MD & DO Please help me edit my school list! Any advice appreciated!

[medtulsi]

My background information:

1. cGPA: 3.79 and sGPA: 3.71
2. MCAT: 513 with 125/128/128/132
3. Residency: Florida resident
4. Ethnicity/race: Asian
5. Undergraduate institution: University of South Florida
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 2100 hours total
   • Volunteer: 100 hours at two hospitals
   • Non-volunteer: 2000 hours as a primary care scribe, ophthalmologic technician and scribe.
7. Research experience and productivity: 300 hours on uveal melanoma, two Honors College theses written (not peer-reviewed publications) (no LOR)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented (OUTSIDE of scribing for them, everyone is MD unless said otherwise): 64 hours and counting
   • Retina Ophthalmologist (shadowed retina surgeries + clinic): 8 hours
   • General Ophthalmologist (shadowed cataract surgeries + clinic): 8 hours
   • Geriatric Family Medicine: 16 hours
   • Family Medicine Physician Assistant: 8 hours
   • Internal Medicine: 24 hours
   • Endocrinologist: TBD, starting soon
   • Cardiothoracic surgeon: TBD, starting soon
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 300 hours total
   • Sunday school teacher: 200 hours
   • Multicultural affairs office (ran a buddy program and ran information sessions on immigration law updates for international students): 100 hours
10. Other extracurricular activities
    • 600 hours working as a university chemistry tutor
    • 300 hours working as a Learning Assistant (aka an undergraduate TA) for Biology course
11. Relevant honors/awards: Graduated from the Honors College
12. Potentially important information:
    • Downward trend with GPA during senior year. Lowest grade I've ever received was a B-, though. (I was a victim of severe intimate partner violence at this time)
    • Took two gap years
    • My family was low to low-middle income for the majority of my life (but no longer, so I don't qualify for fee assistances right now)

I am a first time applicant. My biggest fear while constructing this list is not earning any acceptances at all this upcoming 2024-2025 cycle, so any advice at all is extremely appreciated. Please help me maximize my chances. If I should take some schools off entirely, please let me know!

As for personal preferences... My dream state to live in is California. I know this is a bit of a useless factor but I thought I'd ask! All the Californian medical schools within my range of stats seem to have heavy in-state bias. Any advice on California schools that fit me would be amazing!

My school list:

Reach Schools

1. USF Health Morsani (3.91, 518)
2. Emory University (3.79, 516)
3. Geisel School of Medicine (3.82, 516)
4. Albert Einstein College of Medicine (3.86, 516)
5. University of Cincinnati (3.88, 516)
6. New York Medical College (3.75, 516)
7. University of Rochester (3.89, 517)
8. University of Iowa (3.88, 516)

Target Schools:

1. FIU Herbert Wertheim (3.83, 511)
2. Medical College of Wisconsin (3.79, 511)
3. Oakland University Beaumont (3.85, 511)
4. Pennsylvania State University (3.79, 512)
5. Drexel University (3.80, 512)
6. University of Vermont (3.76, 512)
7. George Washington University (3.75, 512)
8. Wake Forest (3.82, 512)
9. Eastern Virginia Medical School (3.72, 512)
10. Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (3.79, 512)
11. Nova Southeastern University MD (3.81, 513)
12. Rosalind Franklin University (3.78, 513)
13. Quinnipiac University (3.77, 514)
14. Virginia Commonwealth University (3.88, 514)
15. Western Michigan University (3.80, 515)
16. University of Miami Leonard M. Miller (3.82, 515)
17. University of Florida College of Medicine (3.91, 515)
18. University of Central Florida (3.89, 515)
19. FAU Charles E. Schmidt (3.9, 515)
20. Tufts University (3.82, 515)
21. Sidney Kimmel Medical School at Jefferson University (3.82, 515)
22. Seton Hall Hackensack School of Medicine (3.84, 515)
23. University of Colorado (3.81, 515)

Undershoot schools

1. Albany Medical College (3.77, 510)
2. Florida State University (3.83, 508)

Undershoot DO schools

1. Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (3.7, 507)
2. Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine (3.57, 509)
3. Rowan Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine (3.57, 505)
4. Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (3.5, 506)

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[Faha]

You do need any more shadowing hours but you do need 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application. You should receive interviews from your target and undershoot list of schools. Include NOVA and LECOM (Florida schools) for your DO schools.

 

[medtulsi]

You do need any more shadowing hours but you do need 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application. You should receive interviews from your target and undershoot list of schools. Include NOVA and LECOM (Florida schools) for your DO schools.

Hi! Thank you so much for the help! With these two extra schools in mind, my list comes to a total of 39 schools, and I really only think I'll have the energy to apply to a maximum of 35. Are there any schools on my list that seem like I should get rid of them? Or at this point, does it come it down to my personal preferences? Thanks again!

 

[Faha]

Hi! Thank you so much for the help! With these two extra schools in mind, my list comes to a total of 39 schools, and I really only think I'll have the energy to apply to a maximum of 35. Are there any schools on my list that seem like I should get rid of them? Or at this point, does it come it down to my personal preferences? Thanks again

Remove your reach schools except USF Morsani and New York Medical College. On your DO list remove Michigan State (very high non resident tuition) and Rowan (admit few non residents).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Many UC publics favor applicants who grew up near their campus region, so it might not be a good choice to apply to many of them without further connections.

Now, the privates. If you are really devout as suggested with being a Sunday school teacher, you could see about Loma Linda. I don't have their stats offhand.

Admission Requirements and Application Process | School of Medicine

medicine.llu.edu

The others are Cal Northstate (accreditation issues) and Cal USM. On the DO side, Western is obvious.

On the service side, if there are other opportunities where you provide legal resources to non-students, that could help you in the non clinical volunteering side. I'm certain your law school has such a clinic. Better if you get off campus and out of your comfort zone. You took two gap years so it is not clear if you maintained this activity after graduating. This must be addressed before applying.

I'm sorry that you had to survive a partner violence assault. Is there a local shelter where you could volunteer and receive support as well?