Reapplicant School List Help

[cacahuetes757]

Applied last year's cycle for Fall 2021 matriculation, received 5 IIs and was WLd at NYMC, Hofstra, Stony Brook, Downstate, and Buffalo. Any advice on my school list is greatly appreciated!

1. cGPA: 3.94, sGPA: 3.98
2. MCAT: 520 (2019), 523 (2022, retook b/c previous score would be too old at most schools)
3. State of residence: NY
4. Race/ethnicity: ORM
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Top 50
6. Clinical experience: 200 volunteer hours at a local hospital. 1700 hours working as an AmeriCorps member at a health center during my gap year.
7. Research experience and productivity: 1000 hrs through summer internships, 300-400 from working in a lab at my university. 3rd author on a poster based off one of my AmeriCorps projects, placed 2nd in a competition.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 80 hrs, various specialties
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 50 hours through my fraternity raising money/awareness for the American Cancer Society. 40 hours volunteer tutoring underprivileged high school students. 900 hours volunteering full-time for 8 months on small, organic farms across the country to support sustainable agriculture.
10. Other extracurricular activities: Started a student organization at my university related to veganism and plant-based nutrition. Several leadership positions within my fraternity. Around 150 hours MCAT tutoring. Job at a fast food restaurant for one summer during college.
11. Other notes: Will be working as a medical scribe for the year during my application cycle. I will not be able to put this on my primary application since I will be starting in September. Also, I am guessing my MCAT score will not be quite as impressive when taken in context, since it is a retake and I had been working as an MCAT tutor prior.

School List: All public schools and most private schools in NY. For other schools I tried to choose ones that are OOS friendly and whose average GPA and MCAT are fairly close to my stats. I stayed away from the top tier schools like Harvard, Yale, NYU, etc, unless I should apply to some? I also stayed away from schools whose average stats are much lower than mine, as I've read on SDN that it's not smart to apply to such schools. I don't have much preference in terms of location. I would prefer somewhere warm and near a city, but would be happy to attend any school that accepts me!

Edit: typo in School List paragraph

Albert Einstein

Buffalo

NYMC

Mt. Sinai

Cornell

Hofstra

Downstate

Upstate

Stony Brook

U of Arizona Phoenix

BU

U Chicago

U of Cincinnati

U of Colorado

Columbia

Northwestern

Pitt

Tufts

U of Hawaii

UC SF (doesn't seem very OOS friendly but I have some family there)

UMich

USF Morsani

UVA

Washington University

Vanderbilt

DO Schools:

Chicago COM

Touro University California COM

University of New England COM

Western University COM

Philadelphia COM

Rocky Vista University COM

Touro COM NY

NYIT COM

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[chilly_md]

Remove Arizona Phoenix, Hawaii, and Rocky Vista.

Consider adding:
SLU
Jefferson
Ohio State
Case
Baylor
UTSW (these two reserve their OOS for high stat applicants)
Iowa
Western Michigan
NYU
Rochester
Dartmouth
Miami
Keck
Emory

 

[anesussy]

Why don't you have any of the NJ schools on there? Hackensack, Cooper, Rutgers NJMS, Rutgers RWJ?

Do those schools have a strong in-state bias? Or do New Yorkers really hate NJ so much that they'd rather be in BUFFALO than Newark? Lol

 

[cacahuetes757]

Why don't you have any of the NJ schools on there? Hackensack, Cooper, Rutgers NJMS, Rutgers RWJ?

Do those schools have a strong in-state bias? Or do New Yorkers really hate NJ so much that they'd rather be in BUFFALO than Newark? Lol

Yes we hate NJ, and yes Rutgers has strong in-state bias, not too sure about Cooper or Hackensack.

 

[cacahuetes757]

Geez... an application like this and no acceptances? Insane.

Edit: did you have any red flags?

Minor IA, not a lot of clinical experience last time around, maybe bad interviewing skills haha.

 

[cacahuetes757]

Remove Arizona Phoenix, Hawaii, and Rocky Vista.

Consider adding:
SLU
Jefferson
Ohio State
Case
Baylor
UTSW (these two reserve their OOS for high stat applicants)
Iowa
Western Michigan
NYU
Rochester
Dartmouth
Miami
Keck
Emory

Thank you for the suggestions, much appreciated! Out of curiosity, why did you suggest removing those 3 schools? I know Hawaii heavily favors in-state, but I volunteered there for a bit and was hoping that would give me a better shot.

 

[cacahuetes757]

what was the clinical experience? Just the 200 hours?

100 volunteer hours plus the shadowing.

 

[chilly_md]

Thank you for the suggestions, much appreciated! Out of curiosity, why did you suggest removing those 3 schools? I know Hawaii heavily favors in-state, but I volunteered there for a bit and was hoping that would give me a better shot.

Rocky Vista is for-profit and your other DO options are better. I don’t think volunteering for a bit in Hawaii is a significant enough tie. You would have needed to work there or attended school for it to be worth an app. Arizona Phoenix’s OOS students are likely people from an underrepresented background or those with ties to the state. Try Mayo’s Arizona campus instead since you wanted a warmer location.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

When was your Americorps work (vs. When you submitted your application?) Let hope a WL goes your way to an A.

 

[cacahuetes757]

When was your Americorps work (vs. When you submitted your application?) Let hope a WL goes your way to an A.

I am not applying this current cycle for Fall 2022 matriculation, I was on these WLs one year ago. But thank you for the support! My AmeriCorps work was not on my previous application.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am not applying this current cycle for Fall 2022 matriculation, I was on these WLs one year ago. But thank you for the support! My AmeriCorps work was not on my previous application.

So you only started Americorps after that application cycle was over (and this is the gap year when you are participating)?

Start networking with the schools that had waitlisted you or where you really want to go. I'm hoping your result this time will get more responses.

And really no love for Jersey?

 

[cacahuetes757]

So you only started Americorps after that application cycle was over (and this is the gap year when you are participating)?

Start networking with the schools that had waitlisted you or where you really want to go. I'm hoping your result this time will get more responses.

And really no love for Jersey?

Correct, this is the gap year when I am participating in AmeriCorps, after I realized I wasn't going to get an acceptance. I didn't get much luck when asking schools why I wasn't accepted, any advice in terms of networking?

Sorry NJ just isn't my cup of tea haha.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Correct, this is the gap year when I am participating in AmeriCorps, after I realized I wasn't going to get an acceptance. I didn't get much luck when asking schools why I wasn't accepted, any advice in terms of networking?

Sorry NJ just isn't my cup of tea haha.

I'd email them saying after having spent a year doing Americorps, you want some last-minute advice before applying.

 

[cacahuetes757]

@chilly_md do you think it would be okay to add UCLA to my list as well?

 

[chilly_md]

@chilly_md do you think it would be okay to add UCLA to my list as well?

Yes