School List Help!
Hi all,
Thank you in advance; I am not super familiar with the med school process and am looking for any advice on my school list, as I'm concerned it's top heavy. I've also posted on sdn but thought I'd put it on reddit as well. I previously thought that I would apply MD-PhD, but have decided that I would apply MD only for this cycle due to certain constraints. :(
Here are my stats:
current senior in undergrad, will be taking 1 gap year
cGPA: 3.86 (AMCAS calculated; I specify this because my GPA is out of 4.3 and I had to manually convert everything)
sGPA: 3.85 (AMCAS calculated)
MCAT: 507 (1/16/25 - 128/127/125/127), 522 (8/16/25 - 132/128/130/132)
(my mistake the first time was only studying for three weeks...learned my lesson and studied for three months after)
NY resident
Asian ORM
T20 Ivy undergrad
Clinical volunteering: 300 hours hospital volunteering + (maybe I'll work as an EMT during my gap?)
Nonclinical volunteering: 200 hours CTL + some debate judging both volunteering and paid (~60 hours volunteer, maybe like 10 hours paid) * I realize this is probably a red flag based on other threads I've read...
Research: ~1000 hours in one lab (behavioral and computational neuroscience, two projects, one honors thesis, no pubs or posters unfortunately ), ~720 hours in paid research position for another lab. Both are labs at my undergrad.
Shadowing: ~80 hours (pediatrics, hospital IM, geriatrics, gastroenterology)
Leadership: ~450 hrs president of research/teaching club, ~200 hrs research mentor for another club, ~50 hours stats peer advisor (I'm a double in biology and statistics)
TA: 150 hrs as stats TA
gap year: will be doing research full time
I'm concerned about my school list being top heavy - I am also looking to stay on the east coast, mainly because I do not really have the means to leave the state... I also am only able to apply to max 27ish schools (def not above 30) due to financial reasons. I am also not planning to take casper or preview... My main questions:
- Are there any schools I should add/remove?
- How can I update schools on my gap year activities?
My current school list is as follows:
Weill Cornell
Columbia
Harvard
WashU St.Louis
NYU
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
UMich
Rochester
Boston University
Mt. Sinai
Buffalo
Albany
Dartmouth (mixed feelings about being in a rural area again..)
Tufts
Albert Einstein
SUNY Downstate
SUNY Upstate
UChicago
University of Pittsburgh
Yale
NY Medical College