 1
Hey everyone,
I’m working on my school list for this upcoming cycle and am kind of stuck and would love some advice. Ideally, I’d apply to around 30ish schools. I used the wedgedog calculator to make a preliminary list then added some OOS-friendly schools from locations I wouldn’t mind going to. Right now this list is way too top heavy obviously and too long so I was wondering which reach schools would you guys recommend cutting and what lower tier schools should I add?
Stats:
GPA: 3.87, ~3.83stem, upward grade trend
MCAT: 523 (131/129/131/132)
ORM (caucasian), WA resident
Biology major
Went to University of Washington (currently in gap year)
Clinical: ER tech - 1200 hours (3220 at matriculation)
Non-clinical volunteering: Crisis Text Line counselor - 300 hours (500 at matriculation)
Clinical volunteering: 60 hours at annual free healthcare clinic for those without access to healthcare; mostly treating homeless and immigrant populations (90 at matriculation)
Leadership: volunteer coach of two Special Olympics sports teams - 50 hours (100 at matriculation)
Research: 200 hours - 2 projects (had to abandon first project after 6 months because post doc mentor left lab, then begun work on a different project under a new post doc which I did for three months before graduating), no pubs or posters. Due to my mentor leaving then me graduating, the projects were not very fruitful.
Shadowing: ~70 hours
Work: 3 years part-time as a paid undergraduate lab assistant doing stocking, ordering regeants, etc. Also worked 3 years part-time assisting with animal studies for a biotech group. This involved me assisting in rodent surgeries involving inducing infarction in cardiac tissues and subsequently harvesting that tissue after treatment therapies (I merely assisted the animal surgeon who did these things), daily injections in rodents during study periods, feeding pigs used for pig studies, etc. Not particularly sure how to classify this last job as I was assisting in the research by doing these things but was not involved in any planning, data collection, etc. and in no way did I have any control over the project or significant role in the project (currently have classified as paid work experience, not research).
Other: was in a fraternity sophomore through senior year. Did not hold any leadership positions. Not planning on putting this on my application unless it is recommended I should.
No X factor, unique hobbies, or awards (aside from dean’s list sophomore through senior year)
Current school list:
University of Washington
Washington state university
Boston university
Georgetown
Stanford
UC San Fran
WashU
Duke
Columbia
University of Chicago
NYU
UCLA
Northwestern
Cornell
University of Michigan
Mount sinai
USC
Dartmouth
Drexel
George Washington
Case western reserve
Florida Atlantic university
Eastern Virginia
Emory
Kaiser
Temple
Loyola university
Mayo
Wisconsin
New York medical college
Nova
Oakland university
Penn State
Saint Louis
UC Irvine
University of Vermont
Thomas Jefferson
Brown
Tufts
Tulane
University of Illinois
University of maryland
University of miami
University of Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
Wake forest
Thanks a ton for any help you guys can provide!
I’m working on my school list for this upcoming cycle and am kind of stuck and would love some advice. Ideally, I’d apply to around 30ish schools. I used the wedgedog calculator to make a preliminary list then added some OOS-friendly schools from locations I wouldn’t mind going to. Right now this list is way too top heavy obviously and too long so I was wondering which reach schools would you guys recommend cutting and what lower tier schools should I add?
Stats:
GPA: 3.87, ~3.83stem, upward grade trend
MCAT: 523 (131/129/131/132)
ORM (caucasian), WA resident
Biology major
Went to University of Washington (currently in gap year)
Clinical: ER tech - 1200 hours (3220 at matriculation)
Non-clinical volunteering: Crisis Text Line counselor - 300 hours (500 at matriculation)
Clinical volunteering: 60 hours at annual free healthcare clinic for those without access to healthcare; mostly treating homeless and immigrant populations (90 at matriculation)
Leadership: volunteer coach of two Special Olympics sports teams - 50 hours (100 at matriculation)
Research: 200 hours - 2 projects (had to abandon first project after 6 months because post doc mentor left lab, then begun work on a different project under a new post doc which I did for three months before graduating), no pubs or posters. Due to my mentor leaving then me graduating, the projects were not very fruitful.
Shadowing: ~70 hours
Work: 3 years part-time as a paid undergraduate lab assistant doing stocking, ordering regeants, etc. Also worked 3 years part-time assisting with animal studies for a biotech group. This involved me assisting in rodent surgeries involving inducing infarction in cardiac tissues and subsequently harvesting that tissue after treatment therapies (I merely assisted the animal surgeon who did these things), daily injections in rodents during study periods, feeding pigs used for pig studies, etc. Not particularly sure how to classify this last job as I was assisting in the research by doing these things but was not involved in any planning, data collection, etc. and in no way did I have any control over the project or significant role in the project (currently have classified as paid work experience, not research).
Other: was in a fraternity sophomore through senior year. Did not hold any leadership positions. Not planning on putting this on my application unless it is recommended I should.
No X factor, unique hobbies, or awards (aside from dean’s list sophomore through senior year)
Current school list:
University of Washington
Washington state university
Boston university
Georgetown
Stanford
UC San Fran
WashU
Duke
Columbia
University of Chicago
NYU
UCLA
Northwestern
Cornell
University of Michigan
Mount sinai
USC
Dartmouth
Drexel
George Washington
Case western reserve
Florida Atlantic university
Eastern Virginia
Emory
Kaiser
Temple
Loyola university
Mayo
Wisconsin
New York medical college
Nova
Oakland university
Penn State
Saint Louis
UC Irvine
University of Vermont
Thomas Jefferson
Brown
Tufts
Tulane
University of Illinois
University of maryland
University of miami
University of Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
Wake forest
Thanks a ton for any help you guys can provide!
Last edited: