Medical Are my gap-year improvements sufficient for an immediate re-app?

[GoSpursGo]

Hey everyone. This cycle, I had 5 interviews (one in september, the other 4 spread across mid-February to late April) that resulted in 3 waitlists and given that the last 2 interviews were in late March and April, I'm also expecting waitlists from those. Here is my app from this current cycle

Misc: ORM, went to a top 15 non-ivy
GPA/MCAT: 3.73 overall, 3.65 sGPA, 518 (129 130 130 129)
nonclinical: 500-600 hours tutoring students at prisons, rehab clinics, community centers, etc.
clinical: 80 hours of hospice, 200 hours shadowing
leadership: VP and treasurer of a biology honor society on campus, treasurer of that tutoring volunteering club, worked as a resident adviser for 2.5 years
research: 2.5 years in anatomy and immunology labs, 2 posters (1 from each lab), no pubs
other: was in a biology honor society for 2.5 years, was a varsity athlete for 3 years

What I added this year:

• 150 hours volunteering as a medical translator/tester at COVID-19 vaccine and testing sites (planning on calling this clinical)
• 200 hours working as a NICU cuddler (350 hours projected, planning on calling this clinical)
• 200 hours doing free online MCAT tutoring

My school list from last year was as follows: Georgetown (WL), UVA (WL), Hofstra (WL), USF Morsani (likely WL), Einstein (likely WL), VCU, GW, emory, EVMS, tufts, wake forest, thomas jefferson, Miami, Colorado, Iowa, rochester, brown, dartmouth, Cincinnati, UMich, UMinnesota, Ohio State, Indiana

My questions is, do you think the increase in clinical hours that I'll have (especially if COVID-19 volunteering is counted as clinical) will be enough considering the rest of my app?
My plan this year is to mostly keep the school list the same but take off Colorado and Minnesota. I feel like for the 2020-21 cycle, I was too afraid of applying to schools where my GPA/MCAT would've gotten past their screening because my clinical hours honestly sucked. I'd like to add the following schools: UMD, Case, Pitt, Sinai, Vermont, Temple, SLU, BU, Maryland, MCW, Cornell, Vanderbilt, NYU long island (I'm interested in primary care),

Yeah I think that’s enough. Also apply more broadly. And don’t call the covid stuff clinical

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[GoSpursGo]

Any suggestions on schools to add? Also, not fighting you on the COVID-19 stuff, but at the very least people on SDN like Goro seem to think it's clinical

I've seen it both ways. Personally I don't think it should count because generally you aren't interacting with patients, you're interacting with asymptomatic people. But I'm also not going to fight you on it. The description matters more than the title/classification.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

yeah, I think I'll just put it as non-clinical and let adcoms upgrade it if they think it is clinical. What I will say is that most of the volunteering has been working as a medical translator (I speak Chinese) for people at vaccine events, where I'm asking them screening questions about medical conditions (autoimmune conditions, pregnancy, allergies, etc.) so that's why I felt like it could be clinical.

Agree is probably not clinical but I feel this is a grey area. If you put it is clinical, maybe it will work, and if not they can just move it over. The more important thing is you increased your hours nicely. Very well done.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you observe doctor patient interactions, that would count as clinical for me. It isn't the most critical experience but you have more that is defined as clinical so I'm not concerned.

However tutoring is not always considered community service. In fact I don't think tutoring is anything significant since so many premeds do it. It's like fundraising... every premed does something like fundraising to count as service when it is not. That's where I think you got held back. Not as much stretching beyond your comfort zone.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sorry, is the tutoring comment in regards to the MCAT tutoring I did this year or the tutoring that I did in undergrad? Because the tutoring I did in undergrad was literally going straight into prisons, rehab clinics, and community centers and literally teaching students that had been convicted on charges that ranged from something as extreme as murder or aggravated assault to something like Marijuana possession. To me, that was really me going out of my comfort zone because as a middle class kid, this was the first time I was really seeing the issues in my local community through my students. And honestly, I think that's equally if not more "going out of your zone" than someone volunteering at a food bank or an animal shelter.

I appreciate your opinion and might consider having the COVID-19 volunteering as non-clinical to balance out what might be a deficiency in my non-clinical hours but really feel like the tutoring hours I did in undergrad were community service.

I appreciate the clarification on your tutoring, but it is then more surprising to me that not more credit could be given to you on service. Maybe it is a question of more variety in community service.

MCAT tutoring yes is important but may not be valued by some faculty.