Any help appreciated!

[Persaudirabia]

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Hello I hope you're all staying safe and keeping your distance this summer. I'd appreciate any help or advice you can give me by looking over the schools I've chosen. I wanted to choose DO schools as well but decided not to as I started looking at their median GPA/ MCAT stats and it seems as if I would be rejected due to being a good deal above their median stats. However, both my parents went to NYIT but I'm not sure how much of an impact that would carry. I barely have any research, so I'm mainly looking at schools that focus on applicants involved in community service, although I would definitely like to be involved in medical research in the future. Please let me know if I'm too top heavy or applying to too many schools that could yield protect, or if I should definitely add DO schools even when considering my GPA and MCAT. Any recommendations for adding/ switching schools are heavily appreciated. Thank you in advance!!

Year in school: Will graduate at the end of May 2020. Biology major with neurobio specialization.
Country/state of residence: NY
Schools to which you are applying: 32 MD schools, unsure of applying to any DO schools. Maybe Touro, NYIT, and LECOM. Don't care about the state, urban or suburban, or tuition. WDARS- 73, C. LizzyM- 75.10. Tried to follow the WDARS advice but had problems with the "tiers" that schools are considered to be in. I would prefer to stay in NY or near it, but honestly have no real preference.
NYU
Columbia
University of Virginia
Cornell
Ohio State
Mount Sinai
Case Western
Stony Brook
Oakland
West Virginia
Boston University
Rochester
Cincinnati
Brown
Hofstra/Northwell
Health Morsani
New York University- Long Island
Einstein
Wayne State
Virginia Commonwealth
Dartmouth
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Wake
Upstate
University of Arizona- Tucson
Western Michigan
Tufts
Downstate
Buffalo
Eastern Virginia
Larner at Vermont
New York Medical College

Cumulative GPA: 3.81
Science GPA: 3.78
MCAT Scores: 519 (130/127/130/132)

Research – include any abstracts/posters/publications and how you were credited (eg. First author, senior author, etc):
2 semesters of being a volunteer research assistant in a psychology lab. Gathered data by administering psychological tasks to dozens of college students to establish a baseline data set for my supervisors. During COVID-19, my duties shifted online and I had to instead match scan files to test logs and identify discrepancies and missing data files.
No pubs, presentations, or posters.

Volunteering (clinical) – include hours/sites:
300 hours as a general volunteer in a hospital in its ER and ambulatory surgery nursing unit. Stocked cabinets with urinals, fetched medical equipment etc. Saw interesting cases like cardiac arrests, amputated fingers, and large lacerations.
55 hours as a volunteer EMT, eventually rotated as a crew chief. No paid experience yet, will work as well as volunteer to help out in the COVID crisis after Monday, my last final.
2 weeks on a global trip. Helped to set up a clinic in a severely underserved village in South America. Assisted doctors in stocking paper bags with prescribed medications, taking notes, taking vitals, and directing patient traffic.

Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties:
50 hours shadowing an ER doc. Approximately 20 hours shadowing family physicians during the global trip. Also shadowed both of my parents for about 10 hours each but I'm not sure that I should include this in my app.

Non-clinical volunteering: None, unless being president of the boxing club at my college and being a TA in an intro bio course counts.
Was secretary of the club for 1 year, then president and primary instructor for 2 years. Ran club 3 to 4 times a week, 1 - 1.5 hours each time.
TA of an intro bio class for 1 year, TA mentor for another year.
Looking into working at a food bank starting this week.

Extracurricular activities: Reading (prefer books regarding sci-Fi, fiction, as well as non-fiction regarding people talking about specific parts of their life or lessons learned, and Buddhism), boxing, cooking, and working out. Learning to play guitar, piano, paint, and draw.

Employment history: 2 years working as an IT student employee at my college library.

URM?: I don't think so. Guyanese, born in NY. 4 to 5 generations of ancestors from Guyana, a small country in South America. I'm part black and white, larger percentage of Indian, but mainly Guyanese ethnicity. I don't think I'm ORM but I'm also not considered URM I believe. I just put "Other" in the ethnicity box on forms and applications.

Upward trend: Not really. Had a ~3.9 end of Freshman year, messed up in both semesters second year down to ~3.7, brought it back up to 3.81 end of senior year.

Undergrad College: Nothing prestigious or selective. NY state school all 4 years, all classes taken inside it during the fall and spring semesters.

Misc: Biggest thing was seeing a friend die and trying to save them, starting off with that on my PS. That event isn't the only reason I want to be a doctor, but had a very strong influence on pushing me to be an EMT and driving me to be a doctor to prevent other losses and suffering.

Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): Yes, both of my parents went to NYIT, currently work as an ER doc and family doc.

Specialty of interest: Neurology, Cardiology, Respiratory, Family, Internal, Peds, Emergency, Psych, Gen Surgery, Ortho. Not in any particular order, I'm very interested in all of these, and will decide which one to enter into during my education in med school and rotations. Based off my past experiences as an EMT, observer, neurobio student, and Buddhist.

Graduate degrees: None.

Interest in rural health (y/n): Sure I'm open to the idea. I would also like to volunteer in global communities through Doctors Without Borders and other related organizations.

Again, thank you in advance! I really want to make this a one time application, so I'm applying to 32 MD schools and am open to adding about 5 more MD or DO schools. Please let me know of any schools you think would be a good fit for me or any that are currently on my list which I wouldn't be a good fit for.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please clarify: your parents went to NYIT for medical school? Are they patrons or alumni benefactors?

1) IMO, Guyanese is underrepresented, and you are right... it's complicated. (I admit part of my knowledge also comes from watching "Passport Not Required" with Marcus Samuelsson, but you can also read up on it online too.) To that end, is there an association then with the trip to set up a clinic in South America?

2) Have you reached out to admissions reps at the NYC schools? Do you have connections with AMSA/SNMA student chapters or AMA/NMA through your parents?

 

[Persaudirabia]

Please clarify: your parents went to NYIT for medical school?

Yes, that is correct. They both went to the NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine for medical school, and are now currently working as physicians. However, they aren't patrons or alumni benefactors.

1. No, the that trip was to Peru, not Guyana.

2. I haven't reached out to admissions reps at the NY schools. I don't have any connections to those chapters either.

 

[Persaudirabia]

Also, concerning the section where I listed my non-clinical volunteering, would being the president of the Boxing Club count as non-clinical volunteering? I know that I should label my work as a TA and TA mentor as being a teaching assistant in the activities section, but what about my club experience? I know that there is a section for leadership as well, but I feel like I should label this experience as non-clinical volunteering as I do not have any non-clin hours aside from being involved with the club and being a TA. Other than being on the executive board and guiding the activities of the club, I directly taught dozens of people how to box as well.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Also, concerning the section where I listed my non-clinical volunteering, would being the president of the Boxing Club count as non-clinical volunteering? I know that I should label my work as a TA and TA mentor as being a teaching assistant in the activities section, but what about my club experience? I know that there is a section for leadership as well, but I feel like I should label this experience as non-clinical volunteering as I do not have any non-clin hours aside from being involved with the club and being a TA. Other than being on the executive board and guiding the activities of the club, I directly taught dozens of people how to box as well.

Make sure you do reach out to the admissions staff, especially at NYCOM if your parents went there.

I refer you back to the AACOMAS instructions on how it generally characterizes experiences: Experiences .

To me it seems your boxing club participation belongs in extracurriculars. Tutoring can go under non-clinical (volunteering unpaid, employment paid).

 

[Persaudirabia]

Make sure you do reach out to the admissions staff, especially at NYCOM if your parents went there.

I refer you back to the AACOMAS instructions on how it generally characterizes experiences: Experiences .

To me it seems your boxing club participation belongs in extracurriculars. Tutoring can go under non-clinical (volunteering unpaid, employment paid).

Thank you! I will definitely contact NYCOM, I never considered doing so before.

The experiences section of the AACOMAS application seems different from that of the AMCAS application. Would you recommend that listing myself as President and Primary Instructor of the Boxing Club should go under Extracurriculars instead of Leadership or Non-Clinical Volunteering and that my work as a TA and TA mentor should be listed as Non-Clinical Volunteering instead of Teaching Assistant for the AMCAS application as well?

Also, what do you think about my MD school list, given the stats and other information I listed? Do you think I should add or remove anything?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you! I will definitely contact NYCOM, I never considered doing so before.

The experiences section of the AACOMAS application seems different from that of the AMCAS application. Would you recommend that listing myself as President and Primary Instructor of the Boxing Club should go under Extracurriculars instead of Leadership or Non-Clinical Volunteering and that my work as a TA and TA mentor should be listed as Non-Clinical Volunteering instead of Teaching Assistant for the AMCAS application as well?

Also, what do you think about my MD school list, given the stats and other information I listed? Do you think I should add or remove anything?

I will let @Faha and @Goro comment on your school list.

As for how to list your leadership experiences in AMCAS, I'd check with admissions recruiters for feedback. They are different applications so you should make sure to accommodate for each application as suggested.

 

[Faha]

You have a good list and should receive several interviews.

 

[Persaudirabia]

I will let @Faha and @Goro comment on your school list.

As for how to list your leadership experiences in AMCAS, I'd check with admissions recruiters for feedback. They are different applications so you should make sure to accommodate for each application as suggested.

Thank you so much for the help! I never really considered contacting admissions recruiters for feedback before, they could probably help clear up some of the confusion regarding what to label my experiences as. I agree with your reasoning regarding labeling my TA work as non-clinical volunteering and my boxing leadership and teaching as extracurricular, so I will do that for the AACOMAS app.

 

[Persaudirabia]

You have a good list and should receive several interviews.

Thank you, that is great to hear! Do you have any advice on whether I should label my Boxing Club experiences as non-clinical volunteering on the AMCAS app? I plan on submitting my app within the first week of June. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call and go to a few food banks in my area in order to see if I can begin volunteering with them about 5 hours each week well into next year, as to help out during the COVID crisis and get some more clear-cut non-clinical volunteering experience. I'll write down the hours I have completed upon the date of my application submissions and note the amount of projected hours I will complete as well. Later on in the summer after I submit my applications I plan on starting to become involved in another field of research, but I highly doubt I will be able to publish anything or work on my own project. With all this being said and considering my current stats, do you think I should add or remove any MD or DO schools?

 

[Goro]

Hello I hope you're all staying safe and keeping your distance this summer. I'd appreciate any help or advice you can give me by looking over the schools I've chosen. I wanted to choose DO schools as well but decided not to as I started looking at their median GPA/ MCAT stats and it seems as if I would be rejected due to being a good deal above their median stats. However, both my parents went to NYIT but I'm not sure how much of an impact that would carry. I barely have any research, so I'm mainly looking at schools that focus on applicants involved in community service, although I would definitely like to be involved in medical research in the future. Please let me know if I'm too top heavy or applying to too many schools that could yield protect, or if I should definitely add DO schools even when considering my GPA and MCAT. Any recommendations for adding/ switching schools are heavily appreciated. Thank you in advance!!

Year in school: Will graduate at the end of May 2020. Biology major with neurobio specialization.
Country/state of residence: NY
Schools to which you are applying: 32 MD schools, unsure of applying to any DO schools. Maybe Touro, NYIT, and LECOM. Don't care about the state, urban or suburban, or tuition. WDARS- 73, C. LizzyM- 75.10. Tried to follow the WDARS advice but had problems with the "tiers" that schools are considered to be in. I would prefer to stay in NY or near it, but honestly have no real preference.
NYU
Columbia
University of Virginia
Cornell
Ohio State
Mount Sinai
Case Western
Stony Brook
Oakland
West Virginia
Boston University
Rochester
Cincinnati
Brown
Hofstra/Northwell
Health Morsani
New York University- Long Island
Einstein
Wayne State
Virginia Commonwealth
Dartmouth
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Wake
Upstate
University of Arizona- Tucson
Western Michigan
Tufts
Downstate
Buffalo
Eastern Virginia
Larner at Vermont
New York Medical College

You don't need DO schools on the list.

Of you list, delete U AZ, Brown, EVMS, NYMC, VCU, U WV,

ADD:
Pitt
Duke
Keck
U Penn
Yale
JHU
WashU
Stanford
Northwestern
U Chicago
UCSF
UCLA

 

[Faha]

You could remove West Virginia and Arizona Tucson unless you have a desire to live in those areas. Your Boxing activity is not non clinical volunteering.

 

[Persaudirabia]

You don't need DO schools on the list.

Of you list, delete U AZ, Brown, EVMS, NYMC, VCU, U WV,

ADD:
Pitt
Duke
Keck
U Penn
Yale
JHU
WashU
Stanford
Northwestern
U Chicago
UCSF
UCLA

Thank you for the advice! However, this is surprising. I agree with removing some of the schools you listed as I was thinking about removing them myself, but why do you think I should add more top schools like Yale, UCSF, Penn, Stanford, or UCLA?

 

[Persaudirabia]

You could remove West Virginia and Arizona Tucson unless you have a desire to live in those areas. Your Boxing activity is not non clinical volunteering.

I'll look into these schools some more and will most likely follow your advice. Thank you for your input regarding my experience with the boxing club. Instead of labeling my time as president and coach as non-clinical volunteering, I'll label it as leadership instead and will add my future work at the food bank as non-clinical.

 

[Goro]

Thank you for the advice! However, this is surprising. I agree with removing some of the schools you listed as I was thinking about removing them myself, but why do you think I should add more top schools like Yale, UCSF, Penn, Stanford, or UCLA?

You have a strong app and many of them are research and stats wh...... Oh, I can't say that anymore. Let's say they're stats and research obsessed.

 

[Persaudirabia]

You have a strong app and many of them are research and stats wh...... Oh, I can't say that anymore. Let's say they're stats and research obsessed.

Haha thank you I didn't expect that my app would be considered strong! I thought my lack of non-clinical work and pubs/ articles/ presentations prevented me from being seen as a strong applicant, which would explain my larger list of 30+ schools. Thank you, @Mr.Smile12 , and @Faha so much for the feedback and good advice, you have all given me a lot to think about and do to make my chances of becoming a doctor greater. I truly appreciate the time and help you guys give to everybody on SDN, we wouldn't be where we are now without you all even though we might not be participating in the forums that we read. Stay healthy during these times and have a great night!