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- Apr 2, 2021
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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!
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!