WAMC/School List/EC Help For Gap Year

[rma458]

Thank you

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums. Did you grow up in California most of your life? Exactly how are your connected to Kansas?

Yes, you have research experience but you are trying to get more clinical exposure. How much primary care, geriatric, or emergency care do you have experience with?

I would like to see more food bank experience. Minimum of 150 is in reach, so try getting to 250 to 300 before April. Anything else with the community where you are helping others in distress and can stretch outside your comfort zone a little more will benefit you.

If your MCAT is truly a 528, then you need to think carefully. The research is okay, but I'm not sure if you want to become a true academic. If you do, consider MD/PhD. If not, what do you really want to do as a physician? What do you think you need to realize your vision?

 

[rma458]

Welcome to the forums. Did you grow up in California most of your life? Exactly how are your connected to Kansas?

Yes, you have research experience but you are trying to get more clinical exposure. How much primary care, geriatric, or emergency care do you have experience with?

I would like to see more food bank experience. Minimum of 150 is in reach, so try getting to 250 to 300 before April. Anything else with the community where you are helping others in distress and can stretch outside your comfort zone a little more will benefit you.

If your MCAT is truly a 528, then you need to think carefully. The research is okay, but I'm not sure if you want to become a true academic. If you do, consider MD/PhD. If not, what do you really want to do as a physician? What do you think you need to realize your vision?

Thanks for the reply! I grew up in Kansas until I graduated high school, but my dad has been a CA resident since 2010. My mom is still in Kansas. And my MCAT isn’t at a 528; is this a dealbreaker to something? (It seemed you were alluding to something in your last paragraph)

The one thing I took away from working in research was that it was not sustainable for me to pursue as a career. After MAing, being able to see the improvement in patients’ health throughout their plan of care has been very fulfilling, and I am self-assured I want to practice as a physician for my career. Therefore, I am only looking to apply MD (but I do want to be involved in research in my future, just not as an academic).

In terms of what I want to do as a physician, I apologize that I am not really great at articulating this. I really value mentorship (supported by my experiences in my research mentorship club and as a TA) and the connection developed with patients, so I would love to work at a teaching hospital. Though I believe in my genuine interest in medicine, perhaps this is or may come off as superficial as I do not have any primary care/geriatric/emergency medicine. I have been contacting primary care physicians to shadow, but is there more I should do here?

As for NCV, the 250/300 hr minimum would be for all NCV? So I should try for 150 hrs specifically for the Food Bank? I also started tutoring low-income elementary and middle school students at community center last semester, but more for personal interest. I can only feasibly attain 40/50 hours for this by May due to a lot of logistical reasons, so I thought the short duration of this and low quantity may not really benefit my application.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

And my MCAT isn’t at a 528; is this a dealbreaker to something? (It seemed you were alluding to something in your last paragraph)

You said your MCAT was 100th percentile.

I am only looking to apply MD (but I do want to be involved in research in my future, just not as an academic).

How do you see yourself doing this?

I really value mentorship (supported by my experiences in my research mentorship club and as a TA) and the connection developed with patients, so I would love to work at a teaching hospital.

In other words, in an academic setting. (So I'm a little confused.)

As for NCV, the 250/300 hr minimum would be for all NCV? So I should try for 150 hrs specifically for the Food Bank? I also started tutoring low-income elementary and middle school students at community center last semester,

Tutoring and teaching hours under a different category, and practically all premeds do some teaching so it's value is very low in helping you stand out. This includes teaching English because you come in as a subject matter expert. The exception is Teach for America/City Year because the commitment is much more than typical tutoring.

Nonclinical community service must show service orientation outside health or health adjacent areas. Food distribution is one area, and 150 hours is a minimum to avoid being screened out at most schools. But given your metrics and likely your ambition, you need to have have at least twice as much (250 to 300 hours). Alternatives include job or tax preparing, shelter volunteering, housing rehabilitation, or transportation services. Now, legal assistance or other social services with refugees and asylees could count here.

You definitely need more primary care. Ideally it's great to have longitudinal relationships, but careers in the health therapies (PT, OT, SLP/Aud) tend to have these too. Why not these careers? Will you apply HPSP or consider working for the VA?

 

[rma458]

You said your MCAT was 100th percentile

100% based on MCAT distributions is 524 or higher (I’m not sure why it’s not just 528, so sorry for the confusion).

How do you see yourself doing this?

I think this was my poor articulation. I don’t want to be involved in a wet lab, but I would like to contribute to clinical research.

Nonclinical community service must show service orientation outside health or health adjacent areas. Food distribution is one area, and 150 hours is a minimum to avoid being screened out at most schools. But given your metrics and likely your ambition, you need to have have at least twice as much (250 to 300 hours). Alternatives include job or tax preparing, shelter volunteering, housing rehabilitation, or transportation services. Now, legal assistance or other social services with refugees and asylees could count here.

Thank you for this clarification; it was really helpful. My top choice school is UCI, and I think I care about location the most. I would love to attend somewhere in CA or NY or KS, near my family or boyfriend. I probably should have included this earlier, but I’ve been told not to build a list purely off of location.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

100% based on MCAT distributions is 524 or higher (I’m not sure why it’s not just 528, so sorry for the confusion).

I think this was my poor articulation. I don’t want to be involved in a wet lab, but I would like to contribute to clinical research.

Thank you for this clarification; it was really helpful. My top choice school is UCI, and I think I care about location the most. I would love to attend somewhere in CA or NY or KS, near my family or boyfriend. I probably should have included this earlier, but I’ve been told not to build a list purely off of location.

I'm stalling until the list-makers give their feedback.

Geography is important in many cases since many schools have a public mission. For example, I think KUSOM really advantages those who grew up in Kansas. They go to recruitment events around the state explicitly telling people this.

Application Toolkit

KU School of Medicine admissions application toolkit.

www.kumc.edu

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
The UCs (except Riverside unless you are from that region)
USC Keck
Stanford
Kaiser
Kansas
Mayo
Washington University (almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
U Chicago
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Harvard
Boston University
Yale

 

[rma458]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
The UCs (except Riverside unless you are from that region)
USC Keck
Stanford
Kaiser
Kansas
Mayo
Washington University (almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
U Chicago
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Johns Hopkins
UPenn
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Harvard
Boston University
Yale

Thank you!

 

[rma458]

I'm stalling until the list-makers give their feedback.

Geography is important in many cases since many schools have a public mission. For example, I think KUSOM really advantages those who grew up in Kansas. They go to recruitment events around the state explicitly telling people this.

Application Toolkit

KU School of Medicine admissions application toolkit.

www.kumc.edu

Thank you for all your feedback! I'll definitely keep an eye out for KUSOM.