<p>Hello! I've read the stickies here and done a fair amount of research, but I was hoping for some help from you all on building a med school list. I sent my primary in already to get verified, but I just got my mcat scores yesterday so I want to send the app to more places asap so I can get started on secondaries. Here is some info about me:</p>
<p>-Go to Lehigh University, NJ Resident
-GPA: 3.89, sGPA: 3.95
-MCAT: 37 (P: 11, V: 12, B: 14)
-Around 60 hours of clinical observation in various areas of a hospital
-~50 hrs volunteering in the ambulatory surgical center of that hospital
-Research internship last summer
-Research program during my sophomore year, led to publications on GenBank as well as a conference
-Resident Assistant for 2 years
-Started a charity/service club at my school that raises money for Sudan Relief
-TA in a chem lab for 1 year</p>
<p>I have a few other less important things, but I hope that gives you a gist of my activities.</p>
<p>Money is very tight so I don't want to apply to places I don't have a shot in (i.e. I like the U Maryland program a lot, but I've heard OOS publics are near impossible?)</p>
<p>So far I've applied to:
-Jefferson
-UMDNJ
-NJ Medical School </p>
<p>Other options I've considered so far:
-UPenn
-Drexel
-Temple
-Brown
-Columbia
-Cornell
-Mount Sinai
-NYU
-Northwestern
-UPitt
-Tufts
-Yale
-Georgetown</p>
<p>I'm sure that some of these aren't really feasible, and that there are several others I haven't even considered yet. Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>Georgetown gets a lot of applications and has a ~3% acceptance rate–one of the lowest in the country. (Not dissing GT, just you should know you will have tons of competition there.) </p>
<p>Brown takes about 1/3 of its admissions thru non-traditional routes (PLME, MSTP)</p>
<p>What about Boston U? If you’re willing to move outside the NE-- Vanderbilt? Emory? </p>
<p>UMich, UVA and OSU all have very high OOS acceptance numbers and acceptance rates. So does Penn State (which despite its name is actually a private school just like Pitt).</p>
<p>Actually Brown takes about 1/2 of the med school class from the PLME program (although I don’t know what yield they anticipate in terms of % of accepted students that is). They do not have an actual MSTP program and at most 1-2 MD/PhDs per year.</p>
<p>if you are applying to Northwestern, I would recommend applying to Case + Cleveland Clinic (the last one is a free Med. School). First, in many cases Norhtwestern and Case accept the same students, second, Cleveland Clinic does not require a separate application, just a check on the application to Case and if you are invited to interviews at both, you can schedule them on the same week.</p>
<p>If that’s the case with Brown, I probably won’t bother. I definitely don’t want to waste my money. The question is whether Georgetown would be worth it or not. DC is a really nice area and I’ve heard good things about the school, but 3% is a doozy.</p>
<p>This is all great advice though. If anyone else has any other suggestions I’d be happy to hear it. I really appreciate it!</p>
<p>That’s also good advice. Maybe I’ll take Georgetown off the list.</p>
<p>Would it be smart to apply to all of the main Manhattan med schools (Columbia, Cornell, Mount Sinai, NYU, Einstein)? You guys seem to have some insider info, are any of those ones with extremely low acceptance rates like Georgetown?</p>
<p>My son, who is also an NJ resident with roughly the same stats (3.83/38), is applying to all the schools in your list except Brown, Georgetown and Tufts. He is also applying to more schools that are not in your list.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity - is the Biology professor (I forget his name), who was part of the whole Intelligent Design and the movement to bring that into school curricula, still there at Lehigh?</p>
<p>There are a few OOS publics that are friendly to OOS students. Ohio State and Michigan both come to mind. Also, if you are willing to consider Northwestern (Chicago area), U of Chicago (Pritzker), Loyola and Rush may deserve a second look.</p>
<p>I think I’m definitely going to do UVA. I’ve heard great things of UVM, but I’ve also seen WayOutWestMom’s stats… I don’t think it’s worth it for me to apply somewhere like that when there are places like UVA which admit significantly more OOS applicants.</p>
<p>Keep in mind though, that any OOS public’s cost will be either the same or in some case significantly higher that privates. So, the cost comarison for publics vs privates is only true for the In-state. So, if you are applying OOS (like vast majority of Med. School applicants) might as well include good number of higher ranked privates.
Also, keep in mind that many here had very negative experience with U of Chicago (including my D., who was accepted to Northwestern (Feinberg). While U of Chicago apparently accepts some people, nobody knows who and most get rejection letter few hours after sending application fee.<br>
On the other hand, D. had very position experience with OSU (but we are in-state), accepting her few days after her interview.<br>
One more observation, there are tons of California applicants in Medwest specifically. They seem to be in front of others, California gets accepted in much higher numbers than other states (again, Midwest experience), including my D’s current Med. School class.
You decide, we can only share personal experiences here.</p>
<p>^ I shake my head at some of the advice give out on this forum lately. Seriously? NJ resident applying to a school that is pretty much impossible for an out of state person to get into…</p>
<p>The stats for OOS include the non-WA WWAMI states. The OP is not a WWAMI resident, and has not presented any information showing that they are either underserved or plan to work with underserved communities:</p>