Pennsylvania Resident attending Penn State
I’m in the Schreyer Honor’s College
I am a varsity athlete (cheerleading) and captain of the team
I have one year of conducting research and am working on a project that might get published
100+ hours of shadowing in 5 specialites including orthopedic sugery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, etc
Spent a week in Central America setting up a medical clinic for those without access to healthcare
50 hours of volunteering in a children’s hospital
A few leadership positions in organizations
Not URM
Please let me know what you think of my list so far, any feedback would be greatly appreciated!
My first impression is you have a good 8-10 research-intensive schools, but your research background is weak. Also your list is top heavy. While your GPA is excellent; your MCAT is only slightly above the average MCAT for all accepted students nationally (31.4 last year, will likely be higher this year), and it’s below average for some of the schools on your list. (Harvard, Vanderbilt, Chicago, Penn, Pitt, Emory, USC, UTSW, Dartmouth, Virginia OOS)
I suggest you buy access to MSAR and research what schools where your stats are at or above the median for accepted students. Also look at which state med schools treat OOS applicants favorably. Some school admit nearly half their class from OOS; some admit zero from OOS. Decide where your comfort zone is. (JHU’s pre med office suggests that applying to schools with less than 25% OOS is a waste of time & money unless you have ties to the state or have a very strong reason to apply there.)
If you do apply to OOS programs, your stats need to be significantly above their average matriculated.
It depends if you are from those grade inflated schools. The med school knows.
And as WOWM pointed out a MCAT 33 is nothing to write home about when you are trying all top tier schools. You might very well be rejected by all. MY D who has a MCAT 34 in first sitting, she had NOT gotten Any II from any of 30 MD schools yet, she applied to all bottom tier schools most layman had even heard of.
With MCAT 33, you’d better apply to SOME DO schools, ie PCOM as well as some lower tier schools such as Coopers, Rush, C of Wis, VCU, Vtech etc.
I don’t think the OP needs to add DO programs to her list, but she does need to edit her list to replace some of the reach-y, reach-y schools.
Since you live in PA, consider adding Drexel and Temple to your list. (Temple’s average matriculant MCAT was 33 in 2014; Drexel’s was 31.)
FYI, Boston has over 10,000 applications annually with a 4% acceptance rate. Georgetown’s acceptance rate is only 2.5%. These are lottery schools. (So is George Washington.)
UTSW, like all Texas med schools, is required by state law to matriculate no more than than 10% OOS students.
I get the impression you’re a well-rounded applicant. I think it’s cool you’ve excelled in academics, test scores, athletics, and clinical shadowing, plus you have experience with leadership and research. There doesn’t leave a lot to be desired, and I think you’ve positioned yourself well for success with this whole med school application thing. Well done!
The next step is figuring out where to apply. You are great on paper, and assuming being chosen for captain of varsity cheerleading is a reflection of your charisma and people skills, there’s a great chance you’re even better in person. You need to figure out which schools are most likely to interview you. One way you can do this (assuming this info is still in MSAR) is compare the number of interviews to the number of applications, where (obviously) higher numbers of interviews are good for you. Then, you can compare the number of acceptances (different from the number of matriculants!) to the number of interviews to get a feel for what getting the interview “means.”
I personally think it’s fine to have a bunch of big names out there; after all, you can’t get in if you never apply. However, I think it’s wise to also have a nice mix of other schools too. You should definitely look seriously at your state’s school; not only will it most likely be the one you have the best chance at being accepted, it most likely will be the one that is also the least expensive–a winning combo for sure, even though choosing your state school is not a popular choice among posters here and on that board-that-shall-not-be-named. (I can only think of myself and maybe 2 other regular posters who go to state med schools.) I like the idea of adding Temple and Drexel to the list because it’s smart to apply to private schools where your stats are better than average, which I bet yours would be at both of those programs.
In the end, you only need to be accepted to one medical school, and if you play your cards right, that seems like a very achievable goal for you given your impressive record so far. Of course, it’s fun to have options, so adding a nice variety of top programs (you’re fine there!), state schools, and middle of the range schools is probably a good idea too. I think you’re off to a great start–good luck!
They are averaging 93-94% matriculants from instate probably because those that they do admit as OOS are high achievers who get into other top schools.
Also add Commonwealth in your list as an IS safety. Pcom will be the absolute bottom of the list, imho. If your Mcat is 36, it’s a different ball game. At 33, you should throw in some safeties for sure.
Don’t worry about Texas publics, it is going to be waste of your time.
I would say, that the list is NOT balanced. Lots of higher ends and not enough lower ends.
I can only base it on my D’s list and acceptances. However, it was 4 years ago and since then, I believe that competition went up. Her stats were 35/3.98, lots of long term ECs (all medically related were 3 years long), great job on campus, and lots of non-medically related ECs.
Out of your list, she was accepted to OSU Med. School (we are in-state). Pritzker has rejected her within 72 hours after she paid application fee, Pitt put her on a waiting list (but they were known for that, we do not know what result would be, she withdrew). She was accepted to Norhwestern and highly considered it, but turned it down at the end, I would add it to your list…
SInce Commonwealth is a private school (not a state public), it doesn’t exhibit a bias for in-state students. It is NOT a safety school. Commonwealth has a very specific mission and is looking for students who fit that mission.
Pennsylvania is an odd place when it comes to med school. It has no in-state public med schools. All its med schools are either private or a private-public hybrid (Penn State, Pitt, Temple) where the state subsidizes in-state costs but in-state admission bias is weak.
^ While Commonwealth is a private school, I read in their statements that they are in favor of In State student to work in the Harrisburg area. Nevertheless, since it is a lower tier school and closer to your residence, it can be a safety for a high stat student like you. You need some lower tier to balance your list anyway.
Commonwealth is in Scranton and seeks students who will live and work in the medically underserved NE Pennsylvania region (Think the Molly McGuires’ coal mining region of NE PA–like Mahnoy City–Sunbury–Carbondale)–not Harrisburg.
Harrisburg is a good 2 hours away from Scranton in south central PA, about 20 minutes from the Penn State–Hershey campus where the Penn State med school is located.
I grew up in PA, and I have family who still live in PA (including the NE PA area).
Take off all the OOS publics…unless you have a tie to that state…or it’s a growing SOM like UAB or a male-heavy USA. (if you could get/improve a tie to the state of Alabama, you’d be a shoo-in for USA).
Apply to every instate public SOM.
Add in some mid-tier privates and some lowish/unranked privates.
Only apply to a couple tippy tops…just to see…but you don’t have the ECs or MCAT score for those top research SOMs.
Forget USC (and it’s Keck)
You really need to adjust your list otherwise you could end up with few/no interviews.
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Also look at which state med schools treat OOS applicants favorably.
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this can mislead some students, because the accepted OOS students may be MD/XXX students, have ties to the state (grew up there or went to undergrad there), or be from a state that has an agreement with that SOM to accept that state’s students…so the random OOS student really has little/no chance of admittance.
The list just looks like the OP just looked at the better ranked schools and put them on her list.
ALL US MD schools are excellent. Do NOT worry about rankings.
The student does not likely have to apply to DO schools unless she wants to. Her MCAT and GPA are fine for many of the mid range and lower ranked SOMs.
With an improved list and a timely application date, this student should get at least one MD acceptance.
add SOMs like SLU, Creighton, Loyola Chicago, and MCW
Do not apply to any OOS public medical schools. Apply to every public medical school in Pennsylvania. Apply to every private medical school in Pennsylvania. Get the MSAR and review other schools. Fill out your list to total 15-20 medical schools(yes, it’s going to be expensive). See above advice on other medical schools to consider. There are no bad MD schools in the USA.
Since the OP is in Schreyers, she may be thinking that that will impress the top SOMs. I doubt it. Yes, Schreyers has very competitive admissions, but it also admits students with stats that wouldn’t likely qualify for top school undergrad admissions (sub 1400 M+CR SATs).
She needs to understand that she’s a good applicant with acceptable but not outstanding ECs. She needs to make a list that will result in interviews!!!
I agree with wayoutwestmom. Don’t assume the PA med schools will give you alot of love. We live in PA and my S goes to undergrad OOS. His GPA is similar to mwhite’s but his MCAT was 38. He has very good shadowing, research, etc. This season he applied to all PA MD schools except Commonwealth, along with many others out of PA. For PA, he only got interviews at Temple and Drexel. I’m still scratching my head why Jefferson and PSU did not interview him.
He also applied to 4 of the top 5 mwhite choices above with two outright rejections and not a peep from others. In my opinion it is a waste of time/application fee to apply to the ivys. If you want any more info feel free to PM me. Good luck!
One OOS public to keep on the list is Ohio State. They claim to not have an in-state bias and encourage OOS students to apply. While the odds are not perfect they do accept plenty of OOS applicants and 44% of their class was OOS.
I think if you have the money, still apply to the reach schools, BUT add to your list all the in-state schools. Very few people walk away with many acceptances – take no chances.
One interesting piece of advice that I saw on interviewing (for jobs, but it could be for anything) is that they are looking for a reason to reject you. Don’t give them a reason. Don’t be arrogant, don’t be meek, and don’t take any chances with what you say. Your numbers are solid and you will be fine.
Practice with someone for interviewing. Critical. Maybe even with one of the doctors you shadowed, which is what I did.