Which schools should I aim for/what are my chances of getting in?

I am going to be applying to medical schools this next cycle but I’m not sure which schools might give me the best chance with my stats. I did bad my freshman year and got a C in gen chem and a C+ in org I (3.2 overall gpa and 2.75 science) but I really turned it around and finished with a 3.63 overall gpa and a 3.54 science gpa with a major in biology and a minor in neuroscience from a private liberal arts school. I had a significant upward trend (3.67 science since sophomore year and 3.87 science gpa since junior year) including A’s in org II, inorganic I, neurobiology, biochemistry, cancer biology, microbiology and a few others. My overall GPA followed a similar trend. I will be taking the MCAT in January and have been crushing practice tests so I’m confident I can score 510 or over. I am working as a patient care assistant (PCA) at the Mayo Clinic currently and will have about a year and a half of direct patient care experience by the time I apply. I also have…

  • volunteering: 5 mission trips building homes and 4 habitat for humanity trips.
  • leadership: lead/oversaw a huge conference my school puts on yearly, captain of sports teams.
  • research: Mayo clinic impact program research 2 years, individual in-class research stuff.
  • confident I will have good letters of recommendation.
  • some other stuff

I already know I should probably get some more research experience so I’m planning on working as a research tech during next years application process. SOOOO with that what schools would you recommend I apply to (Minnesota resident but don’t care where I go)? What schools look more closely at junior or senior year/upward trend? What are some ways I could improve my resume? Thank you all for your help in advance!

First of all, what you don’t like UMNSOM? Its a great school, My friend’s D (minn resident) went there and is a board certified surgeon right now. She liked it. ALL US MD schools are good, but are you looking for first tier med schools, HYS or UCSF etc? or you are looking for a full ride at NYU? With your stats, I think you should be humble and start with lower tier MD schools(ie Howard) and throw in some top tier DO schools to boot. In my mind, you will be lucky to be admitted to MD school as the average admitted student for ANY MD school is 3.7 cGPA and 3.6 sGPA, you are on the boarder line, Make sure you apply to ALL schools in MN and those are the ones most likely take you in. Med schools are more biased to local applicants.

Forget about top tier med schools. As I posted before, my friend who is an administrative in Stanford Med school, her drawer is full of rejects with perfect scores, 4.0 gpa and over 526 Mcat.

BTW, research is not very important in med school applications, unless it is Your project and you got funding by yourself. Instead, spend few days shadowing varieties of physicians including some DOs, you will need it for your DO application.

Thanks for the advice! I’m definitely not aiming for top tier schools just trying to get in somewhere. I’m planning on applying to A LOT of DO schools and my childhood friends dad happens to be a DO who I’ve shadowed a couple times and said he would write me a letter. I’ll definitely apply to all MN schools and Midwest.

Adcomms LOVE upward trends and come-from-behind stories. There are even handful that will recalculate AMCAS GPAs and re-weigh freshman year grades. (Wayne State does.)

Apply to UMN, both campuses --though the Duluth campus is really looking for people who want to go into primary care w/underserved communities. Only apply there if your story fits that mission.

Do NOT apply to HBCU med schools (i.e. Meharry, Howard, etc) unless you have substantial service with the black community.

Buy access to the MSAR.

Calculate your GPA/sGPA for your final 3 years of college and use that as your base GPA.

Don’t apply to any programs where your adjusted GPA/sGPA puts you at or below the 25th percentile.

Do not apply to research intensive med schools (Top 20s) because your research experience simply isn’t strong enough.

Do not apply to any medical schools where your MCAT is at or below the 10th percentile. And do not apply to any OOS public med schools unless you MCAT is above their average in-state accepted MCAT score.

Catholic med schools (Loyola, Creighton, Georgetown, SLU) LOVE lots of service so consider those programs if your MCAT scores are within range.

If you kick butt on the MCAT and score in 510-13 range:

Loyola
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College of Wisconsin
Georgetown
George Washington
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Commonwealth
Seton Hall
Eastern VA
Virginia Tech
New York Medical College
Creighton
St. Louis U
NOVA Southeastern
U Vermont
Quinnipiac
Oakland Beaumont
Iowa

maybe Wayne State. maybe Toledo.

Also add 5-6 thoughtfully selected osteopathic schools, esp in the midwest since those program will like your being from rural-ish MN

If your MCAT comes back below 510–still apply to some MD programs, but concentrate on DO schools.