Originally from the East Coast but my med school is outside this region. Would love to return home at a top academic program as I will pursue heme/onc afterwards. However, I'm worried my STEP 2 score and school tier will limit how high I can aim.

I've prioritized programs with in-house heme/onc fellowships and signals to either median or 25th% STEP 2 scores close to mine. The ~30+ programs below are all the academic East Coast programs with in-house heme/onc fellowships. Ideally I won't expand beyond this list if not necessary.

Student type: US MD/PhD at mid-tier school

Goals: Heme/onc

M1-M2 grades: 11/13 H, 2 HP

M3 grades: 5/8 H (including IM), 2 HP, 1 P

Class rank: 2nd quartile

STEP 1: 245+

STEP 2: 250+

AOA: No

GHHS: No

Research: > 15 items (papers, abstracts, oral talks, posters)

Extracurriculars: leadership, student advising

Awards/Honors: ~ 20 (academic excellence, grants, scholarships, research, conference travel awards)

Red flags: None

Geo prefs: New England, Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic

Programs:

Gold: JHU, Bayview, UMD

Silver: UVA, Georgetown, home prog, VCU, Jefferson, Temple, Penn State, Wake Forest, UMass, Dartmouth, UConn, Vermont 

No signal: GWU, WVU

Can swap in if possible: UPMC, UNC, BWH, UPenn, Duke, MGH, Yale, BIDMC, BU, Tufts, Brown, MUSC, Emory, MCG, UF Gainesville, U Miami/Jackson, USF Morsani

How do the programs and signals look? Are they too ambitious, or can I swap in some stronger programs somewhere?

I also need help fleshing out my non-signals as I want to apply to ~ 30 programs.

Thanks again!