Advice on Reapplication

[xxmelted]

Hi guys, I just wanted some advice as I plan on re-applying this upcoming cycle. I applied last cycle (2023-2024). However, I ended up being WL’ed at 4 schools I interviewed at. I have listed my stats and my activities with updated hours which I plan on putting for the new cycle.

GA resident, ORM, Undergrad at large state university and will be graduating this spring

Major: Biology, Minor in Global Health

uGPA: cGPA- 3.95, sGPA - 3.99
MCAT: 512 —> 516

Clinical Experience:
587 hrs - ED scribe ( In my previous cycle I put 300 projected hours. However, the scribe program shut down which had a commitment of once a week. I ended up being transferred to another site which had a commitment of working twice a week and that made me compromise a lot of my other activities)

Clinical volunteering:
108 hrs - Hospital volunteering for 1 yr (basic hospital volunteer at Med-Surg unit)
140 hrs - Med Student Run Free Clinic ( Scheduling and Financial eligibility specialist - Worked at a charter school first year and then at a homeless shelter. Sometimes the supervising physician would let me do triage with med students; I also helped with health fairs and helped improve health literacy among the patients)

Non-clinical volunteering / Teaching:
40 hrs - Tutor (virtual tutoring to kids with Individualized learning plan)
40 hrs - Religious leader for 1 yr (taught basic faith to 3rd graders)
15 hrs - Foodbank volunteer (I started this semester, but since I am graduating I won't be able to volunteer at the same site. I am planning on continuing this at a Food Bank closer home)
120 hrs - Peer learning assistant for general chem 1 and 2 (1 yr)

Shadowing:
40 hrs - Internal medicine; 13 hours - EM
( I might get more shadowing, still finalizing the dates)

Research:
400 hrs - Basic science research. I had 2 poster presentations at my undergrad symposium and one outside my school (not a scientific conference). (One publication in process for which I am the 4th author)

Leadership/Clubs/Advocacy:
170 hrs - Community building Exec to Co-president for a global health club focused on advocacy, community service, and fundraising. I also went to Capitol D.C and advocated for community healthcare workers. I continued this locally. Planned several events including professional speaker panels, global health workshops, fundraising events, and volunteering as well as managed social media for the club. Attended national conference where our chapter was recognized for publishing two LTEs (one of which I was a co-author)

45 hrs - Mentor and club member for a pre-health club (2 yrs)

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Additional Info (I am not trying to make excuses but I wanted to give some context on some barriers I faced)

• I moved to the US when I was 16, changed two high schools, and moved quite a bit until I started college. I don't have any family in medicine here in the US so it was a bit hard trying to figure out the whole pre-med situation and finding good clinical experience and shadowing.
• I also did not have a car until my senior year, so I had to walk/ take a bus for many opportunities which took alot of my time ( my campus does not have really good public transportation)

Schools Applied

MCG (II → WL)
Emory (II → WL)
Temple (II → WL)
RFU (II → WL)
Mercer
Miami Miller
Vtech
VCU
Loyola
SKMC
Penn State
Drexel
Geisinger
Wake Forest
Case Western

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I think overall, my weakness might be not having more non-clinical community service. I was not aware I needed more hours as I was already doing tutoring and the free clinic volunteering as part of my community service. Also, I felt my global health club involvement would be community service before they added the advocacy/ social justice category last year. Another thing I regret is not applying to more schools. I was scared I would not be able to complete all the secondaries and, in hindsight, I really prioritized whether or not I would be happy attending the school so my list got super short.

I submitted my primary on May 31st, submitted all of my secondaries within 2 weeks of receiving them, and was done by August 8th.

That being said, getting 4 II seemed like a good sign that my application had something worth inviting for an interview. I will say my interviewing skills need improvement and that could also be why I got WL’ed.

During the application cycle, I just really focused on continuing my current activities rather than adding new ones.

As of now, I plan to get an MA or research assistant job while doing more community service volunteering over the weekends (there is a tutoring opportunity for refugee kids and a Foodbank somewhat near to where I live so I can do that to improve my overall application). I will be a coach on the national team for the global health club I am part of. It would be mostly guiding university chapters with planning events and goal setting. I will be able to continue my advocacy work as well.

I just wanted to gain more insights on whether it is a good plan or if I should be focusing on something else. I also would like help with building a good school list for this upcoming cycle (I am planning on applying to at least 25 schools this time and more broadly).

Thanks!

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[AJS59]

First, don't give up on your WLs; one or more might go through.

Second, I think you correctly identified your biggest weaknesses with needing to apply to more schools. What, if anything, is new on your application between last cycle (i.e. what have you been doing during this year?)

Do remember that hours after submission (projected hours) do not carry significant weight. I think you have a largely solid plan overall, but you need to make sure you get your hours up close to the 150 mark before you give it another go.

I'd consider removing VTech (without ties to region) and Loyola (not enough non-clinical service) - I'll let others (Faha) scheme up some better schools for you.

 

[xxmelted]

First, don't give up on your WLs; one or more might go through.

Second, I think you correctly identified your biggest weaknesses with needing to apply to more schools. What, if anything, is new on your application between last cycle (i.e. what have you been doing during this year?)

Do remember that hours after submission (projected hours) do not carry significant weight. I think you have a largely solid plan overall, but you need to make sure you get your hours up close to the 150 mark before you give it another go.

I'd consider removing VTech (without ties to region) and Loyola (not enough non-clinical service) - I'll let others (Faha) scheme up some better schools for you.

I am hoping I get off the WL so fingers crossed. Since submitting my application I have been continuing my activities. I started working as an ED scribe, continued my virtual tutoring (although I was not able to do it as much as I hoped), and continued volunteering at my Free Clinic but at the homeless shelter site. I did start volunteering at a food bank this semester. Also, I continued my research with the same lab and I was the Co-president of my global health club. Do you think if I continue my food bank volunteering and submit my primary towards the first week of June would be a good idea? I can rack up some hours by then.

 

[AJS59]

Yeah, I'd say go for it. You may also be able to shift some hours from clinical to non-clinical at the free clinic depending on the specific nature of your role and what work you were doing.

 

[xxmelted]

Yeah, I'd say go for it. You may also be able to shift some hours from clinical to non-clinical at the free clinic depending on the specific nature of your role and what work you were doing.

Ok great! I can make an entry about the health fairs and reaching out to the homeless population to come get a screening as part of my non-clinical volunteering. Should I split my hours into clinical and nonclinical or keep it as nonclinical? I had listed it as clinical experience in my previous application.

 

[AJS59]

Ok great! I can make an entry about the health fairs and reaching out to the homeless population to come get a screening as part of my non-clinical volunteering. Should I split my hours into clinical and nonclinical or keep it as nonclinical? I had listed it as clinical experience in my previous application.

Hmm, well in that case I'd split it and try to make it clear that way.

 

[chilly_md]

Ok great! I can make an entry about the health fairs and reaching out to the homeless population to come get a screening as part of my non-clinical volunteering. Should I split my hours into clinical and nonclinical or keep it as nonclinical? I had listed it as clinical experience in my previous application.

Try classifying it all as non-clinical volunteering since that is what the majority of your responsibilities ended up being. Your scribe job and hospital volunteering already give you enough clinical experience now.

You would benefit from getting your food bank hours to at least 50 before submitting. Work on interview skills as well since that could have been what held you back.

I suggest:

MCG
Emory
Temple
RFU
Mercer
VCU
EVMS
SKMC
Penn State
NYMC
Albany
Vermont
Hackensack
Tufts
George Washington
Quinnipiac
MCW
Creighton
Saint Louis
Dartmouth
Drexel
Wake Forest
Nova MD
Belmont

 

[xxmelted]

Try classifying it all as non-clinical volunteering since that is what the majority of your responsibilities ended up being. Your scribe job and hospital volunteering already give you enough clinical experience now.

You would benefit from getting your food bank hours to at least 50 before submitting. Work on interview skills as well since that could have been what held you back.

I suggest:

MCG
Emory
Temple
RFU
Mercer
VCU
EVMS
SKMC
Penn State
NYMC
Albany
Vermont
Hackensack
Tufts
George Washington
Quinnipiac
MCW
Creighton
Saint Louis
Dartmouth
Drexel
Wake Forest
Nova MD
Belmont

Got it, thank you so much!! I appreciate all the advice.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sorry, it took me a while to process this profile because the classification of non-clinical and community activities is not optimal. Your AMCAS classifications should make it easier, but you have comingled leadership with domestic community service, and it's hard for me to make a call where you can improve. You may get off the waitlists, but if you don't, the way you present your profile is confusing, and you don't want a screener who is charged to identify your strengths and weaknesses to be confused about what they are.

140 hrs - Med Student Run Free Clinic ( Scheduling and Financial eligibility specialist - Worked at a charter school first year and then at a homeless shelter. Sometimes the supervising physician would let me do triage with med students; I also helped with health fairs and helped improve health literacy among the patients)

Non-clinical volunteering / Teaching:
40 hrs - Tutor (virtual tutoring to kids with Individualized learning plan)
40 hrs - Religious leader for 1 yr (taught basic faith to 3rd graders)
15 hrs - Foodbank volunteer (I started this semester, but since I am graduating I won't be able to volunteer at the same site. I am planning on continuing this at a Food Bank closer home)
120 hrs - Peer learning assistant for general chem 1 and 2 (1 yr)
...

Leadership/Clubs/Advocacy:
170 hrs - Community building Exec to Co-president for a global health club focused on advocacy, community service, and fundraising. I also went to Capitol D.C and advocated for community healthcare workers. I continued this locally. Planned several events including professional speaker panels, global health workshops, fundraising events, and volunteering as well as managed social media for the club. Attended national conference where our chapter was recognized for publishing two LTEs (one of which I was a co-author)

45 hrs - Mentor and club member for a pre-health club (2 yrs)

So you really had
15 hours food bank volunteering
170 hours of advocacy for community health or global health? (again conflating a lot of things in this description). Rush and Loyola will like social justice advocacy, but they also want you to have lived the life of service.
I don't understand the breakdown of the Free Clinic.... working at a charter school? Homeless shelter? Health fair? How is that related?

That's low for service orientation (unless you have more hours you just didn't disclose).

Presenting panels and running conferences is a characteristic of academic life (from how it's described), which means you have a group teaching/marketing/leadership opportunity. You have a lot of hours in teaching/tutoring/mentoring and hardly any in service orientation. This is your problem, and your low MCAT scores make it easy for all of those schools to reject your application.

Secure a job with Americorps to position yourself more strongly. Alternatively, if you are leveraging global health, you need more work with refugees and immigrants in your community service experience, not just teaching them English or religion.