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capybaracarbonara said:
3.97 GPA, CA state of residence
(ECs approximate hours by this June):
  • 300 hours tutoring bio through a school program, had a leadership role; done
  • 50 hours MCAT tutoring for a company; will continue until matriculation
  • 500 hours research in a wet lab, likely going to submit a paper to be published; will maintain for another year
  • 350 hours serving as a camp counselor for an under-served community (purposefully vague for anonymity), have a leadership role; will maintain for another year
  • 200 hours volunteering at a local hospital; will maintain for another year
  • 100 hours working with patients and conducting clinical research at another hospital; will maintain for another year
I also would get shadowing hours in between now and June if I decide to apply. If I don't, I would aim to pursue more roles on campus next year. I love mentorship and teaching and hope to gain more leadership roles. I am also ORM at a T20 undergrad without any awards (is this a problem?).
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With a 522 MCAT and the above experience, you are a strong enough applicant that you should be competitive to get into medical school (provided you do a good job putting together your application and reflecting on your experiences).
You took the MCAT because you felt ready to apply and now is the time to do so. Additional years are only beneficial if they serve a meaningful purpose.
capybaracarbonara said:
Also, I would love to stay in CA for medical school if that changes anything.
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No one is able to be so choosy with medical school. It's the nature of the beast. You just apply to the CA schools and hope for the best, but you must be flexible in your cycle. That said, do not apply somewhere you do not want to go even if it's your only choice. It happens more often than you would think.
 
You have the hours for nonclinical volunteering, but it would help you to have a community service activity that you could do during the year that is not about tutoring or education. Something with older adults that you could do weekly would ultimately help your application and your service orientation.
 
You need to accumulate 50 hours of physician shadowing (including primary care) before you apply. If you do so before June then you can apply in June. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UC Irvine
UC Davis
USC Keck
Kaiser
California University
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
UC Riverside (if you are from that region)
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
USF Morsani
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Yale
Tufts
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
You have the hours for nonclinical volunteering, but it would help you to have a community service activity that you could do during the year that is not about tutoring or education. Something with older adults that you could do weekly would ultimately help your application and your service orientation.
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Thank you! Will definitely look into getting involved in something like this.
 
Faha said:
You need to accumulate 50 hours of physician shadowing (including primary care) before you apply. If you do so before June then you can apply in June. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UC Irvine
UC Davis
USC Keck
Kaiser
California University
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
UC Riverside (if you are from that region)
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
USF Morsani
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Yale
Tufts
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Thank you so much! May I ask, how do you come up with this list? Also, guaranteed interview sounds amazing! Does WashU just interview a lot of applicants?
 
Would love some more advice about my current chances and would love to hear from the big adcoms/Dr's on this forum (don't want to @ them to be rude)!
 
UMass looks favorably on high-stats applicants from CA.
 
I also wanted to provide more context. I’m currently in my third year of undergrad, so another main thing I’m considering is that applying this year would mean no gap year, and applying next year would mean taking a gap year. Would love to hear the pros/cons of this. Thanks in advance!
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
First, what advice have you already gotten from your advisors? You seem to be extremely eager.
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My school doesn’t have that many accessible advisors. I’ve only spoken to some older peers and was just eager because I feel like this year’s cycle is coming so soon. My apologies. I didn’t know where else to turn besides here
 
capybaracarbonara said:
Thank you so much! May I ask, how do you come up with this list? Also, guaranteed interview sounds amazing! Does WashU just interview a lot of applicants?
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The schools match your stats. Washington University like applicants with high MCAT scores. In some years their MCAT median is the highest among all MD schools. They also interview a high percentage of applicants that complete secondaries.
 
We are limited to what you say here so in the absence of any issues with grades or other disclosing details, there isn't a red flag that the consensus is seeing. As long as you have strong letters and a game plan networking with schools on your wishlist, you should be okay setting up for secondaries and interviews. You may have to take the PREview or Casper exams depending on the schools on your list.
 
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