WAMC/advice for reapplication/new school list

[scherzy00]

Applied this past cycle to 15 schools, with 5 II and 3 WL. I know I had good LORs and felt very happy with most of my interviews, but want advice on anything that might be holding me back and possible additions to my school list, god forbid I have to reapply. I wanted to apply to more last cycle, but got really burnt out lol.
Thanks for any advice, moral support, comments, etc!

1. GPA: cGPA 3.95, sGPA 3.94
2. MCAT: 521 (131/130/129/131)
3. Residency: Brooklyn, NYC
4. Ethnicity: White, foreign-born parents
5. Undergrad: Large state school
6. Clinical Experience
   1. ~2000hrs as an ER scribe between two different ERs
   2. 20 hours volunteering on the production team of an EM medical sim event
7. Research
   1. 700 hours in a microbiology lab. No publications or posters but knew my research well, had successful personal projects, made some real contributions to the lab, and had a PI who I know wrote me a great LOR (as per two interviewers)
8. Shadowing: None, which might be frowned upon, but I mean, I spent 2000 hours with ER physicians at big hospitals and saw and met virtually every major specialty at work, so I'd be pissed if this is what brought me down
9. Non-Clinical Volunteering
   1. 60 hours at a soup kitchen near my school
   2. After submitting primaries, did some volunteering at a shelter near my school, though not a huge amount or with significant investment
10. Other Extracurriculars
    1. Paid employment totaling 2500hrs at a nightclub in Brooklyn since I was 17, including initial work as door staff and later as a production assistant at different venues. After I submitted, I had the opportunity to manage several large events on behalf of a promoter (>3,000 attendees), which I updated schools about.
    2. Significant dedication to classical music, including
       1. 4 years of university orchestra, principal of my string section senior year
       2. Graduate baroque ensemble at my school during my senior year
       3. 2 summers of paid employment as a chamber music coach
       4. Listening, studying, and running a small social media account (it's a meme page. I didn't say it was a meme page, but it's a meme page.)
    3. 2000 hours of work in my family's jewelry business (our only source of income and literally built into our apartment so hard to avoid getting recruited)
11. Honors/Awards: PBK, Dean's list, Outstanding Achievement in Biochemistry (from my department), research grant from my school, academic scholarship from my school, very big external music-related scholarship.

Pre-II R:
Columbia
Harvard
Yale
NYU
Sinai
Einstein
Tufts
SUNY Upstate
Rochester

Post-II R:
Stony Brook (this one hurt - my alma mater. Student interview went great but had bad technical difficulties during professor interview. Who knows.)
Zucker ("2nd tier waitlist" which I'm pretty sure is "f*ck you softie" for R)

Post-II WL:
Weill Cornell
SUNY Downstate
NYMC

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[toastedbutter]

Non-clinical volunteering is low; that's your space to make the greatest gain and 'bang for your buck.' If you did have to reapply, consider schools in the midwest maybe - Ohio State, Case Western, UMich, etc?

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

You prob don't want to hear this since you think they went well, but it was almost certainly your interview if you went 0/5 for a direct A, and esp if you don't get off any WL. Your volunteering is low and that's easily fixable, but you need to grind mock interviews out.

 

[candbgirl]

Did you break out about 50 hours of shadowing from those thousands of hours in the ER? Such an east fix. That might be one of the issues. Schools expect dedicated shadowing. You also have very low nonclinical volunteering. You need to up that. And of course your interview skills. I also agree with expanding your list. Writing secondaries can suck the life out of you but they have to get done.
Good luck. Hopefully you’ll be pulled from a WL.

 

[theoceanman]

Your lack of shadowing hours is probably a red flag because someone with your stats should be able to get an acceptance from NYMC post-II (if you didn't completely mess up) which has a MUCH lower stat average than yours. The admissions probably questioned your intent on "why would you choose medicine" without shadowing and seeing first-hand what a life of a physician entails, especially in primary care or places outside of the ER.

Your additional lack of non-clinical volunteering in community service, with only 60 hours to it and having no other non-clinical experiences that are mainstream such as tutoring/TA'ing/teaching, probably screened you out of most schools on your list. You should always have at least 150 non-clinical hours in something before you apply, preferably community service to make you mission-fit.

This is a mixed bag of "what-if" scenarios but given you got a second-tier WL at Zucker, it's probably a decent indication of where you are potentially on these other schools' WL ranking. You may get pulled off the WL at places like NYMC that have decent WL movement, but definitely should be preparing for a potential upcoming cycle. Get 90 hours of non-clinical hours in at least, especially in community service, and get 50+ hours of shadowing in primary care.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Applied this past cycle to 15 schools, with 5 II and 3 WL. I know I had good LORs and felt very happy with most of my interviews, but want advice on anything that might be holding me back and possible additions to my school list, god forbid I have to reapply. I wanted to apply to more last cycle, but got really burnt out lol.
Thanks for any advice, moral support, comments, etc!

1. GPA: cGPA 3.95, sGPA 3.94
2. MCAT: 521 (131/130/129/131)
3. Residency: Brooklyn, NYC
4. Ethnicity: White, foreign-born parents
5. Undergrad: Large state school
6. Clinical Experience
   1. ~2000hrs as an ER scribe between two different ERs
   2. 20 hours volunteering on the production team of an EM medical sim event
7. Research
   1. 700 hours in a microbiology lab. No publications or posters but knew my research well, had successful personal projects, made some real contributions to the lab, and had a PI who I know wrote me a great LOR (as per two interviewers)
8. Shadowing: None, which might be frowned upon, but I mean, I spent 2000 hours with ER physicians at big hospitals and saw and met virtually every major specialty at work, so I'd be pissed if this is what brought me down
9. Non-Clinical Volunteering
   1. 60 hours at a soup kitchen near my school
   2. After submitting primaries, did some volunteering at a shelter near my school, though not a huge amount or with significant investment
10. Other Extracurriculars
    1. Paid employment totaling 2500hrs at a nightclub in Brooklyn since I was 17, including initial work as door staff and later as a production assistant at different venues. After I submitted, I had the opportunity to manage several large events on behalf of a promoter (>3,000 attendees), which I updated schools about.
    2. Significant dedication to classical music, including
       1. 4 years of university orchestra, principal of my string section senior year
       2. Graduate baroque ensemble at my school during my senior year
       3. 2 summers of paid employment as a chamber music coach
       4. Listening, studying, and running a small social media account (it's a meme page. I didn't say it was a meme page, but it's a meme page.)
    3. 2000 hours of work in my family's jewelry business (our only source of income and literally built into our apartment so hard to avoid getting recruited)
11. Honors/Awards: PBK, Dean's list, Outstanding Achievement in Biochemistry (from my department), research grant from my school, academic scholarship from my school, very big external music-related scholarship.

Pre-II R:
Columbia
Harvard
Yale
NYU
Sinai
Einstein
Tufts
SUNY Upstate
Rochester

Post-II R:
Stony Brook (this one hurt - my alma mater. Student interview went great but had bad technical difficulties during professor interview. Who knows.)
Zucker ("2nd tier waitlist" which I'm pretty sure is "f*ck you softie" for R)

Post-II WL:
Weill Cornell
SUNY Downstate
NYMC

Try to increase your non-clinical volunteering. Apply to a few more programs that fit what your interested in. And get interview coaching or do mock interviews. Given your 5 interviews and no acceptances, I'm suspicious you didn't interview well.

I hope a WL turns into an acceptance.

 

[chilly_md]

Hopefully you get off the WL over the next month as movement begins.

Work on interview skills as that is the main concern. Subtract 50 hours from the ER scribing like candbgirl mentioned and make sure to explicity put it under the shadowing slot on AMCAS so it is obvious (mention in the description that it included physicians in multiple specialties). Try to get additional non-clinical volunteering at the soup kitchen to get close to 150 hours.

If you must reapply, I suggest:

Columbia
Sinai
Einstein
Tufts
SUNY Upstate
SUNY Buffalo
Rochester
Stony Brook
Zucker
Weill Cornell
SUNY Downstate
NYMC
Albany
NYU
Mayo
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Case
WUSTL
Vanderbilt
Emory
USF
Miami
Dartmouth
UVA
Iowa
Pitt
Jefferson
Tufts