Help making a school list (515, s/cGPA 3.95, low CARS/pregrad clinical hours) (2024)

Hi everyone! I am currently in the process of pre-writing my secondary applications, and I'm nervous that I was way too ambitious with my school list and I want to include some more safety/target range schools. I am predominantly interested in MD programs at the moment, but I wouldn't necessarily say no to a DO. As quick note, my CARS score is low, I know that very well, trust me I have beat myself up over it for over a year, if the CARS score is something that will hold me back, as I know that it might/will, feel free to include that as a reason, just please don't hate on me if possible for that, my advisor specifically told me not to retake and I listened to her advice. My list is at the bottom, please let me know if more info is needed on certain things. Thanks for all of your help and input, I appreciate you all! Here are my stats in the order that WedgeDog put them on his disclaimer post:

1. cGPA - 3.945, sGPA - 3.952
2. 1st and only MCAT attempt - 515 -> 130/125/130/130
3. IL resident
4. White
5. Attended a top 20 University with a biochemistry degree that does not have its own medical school
6. I have 100 hours of clinical volunteering (direct patient interaction) and 250 hours of paid clinical as a medical assistant
7. Have nearly 1000 hours of research, multiple poster presentations, a 40 minute seminar talk, a 37 page senior honors thesis, prestigious summer international fellowship where I was able to synthesize a cancer drug in 10 weeks (obviously with a mentor, not alone), and my main research focussed on cancer tissue work.
8. About 75 hours of shadowing including nephro, ophtha, family med, wound care, and even a dentist, podiatrist, DO, and PA which didn't count toward my hours but I thought to include as I did truly sample the field to see what I wanted to do.
9. About 250 hours of non-clinical volunteering, depending on how you slice it; technically, I could have gone overboard here and included planning service events and cleaning them up for about 50 extra, I decided not to get weird about it and only included the hours I was physically serving people or places. My service work was with underserved communities at homeless shelters, food pantries, refugee services, and some smaller ones across the board, like things in my dorm, campus ministry, and even helping to set up campus athletic events (which I know falls more into volunteering and not true service).
10. During my gap year I will be a medical assistant full-time, I studied abroad 3 separate times, once during sophom*ore summer for a language program (so that I could hit conversational fluency in German), another as a normal fall semester study abroad in small town Ireland (where all of my family was from, a lifelong goal of mine was to visit family sites, it was one of my most meaningful experiences as I connected with my heritage), and the fellowship for the summer following my junior year as a full time research in a biomedical research lab. I was also a chemistry TA during my senior year, I chose to do this after loving my fellowship so much that I really wanted to spread that love for lab work with other premed students. I was the board member of a variety of clubs, none of which I had space to elaborate on very much because of the 15 activity limits, but essentially I was the treasurer, outreach, committee member, etc for a bunch of service clubs. I was also a transfer student that transferred to get into higher academic rigor and closer to home. I was a huge part of my campus athletics community (I am not an athlete, just a hobby of mine), I won't say which only to protect my identity a bit, but I joined the community after transferring and then eventually found myself not just as a staff member there, but leading clinics, teaching, and coaching other students to build community. I was the captain of both my dorm and Co-Rec intramural teams during both semesters each year. Played volleyball with the Irish national team players during my time abroad. I will also include in here that in high school during my senior year I was elected to essentially what equated to the highest leadership position in the school and a lead person for diversity and inclusion, I put this here because I do actually write about it some in my secondaries so far that I am pre-writing. I'm certain I am missing things, but the rest would just be listing some things, I will edit if I remember.
11. I was in Phi Beta Kappa, I won an ACS chemistry research award, graduated cum laude, made the deans list many times, was in university honors at my previous school before transferring, presented at two poster fairs, and had a 40 minute seminar presentation on my research and the field.
12. This gap year I am also planning to learn Spanish, so far so good, I do about 1-2 hours of learning a day especially on my commutes, I live in a predominantly Spanish speaking area despite being a white non-spanish speaking person myself so I get practice. After just three weeks of learning I can confidently conjugate verbs in every tense with easy, and I've gotten good at the pronouns (me, mi, yo, se, te, tuyo, etc etc etc). As a side note, the biochemistry major at my school is pretty widely accepted by the students as the hardest major at the school, not a single one of us graduated Summa Cum Laude, and just a couple Magna, so I was really proud of getting Cum Laude and I was only the cusp on Magna. Anyway, please don't hesitate to hound me for things I forgot to include!
13. WARS score: 80 (conservative) - 94 (If I am a little more liberal with what counts) LizzyM score: 73.50

My school list so far is as follows, and this is what I want the most critique on:

• Cincinnati
• Colorado
• Columbia
• Cornell
• Creighton
• CWRU
• Dartmouth
• Duke
• Emory
• Harvard
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Loyola
• Mayo
• Michigan
• Nebraska
• Northwestern
• Oakland
• Ohio State
• Pittsburgh
• Ros Franklin
• Rush
• Stanford - dream school
• UChicago
• UCSF
• UIC
• USC
• Vandy
• Vermont
• Virginia
• WashU
• Wisconsin
• Yale

Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants with far more clinical and non clinical hours than you have. Your list is top heavy for an applicant with a MCAT of 515. I suggest these schools with your stats:

• Cincinnati
• Colorado
• Creighton
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Michigan
• Northwestern
• Oakland
• Ohio State
• Pittsburgh
• Ros Franklin
• UIC
• Vermont
• Medical College Wisconsin
• Western Michigan
• St. Louis
• TCU
• USF Morsani
• Wake Forest
• Virginia Commonwealth
• Eastern Virginia
• George Washington
• Drexel
• Temple
• Jefferson
• New York Medical College
• Albany
• Quinnipiac
• Tufts
• UMass

Faha said:

Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants with far more clinical and non clinical hours than you have. Your list is top heavy for an applicant with a MCAT of 515. I suggest these schools with your stats:

• Cincinnati
• Colorado
• Creighton
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Michigan
• Northwestern
• Oakland
• Ohio State
• Pittsburgh
• Ros Franklin
• UIC
• Vermont
• Medical College Wisconsin
• Western Michigan
• St. Louis
• TCU
• USF Morsani
• Wake Forest
• Virginia Commonwealth
• Eastern Virginia
• George Washington
• Drexel
• Temple
• Jefferson
• New York Medical College
• Albany
• Quinnipiac
• Tufts
• UMass

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Awesome, thanks for the list, I was looking at some of these schools earlier so I'm glad you agree. I had a quick question about the 515 part of things, would the 130 in the other 3 sections be enough "proof" that I can handle the academics at a top school. i.e. is there a potential that even with a 515 there's a chance at a top school, or is it throwing money away. Not that I had any intention of bringing this up in interviews or essays because I don't want to make excuses, but I genuinely did have a fluke bad exam, I did great on all of my practices, even scored a 526 on my second to last one, so I'm just wondering if that's the tragic reality that this one score could have a big impact like that.

Faha said:

Your 350 clinical hours and 250 non clinical hours are adequate for many schools but at top tier schools you will be competing with applicants who have many hundreds or thousands of hours AND MCAT scores of 520+.

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ah that makes complete sense, I always forget that there are only spots for 100 or so students at these institutions, and even at my undegrad alone there seemed to be students who had those type of hours and scores, I can only imagine the collective nation as a whole. Thanks for the help and school suggestions!

D3FishOil said:

ah that makes complete sense, I always forget that there are only spots for 100 or so students at these institutions, and even at my undegrad alone there seemed to be students who had those type of hours and scores, I can only imagine the collective nation as a whole. Thanks for the help and school suggestions!

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Get access to the MSAR. It does matter how many seats you actually are competing for. Some of the schools have larger class sizes but also have reserved many for early admission agreements (undergraduate programs or postbac/SMP program linkages). Your mission fit determines your success.

Mr.Smile12 said:

Get access to the MSAR. It does matter how many seats you actually are competing for. Some of the schools have larger class sizes but also have reserved many for early admission agreements (undergraduate programs or postbac/SMP program linkages). Your mission fit determines your success.

Mission Fit: Key to Your Success - SDN

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

www.studentdoctor.net

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Thank you, I gave it a read and I agree. I'm now doing a lot of mission statement reading (frankly, it is blending together), but some do stick out to me that I would like to add. My AMCAS application has already been verified, can I add more without risking a very long verification process? or is it as simple as just adding and paying more money without waiting for verification. Online it said I had to recertify, not sure what that means.

Read the article on mission fit.

You are always encouraged to add and spend your money. Check the applicant guide on recertification.