Do I qualify for T10-20 schools? [Serious]

[ToMD2025]

Redacted.

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[meronebib]

Stats are fine, nonclinical volunteering is great, research is OK (would be better if you had something produced from it, especially for a T10 school), but I think your clinical volunteering needs some work. The 150 hours of shadowing in Africa is not enough to compensate, mainly because shadowing is a passive activity (so really, anything greater than 50 or so hours has diminishing returns), and because it was in Africa (you want to show that you’ve been exposed to the American healthcare system). The projected hours are just that—projected. I think you should work on your clinical experience, if your goal is to get into a T10 program.

Edit: I do think you have a chance for an acceptance to these programs, but be sure to apply broadly.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Your stats, URM status, and genuine diversity from living in an African country should make you competitive for top schools if you check all the boxes. You desperately need more clinical experience and more US shadowing. Get those and you are golden if not platinum.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It is a common mistake to think "clinical research" can substitute for "clinical volunteering." They aren't always the same thing, especially given the nature of patient contact doesn't give you insight about the health care system in "clinical research" usually. If anything you should be more "distant" and less empathetic if you are conducting clinical research.

Describe your shadowing in Africa. The problem of course is that since you didn't really put a lot of experience in the US health care system in your shadowing that your Africa experience would otherwise be discounted. Is it somehow connected with your non-profit?

 

[Faha]

Your low clinical exposure will lessen your chances for interviews. I suggest these schools:
UNC
East Carolina
Duke
Wake Forest
UVA
Eastern Virginia
Emory
USF Morsani
Duke
Tulane
Washington University
USC Keck
U Chicago
Northwestern
Indiana
U Michigan
Ohio State
Case Western
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Rochester
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Boston University
Tufts
Dartmouth
Brown
You can add schools such as Harvard, Stanford if you wish.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I should also add, what makes your want to go to the top schools? Have you talked with SNMA members at those schools to get a sense of the support for URM students in both preclinical and clinical rotations (you are a member according to your description)? Why would you be disappointed if you didn't get into a "top school"? I agree it would be worth a shot, but I want to take an informed shot. That said, one of the in-state NC schools better make you a good offer (looking at both UNC and ECU), and I would suspect Duke and Wake should also be in play.

 

[sw99]

Heyy guys!
I'm applying for the 2021 cycle and currently trying to come up with a list of schools. I am thinking of applying to 30-40 schools, so I really need to start working on this list .

I am aiming for top 10-20 schools, but I would like to know if you guys think I have a chance for them. My main concern is my clinical volunteering ( planned activity cancelled by covid. I was hoping my clinical research exp would help make up for this,) but let me know what you think!

Really appreciate this and thanks in advance!!

Numbers:
cgpa: 3.82
sgpa: 3.74
mcat: 517

URM Status:
African American Female, qualify for FAP as well

Residency:
NC

ECs:
Clinical:
- Hospice Volunteering: 45 hrs in hospice
- Shadowing: 150 hrs in an African country and 10 hrs in the US
- Potential homeless clinic volunteer - unsure about hrs... depends on covid and when i can start to do this... can project hrs tho

Non-Clinical Volunteering: 800hrs
- National medical chapter at my school: 2 yrs
- Food Recovery Network: 1.5 yrs
- Pre-Med Mentor at my school for 1 yr
- Healthcare admin volunteer at a free hospital in an African country for 5 yrs. (2 yrs of this I did in the African country and 3 yrs of this I did virtually in the US.)
- ACT Tutor for one year
- Crisis Textline Counselor: 200 hrs
- Working on my own non-profit org to help girls in rural sides of a certain African country attend school by supplying them with certain supplies. I was raised in this country and went to high school there as well, so I am collaborating with people in my high school to make this org work. ( going to focus on this work a lot on my app)

Research
- 1000hrs over 6 months. Worked full time. No papers, abstracts or posters This was a clinical research assistant position at a top 20 med school (if that matters)
- Currently at another research position doing clinical cancer research at a top 5 affiliate hospital. I should be here for the next 2 yrs until I (hopefully) start med school. Should have 1000+ hrs by the time I apply tho.

Leadership
Pre-Med Club: 1 yr as a leader (we didn't really have titles lol)
Student Government: 2 yrs as student representative
Another big club: 1 yr as secretary

Work:
2000+ hrs ( data intern, call center worker, lab assistant, teaching assistant, academic coach..etc) All mainly during undergrad
Summer Internship at a known healthcare system in healthcare administration/management... worked on improving patient experience

LORs:
- Committee Letter from two science profs and two non-science profs
- Current PI

I would love to hear what you guys think also: @Faha , @LizzyM , @Goro , @gyngyn

You should ideally apply to at least 30 schools, no matter what your stats are. I'm not joking. Sounds like you certainly have a lot of work experience--why medicine? Just curious.
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[m1redsox]

As an African-American female, I definitely think your stats and are good enough for a shot at the T10-20. I’m no professional, but plenty of schools will water at the mouth for a URM with your stats. Also add schools like Howard, Morehouse, Meharry, and UCLA-Drew since they are HBCUs.

 

[sw99]

Not sure about UCLA. HBC (Historically Black Colleges) examples: Meharry, Morehouse, and Howard are the top 3 (Morehouse being #1 at the moment I believe). Also try Tuskegee, Florida A&M, NC A&M, Xavier (Louisiana), Speilman (GA), etc. Don't want to sound like an a$$hole but you could try googling "historically black colleges" and see what comes up. Sorry if I'm repeating what was already said, but your app looks good. Keep your head up. Work on making all areas of your app 100% perfect, and remember to apply the first day & budget your time carefully (prioritize clinical stuff, essays, and interviews). Best of luck

 

[ToMD2025]

You should ideally apply to at least 30 schools, no matter what your stats are. I'm not joking. Sounds like you certainly have a lot of work experience--why medicine? Just curious.
-

My decision to go into medicine is highly influenced by the environment I grew up in. Although i have residency here, I was raised in the aforementioned African country. Growing up in a country with limited medical resources, lack of healthcare availability and access and an overwhelmed healthcare sector that only worked in the favor of the rich, I have always been interested in working as a physician to reach groups of people that are medically under served or marginalized regardless of the reason. There is a lot more to this, but this is briefly the reason.

 

[sw99]

My decision to go into medicine is highly influenced by the environment I grew up in. Although i have residency here, I was raised in the aforementioned African country. Growing up in a country with limited medical resources, lack of healthcare availability and access and an overwhelmed healthcare sector that only worked in the favor of the rich, I have always been interested in working as a physician to reach groups of people that are medically under served or marginalized regardless of the reason. There is a lot more to this, but this is briefly the reason.

Hmmm, but why medicine? Why not just donate? Truly--there are lots of other ways to help people. You need to have a clear answer for this question to get past the initial interview.

 

[sw99]

*double

 

[m1redsox]

Not sure about UCLA. HBC (Historically Black Colleges) examples: Meharry, Morehouse, and Howard are the top 3 (Morehouse being #1 at the moment I believe). Also try Tuskegee, Florida A&M, NC A&M, Xavier (Louisiana), Speilman (GA), etc. Don't want to sound like an a$$hole but you could try googling "historically black colleges" and see what comes up. Sorry if I'm repeating what was already said, but your app looks good. Keep your head up. Work on making all areas of your app 100% perfect, and remember to apply the first day & budget your time carefully (prioritize clinical stuff, essays, and interviews). Best of luck

The UCLA-Drew program is specifically for underrepresented minorities (Geffen is their normal program). I was suggesting she add those 4 schools because they are the HBC’s with a med school. None of the others you mentioned have one. UCLA isn’t an HBC, but its Drew program gives them preference.

 

[sw99]

The UCLA-Drew program is specifically for underrepresented minorities (Geffen is their normal program).

Hmmmm, that's not what I've heard, but okay

 

[Goro]

Heyy guys!
I'm applying for the 2021 cycle and currently trying to come up with a list of schools. I am thinking of applying to 30-40 schools, so I really need to start working on this list .


I would love to hear what you guys think also: @Faha , @LizzyM , @Goro , @gyngyn

YES!!!!!!!!!

Start list with WashU and radiate outwards. Any school is yours

 

[deleted853360]

Not sure about UCLA. HBC (Historically Black Colleges) examples: Meharry, Morehouse, and Howard are the top 3 (Morehouse being #1 at the moment I believe). Also try Tuskegee, Florida A&M, NC A&M, Xavier (Louisiana), Speilman (GA), etc. Don't want to sound like an a$$hole but you could try googling "historically black colleges" and see what comes up. Sorry if I'm repeating what was already said, but your app looks good. Keep your head up. Work on making all areas of your app 100% perfect, and remember to apply the first day & budget your time carefully (prioritize clinical stuff, essays, and interviews). Best of luck

I Normally don’t comment as I’m browsing but I had to point this out for clarification. none of these are HBCU medical school besides Howard, Morehouse, Meharry and Charles Drew/UCLA. Yes Charles Drew University is an HBCU graduate school that has a medical education program in conjunction with UCLA.

Spelman has no medical school neither does Xavier, Tuskegee, NCAT, FAMU, etc.

 

[ToMD2025]

@Goro do you think my very limited clinical volunteering will sink my app for those skills?

 

[m1redsox]

Hmmmm, that's not what I've heard, but okay

Maybe a google search would do. It seems like you don’t have much experience with what you are talking about. UCLA-Drew is a program through Charles R Drew University (an HBC).

 

[Goro]

@Goro do you think my very limited clinical volunteering will sink my app for those skills?

No, but you still should bulk it up

 

[ToMD2025]

No, but you still should bulk it up

Ok I checked and I realized that I have about a total of 102 hrs of clinical volunteering from hospice. Is this ok for the rest of my application ? The shadowing hrs I have are from outside of this country and I have read that they won’t have much impact. However, I have about 10hrs of shadowing with an oncologist from here.

 

[ToMD2025]

Stats are fine, nonclinical volunteering is great, research is OK (would be better if you had something produced from it, especially for a T10 school), but I think your clinical volunteering needs some work. The 150 hours of shadowing in Africa is not enough to compensate, mainly because shadowing is a passive activity (so really, anything greater than 50 or so hours has diminishing returns), and because it was in Africa (you want to show that you’ve been exposed to the American healthcare system). The projected hours are just that—projected. I think you should work on your clinical experience, if your goal is to get into a T10 program.

Edit: I do think you have a chance for an acceptance to these programs, but be sure to apply broadly.

Ok I checked and I realized that I have about a total of 102 hrs of clinical volunteering from hospice. Is this ok for the rest of my application ? The shadowing hrs I have are from outside of this country and I have read that they won’t have much impact. However, I have about 10hrs of shadowing with an oncologist from here.

 

[ToMD2025]

Your stats, URM status, and genuine diversity from living in an African country should make you competitive for top schools if you check all the boxes. You desperately need more clinical experience and more US shadowing. Get those and you are golden if not platinum.

Ok I checked and I realized that I have about a total of 102 hrs of clinical volunteering from hospice. Is this ok for the rest of my application ? The shadowing hrs I have are from outside of this country and I have read that they won’t have much impact. However, I have about 10hrs of shadowing with an oncologist from here.

 

[Goro]

Ok I checked and I realized that I have about a total of 102 hrs of clinical volunteering from hospice. Is this ok for the rest of my application ? The shadowing hrs I have are from outside of this country and I have read that they won’t have much impact. However, I have about 10hrs of shadowing with an oncologist from here.

No

 

[ToMD2025]

No

Damn, ok lol. Thanks!