WAMC: 3.96/3.93/511, ORM (2024-2025 applicant)

[Ascpmd]

**PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE**
cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS: 3.96 and 3.93

MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 511 (130/125/127/129) - Planning to retake in March or April 2024 and hopefully get 520+!

State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): US permanent residency (when I applied for residency and accepted as a CA resident) & South Korea citizenship

Ethnicity and/or race: Asian, Korean

Undergraduate institution or category: Top 20 Ivy League school

Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
International medical mission trip to Mongol (~100 hours including preparation, fundraising)
Medical mission volunteering (in Korea) for those who are immigrants and lack access to health care (~30 hours)
Served as student medical assistant in hospital (in Korea) (~180 hours)
Served as student medical assistant in geriatric hospital (in Korea) (~240 hours)
More clinical volunteering experiences would be added as I lack US clinical volunteering experiences (~200+ hours)
No paid clinical experience.

Research experience and productivity:
Do not have any publications, posters, or presentations.
Committed to nutritional sciences lab and participated in one team project and my own research (~750 hours)
Worked as research assistant in clinical epidemiology center to study the quality of life for cancer survivors (~200 hours)
Worked as research assistant in stem cell biotech company (~650 hours)
Committed to chemistry lab and worked on research of systemic design and improvement of chemistry course (~120 hours)
Worked as research intern for education advocacy for adults who are illiterate (~100 hours)

Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
Orthopedic surgery (in Korea, ~100 hours)
Internal medicine (in Mongol, ~10 hours)
Plastic surgery (in Mongol, ~5 hours)
Psychiatry (not yet done, but will shadow for 30+ hours)
Neurology (not yet done, but will shadow for 60+ hours)

Non-clinical volunteering:
Worked as lunch box delivery volunteer for people with vision loss (~40 hours)
Served as bathing assistant for those who have difficulty in mobility due to disease (~60 hours)
Volunteered as a participant & staff in fundraising event for immigrants in Korea (~10 hours)
Worked as a private tutor for those struggling with college chemistry course (~90 hours)
Worked as a mentor for Korean international students who have concerns with college application and challenges as an Asian (~50 hours)
Worked as Korean language teacher for Asian American students (~30 hours)

Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
Public relations chair (now-called Vice President of PR) of college American Red Cross for blood drive promotion and artistic design of flyers (~100 hours)
General chemistry TA who assists professor and interacts with students to help them (~150 hours)
Private paid tutor & counselor for middle & high school international students (~1000 hours)
Editor of healthcare magazine (~45 hours)
Writer of periodicals in healthcare online forum about dementia (~40 hours)
Member of mental health committee (~50 hours)
Member of diversity committee (~10 hours)
Member of club work to raise awareness about Alzheimer's disease (~10 hours)
Worship singer in Korean church in university (~90 hours)
Group leader in Korean church in university (~120 hours)
Ambassador of our college chapter of Harvard-based club (~60 hours)

Relevant honors or awards
Dean's list for four semesters

Anything else not listed you think might be important
I was born and raised for ⅔ of my life in South Korea. Because I attended high school and university in the US, I am fluent in English, but still it is my second language.
Part of my research experience and most of my volunteering experience are outside of the US as during COVID-19, I spent most of my time in my hometown, Korea. During my gap year, I have been in Korea to take care of my grandmother who needs help due to Alzheimer's disease. I am not sure if it would be better to give this context somewhere in my application.
I heard that it is required to have clinical experience and shadowing in the US, so I applied for volunteer positions in NYP hospitals and am looking for opportunities to shadow a physician there.

Although it would be hard, I want to apply to Top 30 medical schools (with my new better MCAT score, hopefully) & other decent schools. I don't know much about medical schools, so I actually just selected schools from Top 100 ranking. My current school list is:
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Yale School of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Duke University
Stanford University School of Medicine
University of Michigan Medical School
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
University of California--San Francisco
Georgetown University School of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo

Thank you for reading this long post and giving me advice!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[weewooo]

No one can help your till you get your updated MCAT score. As it stands your list is completely unrealistic with your current MCAT. As you identified, I would get more US clinical experience.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Let's just go with what you have rather than fret about an MCAT retake. 511 is sufficient for admission, so it's going to take something else in your file.

You have a ton of experience in Korea or Asia, so you have a lot of signals that you want to work in medicine to your own community, including overseas. Are you interested in global health issues? If so, what are your experiences here, and are there any experiences outside Asia? I don't really see that, so I can surmise you have a strong interest in helping the Asian community, but you need the US experiences to back you up (and not just in Asian-based clinics).

You should see if any of your schools have clinical opportunities in "Asiatowns" or work closely with Asian local leadership (including faith-based groups) regarding health. If they have Asian health clinics, that is a start to narrowing down your list. While East Asians are generally overrepresented in the physician workforce, generationally Asian can be underserved, especially among those who are older immigrants who are not native English speakers. (We cover this more in Becoming a Student Doctor.)

You definitely need more community involvement with underserved communities such as historically marginalized races and ethnicities, LGBTQ+, and adult disabled. A suggestion for more clinical-adjacent experience is working in a hospice setting, and I'm sure you can find a setting where there may be a more significant proportion of Asian residents where you can leverage your language abilities. You are on your way regarding cumulative experience hours, but you need a little more allowance to serve more diverse populations.

You also need many more schools with more reasonable metrics. Remember many schools will average MCAT attempts, so if you pop up with a 521, your average for screening will be 516. You need a good mix of reaches, targets, and "in-range" schools where you fit their mission, and right now you have mostly reaches and few targets.