MD & DO WAMC Reapplicant - CA ORM 3.7/513, help with school list please!

[Pastafari]

I am currently waitlisted at 1 school and waiting to hear back from another post-II. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but I have to make plans for the upcoming cycle in case neither school works out. I mainly need help with a school list since I think that may have been part of my problem. Only applied MD last time but I'm open to MD and DO this time around.

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
   1. cGPA 3.68, sGPA 3.72
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
   1. 513 - 128/127/128/130
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   1. CA ORM
4. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. Over 7000 hours as a medical assistant
5. Research experience and productivity
   1. 1.5 years in undergrad lab no publication, 1.5 years in clinical research with possible publication sometime this year
6. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. None
7. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 1.5 years in respite care for babies, 2 years as a phone counselor for a crisis line, a few other minor activities
8. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
   1. Started a dance club in college, a few other minor activities
9. Anything else not listed you think might be important
   1. I have a disciplinary record with my undergrad, all alcohol related and over 5 years ago. It is thoroughly explained in my primary and some secondaries and was not brought up during any of my interviews (3 total).

I feel that I am really close and like I said, still hoping for the best for the current cycle. But if I do need to reapply I think a bit of tweaking with my school list would be a good idea. Please let me know what you think! Thank you!

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[chilly_md]

There should be waitlist movement over the next several weeks.

What was your school list, where did you interview and what are the hours you had for your non-clinical volunteering at the time of your app? Did you gain more since then? The respite care for babies sounds like a major activity. If you could explain more of what you did, that would help.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

You will have to apply both MD and DO.

I have a disciplinary record with my undergrad, all alcohol related and over 5 years ago. It is thoroughly explained in my primary and some secondaries and was not brought up during any of my interviews (3 total)

When you say “all,” how many are we talking? Sometimes a disciplinary record can make it harder to get in post II.

 

[Pastafari]

There should be waitlist movement over the next several weeks.

What was your school list, where did you interview and what are the hours you had for your non-clinical volunteering at the time of your app? Did you gain more since then? The respite care for babies sounds like a major activity. If you could explain more of what you did, that would help.

Boston, Central Florida, CUSM, Dartmouth, Fl Atlantic, Fl International, Kaiser, Keck, LUC, Med College of Wisconsin, Nova SE, NYMC, NYU Grossman and Long Island, Stony Brook, Rosalind Franklin, Rush, SUNY Downstate, Tufts, UC Irvine and San Diego, UIC, UNC Chapel Hill, Vermont, UNLV and Morsani.

Interviewed at Vermont, CUSM, and UNLV. Post-II R at Vermont, waitlist at CUSM, and waiting to hear about a waitlist vs rejection from UNLV in the next few days. The hours for the volunteering activities are not too substantial but these are longitudinal activities which I feel is a good thing. I am still doing the phone line volunteering so my hours have continued to accrue.

You will have to apply both MD and DO.


When you say “all,” how many are we talking? Sometimes a disciplinary record can make it harder to get in post II.

My post history has more detail but in total I have 5 IAs. I've talked in detail with advisors, mentors, and the good people of SDN about all of it and how it should be framed. I definitely have not tried to skirt around the subject or play it down but instead focused on what I learned as a result. Of course it's a bigger deal than having one or two freshman year mishaps and I knew that going into the current app cycle.

2 out of the 3 interviews I secured had secondary essays that talked about a mistake I had learned from, and I chose to go into more detail about the disciplinary record there as well. But I definitely hear you about the post-interview ramifications. Of course if it's between me and another interviewer with a clean record, it's a pretty clear choice on the school's part.

 

[Pastafari]

By the way before anyone says anything, yes I know my school list had a lot of donations... mistakes were made so I'm trying to be a lot more targeted the second time around.

 

[chilly_md]

I am surprised you received an II from UNLV. Do you have ties to Nevada or live near the border?

You need shadowing. Having 0 hours for that is not good as you haven't seen the day-to-day life of a physician (both with patients as well as back in the office with administrative work). If you are still working as an MA, ask the physicians there if you can shadow due to your interest in going to medical school. Ideally, you want to have a few different specialities as well, including shadowing primary care. Would recommend another non-clinical activity that is face-to-face such as soup kitchen, food bank, shelter volunteer etc. too.

You can apply to the following:
UCR or UC Davis (only if you live in Inland Empire for UCR or Northern/Central CA for UCD)
UCI
CUSM
Medical College of Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Tufts
Quinnipiac
TCU
Vermont
Albany
NYMC
Oakland
Wayne State
Hackensack
Creighton
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Wake Forest
Tulane
EVMS
VCU
Nova MD
George Washington

For DO, you are competitive for all of them. I suggest:

Touro CA
TUNCOM
Western
DMU
Marian
PCOM
LECOM
NYITCOM
KCOM
ATSU-SOMA
AZCOM (watch the tuition)

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Boston, Central Florida, CUSM, Dartmouth, Fl Atlantic, Fl International, Kaiser, Keck, LUC, Med College of Wisconsin, Nova SE, NYMC, NYU Grossman and Long Island, Stony Brook, Rosalind Franklin, Rush, SUNY Downstate, Tufts, UC Irvine and San Diego, UIC, UNC Chapel Hill, Vermont, UNLV and Morsani.

Interviewed at Vermont, CUSM, and UNLV. Post-II R at Vermont, waitlist at CUSM, and waiting to hear about a waitlist vs rejection from UNLV in the next few days. The hours for the volunteering activities are not too substantial but these are longitudinal activities which I feel is a good thing. I am still doing the phone line volunteering so my hours have continued to accrue.

My post history has more detail but in total I have 5 IAs. I've talked in detail with advisors, mentors, and the good people of SDN about all of it and how it should be framed. I definitely have not tried to skirt around the subject or play it down but instead focused on what I learned as a result. Of course it's a bigger deal than having one or two freshman year mishaps and I knew that going into the current app cycle.

2 out of the 3 interviews I secured had secondary essays that talked about a mistake I had learned from, and I chose to go into more detail about the disciplinary record there as well. But I definitely hear you about the post-interview ramifications. Of course if it's between me and another interviewer with a clean record, it's a pretty clear choice on the school's part.

Even if alcohol IA’s usually aren’t detrimental (aside from DUI), I feel like 5 is a lot and might worry some schools about compliance issues.

Not sure what other posters in this thread think about the magnitude of these IAs.

The good thing is that the more time between the IAs with a clean record, the better.

 

[Pastafari]

I am surprised you received an II from UNLV. Do you have ties to Nevada or live near the border?

You need shadowing. Having 0 hours for that is not good as you haven't seen the day-to-day life of a physician (both with patients as well as back in the office with administrative work). If you are still working as an MA, ask the physicians there if you can shadow due to your interest in going to medical school. Ideally, you want to have a few different specialities as well, including shadowing primary care. Would recommend another non-clinical activity that is face-to-face such as soup kitchen, food bank, shelter volunteer etc. too.

You can apply to the following:
UCR or UC Davis (only if you live in Inland Empire for UCR or Northern/Central CA for UCD)
UCI
CUSM
Medical College of Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Tufts
Quinnipiac
TCU
Vermont
Albany
NYMC
Oakland
Wayne State
Hackensack
Creighton
Jefferson
Temple
Drexel
Wake Forest
Tulane
EVMS
VCU
Nova MD
George Washington

For DO, you are competitive for all of them. I suggest:

Touro CA
TUNCOM
Western
DMU
Marian
PCOM
LECOM
NYITCOM
KCOM
ATSU-SOMA
AZCOM (watch the tuition)

My sister lived in Vegas for a while and also attended UNLV for undergrad and law school so that's my connection there. Not the strongest connection but apparently enough to land the interview. At my job I work very very closely with my MD and I've watched a few procedures but I wouldn't call it shadowing since it's part of my job. I may have the opportunity to observe him doing a surgery at the adjacent hospital soon, and that would be outside the realm of my job so I could add that. Any other shadowing opportunities I considered were slashed by COVID, although that's not so much of an excuse at this point so I appreciate the advice!

And thank you so much for the school list recommendations, I will look into all of these.

Even if alcohol IA’s usually aren’t detrimental (aside from DUI), I feel like 5 is a lot and might worry some schools about compliance issues.

Not sure what other posters in this thread think about the magnitude of these IAs.

The good thing is that the more time between the IAs with a clean record, the better.

I totally hear that and I specifically took extra gap years for this reason, among other reasons. It definitely wasn't a one-off mistake so I know it has held me back. I think all other things considered, even with average GPA/MCAT I would've been much more successful without all that.