3.92/520 CA ORM School List Advice

[butterflypie]

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Hi! I would really like advice on my school list but this is my first time posting here so I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask. Please lmk if not. Mainly I am concerned it's too "top heavy" (I think admit.org considers some schools baseline for me but they're pretty high tier) and I am also worried about being a "cookie cutter" applicant. I do think I can articulate my stories and passion well in my writing and interviews. Any advice is appreciated!

Application:
-CA ORM F, 20 yo trad applicant, attend a UC
-Clinical: 1200 paid MA/scribe (1 year), 50 free clinic volunteering. Have gained a lot of close experience with physicians and patients that I think I can talk about well.
-Research: 1500 in a lab (2 years) with 3 posters, 1 pub in progress, 1 private pub (low impact). Have an independent project that I am very passionate about.
-Non-clinical volunteering: 200 with club, 150 at soup kitchen (great experiences here and very passionate about this)
-Leadership: 300 as club leader, 150 as a "TA"
-Shadowing: 50 in 2 specialties

-LORs from physician, lab PI, stem professor, and soup kitchen manager (since I don't have an LOR from a non-science professor I cut schools that require that like harvard/jhu)

*also I want to add I am not really gunning for top schools! I would be happy just getting into one school (ideally in CA but that seems to be difficult) on my list.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Your high-metrics application will be safer with 250 hours of food bank work before submitting. I'm curious why I don't see much campus leadership to make you stand out more.

 

[butterflypie]

Welcome to the forums.

Your high-metrics application will be safer with 250 hours of food bank work before submitting. I'm curious why I don't see much campus leadership to make you stand out more.

If you mean soup kitchen yes I'm getting my hours up there now (maybe 200 by app?). Oops! Forgot to add 300 hrs as a campus service org leader. Besides that my school list looks okay?

 

[imqine]

Yeah be careful admit loves to make schools like northwestern "baseline" haha. Seems like the number I hear for unserved volunteering hours to hit is usually around 200, so a little more might be helpful. I would maybe add a few schools with some lower MCAT averages that you'd be interested in living in in replacement of some of the competitive schools you may not be as interested in, especially as a CA ORM . but you seem to be in a very good spot!

 

[butterflypie]

Yeah be careful admit loves to make schools like northwestern "baseline" haha. Seems like the number I hear for unserved volunteering hours to hit is usually around 200, so a little more might be helpful. I would maybe add a few schools with some lower MCAT averages that you'd be interested in living in in replacement of some of the competitive schools you may not be as interested in, especially as a CA ORM . but you seem to be in a very good spot!

Sounds good! With my clinical volunteering I am at 200 right now but am still doing both activities so my numbers should go up a little. My club also helped underserved pops and had charity events but it's a little less of a focused activity. I have been volunteering long-term across 3 years. I think I'll cut some top schools (since it feels like a crapshoot anyway) and add lower range schools like you said. Thank you!