3.98/523 School List and URM Question

[deleted994749]

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Hey all, I am trying to decide which schools I should either add/remove from my list. If anyone has any insight into my URM status, that would also be appreciated as I truly do not know. Thanks!

Year in school: Junior at State School

Country/state of residence: Texas

Schools to which you are applying (in no particular order):

Einstein
Baylor
Rosalind Franklin
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
Emory
Harvard
Hofstra
Johns Hopkins
Mayo
McGovern
Michigan
Mt. Sinai
Northwestern
NYU
Ohio State
Penn
Pitt
Tennessee
Stanford
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
UCSF
UCLA
UNC Chapel Hill
Virginia
USC Keck
UTSW
UT Dell
UTRGV
UTMB
Vanderbilt
Wash U
Yale

Cumulative GPA: 3.9888

Science GPA: 4.0

MCAT Scores: 523 (131/128/132/132)

Research

• Undergraduate School Nutrition Lab: Head Undergrad Research member in a nutritional clinical research lab for about 2.5 years. Got two posters, and undergrad thesis, and a published abstract. Around 750 hours
• Had an internship that just got cancelled at a major university, should I put anything about it in any section of the application or just leave it out altogether?

Volunteering (clinical)

• Volunteer Coordinator with Major Children's Hospital - Worked alongside the volunteer director to schedule volunteers, bring in new hires, and help in every wing of the hospital that needs assistance ranging from the ED to the NICU. Around 300 Hours

Physician shadowing

• Emergency Medicine - 10 hours
• Vascular Surgeon - 10 hours
• Pathologist - 10 Hours
• Interventional Cardiologist - 6 Hours

Non-clinical volunteering:

• Volunteering at the After School Program - About 4 semesters worth of an after school mentoring program with children from an underprivileged area of my town. Around 50 Hours total.
• Food Pantry - Stocking shelves and distributing food at a local church food pantry for the past three months. Going to apply with around 80 hours, but may project into senior year which would put me at around 150 total.

Extracurricular activities:

• Weightlifting, long-distance running (ran a half planning on a full), fostering dogs (basically giving shelter dogs a temporarily home for weeks/months while they wait adoption)

Employment history:

• Scribe Program Lead - In charge of scheduling and training team of scribes at a local clinic over the past two years. Around 800 hours of solid clinical experience
• Private Security - Worked Private Security for private parties, sporting events, and music festivals during my freshman and sophomore years. Around 80 hours.

Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): No

Specialty of interest: Emergency Medicine or Cardiology. I don't actually know enough to make that decision just yet lol

Interest in rural health (y/n): Nope

URM: Maybe? I'm half Puerto-Rican and was raised in a Puerto Rican home in the US, but I have not been able to get an answer other than maybe

 

[nontradfutureTXMD]

I think you are considered URM because you are in Texas right?

According to AAMC, "mainland Puerto Ricans" are considered URM: Underrepresented in Medicine Definition. I think the AAMC was aiming to differentiate Island vs Mainland Puerto Rican people like this article: Health Disparities Between Island and Mainland Puerto Ricans - PubMed. May want to call the AAMC or email them to confirm though.

I would suggest removing any schools you would not go to over a Texas school, because I think it's highly unlikely you will not get a Texas acceptance. With your incredible stats and you hitting pretty much every metric they measure applicants on (with the caveat may want to add 14+ hours of shadowing during the application season, I know you have a ton of scribe hours but that's the only metric where you are a little below the average of 50-100+ hours of shadowing for what I've seen of accepted applicants).

May want to delete:
Rosalind Franklin (lower ranked than many Texas schools you would likely get into)
Ohio State (public)
Tennessee (public)

May want to add:
UChicago (gives amazing aid)
UPenn (gives amazing aid)

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

You sorely need nonclinical volunteering. Maybe hotlines or something could work? That having been said, I’d pick 10-15 top schools you’d choose over a Texas acceptance. Good luck.

 

[nontradfutureTXMD]

I think that your hours for non-clinical volunteering are slightly below average, but 130 hours at time of application and 200 hours projected is sufficient imo... and I think your above average with the clinical volunteering (with a pretty cool leadership angle to it too) with 300 hours, so I think if you write convincingly about your service orientation, I think your hours are fine

But if you wanted to be really, really confident going into the application cycle, you may want to do what BlackMathMajor said and add an activity (prob would not suggest Hotline because some people consider this clinical and some don't, so may want to do something more clearly non-clinical), and/or reflect on anything else you may have done that could counts as non-clinical volunteering like a bunch of small volunteer events for a student org, mentor for your high school/any org you were part of, bible study leader/Sunday school teacher, volunteer summer camp counselor etc.

 

[gyngyn]

I think you are considered URM because you are in Texas right?

According to AAMC, "mainland Puerto Ricans" are considered URM: Underrepresented in Medicine Definition. I think the AAMC was aiming to differentiate Island vs Mainland Puerto Rican people like this article: Health Disparities Between Island and Mainland Puerto Ricans - PubMed. May want to call the AAMC or email them to confirm though.

Schools determine who is UiM (according to their own interpretation), not the AAMC.

 

[nontradfutureTXMD]

Interesting, I did not realize a school could decide that a group was not underrepresented in medicine. I knew that some schools could decide to expand the definition, like some schools including LGBTQ+ as UiM, but I did not realize they could go against the AAMC's definition by saying one of the categories in the AAMC definition in UiM did not count

Then yeah would not contact the AAMC, may want to start reaching out/networking with the Diversity Offices at the schools you are interested in and asking them

 

[deleted994749]

You sorely need nonclinical volunteering. Maybe hotlines or something could work? That having been said, I’d pick 10-15 top schools you’d choose over a Texas acceptance. Good luck.

Thanks for the input, this is exactly what I was looking for. I can pickup an extra shift at the food bank for some extra hours, but would you have any recommendations for hour totals to aim for (actual and projected)?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Interesting, I did not realize a school could decide that a group was not underrepresented in medicine. I knew that some schools could decide to expand the definition, like some schools including LGBTQ+ as UiM, but I did not realize they could go against the AAMC's definition by saying one of the categories in the AAMC definition in UiM did not count

Then yeah would not contact the AAMC, may want to start reaching out/networking with the Diversity Offices at the schools you are interested in and asking them

There are general guidelines, but often for a public school there are additional considerations or constraints.