Building MD School List With This Profile V2

[Skoldpadda9]

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Hello! It was recommended that I create my own profile in order to ask this, but I am the individual mentioned in the original post, as follows:

"Requesting help from experts to build a list for someone. This person is a traditional applicant currently in senior year of undergraduate studies. 2026 cycle. Strong interest in palliative care medicine discussed in "Most Meaningful Experience" section of AMCAS primary and personal statement. Applicant only considering M.D. schools at this time but if fails to gain admittance this cycle they will consider D.O. next year and plan to take a gap year, so I'd appreciate any recommendations for both.

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.65/3.42 (through 3 years with upward trend 4.0/4.0 junior year)
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 8/16/25 test date. 511 (C/P: 128, CARS: 128, B/B: 126, P/S: 129)
3. State of residence: Indiana
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Caucasian
5. Undergraduate institution: Purdue, Biological Sciences [Minor and Biomedical Health Sciences with Pre-Med Emphasis Major].
6. Clinical experience: 400 hours working in medical clinic office (medical history taking and scribing).
7. Research experience and productivity: None
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 65 hours (radiology, palliative care, reconstructive plastic surgery, social worker working with inpatients)
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 150 hours (palliative/memory care type facility* helping assisting on field trips, helping residents with art projects and their personal care (getting dressed, helping patients feed themselves), assisting residents with stretches and memory exercises).
10. Other community volunteering: 100 hours (voter registration, community park litter pick up)

*The facility where they volunteer is an assisted living complex and they work in the "Memory Care Unit" of it. I conflated their palliative care experience with this one unintentionally in my original post."

Currently, I am applying to 11 schools and am looking for up to 5 more, though I do not plan to take CASPer, PRE, or any additional assessments beyond the MCAT. I have 3 LORs, one science, one non-science, and one from the non-clinical volunteering. Though I have previously consulted with a pre-health advisor in regards to potential leads, I sadly did not find it very helpful, though I believe I could very well have better luck in asking the other advisors at my school and am thus scheduling to meet with them.

Schools That I am Currently Applying to
1. Indiana University School of Medicine
2. Alice L. Walton School of Medicine
3. Albert Einstein College of Medicine
4. NYU Grossman School of Medicine
5. Roseman University College of Medicine
6. The University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
7. Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine
8. Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
9. Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
10. Albany Medical College
11. Wayne State University School of Medicine

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

My initial impressions: break down your shadowing by specialty. I would prefer about half of those hours in a primary care field. I'm unsure if shadowing a social worker fulfills my preference without more context. If you have such a strong interest in palliative care, I'd like to see more hours going in that direction rather than plastic surgery. I don't have a timeline, so it's possible you did with your work with the senior center/assisted living. Did you get any certifications to work with the residents? Some type of safety training?

What classes have you taken that would further cement that geriatrics is a blooming passion as a healthcare provider, specifically the electives that are not related to your biology major?

Is there a reason why as a biology major at Purdue you haven't gotten involved with research? I say this because the hours I would expect you to do research are not elsewhere in your profile. What have you been doing on campus?

On your list, I need a stronger connection why you are applying to the NYC schools other than free tuition. AWSOM free tuition is fine, but standard warning for being a student at a new school without a graduating class, though you probably would be a strong fit there (knowing the demographics). I think the rest of your list is reasonable (Roseman being the geographic outlier), so for more schools, I'd look south to Louisville perhaps. Maybe SLU or some of the Catholic programs (hours still need a boost).

 

[Faha]

NYU and Einstein are unrealistic with a MCAT of 511. You could add these schools this week:
Belmont
Medical College Wisconsin
NOVA MD
TCU
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
Quinnipiac

 

[Skoldpadda9]

Welcome to the forums.

My initial impressions: break down your shadowing by specialty. I would prefer about half of those hours in a primary care field. I'm unsure if shadowing a social worker fulfills my preference without more context. If you have such a strong interest in palliative care, I'd like to see more hours going in that direction rather than plastic surgery. I don't have a timeline, so it's possible you did with your work with the senior center/assisted living. Did you get any certifications to work with the residents? Some type of safety training?

What classes have you taken that would further cement that geriatrics is a blooming passion as a healthcare provider, specifically the electives that are not related to your biology major?

Is there a reason why as a biology major at Purdue you haven't gotten involved with research? I say this because the hours I would expect you to do research are not elsewhere in your profile. What have you been doing on campus?

On your list, I need a stronger connection why you are applying to the NYC schools other than free tuition. AWSOM free tuition is fine, but standard warning for being a student at a new school without a graduating class, though you probably would be a strong fit there (knowing the demographics). I think the rest of your list is reasonable (Roseman being the geographic outlier), so for more schools, I'd look south to Louisville perhaps. Maybe SLU or some of the Catholic programs (hours still need a boost).

The social worker was focused on providing financial support for patients through measures such as Little Red Door and providing gas cards.

While I could attempt to divide by specialty, I was in a situation where I was permitted to shadow an entire Cancer Center at once, to be exposed to a variety of fields in action, but could not choose specifics and thus pin-balled between departments based on who could reasonably accommodate me. Based on patient confidentiality and comfort, this meant I had the largest portion of this time with the radiology department, and it was only through additional advocation that I was even considered to be allowed to shadow the palliative care physician. Additional areas included in this experience were phlebotomists and pharmacists, for instance, and while I recorded the departments I shadowed in a given day, I could more accurately pinpoint frequency and thus approximate hours from that.

There were not certifications required for the nursing home in regards to my capacity as a volunteer, though I did receive on-site training in regards to falls and the like as part of my orientation, and was supervised by a manager for the first two weeks to provide additional support.

My major is Biomedical Health Sciences with a Pre-Med Emphasis and a Minor in Biological Sciences, so I am a member of the College of Health and Human Sciences at Purdue, which I probably should have edited from the original post.

I have not taken further classes in regards to geriatrics, at least not specifically.

 

[Skoldpadda9]

NYU and Einstein are unrealistic with a MCAT of 511. You could add these schools this week:
Belmont
Medical College Wisconsin
NOVA MD
TCU
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
Quinnipiac

Wake Forest, Drexel, Medical College of Wisconsin, Temple, and Quinnipiac all require CASPer.
NOVA / NSU requires "minimum 1,000 medically related hours" and "minimum 500 non-medically related."
TCU requires CASPer and Duet.
I only have 3 LORs and thus do not meet the Penn State minimum of 4.
Belmont is a religiously-affiliated school.

I will look into Eastern Virginia.