WAMC + School list Help: 3.96 GPA, 520 MCAT, URM

[Ilovealtoidmints]

Greetings everyone.
I was hoping to get some feedback on my school list that I was going to apply to. I recently switched from pre nursing and thus no one in my inner circle is really a premed sort of person that could give advice. I would appreciate any feedback or critique and will glady expand on anything I need to.

cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS

cGPA: 3.96
sGPQ: 3.9

MCAT score(s) and breakdown
1 attempt: 520 (130/130/130/130). Pretty sure this was a fluke but I am not retaking this

State of residence or country of citizenship
Florida

Ethnicity and/or race
Half Mexican, half black. However, I identify much more as Mexican since I am very Hispanic. Most people do not believe I am half black until I show them a picture of my dad.

Undergraduate institution or category
University of Florida (Public, State University)

Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
Volunteer
650 Hours - UF has a program which is essentially multiple free clinic sites that attend to individuals with no health insurance. I serve as a volunteer position which essentially functions as a medical assistant, taking patient vitals, patient intake, patient follow up. 4 sites, I was selected to direct/ lead one and have revamped patient/volunteer transparency and am working on streamlining referrals and such.

390 Hours - UF’s hospital has a program/club where there is a hand cart full of essential items such as deodorant or nail files; The cart also has items such as coloring pages we design ourselves, games like checkers and these sorts of items. We go around room to room passing out items to patients but the cart also serves as a means to segue in and interact with patients and spend time with them. So sometimes we just go in and grab some stuff, sometimes we play checkers with a patient for an hour. Really depends on the day and the patient. Also helped revamp transparency with funds and such in-house

100 Hours - Go to city hall and help homeless individuals monitor blood pressure and direct them to other free clinics.

Total: 1140 currently

Non-Volunteer Clinical Experience
None. I will get a job as a medical assistant soon though; I start next week

Research experience and productivity
800 hours, no major presentations or pubs. I am leading my own project now though, under supervision. Very long term, studying sleep in mice and neurodegeneration.

Shadowing experience and specialties represented
10 Hours - Peds
10 Hours - IM
10 Hours - Ophthalmology
15 hours - Anesthesiology
Total: 45 hours

Non-clinical volunteering
200 Hours - Tutoring Children from Disadvantaged schools in mostly english and math. Ranges from homework help in groups to one on one tutoring. I helped start the organization that runs this, but I have taken a step back due to family stuff. Have recently stepped in and am helping expand across subjects / age range

300 Hours - bit of a weird one but helps families reduce energy consumption and bills by helping them identify major structural issues in home. So we go into a home, help find any major leaks, make what repair we can, and refer any repairs outside of our ability to partnered charities that help make major repairs. We might fix a leak, for example, but not like a ruptured pipe under ground.

500 hours - Help Teach two classes catered towards immigrants - one helps teach English, the other helps prepare individuals for the citizenship exam. We also help with the application process and the people I work for are recognized by the DoJ as accredited preparers.
Total : 1000 Hours - Currently



Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)

100 hours - Orgo 1 TA - help teach students all the tricks of the trade in regards to Orgo 1, and also was asked to help with orgo 2

??? (I would say 700 on the low end, ) Hours - Very hard to track exact hours, but I helped start an org that deals with human trafficking. We help (mostly women due to the nature of the crime) find new homes, find new healthcare, and find clothes, etc. Partnered with a couple major orgs around here. Some of us help volunteer, some of us help fundraise, some of us gather donations. I think by the last numbers our main partner orgo estimated that we had raised around 20 grand for them in money and other value. Hard to put a number on this because it is always in the background, so to speak.

Leadership
Current Site Director for UF free clinic system - about 5 months now
Current Exec Board Member of UF Cart program - about 5 months now
Current Exec Board Member of Human Trafficking aid org - about 2 years now
I would not say any of these are fluff. They all involve heavy decision making and have taken years off my life. Love them though.

Relevant honors or awards
Full ride here at UF since I am poor

Anything else not listed you think might be important

Background

Child of Immigrants, neither of my parents went to school past middle school (or the Mexican equivalent). Grew up rather poor. Did not realize how poor until I was older but let us just say I was poor. Family is doing better now though but still working/lower class.
I did retake orgo 1 and sort of 2. Basically, my orgo 1 prof passed me out of the kindness of her heart. My sister passed away and I sort of blew off school that semester, she had a similar experience and I barely passed. Then in orgo 2 I did super poorly due to having eye surgery, then my mom got cancer, then I broke my legs, so I dropped that since it was my only in person class. However, I got them retroactively withdrawn, retook orgo 1, got a 99, and am doing good in orgo 2. That is the only weird mark on my record I think.

I have noticed that a lot of my volunteer stuff tends to cater towards underserved communities, especially spanish speaking communities. This was not entirely intentional, but more as a result of the fact that it was a skill I found I could use the best.

Also i am taking a fifth year to graduate



School List

Mostly In state and OOS friendly schools from a list I found
UF
FSU
UCF
USF
Cincinnati
Vermont
Ohio State
Rochester
U Indiana
U Wisconsin
Hofstra
Einstein
U Iowa
U Maryland
U Colorado
Dartmouth
Stony Brook
U Illinois
Wayne State
Miami
Boston U
Wake

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[zestyzigzagoon]

You could honestly aim for higher (if you're interested in going to a T20 school). You have incredible stats and great potential to convey a meaningful narrative for "why medicine" on your app

 

[Ilovealtoidmints]

You could honestly aim for higher (if you're interested in going to a T20 school). You have incredible stats and great potential to convey a meaningful narrative for "why medicine" on your app

Do you really think so? Truth be told I just want to go wherever will take me. I can look at some OOS friendly schools though.
How would you go about conveying a narrative, if I may ask? I hear the term a lot but I never really know what it means.

 

[zestyzigzagoon]

Do you really think so? Truth be told I just want to go wherever will take me. I can look at some OOS friendly schools though.
How would you go about conveying a narrative, if I may ask? I hear the term a lot but I never really know what it means.

This is cliche but it's all about showing and not telling in your personal statement. Using anecdotes from your life/clinical stories that are unique to you and that justify why you want to go to medical school and become a doctor. The more honest you are, the more genuine it comes across. These just sound like vague pleasantries right now because it's hard to describe a good narrative without having one to refer to. Once you run through draft after draft of your personal statement, it'll all start to make sense. Best of luck!!

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
U Florida
Florida State
Miami
USF Morsani
Central Florida
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Northwestern
U Chicago
Case Western
U Penn
Jefferson
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Yale
Brown
Boston University
Kaiser
UCSF
UCLA
UCSD

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Do you have a FAP letter?

So auditing your community service and service orientation.

100 Hours - Go to city hall and help homeless individuals monitor blood pressure and direct them to other free clinics.

IMO It's non-clinical volunteering.

390 Hours - UF’s hospital has a program/club where there is a hand cart full of essential items such as deodorant or nail files

I think that this is more non-clinical volunteering too, but I am open to the contrary. In spite of the fact your cart is in a hospital, you are doing more charitable work or you are distributing hygiene items, like giving away toothpaste and floss at a health fair. Maybe you are doing this an an extension of the hospital auxiliary or gift shop.

Tutoring Children from Disadvantaged schools in mostly english and math

This gets placed in teaching/tutoring and shows your science competency.

helps families reduce energy consumption and bills by helping them identify major structural issues in home

Is this done with a nonprofit or community funding?

 

[Ilovealtoidmints]

Do you have a FAP letter?

So auditing your community service and service orientation.


IMO It's non-clinical volunteering.

I think that this is more non-clinical volunteering too, but I am open to the contrary. In spite of the fact your cart is in a hospital, you are doing more charitable work or you are distributing hygiene items, like giving away toothpaste and floss at a health fair. Maybe you are doing this an an extension of the hospital auxiliary or gift shop.

This gets placed in teaching/tutoring and shows your science competency.

Is this done with a nonprofit or community funding?

I am not sure how to format but I will go one by one

FAP letter - I do not have one however my plan is to get one as soon as I can; My EFC on my UF financial aid thing is 0 dollars though; The scholarship I have is also merit/need based (so basically poor kid hunger games) so I think I will be able to get one.

City hall blood pressure stuff - I am not entirely sure where this falls either. We basically take patient vitals, direct them to an onsite physician if we can. It is a lot more lax than my other clinic stuff because it is in front of city hall, but i can see it going either way; The org that runs it just focuses more on blood pressure monitoring, helping homeless individuals find a way to get BP medication and such. It is somewhat complicated

For the cart program - I could see it going either way as well; We do all our own fundraising and we are not associated with the gift shop either; The items are more of a segue into trying to provide patients with comfort and conversation but not every patient is open to that, of course. I believe one of our members from last year put it down as clinical and it counted, so I guess it should be good?

Tutoring/teaching children - I am not sure exactly how the app works yet, but if there is a category for tutoring/teaching I will put it there. It is volunteer work, I guess just a specific kind

For the last point - this is a non profit that I am a member of, that is partnered with a few other non profits. So I volunteer for the non profit org.

Thank you for the help - I do appreciate multiple perspectives on this.

edit: would I count teaching english classes as teaching/tutoring as well? I fear this may drop my number of non-clinical volunteer hours but I am not sure if that matters? Any advice on that end?

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

You're a rock star. Aim high and start with Harvard.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

would I count teaching english classes as teaching/tutoring as well? I fear this may drop my number of non-clinical volunteer hours but I am not sure if that matters? Any advice on that end?

Since I presume you are fluent in English, teaching others English shows your communication skills and academic/teaching competency. It does not alleviate others' distress where you play a more humble role. You can count it as teaching; if you don't, the committees can always consider it differently at their discretion. (In other words, if they don't agree with your classification, they'll use theirs.)

Your housing rehab volunteering work does satisfy service orientation, and with 300 hours, you're fine.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

you will be a shoe in for any medical school you want provided you interview well! Feel free to message me if you want help with crafting a PS, application or really anything else you might need. Happy to help and best of luck!

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Yep. Given OP's life experience and solid ECs, they should be a solid candidate for top schools. Your list should be about 20 top-20 schools, plus a few midtiers, your state schools, and HBCUs. Good luck.

 

[Ilovealtoidmints]

you will be a shoe in for any medical school you want provided you interview well! Feel free to message me if you want help with crafting a PS, application or really anything else you might need. Happy to help and best of luck!

Thank you for the kind words and for the offer to help. I am not likely to apply this cycle - I’ve got a of stuff going on and I’m hoping to take a gap year. However I would greatly appreciate the help in the future and I thank you for it.