Chances at top 10

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NarutoMD

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- nontraditional (6+ years out) Asian, NJ resident (grew up in California and all of my family lives there)
- cGPA: 3.72, sGPA: 4.0 from a mid-tier undergraduate
- postbacc GPA (all upper division science courses): 4.0
- MCAT: pending (will have scores on Tuesday; practice scores: 520-523)
- very strong community service with an emphasis on the underserved (Americorps, CASA advocate, homeless youths, etc)- thousands of hours
- 2+ years tutoring/teaching for underachieved/underserved kids
- very strong research experiences- many years (basic science and clinical); a few publications (2nd and 3rd author)
- good clinical experiences?- nursing home, free clinic (+400 hours); EKG technician- currently work as a volunteer for organization to provide free cardiac screening/monitoring for high school kids
- weak shadowing experiences (~20hours) but I feel that my clinical experiences should make up for this since I work with a number of different specialists at the clinic?
- held a few leadership positions during undergraduate but that was so long time ago
- other extracurricular activities (sports, music, etc)
My dream schools are UCSF, Columbia, and Upenn. My AMCAS has just been verified and I have pre-written most of the secondaries for the schools I am sure of applying. I know my application is late so I need some advice on which schools to add and which ones to remove to maximize my chance of getting accepted. Depending on my MCAT scores, I will see where else to apply. Preferably, I want to stay on the east coast since SO is here. So far, these are the schools I plan to apply to:
UCSF
UCLA
UCSD
Stanford
Columbia
NYU
Albert Einstein
Mt. Sinai
Cornell
Upenn
John Hopkins
Mayo
Duke
Harvard?
Umich
Tufts
Uboston
NJMS
RWJ

Will update on MCAT scores when available. Would love to hear from @Goro, @gyngyn, @Faha and all wise SDNers. Thank you for your advice.
When you get your MCAT score, then we can advise.
 
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Update: I got a 522 on my MCAT (all scores are above 127).
 
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You should receive several interviews from your list and of course you are a very strong candidate for your NJ schools.
 
You should receive several interviews from your list and of course you are a very strong candidate for your NJ schools.

Thank you. I am planning to apply to Yale and Northwestern as well. Do you think I could remove one of the NJ schools and Tufts? Which schools do you think I should remove considering my app is late and some schools have rolling admission? I am somewhat low on funds so I want to save them for secondaries and interviews. Thank you
 
Keep both of your NJ schools since they are your "safeties". It is not late to apply to any schools. There are no acceptances given out until mid October.
 
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So I have narrowed down my school list to include:
Both NJ schools, Tufts, Boston U, Harvard, Albert Einstein, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Yale, Upenn, Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, Mayo, U Chicago, John Hopkins and Northwestern. I decided not to apply to U Michigan because I don't think I will like it there. What do you guys think? @Goro, @gyngyn, @Faha
 
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So I have narrowed down my school list to include:
Both NJ schools, Tufts, Boston U, Harvard, Albert Einstein, Columbia, NYU, Cornell, Yale, Upenn, Columbia, Stanford, UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, Mayo, U Chicago, John Hopkins and Northwestern. I decided not to apply to U Michigan because I don't think I will like it there. What do you guys think? @Goro, @gyngyn, @Faha
If you can't get some love from that list, something is very wrong!

Do keep in touch!
 
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On your secondaries make sure you write it "Johns Hopkins".

I would add a few more schools - you are ORM, and even for such a strong candidate as yourself the top could potentially be a bit of a crapshoot especially if you aren't great at interviews. You should be successful, but IMO the risk of not getting into top schools / not getting scholarships outweighs the pain of sending secondaries/interviewing at 5 more schools. You only get 1 shot at this, cast a wide net.
 
On your secondaries make sure you write it "Johns Hopkins".

I would add a few more schools - you are ORM, and even for such a strong candidate as yourself the top could potentially be a bit of a crapshoot especially if you aren't great at interviews. You should be successful, but IMO the risk of not getting into top schools / not getting scholarships outweighs the pain of sending secondaries/interviewing at 5 more schools. You only get 1 shot at this, cast a wide net.
Haha, thanks. I've never noticed that. Good catch! I already added UC Davis yesterday because of its 3-year MD program. I don't think I will be adding any more schools considering how expensive this process is. Hopefully it will end well. Thank you for the advice.
 
You sound like an amazing applicant. Good luck!
 
Haha, thanks. I've never noticed that. Good catch! I already added UC Davis yesterday because of its 3-year MD program. I don't think I will be adding any more schools considering how expensive this process is. Hopefully it will end well. Thank you for the advice.
Don't waste your time if you're not a CA resident.
 
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