School List Help 3.89cGPA 511 MCAT ORM

[LunarPhoenix42]

cGPA 3.891 sGPA 3.848
MCAT 511

Michigan Resident
ORM

Undergrad— top public state school

Clinical

• MA in cardiology office 400 hours projected
• CNA for 6 months 400 hours
• Volunteer at free clinic 80 hours projected
• Patient sitter 100 hours

Shadowing

• Rheumatologist— in process— 50 hours projected

Research

• Wet lab 800 hours
  • 1 publication 3rd author
  • 1 paper in review 3rd author

Other work

• Covid screener 150 hours
• Episode writer for university pre-health advising podcast 100 hours

Leadership

• Founded a chapter of a blood drive club and ran all internal operations for 2.5 years
  • ~400 volunteer hours
• Promoted to an administrative nationals position after graduation ~ 60 hours
• Nonprofit core team member ~350 hours
  • provides free resources for people experiencing pregnancy loss
  • I helped developed our support program and on a day to day basis I intake all new patients and manage all volunteers+appointments

Other volunteering

• Patient coordinator for nonprofit
  • collect patient testimonials, answer questions about logistics regarding their scalp cooling for chemo— 80 hours projected
• Gym volunteer for club that holds classes for kids with disabilities — 80 hours projected by May
• Office volunteer at a newspaper that employs people experiencing homelessness to write articles and sell their own work — 80 hours projected by May

Right now I am looking at

All Michigan MDs

Case Western

Boston Univeristy

Loyala

Drexel

Albany

Duke

UIowa

Tufts

UMass

Albert Einstein

UToledo

Tulane

FAU

Chicago Rosalind Franklin

UCincinnati

UColorado

Eastern Virginia

Emory

Dartmouth Geisel

Georgetown

UIllinois Chicago

Indiana University

UBuffalo Jacobs

Temple Lewis Katz

UMaryland

Medical College of Wisconsin

NY Medical College

OSU

Stony Brook

UVermont Larner

Rush

SLU

Thomas Jefferson Sidney Kimmel

SUNY Downstate

Pitt

URochester

UWisconsin

Virginia Commonwealth

Wake Forest

Wright State

Creighton

Brown Warren Alpert

George Washington University

Hofstra/Northwell

USC Keck

UMiami

Are there any that should definitely be removed (don't accept many oos or that would be a waste of time)
and am I missing any that are within my range OR schools that are really holistic that may consider me even if I'm below their averages?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[candbgirl]

I’d remove Rush as you seem to have limited(if any)service to the unserved/underserved in your community. I don’t see any service focusing on people very unlike yourself. You have indicated no effort to step outside of your comfort zone. You might want to also remove the 4 Jesuit schools(especially Loyola) for the same reasons. Medicine is a service profession and you have to show your altruism. You will be working with people at their very worst and you should show you can do that.

University of Illinois is supposedly the most expensive med schools in the country for OOS people(they are pretty expensive for IS too.) So might want to,skip them.

You have many OOS public schools. Have you checked IN the MSAR to see how OOS friendly they are?

Just a suggestion- shadow the rheumatologist for a day or two and then ask the doc if he knows a couple of primary care docs he can set you up with to shadow. You only need about 50 hours and some should be with a PCP.

Good luck as you move forward.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

OP: you have a lot of activities co-mingled when it comes to categorization. You have to help the screeners better determine your "community service" versus leadership when it comes to drafting your W/A.

I"m also not a big fan of "projected". 530 hours of activities are projected. Presuming you will get this done by June 1, that gives you about 100 hours each month, or 25 hours each week (1 full day no sleep). If you're in school, does your schedule allow you to do this?

If you are going for "holistic schools," could you tell me more about why you should be a physician? What school missions are you most aligned with? It's hard for me to tell from the information provided.

 

[Faha]

You have several schools on your list that admit few applicants with a MCAT of 511. Also some of the state public schools on your list admit few non residents with your MCAT of 511 and no connection to the state. I suggest these schools:
All Michigan MD schools
Toledo
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Tulane
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Georgetown
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

OP: you have a lot of activities co-mingled when it comes to categorization. You have to help the screeners better determine your "community service" versus leadership when it comes to drafting your W/A.

I"m also not a big fan of "projected". 530 hours of activities are projected. Presuming you will get this done by June 1, that gives you about 100 hours each month, or 25 hours each week (1 full day no sleep). If you're in school, does your schedule allow you to do this?

If you are going for "holistic schools," could you tell me more about why you should be a physician? What school missions are you most aligned with? It's hard for me to tell from the information provided.

I'm not in school so my schedule does allow me to do this. Also I should have clarified, a good bit of these I've started months ago. By projected I mean that by June 1 I will have that many hours.

By holistic I mean holistic review. A lot of schools say they review holistically but are incredibly stats heavy.

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

You have several schools on your list that admit few applicants with a MCAT of 511. Also some of the state public schools on your list admit few non residents with your MCAT of 511 and no connection to the state. I suggest these schools:
All Michigan MD schools
Toledo
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Tulane
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Georgetown
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac

After speaking to my advisor I know for a fact that Quinnipiac and TCU have accepted zero students from my university in the last five cycles. So that's why I left them off my list. Should I still apply to those anyways?

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

I’d remove Rush as you seem to have limited(if any)service to the unserved/underserved in your community. I don’t see any service focusing on people very unlike yourself. You have indicated no effort to step outside of your comfort zone. You might want to also remove the 4 Jesuit schools(especially Loyola) for the same reasons. Medicine is a service profession and you have to show your altruism. You will be working with people at their very worst and you should show you can do that.

University of Illinois is supposedly the most expensive med schools in the country for OOS people(they are pretty expensive for IS too.) So might want to,skip them.

You have many OOS public schools. Have you checked IN the MSAR to see how OOS friendly they are?

Just a suggestion- shadow the rheumatologist for a day or two and then ask the doc if he knows a couple of primary care docs he can set you up with to shadow. You only need about 50 hours and some should be with a PCP.

Good luck as you move forward.

I would disagree that I have shown no interest in serving people who are different from me.

The free clinic I work at weekly serves a low income and a large immigrant/undocumented population. I not only help with clinical duties but also application to different assistance programs to try and get them more coverage and access to health services.

For my news volunteering, every time I am there I spend the entirety of the period working with the homeless population. We also provide meals and community engagement activities in which I also participate in.

For the nonprofit, we have a focus on mental health support for low income folks and LGBTQ grief support, who I also help provide our services regularly. We also design and host educational workshops in the city on reproductive health specifically for women of color to teach techniques on how to be self advocates for their well being.

At the gym I volunteer with kids with developmental disabilities at the gym weekly.

Out of all of these identities I have mentioned, I belong to none of them, and all of these are service activities that I do for no compensation, just out of wanting to engage more with these communities.

If you still believe I have indicated that I have made no effort in stepping out of my comfort zone or showing altruism, I would like you to elaborate more, because so far it seems like an unfair assumption you have made.

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

I’d remove Rush as you seem to have limited(if any)service to the unserved/underserved in your community. I don’t see any service focusing on people very unlike yourself. You have indicated no effort to step outside of your comfort zone. You might want to also remove the 4 Jesuit schools(especially Loyola) for the same reasons. Medicine is a service profession and you have to show your altruism. You will be working with people at their very worst and you should show you can do that.

University of Illinois is supposedly the most expensive med schools in the country for OOS people(they are pretty expensive for IS too.) So might want to,skip them.

You have many OOS public schools. Have you checked IN the MSAR to see how OOS friendly they are?

Just a suggestion- shadow the rheumatologist for a day or two and then ask the doc if he knows a couple of primary care docs he can set you up with to shadow. You only need about 50 hours and some should be with a PCP.

Good luck as you move forward.

In terms of how OOS friendly, I used this document from AAMC https://www.aamc.org/media/5976/download . This gave me much more info than MSAR alone. Also I had mentioned above that my advisor had a list of where previous students at my school got admitted. A lot of the schools I chose was based off of where was "friendly" to my school according to these advisors. "Friendly" meaning they accepted 5+ students from my university within the last three cycles. Is this something I shouldn't go off of?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

In terms of how OOS friendly, I used this document from AAMC https://www.aamc.org/media/5976/download . This gave me much more info than MSAR alone. Also I had mentioned above that my advisor had a list of where previous students at my school got admitted. A lot of the schools I chose was based off of where was "friendly" to my school according to these advisors. "Friendly" meaning they accepted 5+ students from my university within the last three cycles. Is this something I shouldn't go off of?

Thank you for clarifying that you are not currently in school and that you were anticipating these hours through June 1.

It's helpful to have that list, but were the candidates comparable with your GPA, MCAT, and activities? I mention to many people, the EAM holistic review model still puts metrics at the center of the bullseye. While metrics are the clearest part of the picture, the holistic process allows us to see the experiences and attributes that also affect what we see in the applicant profile. It is not a rationale to eliminate the importance of those metrics, as long as the interpretation is appropriate.

You can answer my question and @candbgirl 's concerns by addressing the questions I mentioned earlier: could you tell me more about why you should be a physician? What school missions are you most aligned with?

 

[Faha]

After speaking to my advisor I know for a fact that Quinnipiac and TCU have accepted zero students from my university in the last five cycles. So that's why I left them off my list. Should I still apply to those anyways?

Yes

 

[candbgirl]

cGPA 3.891 sGPA 3.848
MCAT 511

Michigan Resident
ORM

Undergrad— top public state school

Clinical

• MA in cardiology office 400 hours projected
• CNA for 6 months 400 hours
• Volunteer at free clinic 80 hours projected
• Patient sitter 100 hours

Shadowing

• Rheumatologist— in process— 50 hours projected

Research

• Wet lab 800 hours
  • 1 publication 3rd author
  • 1 paper in review 3rd author

Other work

• Covid screener 150 hours
• Episode writer for university pre-health advising podcast 100 hours

Leadership

• Founded a chapter of a blood drive club and ran all internal operations for 2.5 years
  • ~400 volunteer hours
• Promoted to an administrative nationals position after graduation ~ 60 hours
• Nonprofit core team member ~350 hours
  • provides free resources for people experiencing pregnancy loss
  • I helped developed our support program and on a day to day basis I intake all new patients and manage all volunteers+appointments

Other volunteering

• Patient coordinator for nonprofit
  • collect patient testimonials, answer questions about logistics regarding their scalp cooling for chemo— 80 hours projected
• Gym volunteer for club that holds classes for kids with disabilities — 80 hours projected by May
• Office volunteer at a newspaper that employs people experiencing homelessness to write articles and sell their own work — 80 hours projected by May

Right now I am looking at

All Michigan MDs

Case Western

Boston Univeristy

Loyala

Drexel

Albany

Duke

UIowa

Tufts

UMass

Albert Einstein

UToledo

Tulane

FAU

Chicago Rosalind Franklin

UCincinnati

UColorado

Eastern Virginia

Emory

Dartmouth Geisel

Georgetown

UIllinois Chicago

Indiana University

UBuffalo Jacobs

Temple Lewis Katz

UMaryland

Medical College of Wisconsin

NY Medical College

OSU

Stony Brook

UVermont Larner

Rush

SLU

Thomas Jefferson Sidney Kimmel

SUNY Downstate

Pitt

URochester

UWisconsin

Virginia Commonwealth

Wake Forest

Wright State

Creighton

Brown Warren Alpert

George Washington University

Hofstra/Northwell

USC Keck

UMiami

Are there any that should definitely be removed (don't accept many oos or that would be a waste of time)
and am I missing any that are within my range OR schools that are really holistic that may consider me even if I'm below their averages?

I would disagree that I have shown no interest in serving people who are different from me.

The free clinic I work at weekly serves a low income and a large immigrant/undocumented population. I not only help with clinical duties but also application to different assistance programs to try and get them more coverage and access to health services.

For my news volunteering, every time I am there I spend the entirety of the period working with the homeless population. We also provide meals and community engagement activities in which I also participate in.

For the nonprofit, we have a focus on mental health support for low income folks and LGBTQ grief support, who I also help provide our services regularly. We also design and host educational workshops in the city on reproductive health specifically for women of color to teach techniques on how to be self advocates for their well being.

At the gym I volunteer with kids with developmental disabilities at the gym weekly.

Out of all of these identities I have mentioned, I belong to none of them, and all of these are service activities that I do for no compensation, just out of wanting to engage more with these communities.

If you still believe I have indicated that I have made no effort in stepping out of my comfort zone or showing altruism, I would like you to elaborate more, because so far it seems like an unfair assumption you have made.

So where did you mention any of the highlighted information in your first post. I’ve read your post a couple of time and I really can’t find it. If you didn’t tell us how are we to know?
Just a clarification, you mentioned not receiving any compensation for these activities. Nonclinical VOLUNTEERING is understood to be no compensation.

 

[candbgirl]

In terms of how OOS friendly, I used this document from AAMC https://www.aamc.org/media/5976/download . This gave me much more info than MSAR alone. Also I had mentioned above that my advisor had a list of where previous students at my school got admitted. A lot of the schools I chose was based off of where was "friendly" to my school according to these advisors. "Friendly" meaning they accepted 5+ students from my university within the last three cycles. Is this something I shouldn't go off of?

I understand the concept of a med school being FRIENDLY to certain colleges/universities in the application process. Did your school compare you to these other students? Are your stats, ECs etc similar or did they just tell everyone applying that these schools were friendly to your school in the past. So much is involved in this process that you really need to reflect on what was said in what context.
Good luck as you develop your application.

 

[candbgirl]

I’m sorry you were upset that I mentioned altruism and nonclinical volunteering . But it is your responsibility to paint a comprehensive picture of yourself. That’s the purpose of the Primary Application. If you don’t tell ADCOMS everything important how are they to know? Some ADCOMS read lots of applications and they are tasked with picking a few hundred candidates from a few thousand to invite for an interview.

 

[Goro]

Right now I am looking at

All Michigan MDs

Loyola

UMiami

Hofstra/Northwell

Drexel

Albany

SLU

Virginia Commonwealth

Tufts

Emory (maybe)

Albert Einstein (maybe)

UToledo

Tulane

UCF (maybe)

Chicago Rosalind Franklin

Thomas Jefferson Sidney Kimmel

UColorado

Eastern Virginia

Emory

Dartmouth Geisel

Georgetown

George Washington University

Creighton

Wake Forest

Temple Lewis Katz

Drexel

Medical College of Wisconsin

NY Medical College

Netter

URochester

UVermont Larner

Rush

SLU

Decent list; my suggestions above, I removed the donations. Add some DO schools for insurance.

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

So where did you mention any of the highlighted information in your first post. I’ve read your post a couple of time and I really can’t find it. If you didn’t tell us how are we to know?
Just a clarification, you mentioned not receiving any compensation for these activities. Nonclinical VOLUNTEERING is understood to be no compensation.

You're right I didn't explicitly state that. But also you assuming that I can encompass my entire application in this tiny post and that what I briefly listed for each activity was the only things I did there, then jumping to the conclusion that I lack altruism was also not the best approach... My purpose for mentioning non compensation was further emphasizing that these are all service activities, which you told me I lacked. Anyways that doesn't really matter because obviously I intend my REAL application to greatly differ from a SDN post, but hopefully that clarifies things. I think both of us were making assumptions, either way I appreciate that you've taken the time to read and respond.

In terms of the school choice about what my university mentioned, they didn't -- honestly they just emailed me that list with no context. I think you bring up a really good point. My MCAT is a little less than 3 points below average, and my GPA is 0.2 above average (but I don't think my GPA will make up for my MCAT). I think my ECs are a bit above average, although there is no objective measure, my advisors have told me I am in a good place with that and although I go to a research university, it is not super typical for undergraduate students to have publications.

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

Decent list; my suggestions above, I removed the donations. Add some DO schools for insurance.

Thank you!

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

It's been hard for me to determine what is OOS friendly because MSAR only has matriculation data, not acceptance data, and for public schools with cheaper IS tuition it would make sense that matriculated IS %> accepted IS%.

For example UMass has 54/162 matriculated OOS students. That's 1/3, but assuming more IS people were compelled to attend because tuition, perhaps this is OOS friendly?

Is there a better way to determine OOS friendliness?

 

[chilly_md]

I have merged your thread since you have been provided a good list of schools to apply to.

30% OOS is a good percent but there are other factors such as stats. Umass would be good for an applicant with a higher MCAT than yours. This is why posting in WAMC is best.