Non-Trad; WAMC/School List

[bankedsynapse]

Hello! I would TRULY appreciate any guidance here. I'll be applying this June.

Non-trad applicant, 34 years old. Graduated undergrad in 2015

1. cGPA: 3.57 sGPA: 3.51 as calculated by AMCAS.
   1. Upward cGPA trend by year 3.24 -> 3.56->3.61 -> 3.92
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 511, 126/128/130/127 (CP/CARS/BB/PS) Taken in 2023, one take
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): MA
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Caucasian
5. Undergraduate institution or category: UNH
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. ~175 hours as a patient care aid at memory unit of an assisted living facility
   2. ~100 hours as a baby cuddler at a special care nursery
   3. ~80 hours as a patient liaison in an emergency department
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. 3500+ hours as research assistant in an imaging lab
   2. 1-4 publications (1 published, the rest currently pending acceptance, hopefully accepted in the next month or two)
   3. 2 presentations, 1 at research conference at my employer and the other at a national society meeting
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. 24 hours shadowing Breast Imaging radiologist
   2. 8 hours shadowing thoracic radiologist
   3. 6 hours shadowing ED physician
   4. 4 hours shadowing neuroradiologist
   5. 16 hours shadowing dermatologist

I also shadowed for ~40 hours various cardiology providers performing procedures in the OR, but this was in late 2019 so I’m not sure it still ‘counts’. The rest of my shadowing was all this year.

1. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. ~350 hours as donor ambassador for the Red Cross
   2. ~75 hours playing with homeless children at local shelter
   3. ~45 hours as crisis counsellor for crisis hotline
2. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
   1. Worked as an IT project manager for 3 years, managing over a dozen months to years-long projects
   2. Currently interim program manager for my lab (~1 year)
   3. Served as moderator on a creative writing forum for ~1 year
   4. National Puzzler’s League membership (lol)
3. Relevant honors or awards
   1. Dean’s List in undergrad
   2. Excellence in writing award in undergrad
4. Anything else not listed you think might be important
   1. Reason for non-trad status is due to personal struggles from both of my parents falling ill during undergrad and passing shortly after undergrad.
   2. I took EMT, AEMT, and LNA courses years back but did not end up working in the field (was living on my own and was not able to live on the pay). I’m assuming I should leave these off my app since I didn’t get much from them beyond the training
   3. I have 5 letters of recommendation, from 3 professors (2 sciences, 1 humanities) and 2 MDs (1 a department chair and 1 a CMIO), in case any of that matters at all
   4. In 2 of my volunteer positions I have trained around a half dozen new volunteers. At my current job I train new staff on various software used in our research (SQL, R, JMP, Python, etc.)

I put together this school list using WARS, LizzyM, Admit.org, and ProspectiveDoctor. I tried to optimize for schools within my stat range but given that I used 4 different tools please excuse if any of this doesn't make sense. I have Harvard on here as a Hail Mary because 2 of my LOR writers are professors there, but I can remove it if anyone thinks that's purely a waste of money. I have Dartmouth because I am from NH and have strong ties there (only left ~1 year ago and all my family is there). I don't have any DO schools on here yet, but I'm not opposed. I just didn't add any because my WARS score was high enough that it was not recommended. I included all MA schools since that's where I currently live.

Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU
Boston University Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
Robert Larner, M.D., College of Medicine at the University of Vermont
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine
The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Tufts University School of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine
University of Illinois College of Medicine
University of Kentucky College of Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences
University of South Carolina School of Medicine - Greenville
University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia
University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine

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[Mr.Smile12]

I have Harvard on here as a Hail Mary because 2 of my LOR writers are professors there, but I can remove it if anyone thinks that's purely a waste of money.

Yes, IMO it's a waste of money given your stats. If you were applying to MA/PhD, I could change my mind, though GPA may still be a smidge low. If the professors want you in their labs, they will go to bat for you.

What were your early undergrad courses? Are you eligible for retroactive withdrawal?

 

[bankedsynapse]

I appreciate the insight! I'll pull Harvard from my list.

I don't think I'm eligible for retroactive withdrawal; I can't find any real info on the university website. The courses were ~10 years ago at this point, but if it's not unheard of to excuse classes that long ago I'm definitely willing to knock on doors. The two biggest bumps were Cs in Calc and Ecology.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[AJS59]

On the whole your application is pretty good — what specifically did you do in your role as a Red Cross donor ambassador? You also have a very solid research background which is great.

You have a very large number of OOS public schools that show heavy IS Bias on your list and without ties I would remove them. In particular I am looking at Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina (all), Dakotas (both), UNC, Nevada-Reno, Central Michigan, Wright State and Marshall. Consider replacing at least some of these with private schools.

 

[Faha]

You have many state public schools on your list that admit very few non residents with your stats and no connection to the state. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UMass
Tufts
Dartmouth
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Belmont
TCU
Creighton
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
UNECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
LECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
AZCOM

 

[bankedsynapse]

On the whole your application is pretty good — what specifically did you do in your role as a Red Cross donor ambassador? You also have a very solid research background which is great.

You have a very large number of OOS public schools that show heavy IS Bias on your list and without ties I would remove them. In particular I am looking at Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina (all), Dakotas (both), UNC, Nevada-Reno, Central Michigan, Wright State and Marshall. Consider replacing at least some of these with private schools.

Thank you for saying so! My role as Donor Ambassador was mainly greeting and assisting donors with checking in, answering questions about the donation process, filing their chart, showing them where to do the pre-donation reading, assisting them with making an appointment for their next donation, and making cancellation calls when staffing was low.

I'll remove those schools from my list and add in some more private schools. I appreciate your help!

You have many state public schools on your list that admit very few non residents with your stats and no connection to the state. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UMass
Tufts
Dartmouth
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Belmont
TCU
Creighton
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
UNECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
LECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
AZCOM

THANK YOU! This is an extremely helpful list. I'll add all of these that I'm missing from my list and remove what isn't listed here.