3.5/525/Mixed Race (URM?)/CA/Non-trad -- WAMC and School List Help

[daktari401]

Hi all,

Long-time lurker having trouble narrowing down my school list, especially being a CA resident and having such a low GPA but high MCAT. Any advice is appreciated!

1. cGPA: 3.54 and sGPA: ~3.3 (waiting for my app to be verified)
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 525 (130/132/131/132)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): California
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Half Asian and Half Hispanic (URM); don't speak fluent Spanish
5. Undergraduate institution or category: lower-ranked Ivy League, graduated 2018
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 150 hours (and 275 upcoming) volunteering and doing basic CNA duties in multiple departments of a hospital; 475 hours (and 1000 upcoming) as a MA in a family medicine practice under a DO; 240 hours working at a school and rehab center for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities in India (listed this as clinical experience and focused on how I helped with the children's PT, but I was also doing some informal research and assisting in their classes)
7. Research experience and productivity: ~500 hours in a nutrition lab during undergrad (co-authored a pub, wrote grants, and helped create some posters); 270 hours in a summer research program where I did big data genetics research and completed an oral presentation/poster presentation at a student symposium at the end of the program
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: no official shadowing on its own, but I feel like I'm shadowing in my clinical experiences? I talk in my PS and activities section about patient-physician interactions I've seen
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 4500 hours as a Peace Corps Education Volunteer (taught biology in a rural village from 2018-2020); 120 hours as Philanthropy Director of my sorority; 110 hours working with the diversity outreach team hosting visiting prospective students and speaking at panels about being a student of color
10. Other extracurricular activities: 250 hours in various leadership and risk management positions in my sorority/Greek life throughout undergrad; 775 hours of paid employment as a library assistant; TA for an oral communication and biochem class (150 hours each); 600 hours as a member of a dance troupe during undergrad (also was VP for one year)
11. Relevant honors or awards: strong upward trend in GPA (Dean's List last two years of undergrad); member of national Greek honor society; some other random scholarships/grants during undergrad
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I'm very interested in service-oriented schools and working in global health with underserved populations in the future (potentially Doctors Without Borders). Also looking into MD/MPH joint degree programs.

Here's my current school list, based heavily on advice given by @Goro and @Faha :
All CA schools besides Loma Linda and UCR (11 schools)
Tulane
Emory
Miami
Cornell
NYU
Rush
Dartmouth
Case Western
BU
Vandy
Mt Sinai
Drexel
Sidney Kimmel
EVMS
St Louis
Oakland
Loyola
Temple
Creighton
Wayne State
Quinnipiac
Georgetown
Columbia
Duke
Mayo

Also considering UPenn, Northwestern, UMich, Tufts. Ideally, I want my list to be around 30 schools, and I'm thinking about applying DO once the first wave of secondaries are done. Thanks in advance!

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[Goro]

Any rising GPA trends?

Just to verify, you served in the Peace Corps overseas?

Which Hispanic ethnicity?

How many hours did you observe a a doctor in their daily work?

Extracurriculars are outstanding! With your GPAS, you will need to have some DO schools on your list.

 

[daktari401]

Any rising GPA trends?

Just to verify, you served in the Peace Corps overseas?

Which Hispanic ethnicity?

How many hours did you observe a a doctor in their daily work?

Extracurriculars are outstanding! With your GPAS, you will need to have some DO schools on your list.

Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

My GPA was 2.5 my first semester. My cGPA by the end of each year was as follows: 2.9 -> 3.1 -> 3.4 -> 3.54. I also took 2 upper level bio courses through UCLA Extension last quarter and got As in both, if that means anything.

Yes, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in an extremely underserved East African village for 21 months. My main job was to teach biology at a rural secondary school, but I also engaged in a lot of community health development projects (constructing a water system for the school so all the students could get clean water every day, planting 300 avocado trees to improve student nutrition, starting multiple after-school programs to teach reproductive health, etc.). I'm pretty fluent in Swahili (not as helpful as Spanish for a lot of the programs I'm interested in, lol).

I'm half Mexican.

Trying to estimate how many hours I've observed a doctor in their daily work is difficult...I observe the doctor I work under at the family medicine practice every day (it's a very small practice) and I am occasionally able to shadow physicians in the hospital when they do their rounds for patients on whatever floor I'm working on.

Thank you! Any advice on cutting down my MD list or on which DOs to add?

 

[spek]

Hi! Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.

My GPA was 2.5 my first semester. My cGPA by the end of each year was as follows: 2.9 -> 3.1 -> 3.4 -> 3.54. I also took 2 upper level bio courses through UCLA Extension last quarter and got As in both, if that means anything.

Yes, I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in an extremely underserved East African village for 21 months. My main job was to teach biology at a rural secondary school, but I also engaged in a lot of community health development projects (constructing a water system for the school so all the students could get clean water every day, planting 300 avocado trees to improve student nutrition, starting multiple after-school programs to teach reproductive health, etc.). I'm pretty fluent in Swahili (not as helpful as Spanish for a lot of the programs I'm interested in, lol).

I'm half Mexican.

Trying to estimate how many hours I've observed a doctor in their daily work is difficult...I observe the doctor I work under at the family medicine practice every day (it's a very small practice) and I am occasionally able to shadow physicians in the hospital when they do their rounds for patients on whatever floor I'm working on.

Thank you! Any advice on cutting down my MD list or on which DOs to add?

Just wondering if you decided on participating in the peace corps after you took the mcat or before? Also are you considered URM being half Mexican but not speaking fluent Spanish? Great score btw.

 

[daktari401]

Just wondering if you decided on participating in the peace corps after you took the mcat or before? Also are you considered URM being half Mexican but not speaking fluent Spanish? Great score btw.

Before! I just took the MCAT in the last year. I was pre-med in college but always knew I wanted to explore other things and not go straight to med school (if that was the path I ultimately decided on). And thank you!

As for the URM--I'm not sure! Hence the "URM?" in the title lol. It's not something I'm banking on, and I'm not sure how schools see us mixed-race folks. I'm just reporting both because I honestly feel strongly tied to both as part of my identity.

 

[Dave1980]

Before! I just took the MCAT in the last year. I was pre-med in college but always knew I wanted to explore other things and not go straight to med school (if that was the path I ultimately decided on). And thank you!

As for the URM--I'm not sure! Hence the "URM?" in the title lol. It's not something I'm banking on, and I'm not sure how schools see us mixed-race folks. I'm just reporting both because I honestly feel strongly tied to both as part of my identity.

Half Mexican sounds like a URM. When did that side of your family come to the US? Do your parents speak Spanish in the home?