u/FishsWishes1760

Hi y’all! First time posting (ever!?) but I guess the nerves have gotten to me.

I will be applying to some of the T20s, but I’m not sure which ones. I am from Cali and would love to stay close by, but am open to a good program. I am interested in going into surgery, so I would also love to go to a school that is good with matching into surgical residency. Could y’all tell me what’s a realistic expectation for me plus suggest some schools to apply to. I am open to applying to 40 or more schools and currently my list has like 25.

Here’s my stats: I’m a junior transfer, 518 MCAT, 3.95GPA and 3.63 GPA (I went to CC first where I had a 3.95, but I’m at UCLA currently and have gotten cooked by taking way too many units while adjusting (+ random health problems, but I didn’t write that anywhere in my app as my PS couldn’t really fit it.) hence 3.63.). I have applied for my CPT-1 license that I trained for earlier this year (couldn’t get it earlier because I turned 18 last year and was studying for the MCAT last summer). I have 45 hours from clinical rotations and will begin job hunting as soon as I get my license. [Edit: I technically have clinical from dental office cuz I worked as a sterilization tech… that’s probably like another 50-60 hours, but I worked this job while I was in hs] I have worked as a chemistry lab assistant in my last year of CC (sophomore year) and worked at a dental office prior to that. I don’t have any pubs or anything. I shadowed for about 60 hours, no OR experience :(. I probably have around 300 or 350+ volunteering hours from high school to now [Edit: these hours are cumulative. I basically have run large scale food drives throughout college and also volunteer at community kitchens, gleaning food produce, etc. I currently volunteer about 20 hours every quarter.]. I have really strong LORs from 2 of my CC STEM profs, 1 UCLA STEM prof, the former national CEO for a volunteering organization, and a doctor that I shadowed and then helped out briefly. Other activities I have include running a poetry club at CC, also working on developing a 3u cubesat (satellite) at UCLA, a leadership position at that volunteer club next year, and being a learning assistant (also leadership position).

[Edit: My current list, a lot of this is just copy pasted T20s / T30s

1. Harvard Medical School — Boston, MA
2. Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine — Baltimore, MD
3. Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania — Philadelphia, PA
4. Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons — New York, NY
5. Duke University School of Medicine — Durham, NC
6. Stanford University School of Medicine — Stanford, CA
7. UCSF School of Medicine (University of California, San Francisco) — San Francisco, CA
8. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine — Nashville, TN
9. Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis — St. Louis, MO
10. Weill Cornell Medicine — New York, NY
11. NYU Grossman School of Medicine — New York, NY
12. Yale School of Medicine — New Haven, CT
13. Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine — Rochester, MN
14. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine — Chicago, IL
15. University of Michigan Medical School — Ann Arbor, MI
16. University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine — Pittsburgh, PA
17. University of Washington School of Medicine — Seattle, WA
18. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — New York, NY
19. UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine — Los Angeles, CA
20. University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine — Chicago, IL
21. Keck School of Medicine of USC — Los Angeles, CA
22. University of Colorado School of Medicine — Aurora, CO
23. Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University — Stony Brook, NY
24. George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences — Washington, DC
25. Georgetown University School of Medicine — Washington, DC
26. Boston University School of Medicine — Boston, MA
27. Tufts University School of Medicine — Boston, MA
28. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine — Cleveland, OH
29. University of Illinois College of Medicine — Chicago, IL
30. University of Miami Miller School of Medicine — Miami, FL
31. University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health — Madison, WI
32. Albert Einstein college of medicine
33. Kaiser Permanente
34. UCSD
35. UCI 
36. UCD

]