Looking for advice from someone who has been admitted to NYU Grossman School of Medicine

[MDtoBe1999]

Ahoy all,

I am a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin. However, I have always wanted to go to medical school in New York. It's been my dream long before I was even in high school, believe it or not! I am looking for some advice from anybody who has been admitted to NYU Grossman School of Medicine, as it's my absolute top choice.

A few things I am looking for:

1. If you're willing to share, what was your undergraduate GPA and MCAT scores?

2. What extracurricular activities did you have that you believe helped get you admitted?

3. What do you truly believe made the difference between you and another applicant? Why did they choose you? What do I need to do to help myself look unique?

Aside from the obvious GPA and MCAT scores, I'm looking for literally anything that you believe - or even know for fact - helped you get admitted.

Thank you, very much!

EDIT: I want to thank everybody for expressing their, albeit, vocal opinions. One individual suggested that I should eat a piece of humble pie. I want to address that, here: I want to emphasize that I am a very humbled person. My wife constantly (and I do mean constantly) yells at me for beating myself up so much. My 4.0 GPA has come at a cost. I used to be a very fit person and was a healthy weight. Since then, however, I have been malnourished on multiple occasions, even to the extent of being so malnourished, that I almost wound myself in the hospital. I am so in love with the idea of being a doctor, that I often forget the importance of taking care of myself, first. Additionally, I want to say that my comment on "maybe I'll end up at Cornell or..." was not meant to be taken literally. It was supposed to be sarcasm. I know how incredibly challenging it is to be admitted to virtually any medical school in the US, and I don't take that lightly.

I do wish that some - maybe even most - of you would be more positive. Yes getting admitted to medical school is daunting, yes it's hard, there's no guarantee you'll be admitted anywhere... however, holding negative attitudes about your chances of admission will hurt you in the long run, not benefit you. So stop discouraging people because it's "very hard to get in" or "near impossible to get in". I have a personal friend who is on the admissions committee for a particular medical school, to which I will not give the name of, who says that those with positive attitudes are more likely to be admitted, over those with the negative attitudes.

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[deleted987519]

There is no formula for getting in to a specific school (I also don't think you can fake being "unique").

Get the highest GPA/MCAT you can, engage (in sufficient amounts) in the ECs usually recommended (shadowing, research, clinical and non-clinical volunteering, teaching/TA/leadership), and apply broadly =]

 

[MDtoBe1999]

Just to let you know that NYU has the highest median matriculant GPA and MCAT scores in the nation

View attachment 311008

Yeah, that's true. Hence why I'm looking for things to increase my admission chances! NYU is a long shot, but you miss 100% of chances you don't take. Even if I'm not admitted, NYU is still my top-choice. Please, do note that I fully intend to apply to a very wide range of schools, including some not-so-perfect med schools... thanks!

 

[MDtoBe1999]

There is no formula for getting in to a specific school (I also don't think you can fake being "unique").

Get the highest GPA/MCAT you can, engage (in sufficient amounts) in the ECs usually recommended (shadowing, research, clinical and non-clinical volunteering, teaching/TA/leadership), and apply broadly =]

You're right, there's not a specific formula. But the truth is, every schools admissions committee looks at individual students differently. So that being said, what might get you into Stanford Med, won't necessarily get you into Baylor. NYU admits are going to have that "well, here's what I had going for me" type of data.

As far as "faking" uniqueness, that's not what I was asking, at all. I want to know what unique attributes they had going for them. Here's an example: I am a volunteer firefighter/EMT on the side of college, which is unique, considering the vast majority of med school applicants aren't firefighters. That can seem as unique to a medical school admissions team (I had an appointment with an MD Admissions Advisor at the University of Wisconsin School of Public Health and she told me this directly).

Thanks for your help! I have a 4.0 GPA right now, so I just need to keep that up, get some good ECs (BTW, I have a ton a shadowing experience and a bit of clinical and non-clinical volunteering, research is starting in the Spring and I will be a TA for an entry bio class in Fall 2021), and prep for that godforsaken MCAT!

Thanks!

 

[deleted987519]

You're right, there's not a specific formula. But the truth is, every schools admissions committee looks at individual students differently. So that being said, what might get you into Stanford Med, won't necessarily get you into Baylor. NYU admits are going to have that "well, here's what I had going for me" type of data.

As far as "faking" uniqueness, that's not what I was asking, at all. I want to know what unique attributes they had going for them. Here's an example: I am a volunteer firefighter/EMT on the side of college, which is unique, considering the vast majority of med school applicants aren't firefighters. That can seem as unique to a medical school admissions team (I had an appointment with an MD Admissions Advisor at the University of Wisconsin School of Public Health and she told me this directly).

Thanks for your help! I have a 4.0 GPA right now, so I just need to keep that up, get some good ECs (BTW, I have a ton a shadowing experience and a bit of clinical and non-clinical volunteering, research is starting in the Spring and I will be a TA for an entry bio class in Fall 2021), and prep for that godforsaken MCAT!

Thanks!

You are off to a great start, good luck!!!

 

[Monkeymojo]

I think the greatest thing an applicant can do beyond GPA/MCAT is creating a unifying narrative. Finding a niche within healthcare and focusing on it through research, volunteer, and shadowing. Then explaining why the specific school of your choice would be able to take that goal to the next level through one of their specific programs.

For example, if you are a survivor of a traumatic event you may use that as the main reason for pursuing MD. Then in college, you would volunteer and conduct research focused on mental health or trauma care as well as shadowing a physician in that specialty. Lastly, you would research what that medical program is doing in that field and work it into the secondary essay.

 

[proudofmykids]

NYU I believe now has the lowest or one of the lowest admissions rates along with highest end for yield. About 150 Acceptances from 11,000 applicants for a class of about 100 (subscribe to MSAR for $30). And realize that you aren’t competitive for every seat... for example true traditional applicants are probably no more than 1/3 of their Acceptances, yet >1/3 of applicants. If you are not SES hardship or URM that eliminates available seats as well.

Since you asked, I’d say the single best thing you can do to Increase you chances assuming everything else is very competitive, is to score at least 90%ile for NYU on your MCAT, so a 526 to stand out just a bit more. (524 is 75%ile) Realize however, it surely won’t assure you an Acceptance!

Now you can see how ridiculously hard it is to land an NYU acceptance. And, maybe you will qualify for financial aid to make the other top schools similarly affordable so you don’t have to put all your hopes in one basket for free tuition. (I found the best predictor of financial aid to be any FAFSA EFC calculator but using the Undergraduate school calculator, not graduate schools since those calculators don’t account for parental income like the meds schools actually do.)

 

[djiboutiman]

Not admitted to NYU, didn’t even apply. Just wanted to say good luck Kris! It’s nice to see some optimism on this website!

 

[akg0119]

@MDtoBe1999 Maybe I'm a little paranoid about privacy, but I would recommend you not use your real name (not even your first name!) on SDN. We all share so much info (even if we don't mean to!), and it's just better and safer to stay anonymous.

That being said... good luck! You sound like you're on the right track AND that you have a lot of enthusiasm, and that can definitely carry you far in this process

 

[FatherTime-PhD]

be the best version of yourself and hope that is what NYU is looking for.

 

[MDtoBe1999]

Not admitted to NYU, didn’t even apply. Just wanted to say good luck Kris! It’s nice to see some optimism on this website!

Well thank you!

 

[MDtoBe1999]

be the best version of yourself and hope that is what NYU is looking for.

That... is weirdly good advice. Thanks!

 

[MDtoBe1999]

@MDtoBe1999 Maybe I'm a little paranoid about privacy, but I would recommend you not use your real name (not even your first name!) on SDN. We all share so much info (even if we don't mean to!), and it's just better and safer to stay anonymous.

That being said... good luck! You sound like you're on the right track AND that you have a lot of enthusiasm, and that can definitely carry you far in this process

Duly noted! Thank you! I sure hope to get there!! I like how everybody keeps assuming that NYU is my top choice because of its free tuition scholarship... what’s funny is that me wanting to go to NYU has absolutely nothing to do with its free tuition!

 

[proudofmykids]

Duly noted! Thank you! I sure hope to get there!! I like how everybody keeps assuming that NYU is my top choice because of its free tuition scholarship... what’s funny is that me wanting to go to NYU has absolutely nothing to do with its free tuition!

Ok, ill bight. Why NYU versus Columbia, Cornell, Mt. Sinai all in Manhattan?

 

[Monkeymojo]

Ok, ill bight. Why NYU versus Columbia, Cornell, Mt. Sinai all in Manhattan?

Free tuition might have something to do with it


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[FatherTime-PhD]

Free tuition might have something to do with it


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Yah but if OP is poor af, full COA at Columbia or Cornell sounds even better

 

[KnightDoc]

Duly noted! Thank you! I sure hope to get there!! I like how everybody keeps assuming that NYU is my top choice because of its free tuition scholarship... what’s funny is that me wanting to go to NYU has absolutely nothing to do with its free tuition!

Actually, what's funny is that you feel the need to point this out to us as though it was relevant! The simple fact is that NYU is using this program to try to elevate itself from just another top school to THE top school.

It still has a way to go, but it has thus far been successful in attracting around 9,000 people (out of a total applicant pool of around 50,000) to apply, whether or not their interest is tied to free tuition. This has caused admission to be akin to winning the lottery, given how difficult it is to score an II, and then how ridiculously hard it is to score an A after that.

To my knowledge, purity of motive and lack of interest in free tuition is not a metric used by the adcom (if it were, they could easily make it relevant by eliminating the program ). So, unfortunately for you, a school that was always your first choice and that you would have happily paid full price to attend is now virtually impossible to get into since they have decided to offer free tuition to all, which has caused it to be attractive to around 20% of the entire applicant pool for ALL medical schools.

 

[MDtoBe1999]

Ok, ill bight. Why NYU versus Columbia, Cornell, Mt. Sinai all in Manhattan?

Good question! It's quite simple, really. I fully intend on applying to Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai as, as well! To be completely honest, my top choices are somewhere between NYU and Cornell. Cornell is something that I've been attracted to for a long time, as well as NYU. I didn't even think about asking about Cornell admissions from Cornell admits... I should have done that, too. I actually know Cornell's alma mater by heart and I don't know NYU's . Maybe that's a "sign" that I should put my efforts into Cornell, and apply to NYU just in case... LOL. No, but in all reality, NYU is really freaking good for research and even primary care. I love the campus (absolutely gorgeous) and I've just heard A LOT of good things about NYU's MD program. In all reality, I'll probably end up at Cornell or Columbia or Mt. Sinai, who knows. NYU is seeming a little far-fetched. It's weird to think that I will have a better chance of being admitted to an Ivy League, than a state-school... what in the world is going on?! LOL. Guess that's what happens when the school offers a tuition-free program, haha!

Thanks for asking!

 

[MDtoBe1999]

Actually, what's funny is that you feel the need to point this out to us as though it was relevant! The simple fact is that NYU is using this program to try to elevate itself from just another top school to THE top school.

It still has a way to go, but it has thus far been successful in attracting around 9,000 people (out of a total applicant pool of around 50,000) to apply, whether or not their interest is tied to free tuition. This has caused admission to be akin to winning the lottery, given how difficult it is to score an II, and then how ridiculously hard it is to score an A after that.

To my knowledge, purity of motive and lack of interest in free tuition is not a metric used by the adcom (if it were, they could easily make it relevant by eliminating the program ). So, unfortunately for you, a school that was always your first choice and that you would have happily paid full price to attend is now virtually impossible to get into since they have decided to offer free tuition to all, which has caused it to be attractive to around 20% of the entire applicant pool for ALL medical schools.

Yeah, you make a lot of valid points. Truth be told, although I will be heartbroken if I get rejected from NYU, I will be especially happy ANYWHERE in Manhattan... I think I could be happy at Cornell, especially. I almost went to Cornell for undergrad (but family kept me here in cheeseland). So stupid. I'm really starting to think that I should put all of my effort into Cornell and go from there...

 

[blockrudder1]

Good question! It's quite simple, really. I fully intend on applying to Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai as, as well! To be completely honest, my top choices are somewhere between NYU and Cornell. Cornell is something that I've been attracted to for a long time, as well as NYU. I didn't even think about asking about Cornell admissions from Cornell admits... I should have done that, too. I actually know Cornell's alma mater by heart and I don't know NYU's . Maybe that's a "sign" that I should put my efforts into Cornell, and apply to NYU just in case... LOL. No, but in all reality, NYU is really freaking good for research and even primary care. I love the campus (absolutely gorgeous) and I've just heard A LOT of good things about NYU's MD program. In all reality, I'll probably end up at Cornell or Columbia or Mt. Sinai, who knows. NYU is seeming a little far-fetched. It's weird to think that I will have a better chance of being admitted to an Ivy League, than a state-school... what in the world is going on?! LOL. Guess that's what happens when the school offers a tuition-free program, haha!

Thanks for asking!

You will likely have the same chance at all of them. Like someone said, each school admits based on different factors. Im attending one of the above schools after being rejected to objectively less competitive schools.
You sound aloof thinking you'll "end up" at one of these very competitive programs. Sure, shoot for the stars but adjust your expectations. +eat a slice of humble pie

 

[KnightDoc]

Good question! It's quite simple, really. I fully intend on applying to Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai as, as well! To be completely honest, my top choices are somewhere between NYU and Cornell. Cornell is something that I've been attracted to for a long time, as well as NYU. I didn't even think about asking about Cornell admissions from Cornell admits... I should have done that, too. I actually know Cornell's alma mater by heart and I don't know NYU's . Maybe that's a "sign" that I should put my efforts into Cornell, and apply to NYU just in case... LOL. No, but in all reality, NYU is really freaking good for research and even primary care. I love the campus (absolutely gorgeous) and I've just heard A LOT of good things about NYU's MD program. In all reality, I'll probably end up at Cornell or Columbia or Mt. Sinai, who knows. NYU is seeming a little far-fetched. It's weird to think that I will have a better chance of being admitted to an Ivy League, than a state-school... what in the world is going on?! LOL. Guess that's what happens when the school offers a tuition-free program, haha!

Thanks for asking!

P.S. For someone who has been dreaming about NYU forever, it's a little surprising that you don't know that it's not a "state school." In spite of its name, it is a private school that is T30 UG and (at least this year) T5 for med school.

I think you're probably a little more interested in free tuition than you let on, given how much you seem to know about the school beyond its tuition rate and its prestige. For the record, we all have a better chance to be admitted to Ivy schools ranked #6 and #11 that cost around $60K than a non-Ivy school that is ranked #4 that costs $0!

At the end of the day, regardless of what you might have been led to believe, the Ivy League is really just a NCAA athletic conference that means absolutely nothing in the med school world. It has a certain prestige in the UG world due to the age and history of the institutions and their extreme selectivity in admissions, but it really means nothing in med school prestige where 7 of the US News T10 are not Ivy League institutions, and even the lowest ranked school is extremely selective in its admissions (remember, around 60% of med school applicants are not accepted anywhere each year while 100% of UG applicants are, or can be, accepted somewhere).

 

[candbgirl]

Good question! It's quite simple, really. I fully intend on applying to Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai as, as well! To be completely honest, my top choices are somewhere between NYU and Cornell. Cornell is something that I've been attracted to for a long time, as well as NYU. I didn't even think about asking about Cornell admissions from Cornell admits... I should have done that, too. I actually know Cornell's alma mater by heart and I don't know NYU's . Maybe that's a "sign" that I should put my efforts into Cornell, and apply to NYU just in case... LOL. No, but in all reality, NYU is really freaking good for research and even primary care. I love the campus (absolutely gorgeous) and I've just heard A LOT of good things about NYU's MD program. In all reality, I'll probably end up at Cornell or Columbia or Mt. Sinai, who knows. NYU is seeming a little far-fetched. It's weird to think that I will have a better chance of being admitted to an Ivy League, than a state-school... what in the world is going on?! LOL. Guess that's what happens when the school offers a tuition-free program, haha!

Thanks for asking!

Or you might end up in “cheese land” at the University of Wisconsin, a very fine med school! Someone above suggested you eat some humble pie. That might be the best advice you have received. Remember, nothing is guaranteed in the application process and about 60 percent of all applicants in each cycle are rejected, including applicants with stellar applications. So work hard and see what happens!

 

[deleted804295]

Yeah, that's true. Hence why I'm looking for things to increase my admission chances! NYU is a long shot, but you miss 100% of chances you don't take. Even if I'm not admitted, NYU is still my top-choice. Please, do note that I fully intend to apply to a very wide range of schools, including some not-so-perfect med schools... thanks!

I think gonnif made it quite clear when you asked for MCAT and GPA and he showed their median stats.

Get a 4.0 GPA and a 528 MCAT if you want to get into NYU. You'll need research and volunteering on top of that so good luck. I believe in you.

 

[deleted804295]

NYU I believe now has the lowest or one of the lowest admissions rates along with highest end for yield. About 150 Acceptances from 11,000 applicants for a class of about 100 (subscribe to MSAR for $30). And realize that you aren’t competitive for every seat... for example true traditional applicants are probably no more than 1/3 of their Acceptances, yet >1/3 of applicants. If you are not SES hardship or URM that eliminates available seats as well.

Since you asked, I’d say the single best thing you can do to Increase you chances assuming everything else is very competitive, is to score at least 90%ile for NYU on your MCAT, so a 526 to stand out just a bit more. (524 is 75%ile) Realize however, it surely won’t assure you an Acceptance!

Now you can see how ridiculously hard it is to land an NYU acceptance. And, maybe you will qualify for financial aid to make the other top schools similarly affordable so you don’t have to put all your hopes in one basket for free tuition. (I found the best predictor of financial aid to be any FAFSA EFC calculator but using the Undergraduate school calculator, not graduate schools since those calculators don’t account for parental income like the meds schools actually do.)

When the standard deviation for MCAT scores is +/- 2 and the bell curve above 518 is essentially 100th percentile I find it sooo funny that they are still stratifying applicants. So crazy to me. I know an adcom or two understands statistics so idk who is barking out the commands in that room to keep the median above 520.

 

[deleted804295]

Good question! It's quite simple, really. I fully intend on applying to Cornell, Columbia, and Mt. Sinai as, as well! To be completely honest, my top choices are somewhere between NYU and Cornell. Cornell is something that I've been attracted to for a long time, as well as NYU. I didn't even think about asking about Cornell admissions from Cornell admits... I should have done that, too. I actually know Cornell's alma mater by heart and I don't know NYU's . Maybe that's a "sign" that I should put my efforts into Cornell, and apply to NYU just in case... LOL. No, but in all reality, NYU is really freaking good for research and even primary care. I love the campus (absolutely gorgeous) and I've just heard A LOT of good things about NYU's MD program. In all reality, I'll probably end up at Cornell or Columbia or Mt. Sinai, who knows. NYU is seeming a little far-fetched. It's weird to think that I will have a better chance of being admitted to an Ivy League, than a state-school... what in the world is going on?! LOL. Guess that's what happens when the school offers a tuition-free program, haha!

Thanks for asking!

You're wholesome. Stick around longer.

 

[proudofmykids]

When the standard deviation for MCAT scores is +/- 2 and the bell curve above 518 is essentially 100th percentile I find it sooo funny that they are still stratifying applicants. So crazy to me. I know an adcom or two understands statistics so idk who is barking out the commands in that room to keep the median above 520.

I hope it was recognized there was some tongue in check in my answer recommending getting a 526 to be at NYU’s 90%ile.

STD deviation for mcat is 10.6, whereas individual scores are more likely to be +/- one or two points.
However, those differences become very amplified at top schools. Say T20 schools compete for the top 20percentile scores in general. If you also consider that 50% of test takers score 500 and below and are not competitive MD applicants, the difference from 100percentils gets multiplied by 5 and 2 respectively (really divided by .20 and .50).

Using this me math for pool size, your reference of 518 which is a 96%ile (520 is 98%), to a top 20 school, the 518 score then represents the top 60%ile of accepted students in the original top twenty percent of scoring applicants.
An alternate and easier way to think of the need for a high score is to realize that there were 2000 students who scored a 518 or higher. Unfortunately it is enough for an admin to need to begin to seek help in objectively stratifying candidates when they will accept only a small portion of them for their school.
The good news, is that if the average class size is say ~150 (I don’t know the real avg) , there will be 3000 matriculating students at T20 school which means a competitive candidate with a 94%ile score has a decent chance to be accepted to a T20. The bad news is that top score focused schools can afford to be even more selective due to the quantity of highest scores versus available spots.

Official MCAT Percentiles link

https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fastly.net/production/media/filer_public/d9/04/d904b7f4-c3d0-4469-aed1-e5afff500d05/mcat_total_and_section_score_percentile_ranks_2020_for_web.pdf