<p>Goodness. 78? …and let me say…in all candor…WOW. You can’t get much better than that.</p>
<p>Edit: I’ll pm you a couple of more choices.</p>
<p>Thanks, curm. These choices are likely good fit for DS.</p>
<p>wow a 78, that is impressive? according to an excell chart i found on sdn, with a 78 means all school are his “saftey” except washu, for washu the chart said “go fo it”…lol.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sorry I meant to say “wow, a 78? that is impressive”, I wasn’t questioning whether or not a 78 was impressive…78 is REALLY GOOD, congrats mcat2…lol</p>
<p>Congrats to your S mcat2, way to go!</p>
<p>Colleges and entomom, Thanks!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A 78 is excellent, but even so this chart is too optimistic. I was around there, I think, and there were still five schools I applied to (out of twenty-five) that didn’t even want to interview me.</p>
<p>mcat2,
Congrats to your S! Good job!
Just curious, why he eliminated “some supercompetitive, research-heavy schools.”? With his score he can consider any school from what I understand.</p>
<p>Re: “eliminated some supercompetitive, research-heavy schools”:
I think he believes the stat only can not get him there. Also, he does not know his MCAT score when he needs to come up with the list of schools.</p>
<p>I forgot the details, but I think he eliminated those schools like H, Stanford, UCSF, Mayo (If curm’s D originally had these schools in her list.) He never thought he would have a chance for this kind of school with his not-astonishing-at-all ECs. Regarding his ECs, I frankly do not know exactly what his ECs are. (he lived over one thousand mile away.)</p>
<p>BDM: Thanks for your input. He is not like you who has so many other talents (e.g., publishing an article in a major economic journal, etc.) If only one area he might have a chance to beat you, it may be in music 
He practiced a lot on his instrument. He played, with his prelaw/premed friends, on stage at school’s event, and even on the street for a reason that is beyond my understanding. He once went to a black church one night to experience the “real” Gospel Choir (He really stood out that night but the church members there were very friendly to them but nevertheless a little bit awkward.) I bet he would miss that part of his college experiences more than many others (like academic/research).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree, schools like Harvard, johns hopkins, yale, etc. should never be considered “safeties”. Thats the reason, I used the words “safety” and “go for it” in quotations. </p>
<p>What is the formula for the Lizzy M score? I have no idea, the excel chart I have just tells me to plug in my “lizzy M” score and it lists schools based on whether or not they are “safety”, “hopeful”, “go for it”, and a “long shot”.</p>
<p>My understanding is:
LizzyM score = gpa * 10 + mcat
(I hope we do not need to minus one somewhere in this formula. If that is the case, DS’s score would be 77.)
I picked up this word about a year ago.
BTW, Do you notice that the screen “picture” of Lizzy M at sdn was changed not long ago? Her screen 'picture" becomes younger
H and JHU were not in DS’s target school list, and will not be. Those are for those who “walk on the water.”</p>
<p>78 is a great score. I had slightly over 80 when I applied in the recent past. I applied to 15 schools - all top 25 or in state and got interviews from all but two.</p>
<p>After I realized that I had very competitive stats, I basically treated those as givens and attempted to give my app a personality by developing an honest narrative (e.g. the international experience kid, the researcher, the community organizer, etc…though obviously yours needs to be more nuanced and fleshed out than these labels) to which I could, at the very least tangentially, relate my life experiences, activities, personal statement, interview answers, etc. </p>
<p>I had heard that schools really want to make sure that high stat type people are social, humanistic, etc. and not just successful in academics. My interview experiences tended to bear this out. And while admissions folks did occasionally complement me for my stats, they were much more interested in - and complementary of - the narrative that I developed.</p>
<p>So, in short, I think this may be a good next step. Of course, this is just one opinion. But, it worked out very well for me.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>mcat2,
Most people EC’s would be average, like volunteering, shadowing, research, job. Most did not save humanity from malaria or AIDs. Vast majority would not have 77 either. My D is keeping all her selective schools, her LizzyM is not as high. Strangely enough, she is also very interested in music, although no performances, just playing for herself and having Music Composition minor, which has been a great relaxation tool for her. Best wishes to your S!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree. I am using the chart as a general guideline. It is interesting to see how WashU is the only school that does not get to be a “safety”. It has to do with the fact that it does not allow the right margin of standard deviation within the formula to make it so.
WashU is definitely into high number stats to support their USNews rankings!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wow, so it doesn’t take into account science gpa?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That score does not take sGPA into account, however I have seen another index which is primarily used by the ivies that does take it into account…</p>
<p>GPA+scGPA + MCAT/3 = 23 (max score) The average premed student applicant has a 16. Something 21-23, may think of as a very desirable applicant number wise.</p>
<p>I mean, don’t forget that your science courses are in your GPA anyway. So it most certainly does count them, just maybe not with an appropriate weighting.</p>
<p>My LizzyM score was a 77. I got interviews at 10/12 places, although my acceptances were far fewer. Great stats can only take you so far with the top research schools, when you don’t have much research, haha.</p>
<p>With a 78, U of Michigan would likely yield an auto invite so if the student is considering that school and wants a guaranteed interview…</p>
<p>And not to get ahead, but I’m curious on what other people think of the best approach for scheduling interviews. For schools that are non-rolling, is it fair to assume that when you interview (assuming that you do indeed ultimately get to interview) is irrelevant? Do you think it is best in general to get interviews in as early as possible? And any strategies for trying to optimize performance? Did people try to interview with schools that were more towards “safety” status earlier for preparation?</p>
<p>And assuming interviewing early really is not important for non-rolling schools, does anyone know where we can find rolling versus non-rolling schools in a nice summary? MSAR?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>
I tend to agree with you on this. (Isn’t the college admission cycle similar on this aspect?! – except that we need to replace the word “reesearch” with all kinds of “cute ECs” here.) This may be the reason why DS never wants to target the very top schools, esp. those which put a lot of emphasis on things other than stat (Do UCSF, JHU, Stanford, Harvard, Mayo belong to this category?) – Another reason is he thinks he does not want to compete with superly competive students in the next few years (He thinks he has had enough of this in the past 4 years.) But recently, norcalguy posted that it is not necessarily so. As parents, we do not want him to push himself too much. As long as he can find a career at any school, it will be very fine.</p>