School list feedback / retake MCAT advice?
Can only apply to basically any school in the Northeast / California only since my dad has to continue treatment and stay with me if I matriculate, if not I'll reapply the following year. Am willing to retake MCAT ASAP if it means I get to stay in these regions to take care of my father.
- 517 MCAT, 4.0 GPA from random state college (ORM: indian)
- Dad had cancer for past 2 years but did not disclose despite being the majority of the reason for pursuing medicine, because it felt like I would be making use of his story and jinxing his health if that makes any sense
- Took MCAT right after having serious hospitalization for 2~3 months and working 2 jobs while dad was in bad shape but decided not to retake given I might risk scoring lower and would need to quit my job to study full time (not sure if I should retake it now, but friends that got in T5s this cycle say it's my MCAT thats dragging me down)
- 3 gap years if I matriculate this upcoming cycle
- Had a couple of MD only interviews last cycle but all WL->R, probably wasn't in the best state of mind and too research heavy?
- HHMI Nobel laureate PI with strong letter saying I'm more efficient and driven than the postdocs in our lab and that I directly work under him (1 school accidentally sent me all my LORs last cycle)
- 1 letter from old PI saying the same thing but not as strongly worded
- 2 science + 1 non-science letter along the lines of saying I'm the best student or something along the lines they've had in 30 years
- DACA, so didn't have green card/permanent residency last cycle to apply to many MD/PhD programs, so it was hard explaining why I was applying to MD only during interviews on top of that
- Research: 6k hours (3k extra projected)
- Publications (all basic science): 1 x second author IF10 (published), 1 x middle author (in revision), 2 x co-first author & 1 first-author ~IF5 (all submitting by end of year, probably wont make it in time for update letters since we're waiting for collaborator final figures but mentioned by PI)
- 10 posters, 1 best poster award national conference
- Shadowing: 400hrs (primary care, heme onc, medical onc, anesthesia, gen surg, path) - took some clinical stuff I saw during oncology clinic & started a basic science project surrounding it)
- Clinical: foreign military medic 6k hrs with medal of honor equivalent (for non-medical project)
- Additional 800hrs scribing + ER volunteering in the US
- Non-volunteering: 600hrs (tutoring kids & some policy stuff back in my home country
- Interested in structural bio/drug development for grad school, would appreciate any school list feedback
School list:
- Stanford
- Temple
- Duke
- Rochester
- UMass
- Columbia
- Kaiser
- UChicago Pritzker
- SUNY Upstate
- Harvard
- RWJMS
- Emory
- UCSD
- Northwestern Feinberg
- Pitt
- Brown
- UCLA
- Drexel
- Weill Cornell
- UConn
- UNC
- Einstein
- Mayo
- Boston University
- NYMC
- UCSF
- WashU
- Zucker Hofstra
- Michigan
- Johns Hopkins
- Yale
- Penn State
- UVA
- Stony Brook
- USC
- Tufts
- UC Davis
- Sidney Kimmel (Jefferson)
- UWashington
- Mt. Sinai
- Case Western Reserve
- NJMS
- UPenn
- Minnesota
Posted Jun 13, 2026, 11:45 PM UTC
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