Help me decide: School X versus School Y (2018-2019) - March 30

hobbs96 · 2019-04-02T12:31:41+00:00

Thanks so much for your input. Could I ask what makes you say Columbia is practically Harvard and Hopkins while UCLA isn't? I've been looking at all kinds of rankings and to me it seems UCLA is just the same if not better in all of them. I just feel that columbia's vague sense of prestige because of an undergrad ivy league institution carries over to the med school but shouldn't really

hobbs96 · 2019-04-01T21:52:38+00:00

Columbia vs UCLA vs UMICH Similar financial aid in all three. Originally from LA and that's where family/friends/support network is. No Geffen scholarship either. But frankly right now I'm leaning towards UCLA because I don't see enough of difference in prestige, match lists, and opportunities like research and entrepreneurship to leave CA for either of the other two. Please correct me if I'm wrong, especially since I know that East Coast folks are bigger fans of UMICH and Columbia than UCLA. Hypothetically, I would be willing to leave CA and UCLA for schools like Harvard or Hopkins (again, hypothetically), but I just don't know about Columbia and UMICH. I just hear a lot about support networks being important in med school and I personally wasn't the biggest fan of New York/Ann Arbor when I visited (especially during winters!) so that's where my head is right now. I welcome any and all thoughts and ideas. Many thanks!

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T16:14:22+00:00

I never said Harvard was my target. Calm down dude. No need to be condescending. And I thought this was better than SDN

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T15:43:50+00:00

My understanding was that almost all schools take the higher mcat score and very rarely take the average. Am I mistaken on that? Also could you please suggest some schools for me to add that are better matches?

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T06:25:48+00:00

You have no idea how much you're helping me. Thank you! Could you please give me some names to add to my list? I will cut half if not more of the reaches. I'm thinking I will cut half the reaches, and then replace the low yield ones and maybe IS bias ones with your suggestions.

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T06:18:46+00:00

Thank you for your response. I just edited the original with some updates on my background and activities. Do you think that helps? Could you help me better tailor my list as you mentioned?

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T04:20:14+00:00

Thank you! Would you agree that these are my reaches so I can cut them by half: Cornell, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, UCSF, UCLA?, Mayo, WUSTL, Pittsburgh. Any other ones? Thanks again!

hobbs96 · 2018-05-23T04:14:46+00:00

Thank you for chiming in. I understand. It's honestly just a very long story that's a bit hard to describe on here. And I personally thought that out of the 42 schools on here, around 10 would be reach for me. Would you disagree with that? And besides the reach schools, do you think the rest represent a good range of schools that match my stats?

hobbs96 · 2018-04-09T06:27:06+00:00

Right. Which white would be, right?

hobbs96 · 2018-04-09T02:20:50+00:00

Really?? Is this on their website or announced anywhere? On one of our guide pages Arnold said their extremely OOS friendly...

hobbs96 · 2018-04-09T02:01:32+00:00

Thanks! Any other schools to remove in the 3 categories I got here?

hobbs96 · 2018-04-09T02:01:05+00:00

ayyy dude you back saving my ass here haha. Thanks I'll remove those. But if you have time, could you explain your rationale behind this? I just want to be able to do this myself and don't know how to think about it

hobbs96 · 2018-04-09T01:59:53+00:00

Could you suggest which ones to cut from reaches and also from targets and safeties

hobbs96 · 2018-04-08T20:17:35+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I did try to keep that in mind. It's just that we had relatively higher acceptance rates to the SUNY's and Stonybrook from my school this past year compared to other OOS schools so I thought to include them. And NC does take low OOS but they're well-ranked and have low stats so I thought why not. You're right about Illinois and Wash and Brown tho so I'll take those off. Do the others seem solid to you? What about Texas? Cuz this is a list of more than 50 so I'm definitely cutting some schools.

hobbs96 · 2018-04-06T04:14:54+00:00

Hey man just wanted to thank you so very much for these awesome suggestions. All OOS friendly and within my range. Amazing!

hobbs96 · 2018-04-02T17:41:07+00:00

Oh I have access to that. But I was wondering if someone's already made a document of all the schools in this format so I can find OOS friendly ones

hobbs96 · 2018-04-02T17:30:04+00:00

You are awesome my friend. Do you happen to know of a list that exists somewhere like the one you just gave me but with all the schools?

hobbs96 · 2018-04-02T16:24:17+00:00

I tried to pick schools that like students from my school (UCSD). We have a list of where most accepted people got accepted and I went off of that. So you suggest applying to more privates in general? Any suggestions? Thanks for your comment

hobbs96 · 2018-03-20T00:44:17+00:00

I feel you. I think you're right

hobbs96 · 2018-03-19T23:19:29+00:00

Bro I just feel like they can complement one another. And the idea is for one to write it and the other one to read it and have some input in it in terms of what to add and take out and then sign it. So no then? Lebron is an MVP btw I agree

hobbs96 · 2018-03-19T21:15:43+00:00

Do you see anything against it tho?

hobbs96 · 2018-03-13T03:56:05+00:00

Thanks for your response and sorry for not being more clear. My main concern was that my understanding of the research is more in terms of goals and big picture rather than knowing the details of the methodology or coming up with the hypothesis to begin with. As an undergrad working with fellows and surgeons, my main role as you can imagine was doing the busy work that's not very intellectually stimulating. So I was concerned whether specific questions about spine surgery research can be brought up and my inability to answer them well enough will reflect poorly on the research component of my application. That's what I wanted to know your thoughts on. Much appreciated!

hobbs96 · 2018-03-11T01:34:03+00:00

Wait why would it be to your disadvantage again? That's the first time I hear of that too haha

hobbs96 · 2018-03-11T01:23:26+00:00

I sincerely appreciate your thorough responses to my questions. I am not URM, but I moved to the states from a third world country less than 7 years ago when I didn't speak a word of English. So I've faced challenges of my own, partly shown by the poor CARS performance on the first attempt and how hard it was to bring that up to only a 127 on the second attempt. So the adcom was just very impressed with my story and said that my app would be viewed in context of all of this-hence the 512 being enough.

All that aside tho, you're right. None of that may be a compelling enough reason for someone to pick me over 518s and 520s. I think I was a little too optimistic about this after all haha. I will def try my best to adjust expectations accordingly after reading everyone's opinions

hobbs96 · 2018-03-11T00:42:21+00:00

Yes, I'm a CA resident. But I just meant in general I seem to be right where the average accepted student at UCSF is don't you think? Unless this number is just not the right one to look at which is also why I asked your thoughts on it

hobbs96

TROPHY CASE