Apply for this cycle or wait?

[calabasasview]

I am in a slightly strange position and am wondering what people's opinions are on my current plan. Essentially over covid, I decided to unenroll from my school for a multitude of reasons, one-year break. Technically I am a Junior but I am more or less a senior as I am graduating over the summer (I took my gen eds in a CC don't know if this is a red flag), I can stay another semester in the fall but feels like a waste of time. How I see it now is that I am in a relatively good spot to get into a school but I also don't want to rush into it and go somewhere I wouldn't want to ideally. My plan is to currently apply with a top-heavy school list and just see what happens, if it doesn't work out apply again and be much more prepared next time. Is this a terrible idea?

Here are my stats (I know it's hard to say without MCAT but any advice would be appreciated):

• 3.95+ c/s GPA
• MCAT Plan on taking in either May or June
• California ORM
• ~900 Hours of clinical volunteering at local senior citizen in Socal, done since high school over a 3-year period. Have stopped since I went back to school after covid, still do it over the summer.
• ~80 Hours doing EMT Volunteering in Socal last summer
• ~200 Hours Dry Lab Research (no pubs)/~400 Hours Wet Lab Research Still Doing (no pubs)
• ~500 Hours Volunteering with a Volunteer Organization I founded with a few friends over Covid (Leadership? Targeted Elderly Population in my Local Community)
• ~80 Hours Shadowing (40 - Primary + 20 - Anesthesiology + 20 - Plastics)
• ~120 Hours Teaching a Chess Zoom Class (Did it for a year, the company had to downsize end of 2022).

Let me know if I am missing anything major in my application.

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[Faha]

How are the 900 hours you have with seniors clinical volunteering ? What does that volunteering involve ?

 

[calabasasview]

How are the 900 hours you have with seniors clinical volunteering ? What does that volunteering involve ?

I guess not 100% sure if this would count as clinical, I've been told it would. At first I would just talk to them, set up activities, and help with eating and day-to-day assistance to help the nurses out. Eventually, I started doing some physical therapy with them and that ended up with me teaching Yoga to a group once a week. Once I got trained as an EMT they let me monitor conditions, track medications and assist with changing/showering. That was only two of the three years though.

 

[Faha]

I guess not 100% sure if this would count as clinical, I've been told it would. At first I would just talk to them, set up activities, and help with eating and day-to-day assistance to help the nurses out. Eventually, I started doing some physical therapy with them and that ended up with me teaching Yoga to a group once a week. Once I got trained as an EMT they let me monitor conditions, track medications and assist with changing/showering. That was only two of the three years though.

It appears to be clinical. Without an actual MCAT score it is not possible to determine if you should apply this year. Post your MCAT score here when available.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am unsure if you are conflating activities. You have a nonprofit working with seniors, so that's leadership. But you also have 900 hours with seniors which I will classify as clinical, but haven't done in a few years. Are these activities related or not? I would keep adding to EMT work since I think you have the senior population covered for a theme in your app.

And yes, we need a final score.

 

[calabasasview]

I am unsure if you are conflating activities. You have a nonprofit working with seniors, so that's leadership. But you also have 900 hours with seniors which I will classify as clinical, but haven't done in a few years. Are these activities related or not? I would keep adding to EMT work since I think you have the senior population covered for a theme in your app.

And yes, we need a final score.

Yeah makes sense about the score, guess I'll take it and see what happens. The activities are different but one did inspire the other, essentially the nonprofit was more set up for seniors outside of homes and we would connect them with volunteers to do more high-risk activities for them during the pandemic, such as getting groceries/picking up prescriptions, and just general help with anything else. Thanks for the advice with EMT.