r/premed • u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 • 1d ago
š® App Review Is admit.org's school list builder accurate?
Edit: thank you to all who are saying it would help to have a real mcat score. I completely agree, i was mostly just interested inseeing if anyone here has experience with free resources such as this being useful or accurate.
Stats: 21F CA resident first in family to pursue graduate education or med field 3.8 ish gpa w/ strong upward trend (I'm an incoming Jr at a UC but did 3 yrs at CC to save $ and get some prereqs done with) - I've only taken an mcat diagnostic (before taking most mcat prereqs) and got a 502 but a 130 on cars (yay?) I think with some studying id like to aim for >515 - Research: maybe 500? UC addiction pharmacology wet lab. I will prob have my name on 2 pubs -Might do research at Stanford this summer (praying I crush my interview) - shadowing: 100+ I have a strong relationship with a radiologist and I've also shadowed derm (will do more) - - clinical: I recently got certified as a phlebotimist and have yet to start working. Also I volunteer in the ED at a local level 1 trauma center
ā¢ ā I co facilitate a support group for people in recovery from eating disorders alongside an lmft ā¢ ā I'm a certified nutritionist and sometimes work in that field ā¢ ā Volunteering: NEDA body project facilitator, animal shelter, (I prob need more hrs for all) Other: lifeguard for about a year, strong āstory/themeā and first in family to pursue graduate education Lifeguarding isn't clinical technically but I've definitely had some gnarly experiences - extracurriculars: Waterpolo + swim (up until soph year of college) - avid amateur herpetologist (I love reptiles) and building vivariums - healthy recipe blog - long distance hiking/rucking
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u/Mammoth-Change6509 1d ago
Sort of. I noticed that the āreach schoolsā they offered me were VERY much reaches.
Like they gave me 15+ schools that Iām like 10-15 points below their MCAT as my reach.
Which I mean donāt get me wrong, thatās what a reach is. But you have to be mindful and NOT apply to 20 reach schools lol, maybe just 2-5.Ā
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u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 1d ago
Yeah lol it told me ucla was a target and that's when I started questioning things
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u/Mammoth-Change6509 1d ago
Yeah I mean Iād take it with a grain of salt. The website is made to help with your application I wouldnāt just copy and paste the list without researching MSAR and the schools first
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u/Happiest_Rabbit MS1 1d ago
The builder is accurate and I suspect that you're just underestimating the quality of your app. You can DM me what you put into the builder and I can give more insight.
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u/Mammoth-Change6509 1d ago
Iām not underestimating. Iām saying that they give you LOTS of reach schools and that you donāt necessarily need to apply to all of them.
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u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 1d ago
At least from what I've seen on here(sankeys etc.), it looked like a lot of the āreachā schools and even some targets were pretty high āreachā
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u/MedicalBasil8 MS3 1d ago
Weād be able to know if you gave us the list and what your app looks like
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u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 1d ago
Thank you! Sorry, I didn't expect people to actually want to look at my stats and give advice lol. Here they are tho: 21F CA resident first in family to pursue graduate education or med field 3.8 ish gpa w/ strong upward trend (I'm an incoming Jr at a UC but did 3 yrs at CC to save $ and get some prereqs done with) -I've only taken an mcat diagnostic (before taking most mcat prereqs) and got a 502 but a 130 on cars (yay?) I think with some studying id like to aim for >515 -Research: maybe 500? UC addiction pharmacology wet lab. I will prob have my name on 2 pubs -Might do research at Stanford this summer (praying I crush my interview) -shadowing: 100+ I have a strong relationship with a radiologist and I've also shadowed derm (will do more) -clinical: I recently got certified as a phlebotimist and have yet to start working. Also I volunteer in the ED at a local level 1 trauma center
Other: lifeguard for about a year, strong āstory/themeā and first in family to pursue graduate education
- I co facilitate a support group for people in recovery from eating disorders alongside an lmft
- I'm a certified nutritionist and sometimes work in that field
- Volunteering: NEDA body project facilitator, animal shelter, (I prob need more hrs for all)
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u/MedicalBasil8 MS3 1d ago
Sounds like your app is piecing together well. We (or admit.org) really canāt make a list without a real MCAT score though. Definitely use admit to start a list when you have a score and pass it through here to get additions/other advice
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u/Snoo_53364 doesnāt read stickies 1d ago
Your profile is relying on a lot of contingents i.e. "with some studying I'd like to aim for a >515" and "praying I crush this interview [for a Stanford research position"
While I hugely believe in taking an optimistic approach into everything, it's better to analyze your school lists once you get that MCAT score back since everyone thinks they'll get a 515+
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u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 1d ago
youre totally right, and thanks for taking the time to reply! i mostly was just interested in other peoples experiences using free resources such as this.
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u/medschoolsmurf ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
I only have 3 acceptances and they told me that I should not apply to any of them. First was a DO and they said don't apply - mcat too high. Second was a service school, it said bad mission fit. Third was an oos school, it said don't apply because it has an IS bias.
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u/coolmanjack ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
Eh it really depends on your specific case. According to admit.org, I should've only applied to DO schools, because I lack a bunch of the ECs that med schools want. But I have a significant x factor that it can't account for, so its advice was bad.
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u/Atomoxetine_80mg ADMITTED-DO 1d ago
It said all the DO schools I applied to I would get yield protected with a 511. Otherwise was pretty accurate.Ā
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u/m-is-for-music ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
It basically told me to only apply to DO schools. I ended up getting 3 MD interviews and an acceptance to my first choice. I think it might put too much weight on certain things; for example, I didn't have any shadowing, but I had a ton of clinical hours in a scribe role which was a lot like shadowing. It also didn't seem to like that I only had 1 'official' leadership position, but I was able to talk about how I learned and practiced leadership through several of my experiences.
I don't think this means it can't be accurate. I think it's just important to remember when using standardized tools like this that how you portray your journey and your experiences and what you have learned is the most important thing.
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u/Rddit239 ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
Itās a great START. But not the only way to build the list. 2 of my acceptances were not recommended. 1 of my interviews and waitlist was not recommended either and itās a T20. But itās an amazing start
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u/Impossible-Poetry ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
I think itās pretty effective if not perfect. The list it gave me matched my final list fairly closely. Funnily enough, I only interviewed at my reaches and baselines. Targets all rejected.
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u/Sledge1111 1d ago
Read the reddit post. The medical student who curated it listed everything that he used to make it. IMO itās the most transparent and at this point accurate but perhaps reading his/her logic would help
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u/Pretend-Cicada-8649 14h ago
Oh wow I didn't know there was a Reddit post
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u/Sledge1111 13h ago
Yah a medical student literally made it to be better than us news, bc us news isnāt transparent plus they didnāt include Harvard or Stanford over some type of politics thing idk
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u/canopener_555 19h ago
It was very accurate for me. Iām a nontraditional applicant and I wasnāt sure how much my nonmedical work/leadership experience would help me. It didnāt really show up in my admit score, and it didnāt seem to impress many adcoms either, lol. Iām not completely cynical when schools talk about āholistic reviewā, but from a practical standpoint schools have to filter through and equitably compare thousands of apps somehow. Most likely many have something similar to an internal admit score with their own weighting and emphasis. As others have said, research the individual schools and use admit.org as a guideline rather than a rule, but from my experience itās the best guideline out there by a mile.
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u/Ok-Worry-8931 ADMITTED-MD 1d ago
Itās good for finding schools in and around your stat range and excluding schools that donāt match your hours, but not much more than that
You should research each school it suggests