<p>Don’t tell us about the actual components of the app. outside of the incoming credentials because they are only a speculation or self-appraisal. Anyway, you look great on paper and have about as good a chance as everyone else at some of these schools. Also, don’t say that you already know the medical specialty you want to pursue, that’s annoying…You may be very sought after considering your location. It may help significantly, but may I add that all of those selective schools are not the same for science education. I would try to find a school at least as good as Vanderbilt, but is not as difficult to get into, and there are many such schools (fortunately, you have Rice on there, which I honestly think is better for physical sciences and engineering). </p>
<p>I’ll also add this: You said you were interested in biochemistry, but said you’d settle for biosciences if the school didn’t have it. Most biosciences departments will not be chemistry or even molecular biology heavy (though many you have listed are). You should probably be looking at the quality of chemistry departments if you still want to get a grounding in biochemistry or chemical biology oriented things before going to med. school (it’s also “rumored” that problem solving oriented science majors tend to outperform pure biology majors on the MCAT. And the new MCAT is more problem solving oriented than ever). Most of those places have very solid chemistry depts, but I know two of them where that is not the case (I won’t name them unless you ask for it in a PM. The chem. depts compared to the other places listed are just meh…and I can find some less selective schools that are better…hopefully you already applied to some). “Biosciences” and “biochemistry” are usually completely different. You’d be better off majoring in chemistry and dabbling in relevant biology courses (or doing biology and getting a healthy helping of biology oriented chemistry courses beyond the organic chemistry requirement for med. school. And I know at least one school where not even those courses aren’t that good). Just be careful. Don’t let the rank and selectivity of all these places fool you. </p>
<p>As for the list: You may be a match for RIce (which is good for what you want to do!), and the others are reaches for practically everyone and are somewhat random (though international recognition for something will increase chances at Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton dramatically) Your stats. say you are competitive for all of these, but it could go either way. Hopefully you’ll be admitted to at least half of them, but really think about where you want to go. They are not all the same…</p>