First off, I'm a Canadian so my status would be as an international student throughout for many schools (the ones that are willing to take us haha).
All coursework was done in a large public institution as a part of a 4 year undergrad program - currently a senior that applied for the 2016 app cycle to a few schools but sent secondaries in too late so will likely be taking a gap year and applying for the 2017 app cycle.
Ethnicity: Indian (Asian)
cGPA: 3.75
sGPA: 3.80
Hoping to lift it up a bit with my senior year...
MCAT:
1st attempt: 26 (PS: 9/VR: 8/BS: 9)
2nd attempt: 35 (PS: 12/VR: 9/BS: 14)
3rd attempt: will be retaking it in early Summer of 2016 to boost it up a few points (and because all Canadian medical schools now require the MCAT 2015). This will also give me a shot at making my score more balanced.
ECs:
Clinical volunteering
- hospital patient visiting (medicine & post-op wards): 3 years (ongoing) ~ 450 hours
- patient visiting in a different hospital (peds): 1 year ~ 100 hours
Non-clinical volunteering
- Academic coaching (not to be confused with tutoring); part of peer programs at my university: 1 year ~ 150 hours
- 2 other minor leadership stuff ~ 30 hours each
Employment
- by my university to teach 1st year phys as a tutor (and supervise 7 other tutors) -- 2.5 years
Research
-> original clinical research project #1:
- self developed and funded by a studentship (started May 2014 - present)
- submitted as 1st author to a journal with an IF of 8
- presented findings in 2 local conferences & an international conference (abstract also currently published as 1st author)
-> original clinical research project #2
- self developed and funded by a bigger studentship (May 2015 - present)
- submitted as 1st author to a journal with an IF of 15
- presented findings in 1 local conference & an international conference (abstract also currently published as 1st author)
Standalone shadowing:
- interventional cardio with one of my supervisors ~30 hours (and growing)
- Med internship abroad (urban hospital): shadowed doctors and saw some surgeries: 1 month
- Volunteering abroad (rural health center): went to people's homes and distributed chlorine water purification tablets, took bp, taught basic sanitation and health advice along with doctors to villagers etc.: 2 weeks
Awards:
- 2 studentships for research (associated with $)
- annual dean's honors list each year of undergrad
- dean of science scholarship (associated with $)
- chancellor's scholar award
Comments/questions:
- I don't have 2 semesters of ochem done since my local university's medschool only requires 1 semester (though I have 2 semesters of biochem, and all of the other chem etc.) - would you recommend me to take an additional semester as part of my gap year?
- I was initially thinking of working full-time for a year while maintaining my hospital volunteering but I'm not sure the best course of action would be... any advice would be most appreciated.
It's always been a dream of mine to go to a prestigious American medical school but am currently still working on my school list. Here is an interim one:
- Stanford
- JHU
- Columbia
- Yale
- Brown
- Dartmouth
- U of Chicago
- UCSF/LA/SD (though I think these ones are tricky for non-US citizens)
- Boston U
- Cornell
- Mayo
- Duke
- NYU
- HMS
My top picks are currently Stanford, HMS and JHU but any input is welcome on whether this is realistic or on what steps to take moving forward. I'd imagine my gpa is likely the limiting factor for those schools and will depend on my new MCAT score so will be focusing as much as possible on those two.
Thanks for reading!
All coursework was done in a large public institution as a part of a 4 year undergrad program - currently a senior that applied for the 2016 app cycle to a few schools but sent secondaries in too late so will likely be taking a gap year and applying for the 2017 app cycle.
Ethnicity: Indian (Asian)
cGPA: 3.75
sGPA: 3.80
Hoping to lift it up a bit with my senior year...
MCAT:
1st attempt: 26 (PS: 9/VR: 8/BS: 9)
2nd attempt: 35 (PS: 12/VR: 9/BS: 14)
3rd attempt: will be retaking it in early Summer of 2016 to boost it up a few points (and because all Canadian medical schools now require the MCAT 2015). This will also give me a shot at making my score more balanced.
ECs:
Clinical volunteering
- hospital patient visiting (medicine & post-op wards): 3 years (ongoing) ~ 450 hours
- patient visiting in a different hospital (peds): 1 year ~ 100 hours
Non-clinical volunteering
- Academic coaching (not to be confused with tutoring); part of peer programs at my university: 1 year ~ 150 hours
- 2 other minor leadership stuff ~ 30 hours each
Employment
- by my university to teach 1st year phys as a tutor (and supervise 7 other tutors) -- 2.5 years
Research
-> original clinical research project #1:
- self developed and funded by a studentship (started May 2014 - present)
- submitted as 1st author to a journal with an IF of 8
- presented findings in 2 local conferences & an international conference (abstract also currently published as 1st author)
-> original clinical research project #2
- self developed and funded by a bigger studentship (May 2015 - present)
- submitted as 1st author to a journal with an IF of 15
- presented findings in 1 local conference & an international conference (abstract also currently published as 1st author)
Standalone shadowing:
- interventional cardio with one of my supervisors ~30 hours (and growing)
- Med internship abroad (urban hospital): shadowed doctors and saw some surgeries: 1 month
- Volunteering abroad (rural health center): went to people's homes and distributed chlorine water purification tablets, took bp, taught basic sanitation and health advice along with doctors to villagers etc.: 2 weeks
Awards:
- 2 studentships for research (associated with $)
- annual dean's honors list each year of undergrad
- dean of science scholarship (associated with $)
- chancellor's scholar award
Comments/questions:
- I don't have 2 semesters of ochem done since my local university's medschool only requires 1 semester (though I have 2 semesters of biochem, and all of the other chem etc.) - would you recommend me to take an additional semester as part of my gap year?
- I was initially thinking of working full-time for a year while maintaining my hospital volunteering but I'm not sure the best course of action would be... any advice would be most appreciated.
It's always been a dream of mine to go to a prestigious American medical school but am currently still working on my school list. Here is an interim one:
- Stanford
- JHU
- Columbia
- Yale
- Brown
- Dartmouth
- U of Chicago
- UCSF/LA/SD (though I think these ones are tricky for non-US citizens)
- Boston U
- Cornell
- Mayo
- Duke
- NYU
- HMS
My top picks are currently Stanford, HMS and JHU but any input is welcome on whether this is realistic or on what steps to take moving forward. I'd imagine my gpa is likely the limiting factor for those schools and will depend on my new MCAT score so will be focusing as much as possible on those two.
Thanks for reading!
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