WAMC/School List Help (4.00/520, WARS B)

[hdfuzz]

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE. I plan to remove my state of residence.

Hello everyone, I was hoping to get some thoughts on applying this year and my school list. All hours are based on how many I will have at the end of May.

1. Both GPAs are 4.00 by AMCAS
2. MCAT 520 (131/128/130/131)
3. Egyptian woman (first gen immigrant)
4. State school
5. Clinical experience: ~125hrs hospice care (not paid)
6. Research in influenza, started Spring 2020, ~1000hrs, no pubs or presentation, just an honors thesis
7. Shadowing: over 200hrs, family care, neurology, anesthesiology, PM&R, rheumatology, pathology, maybe some others but I don't remember right now
8. Non-clinical: total ~290hrs, delivering with Meals on Wheels since March 2021 for ~130hrs, helping seniors get free prescription meds or caregiving help since June 2021 for ~130hrs, about 30hrs misc volunteering of one time activities
9. Other extracurriculars: leader for a climate change organization for about 2 years for at least 200hrs, leader for a student-led math tournament for at least 50hrs, TA'ed for two biochem courses for about 150hrs, I will be getting an MPH during my gap year
10. No particular honors/awards
11. I got very sick my freshman year and was recommended to medically withdraw. I decided not to, but being sick took up huge amounts of my time. Things resolved themselves around sophomore year, but I had some immune issues into the beginning of the pandemic. This really hindered my ability to get involved until the later half of my undergraduate career.

State of residence: AL, but I have significant ties to TN as well.

My WARS score is a B. I feel that there is a discrepancy between my stats and experiences. Do you guys know of any schools that really focus on stats? I've heard Wash U and U. Chicago really like their high stat applicants?

Anyway, here is my current school list:

• East Tennessee (Quillen)
• U Tennessee Memphis
• UAB (Heersink)
• University of South Alabama
• Medical College at Wisconsin
• Oakland University William Beaumont SOM
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Western Michigan University (Stryker)
• Albert Einstein COM
• Ohio State COM
• University of Rochester
• University of Virginia
• Indiana SOM
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Vermont
• University of Michigan
• Kaiser Permanente SOM
• Emory
• NYU
• UCLA
• U. Pittsburgh
• Vanderbilt
• Cleveland
• Duke
• U. Chicago Pritzker SOM
• Wash U

Thank you all so much in advance. I really do appreciate the help.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Just because a school focuses on metrics does not mean they will overlook deficiencies in your experiences. You have a ton of shadowing than necessary. That said, I don't think it's that much of an issue.

Is your health issue something that you need to consider with regards to your own health needs?

Who is writing your letters?

 

[hdfuzz]

Just because a school focuses on metrics does not mean they will overlook deficiencies in your experiences. You have a ton of shadowing than necessary. That said, I don't think it's that much of an issue.

Is your health issue something that you need to consider with regards to your own health needs?

Who is writing your letters?

Health issues are resolved. Three professors are writing my letters (as required for my committee letter from my undergraduate institution). They all seem to think highly of me/said they will try to write me a good letter.

Is there any experience in particular that seems deficient?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Health issues are resolved. Three professors are writing my letters (as required for my committee letter from my undergraduate institution). They all seem to think highly of me/said they will try to write me a good letter.

Is there any experience in particular that seems deficient?

To be honest, from what is written, I lack any insight in your experiences to determine if there is anything that seems deficient. It is your choice to disclose here, but I don’t see anything that i can critique. I presume your prehealth committee says the same.

 

[hdfuzz]

To be honest, from what is written, I lack any insight in your experiences to determine if there is anything that seems deficient. It is your choice to disclose here, but I don’t see anything that i can critique. I presume your prehealth committee says the same.

I’m not quite sure what information you might find helpful, but here is some description of my activities.

Hospice care was interacting with patients, I chat with them, provide companionship, help them process their lives, help with light housework, or provide caregiver relief. I’ve had several different patients and I work with patients long term and develop connections with them because of this.
Research was basic science bench sort of research that involves structural characterization of influenza proteins and some key mutations. Like I said, no pub or posters from it, only an honors thesis.
Shadowing was shadowing, but I do think I can speak intelligently about how it has influenced my desire to become a physician (particularly experiences seeing doctors be emotionally supportive, going above and beyond for their patients, and shadowing with underserved communities at a free clinic).
Meals on Wheels has been quite meaningful to me because I deliver to home bound seniors and make connections with them by seeing them every week. I’ve served some very disadvantaged communities and learned a lot about how making a simple connection can be part of the service I am providing.
My volunteering to help seniors obtain medications involves a mixture of phone calls, paperwork, and outreach work.
My work with a climate change org is in communications (writing newsletters, outreach, advertising), but I’ve learned a lot about organizational management and environmental racism (a topic I’m fairly passionate about). I also help with event brainstorming.
The math tournament is just me being part of an all student team that held a math tournament for ~300 middle schoolers at our uni. I was logistics.
I feel that TAing is fairly self-explainitory.

Do I have a shot with applying this round? My MCAT is from early summer 2021. I worry that if I wait another year and then get rejected in 2023-2024 cycle, that I will have to retake the MCAT due to my score being too old.

Edit: my pre-health committee/advisors have expressed confidence in me, but they also recommended I apply last year despite having no clinical hours at the time. So I don’t really know how much I trust them.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

That definitely helps, especially the last bit about the committee. As long as you have some insight from current students and alumni from the schools near the top of your list, there's nothing that can hold you back from applying except your essays, your letters, and your timing. If anything, do what you can to make schools want you before submitting an application.

 

[hdfuzz]

That definitely helps, especially the last bit about the committee. As long as you have some insight from current students and alumni from the schools near the top of your list, there's nothing that can hold you back from applying except your essays, your letters, and your timing. If anything, do what you can to make schools want you before submitting an application.

Thank you so much Mr.Smile. I will reach out to students at the schools I am most interested in and get their feedback. Is there anything in particular you would recommend I do to make schools want me? I feel that the weakest part of my application is still my clinical hours, but my schedule is packed as it is and I wouldn’t be able to add more commitment without dropping something else. Perhaps getting a clinical job after I graduate but before application so I can get some more hours and also some projected hours?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you are on track to get those 125-150 clinical hours working in hospice, with your shadowing hours, you will probably be okay six or so months from now, especially if you can confidently talk about your observations of what doctors do. You know better how flexible you can be with your schedule but in terms of total hours, if that's where you will be in May, you should be fine. Just prepare what you would say or write (which sounds like you have started there from the response to my first post) and get others to review your essays.

I think what's important is for you to determine which schools you feel you would belong. I sense that by the questions asked during recruitment visits or emails to the admissions office, for example.

 

[hdfuzz]

If you are on track to get those 125-150 clinical hours working in hospice, with your shadowing hours, you will probably be okay six or so months from now, especially if you can confidently talk about your observations of what doctors do. You know better how flexible you can be with your schedule but in terms of total hours, if that's where you will be in May, you should be fine. Just prepare what you would say or write (which sounds like you have started there from the response to my first post) and get others to review your essays.

I think what's important is for you to determine which schools you feel you would belong. I sense that by the questions asked during recruitment visits or emails to the admissions office, for example.

Thank you so much, your feedback is very valuable to me and I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to me. I’ve been writing my activities section for AMCAS and already wrote a different version of them for SOPHAS, so I have definitely been reflecting on what my experiences mean to me and how to talk about them. I will be getting others to review my essays and I’ll also work on feeling out what schools I would be a good fit for/what schools would be a good fit for me.

 

[Faha]

Accumulate another 100+ hours of clinical experience before you apply. On your school list remove the Alabama schools unless you have some strong connection to that state. Also remove school such as Medical College Wisconsin, Oakland Beaumont, Indian since they will "yield protect" with your stats. You could add any of these schools:
Northwestern
Hofstra
Columbia
Cornell
Yale

 

[hdfuzz]

Accumulate another 100+ hours of clinical experience before you apply. On your school list remove the Alabama schools unless you have some strong connection to that state. Also remove school such as Medical College Wisconsin, Oakland Beaumont, Indian since they will "yield protect" with your stats. You could add any of these schools:
Northwestern
Hofstra
Columbia
Cornell
Yale

Do you think it would be a waste of my time to apply with the hours I’m currently projecting? To get another 100 hours before I apply, I would need to add over 6hrs/week of experience and that’s just not going to be possible with my schedule.

Also, Alabama is my state of residence.

 

[Faha]

Do you think it would be a waste of my time to apply with the hours I’m currently projecting? To get another 100 hours before I apply, I would need to add over 6hrs/week of experience and that’s just not going to be possible with my schedule.

Also, Alabama is my state of residence.

You are fine to apply this June but accumulate as many clinical hours as possible before you apply. Since you are an Alabama resident remove the 2 Tennessee state public schools unless you have some strong connection to Tennessee.

 

[hdfuzz]

You are fine to apply this June but accumulate as many clinical hours as possible before you apply. Since you are an Alabama resident remove the 2 Tennessee state public schools unless you have some strong connection to Tennessee.

Thank you for the help, especially the schools you suggested adding. I will see if I can add another 2hrs/week and try to get a clinical job for at least 15hrs/week or so after graduation so that I am closer to 200hrs before applying.