MD 37 mcat, 3.62c, 3.48s. School list help and last minute suggestions?

[pipermint1]

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Hey everyone, thanks in advanced and sorry if this is a bit too detailed, but I want to be thorough.

I'm a non-trad applicant, 2 years out of school. I took some time off after I graduated before applying due to a traumatic personal loss and I felt the need to take a bit of time off from my medical pursuits. I worked as an electrician after graduating until I decided to get a job in a hospital which reinvigorated my passion for medicine. I took the MCAT in january and got a fantastic score that I'm very proud of. I believe it's a result of working in medicine and maturing a bit since college- where my GPA wasn't fantastic.

Anyway, I'm looking for some advice on where to apply and if there is anything I can do in the next few months to boost my chances.

37 mcat, 3.62c, 3.48s. Double majored in anthropology and biology
In case it matters- I'm a white male, but my socioeconomic status is disadvantaged according to AAMC (neither of my parents went to college). Not really sure how this will affect me, thoughts?

Job experience:

• (2014-current) I'm currently working in the OR as an orderly/unit assistant (scrubbing into surgeries and helping the nurse/scrub tech set up the room, position the patient, drape, etc.)/anesthesia technician for the past year. I do all three jobs, but it depends on the day and what is needed. I really love it and get to work closely with patients, nurses, doctors, etc. I'm also a licensed CNA, but it's not required for my job

Non- Clinical Volunteering

• (2009-current) Volunteering at a grief center for children who have had a parent suicide
  • Since 2009, but took a year off last year and started again a couple months back. Twice a month for 3 hours
• (2009) Humanitarian trip to India where I helped teach English and assisted in a drug rehab facility for three weeks.

Clinical Volunteering

• (2010-2013) helped teach a pre-surgery class at a children's hospital so they can know what to expect when they come in for surgery. About 3 hours per week during that time

Research experiences

• (2009) Worked for a semester in a lab that was looking for cancer bio-markers, no publications or posters. 120 hours
• (2012) Clinical research in the ER for a summer. Enrolled qualified patients in the ER for clinical studies. ~120 hours

Leadership experience

• (2010-2012) Treasurer for pre-med honor society. I ran a couple sub commitees to help with fundraising.

Letters of Rec

• Surgeon that I work closely with (hopefully very strong)
• Nurse that I work very closely with (hopefully very strong)
• Group coordinator at the grief center (hopefully very strong)
• 2 professors that I've not yet been in touch with and didn't know me too well to begin with
  • Definitely not ideal, but hopefully I can meet with them a couple times so they are comfortable writing me a decent letter. Planning on emailing them in the next week so I can have as much time as possible to represent myself. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
• 1 additional letter from a doctor who ran the clinical research summer program. I didn't know them too well, but I need a letter from a research supervisor for atleast one school I would like to apply at
  • Again, not ideal, I'll be emailing her soon to see if she would be willing to meet with me to talk.

Shadowing

• 16 hours with a GP and am planning on doing about 16 more hours with atleast one more specialty before I apply. Is this sufficient or should I be shooting for more?

Additional leadership experience?
I am thinking I should pick up another leadership experience in the next few weeks since I only have one long term experience (leading the treasurer sub committees).

Question: A couple years back I spent two days helping a "science olympics" for middle school kids, but I'm not sure if I should add it to my application because it wasn't very significant.

School list so far:
I'm thinking about 25 schools. I know this might be a lot, but I really would like to get in this cycle and I believe I can keep up with all the secondaries. I'm open to almost any school, but I do like the idea of living in a large city.

(old list, new one at the end)
Reach schools: NYU, Einstein, Colombia, Tufts, Case Western

Others: Boston, St. Louis, SUNY downstate, Wake Forest, Penn State, Georgetown, Rosalind Franklin, U of Maryland, Creighton, Albany, OHSU, U of Vermont, Loyola, Temple, West Virginia, GWU, Tulane, NYMC, Drexel, Virginia Commonwealth, U of Utah(resident), MC of Wisconsin(family member works as a doc there)

Should I add or remove any of these? I used information from a few years back so this list might not be right for me

Thanks so much for reading all of this. I know there are a bunch of questions sprinkled in here- but any feedback, thoughts, or answers would be greatly appreciated! My apologies for the length

EDIT: New list!
Reach: NYU, Columbia, Mt Sinai, Einstein, Cornell
The rest: BU, Penn State, Saint Louis U, George Washington, Jefferson, Dartmouth, Tufts, Creighton, U of Miami, USF Morsani, Brown, Georgetown, UVM, Loyola, Wake Forest, MC Wisconsin, Emory, Stony Brook, NYMC, Rosalind Franklin, Tulane, Drexel, and U of Utah (my alma mater and I'm a resident here)

 

[breakintheroof]

I see your other thread has been derailed a bit by someone posting a wacky school list. Let's pick it up here.

First of all, good for you for taking time after college to focus on your well-being. I hope that all is well now. I'm just an accepted applicant talking here, but I like your application. Let me take a stab at some of your questions.

In case it matters- I'm a white male, but my socioeconomic status is disadvantaged according to AAMC (neither of my parents went to college). Not really sure how this will affect me, thoughts?

How did this affect you? This could matter if you became who you are in part because of your upbringing and if you talk about it honestly.

Non- Clinical Volunteering

• (2009-current) Volunteering at a grief center for children who have had a parent suicide
  • Since 2009, but took a year off last year and started again a couple months back. Twice a month for 3 hours
• (2009) Humanitarian trip to India where I helped teach English and assisted in a drug rehab facility for three weeks.

The grief center volunteering is noble. Humanitarian trips are not as much of a draw as perhaps they were once thought to be. Yours is fine to include, but make sure it's not a big part of our application (doesn't sound like that's the case anyway).

Your clinical experiences are great. As for LORs:

• Surgeon that I work closely with (hopefully very strong)
• Nurse that I work very closely with (hopefully very strong)
• Group coordinator at the grief center (hopefully very strong)
• 2 professors that I've not yet been in touch with and didn't know me too well to begin with
  • Definitely not ideal, but hopefully I can meet with them a couple times so they are comfortable writing me a decent letter. Planning on emailing them in the next week so I can have as much time as possible to represent myself. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.
• 1 additional letter from a doctor who ran the clinical research summer program. I didn't know them too well, but I need a letter from a research supervisor for atleast one school I would like to apply at
  • Again, not ideal, I'll be emailing her soon to see if she would be willing to meet with me to talk.

I doubt you need two letters from your current work. LORs are actually typically seen as fairly low-yield. Most applicants can get a few people to say great things about them, and two great letters that say similar things about you from a similar perspective are not better than one. I'd focus on the professors.

Shadowing

• 16 hours with a GP and am planning on doing about 16 more hours with atleast one more specialty before I apply. Is this sufficient or should I be shooting for more?

A little out of my depth here, but I would say that with your full-time clinical work, shadowing is not all that important. (I have had several clinical jobs and I listed zero shadowing.) Given that you're in an OR, going back for more in a primary care specialty might be good too.

Question: A couple years back I spent two days helping a "science olympics" for middle school kids, but I'm not sure if I should add it to my application because it wasn't very significant.

If it's not very significant to you, it is unlikely to be very significant to adcoms.

School list so far:
Reach schools: NYU, Einstein, Colombia, Tufts, Case Western

Others: Boston, St. Louis, SUNY downstate, Wake Forest, Penn State, Georgetown, Rosalind Franklin, U of Maryland, Creighton, Albany, OHSU, U of Vermont, Loyola, Temple, West Virginia, GWU, Tulane, NYMC, Drexel, Virginia Commonwealth, U of Utah(resident), MC of Wisconsin(family member works as a doc there

Your list is decent. Only Columbia, NYU, and Case are "reachy," really, and you've got quite a few targets. Definitely get the MSAR and go through it as thoroughly as you can, looking at GPA and MCAT ranges and out of state matriculation rates. (Take a closer look at all of your OOS state schools for the latter reason.)

Good luck!

 

[pipermint1]

I see your other thread has been derailed a bit by someone posting a wacky school list. Let's pick it up here.

First of all, good for you for taking time after college to focus on your well-being. I hope that all is well now. I'm just an accepted applicant talking here, but I like your application. Let me take a stab at some of your questions.
How did this affect you? This could matter if you became who you are in part because of your upbringing and if you talk about it honestly.

The grief center volunteering is noble. Humanitarian trips are not as much of a draw as perhaps they were once thought to be. Yours is fine to include, but make sure it's not a big part of our application (doesn't sound like that's the case anyway).

Your clinical experiences are great. As for LORs:

I doubt you need two letters from your current work. LORs are actually typically seen as fairly low-yield. Most applicants can get a few people to say great things about them, and two great letters that say similar things about you from a similar perspective are not better than one. I'd focus on the professors.

A little out of my depth here, but I would say that with your full-time clinical work, shadowing is not all that important. (I have had several clinical jobs and I listed zero shadowing.) Given that you're in an OR, going back for more in a primary care specialty might be good too.
If it's not very significant to you, it is unlikely to be very significant to adcoms.

Your list is decent. Only Columbia, NYU, and Case are "reachy," really, and you've got quite a few targets. Definitely get the MSAR and go through it as thoroughly as you can, looking at GPA and MCAT ranges and out of state matriculation rates. (Take a closer look at all of your OOS state schools for the latter reason.)

Good luck!

Thanks so much for your thoughts, advice, and taking the time to go over my post! I'll definitely look into everything you said

 

[breakintheroof]

Thanks so much for your thoughts, advice, and taking the time to go over my post! I'll definitely look into everything you said

Hey @pipermint1, quick follow-up. I raised some doubt earlier about whether you should include both of your LORs from your current work. I would suggest you ask @hushcom in his long-running thread about it, because he recently wrote this in response to a somewhat similar question:

Whether it would be redundant depends on the content of the med director's LOR. If your manager knows positive things about your character and work habits that the director is not privy to, then I would probably ask for a letter.

 

[Faha]

You could delete SUNY, Maryland, West Virginia and OHSU since you are not a resident of those states. Otherwise your list is good. Consider adding Hofstra, Jefferson, Oakland Beaumont.

 

[pipermint1]

Hey @pipermint1, quick follow-up. I raised some doubt earlier about whether you should include both of your LORs from your current work. I would suggest you ask @hushcom in his long-running thread about it, because he recently wrote this in response to a somewhat similar question:

I'll check it out, thanks!

You could delete SUNY, Maryland, West Virginia and OHSU since you are not a resident of those states. Otherwise your list is good. Consider adding Hofstra, Jefferson, Oakland Beaumont.

Good point, I'll remove those, the OOS matriculant info I had been looking at wasn't up to date

So here's my updated school list:
Reach: NYU, Columbia, Mt Sinai, Einstein, Cornell.
The rest: BU, Penn State, Saint Louis U, George Washington, Jefferson, Dartmouth, Tufts, Creighton, U of Miami, USF Morsani, Brown, Georgetown, U VM, Loyola, Wake Forest, MC Wisconsin, Emory, Stony Brook, NYMC, Rosalind Franklin, Tulane, Drexel, and U of Utah (alma mater and resident here)

@gyngyn I always respect advice you have given to others and would love your feedback. If you have a few minutes- would you mind taking a look over my original post and the updated school list in this post? Specifically- would you recommend taking out or replacing any schools? I'm worried it might be a bit top heavy considering my GPA and research experience are not very great.

 

[gyngyn]

Your list is good.
My concern is that most of your letters are from sources not generally considered objective letter writers: doctors and nurses. Perhaps a single strong letter from someone you have worked closely with who can speak to your interpersonal competencies (who also happens to be physician) would be ok. At least two letters need to come from science professors at many schools.

 

[Doug Underhill]

I'm also a non-trad applying with the exact cGPA and MCAT, although my cGPA is actually a 3.70 if graduate GPA doesn't count in AMCAS(not sure about this). My list of schools is very similar, although my OOS state schools are different with SUNY Buffalo and UIC, which are schools I have strong connections to.

You may also want to look into Brown if you're a non-trad, which they greatly prefer.