Needing some big with my school list? CA resident

[CaliforniaDreamer]

EDIT: Update posted below!


*big help

Hello! I am posting again here because I sometimes see people getting some solid help with their school lists and that is my most major issue right now. Could I please please get some of the sage wisdom of SDN on the case?

My stats:
UC school graduate
cGPA/sGPA: 3.82/3.75
MCAT: 41 (13,13,15)


ECs:

Clincal: 100+ (or 370+??)
- 60 hours in a student run clinic (working with IV drug users), intake patients, take vitals/blood glucose, present cases to doctors, etc
- 40 hours on Cardiology floor at big hospital, answered phones, discharged and assisted patients
- 270 hours at my local hospital (IN 4th YEAR HIGH SCHOOL?!?) also counted in those hours are a study I worked on in the radiology dept.

Research:
- 120 hours (estimated) over a year and a half my 1st-2nd year at college, basically psychological research, presented a poster at a conference
- 40 hours on a team doing surveys on patients at various local area, free clinics (is this clinical experience??)
- 40 hours (so far) on a research team I attempted to start on my own but am now working under a PhD, starting to do research on a drug treatment clinic in Mexico, very self-initiated and designed, attempting to put together a presentation on data we already have and maybeee design a smaller study in time to publish (or submit to publish) before med schools apps go out in June.

Other:
- 330+ hours of teaching: private tutoring, university tutoring job, and teaching MCAT class for a test prep company
- 6 hours premed mentoring (AMSA)
- Multiple years of rental property management: oversaw purchase, furnishing, renters, taxes, repairs, etc.
- Private pilot
- Published photographer
- Published writer

LOR:
- My weakest area until literally 3 days ago, went from zero to at least 2 letters, one from a writing professor and another from the head doctor of my clinic, I really need to find a way to get some more, I am probably screwed if I need any from science professors (I had one prof who met with me, had already written me a letter for a different position and told me he would write another, who then retired and now is totally incommunicado, and another who very sadly passed away), I am also hoping to get some letters from doctors I am planning on shadowing or researching with

Shadowing:
- None yet, both of my parents are doctors and I have sat in, both in the viewing area and actually in the OR for many years (I watched an aneurism case yesterday) but I don't think I should try to count any of that time. Now that I have graduated I have more free time, and I have a lot of friends who are docs who told me I am welcome to shadow them so I am not too worried about this, also will be shadowing my clinic head doc at his drug treatment clinic
^^ Sorry if that was too extensive...


My super top heavy school list:
UCLA
UCSF
UCSD
UCD
UCI
USC
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
Columbia
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
Albert Einstein
Georgetown

I would really like some mid-tier recommendations, I feel very lost browsing through them all. I have the MSAR, but other than location (would like to be close to a coast, and preferably the west one, but not of utmost importance) I am paralyzed by choices. Thank you to anyone who has some opinions!

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[itsogre]

Hi OP,

Unfortunately, if you did the clinical in your 4th year of high school, you can't list it on AMCAS... you could try to explain this experience in your secondaries/essaay and how it influenced you, but I doubt you can list it as one of 15 activities.

LORs you absolutely need at least 2-3 science professor letters. Physician letter are usually not useful, since they tend to be blandly positive (unless the physician was your employer/supervisor and can objectively rate your work ethic). 2-3 science prof letters are a hard requirement at the vast majority of schools.

 

[itsogre]

you have really good numerical scores, so any school is fine for you. Just have a healthy mix of top- and mid-tiers that someone will probably post after me.

I think your scores will make up for the relative lack of clinical experience, if you can explain how the clinical experience that you do have influenced you to pursue the MD. Just don't emphasize that your parents are physicians - some might think you're being pressured into medicine, and don't really know what you're getting into (and they will back up this assumption with your relative lack of clinical experience).

 

[CannedPineapple]

I don't think anyone would say your numbers are a problem for any school.

2 things, however. First, your list is littered with research-heavy schools, but your research experiences are a bit on the light side. If you can publish, that might help you a bit, but otherwise, I might shift your list to substitute in more clinically-oriented schools. Second, you NEED letters from science professors. It sounds like you are in a tough spot with that, so maybe ask your premed committee/advisers for advice?

Also, your list is, in general, too top-heavy, for any applicant. You've got 14 schools, 8 of which are top 15 (these schools should not be over half your list). Georgetown will very likely screen you out based on stats (they get 13k+ applications and will reject you for having too high stats - which I know, is completely stupid, but that's how it is there). UC Davis and Irvine have very specific goals for primary care. UCSD/LA/SF have no instate preferences. After all those considerations, you've got Albert Einstein...just 1 school where you aren't taking a huge risk (but that's hardly a good safety net).

For a CA applicant, like myself, I would apply to at least 20 schools (and many CA applicants go up to even 35). Definitely add private schools that are OOS friendly (check MSAR). Some of the SDN adcoms might give you some suggestions, but you should do your own research too and not just rely on what random people on the internet say.

That being said, some that come to mind are Mt. Sinai, NYU, UVA, Tufts, Drexel, Jefferson, Wake Forest, EVMS, and Temple, if you want to look into some east coast schools.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

LORs you absolutely need at least 2-3 science professor letters. Physician letter are usually not useful, since they tend to be blandly positive (unless the physician was your employer/supervisor and can objectively rate your work ethic). 2-3 science prof letters are a hard requirement at the vast majority of schools.

I have almost no idea how I am going to accomplish this as I have already graduated. I guess I will just suck it up and ask some professors for letters, even though I know that we barely have any relationship

Second, you NEED letters from science professors. It sounds like you are in a tough spot with that, so maybe ask your premed committee/advisers for advice?

That being said, some that come to mind are Mt. Sinai, NYU, UVA, Tufts, Drexel, Jefferson, Wake Forest, EVMS, and Temple, if you want to look into some east coast schools.

Not only did my school do away with their committee 3 years ago, they have (as of a few weeks ago) disbanded their pre-med advisers and replaced them with a single adviser from the biology advising department who has yet to be trained. No help there.

My current research position is much more involved than my previous positions, I am out of school now so it is pretty much full-time. Should be able to match my current hours every other week from now on, I hope that will help.

Also, yes that list is totally incomplete, they only ones on there I will for sure be applying to are the California schools as well as Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. I absolutely plan to apply to 20ish or more schools, but just do not know which ones yet. Thank you for your suggestions!

 

[CannedPineapple]

Not only did my school do away with their committee 3 years ago, they have (as of a few weeks ago) disbanded their pre-med advisers and replaced them with a single adviser from the biology advising department who has yet to be trained. No help there.

My current research position is much more involved than my previous positions, I am out of school now so it is pretty much full-time. Should be able to match my current hours every other week from now on, I hope that will help.

Also, yes that list is totally incomplete, they only ones on there I will for sure be applying to are the California schools as well as Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. I absolutely plan to apply to 20ish or more schools, but just do not know which ones yet. Thank you for your suggestions!

Ah alright, then you should be fine on the research end. And ouch, I'm sorry to hear that about your school (they need to get their **** together!). If you are near your undergrad, you might want to also reach out to those science professors and see if they would be willing to meet and chat with you for a bit in person. You can give them your story, maybe explain how their course influenced you, and the like - so they can write a stronger LOR for you. Given your situation, you might only need 1 science LOR, so hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Your motivational words are more helpful than you realize, thank you!

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Anyone else have any advice? (*winkwink Goro, LizzyM!)

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

(*stillwinking)

 

[Vain Brother]

what do you want us to say? you can go anywhere you want

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

what do you want us to say? you can go anywhere you want

I still have to send out applications, I got a good MCAT score but that doesn't make me less lost in the process :/

 

[Vain Brother]

you got an absurdly good MCAT score, in addition to your very good GPA. you've gotten your foot in the door at any program in the country you want. you definitely are light on some other aspects of your application, though -- not much clinical experience (HS doesn't count, unfortunately), research, or altruistic volunteering. i'd suggest working on that in the meantime while you apply

consider adding: cornell, u chicago, washU, dartmouth, vermont, rochester, NYU, pitt...

 

[candbgirl]

Are you applying this year? If so get working on those letters. Your app won't be complete at any school without them. Also do something about your clinical hours. Your stats are amazing but you do have some big holes to fill to be as successful as your stats indicate you should be! Good luck!

 

[Goro]

I think you're pretty golden, but I'd think you'd be platinum if you can get some more service in, especially if it's off campus and out of your comfort zone.


I suggest that you consider:

UCLA
UCSF
UCSD
UCD
UCI
USC
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
Columbia
UPenn
Johns Hopkins
Hofstra
Mt Sinai
NYU
Albert Einstein
Duke
Emory
U AZ
U CO
U NV (maybe)
U VM
U So FL
U MI
U VA
Baylor
Columbia
Cornell
Loyola
Tulane
Emory
U Miami
Wash U
Vandy
Pitt
U Cincy
U Toledo

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Thank you so much!! I am working on it, my clinic head doc told me he would bend the rules and let me stay on at the clinic even though I have graduated, so I can probably get some more time in there, and I have already started shadowing other docs. My weakest point will be my LORs, for science professors I am just going to seek them from less than adequate sources in order to fulfill the minimum requirements. They won't be negative I hope, only boring and not very personal.

 

[Cawolf]

Literally, apply anywhere you want.

I suggest first going through the MSAR and making a large list and then paring it down slowly by reading about each school.

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Hey everyone, so this thread was pretty helpful to me and I wanted to give an update and see what you all think, and I have some very specific questions about my current job:

Grades:
Graduated with High Honors, is this something that should go in an awards/recognition section?

Clinical:
Got about 20+ more hours in at the local free clinic (total: 88)
New job: I am under an NDA with my position, but I can basically describe it as a start-up that does medical documentation for doctors remotely using some consumer tech you have certainly all heard of. My job is fairly dynamic, so I don't do it all the time, but what I have done mostly so far is very similar to scribing as well as shadowing doctors of multiple specialties. How should I go about putting this into my application? It is somewhat of a dream job because my main application theme can be summed up by this quote from my PS: "I see myself at the intersection between these two roads. My desire to branch between high technological medical solutions and underserved, community health needs is one of the reasons I am pursuing a medical degree." Should I mark it as 100+ hours of scribing? I have only worked there for a month.

Research:
My research project has taken off, and is way out of my hands now, there are many doctors and researchers who are working on various aspects of it now, and I am only doing a small part, basically building a survey for gathering retrospective data, but it is close to IRB approval.

Shadowing:
Neurosurgeon in clinic: 10 hours
ENT in clinic and surgery: 20 hours
Suboxone clinic doctor: 5 hours

LOR's:
1 from writing professor (probably moderately strong), 2 from science professors (1 strong, 1 probably weak), 1 coming from my clinic head doctor, and 1 coming from the head researcher (PhD) on the research project that we started (it was mostly him doing the work, but this letter will still probably be very strong).

School List:
Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
JH
Mayo
NYU
UPenn
Vanderbilt
UCSF
UCLA
UC Davis
UCSD
UCI
USC - Keck
(UColorado?, UChicago?, Mt. Sinai?, Emory?, Tulane?, Dartmouth?)

Any suggestions/additions/subtractions welcomed!

 

[Vain Brother]

your list is great, good luck