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Hey all, I majored in biology at a decent undergrad (ranked ~40). I graduated in 2013 and have been working full time since. I plan to apply next cycle. I would love help with my school list and any suggestions on how to become more competitive since I have ~6 months.
NJ Resident
Stats:
Research:
Other:
I would like to apply to ~30 MD schools. I would strongly prefer MD but will throw in some DOs if people really think it is necessary. This is what I have so far:
New Jersey Medical School
Robert Woods Johnson Medical School
Cooper Medical School
Columbia
Duke
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Case Western
Miami
NYU
Sinai
Dartmouth
Jefferson
Temple
Loyola
Rochester
Tufts
Boston University
Tulane
USC
Wake Forest
Emory
Albany
Hofstra
Oakland Beaumont
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Virginia Commonwealth
Vermont
Wayne State (low OOS, but will consider me to have 3.99 GPA)
I came to this list primarily by using WedgeDawg's spreadsheet, though I want to apply to more schools than it said I should. I think the somewhat unique nature of my app (bad GPA but good MCAT and ECs) warrants that.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! @Goro a lot of this was based on your tips. @goldy490 since you have such a similar app maybe you have insight.
THANKS!
NJ Resident
Stats:
- Undergrad - 3.44 cGPA, 3.22 sGPA
- College started off roughly with some very dumb Cs and Ws. I do have somewhat of an upward trend, including all A grades my last 32 straight credits which did include physics and a couple of upper level bio courses.
- 3.99 graduate GPA
- I'm working on a master's in bio at night while working full time. I've gotten all A's and 1 A minus. This includes various health/science classes like Biology of Cancer, Stem Cell Bio, Biostats, Genetics of Human Disease, etc.
- 518 MCAT (97th percentile)
- 129 chem, 128 cars, 131 bio, 130 psych
- 93% / 87% / 99% / 97%
Research:
- ~150 hours in an academic entomology lab studying the immune system of ants and termites (strange I know); resulted in a publication and national conference presentation
- ~2000 hours working in an immunology lab at a biotech company; help with various projects but primarily in testing a particular drug candidate for an autoimmune disease; obviously no pubs but did present results within company and did work closely with my PI on devising experiments
- 1.5 years full time as a clinical research coordinator in an oncology center. About 1/3 of this time was spent in clinic directly interacting with patients and physicians and about another 1/3 was spent working on data and such with study PIs.
- 1.5 years full time as a regulatory coordinator after a promotion in the same oncology center. No more patient interaction (though a big responsibility is advocating for patients via bureaucratic channels), but more heavily involved in FDA/IRB reporting, study data, assisting with protocol and ICF authorship, etc.
- Some amount of hours working on my master's thesis. I'm just planning my proposal at the moment, so I'm not sure the exact time involvement, several hundred hours I'd think. We will be doing a prospective epidemiological study on the influence of lifestyle and dietary factors on outcomes in patients with metastatic colon cancer. Should ultimately be published/presented, but not before I apply to med school.
- ~75 hours as a health educator teaching health classes in inner city high schools
- ~100 hours at a homeless day shelter/soup kitchen cooking and serving meals
- ~100 hours at a state run primarily psychiatric hospital
- Helped patients in the rehab program with their academic needs/desires
- GED studying, enrolling in online courses, simply using Khan and Coursera, etc.
- Volunteered at various recreational activities put on for the inpatients (movie nights, BBQs, etc)
- Patient visitor/snack cart on some weekends
- Helped patients in the rehab program with their academic needs/desires
- ~75 hours for a global health organization
- Worked in a group to facilitate "tumor board" meetings between a small hospital in Africa and a large academic center in the US
- Researched similar projects and tech solutions to ensure maximum quality of meetings
- Otherwise helped with growing partnership between the 2 hospitals
Other:
- Vice President of Career Development for a group of young professionals at the hospital I work at
- The group primarily promotes social events and community service related events which I help with
- My specific role is to encourage career development by setting up discussion panels, assisting with resume's, etc.
- Musician
- I've played the bass and some guitar and keyboard for >12 years now
- Released an album of all original music
- Regularly played my music live in Boston and on tour around the Northeast
- Was a resident DJ at a weekly live music night that brought in national and international musicians as well as other forms of art
I would like to apply to ~30 MD schools. I would strongly prefer MD but will throw in some DOs if people really think it is necessary. This is what I have so far:
New Jersey Medical School
Robert Woods Johnson Medical School
Cooper Medical School
Columbia
Duke
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Case Western
Miami
NYU
Sinai
Dartmouth
Jefferson
Temple
Loyola
Rochester
Tufts
Boston University
Tulane
USC
Wake Forest
Emory
Albany
Hofstra
Oakland Beaumont
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Virginia Commonwealth
Vermont
Wayne State (low OOS, but will consider me to have 3.99 GPA)
I came to this list primarily by using WedgeDawg's spreadsheet, though I want to apply to more schools than it said I should. I think the somewhat unique nature of my app (bad GPA but good MCAT and ECs) warrants that.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! @Goro a lot of this was based on your tips. @goldy490 since you have such a similar app maybe you have insight.
THANKS!
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