CA ORM (4.0/519) WAMC + school list advice!

[foodlover630]

Hello! Just seeking advice on my application and my school list. Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: 4.0
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts: 519 (130,129,130,130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): CA
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Asian
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Low-tier state school
   (All activity hours are by time of application for 2025-26 cycle)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   1. Scribe (300 hrs)
   2. student club president (300) - performed basic vitals test and diabetes education supervised in a hospital setting and community health centers - does this count?
   3. Two free clinics (150 hrs) - can I use one activity space for both?
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. Summer lab (1200 hrs) - late author on two national conference abstracts, late author on intramural poster, mid-author on submitted publication, working on 1st author abstract (prob not ready by time of application)
   2. Capstone project (400 hrs) - won research grant, school symposium poster
   3. 1st author school fellowship poster (state level)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
   1. Family med (26 hrs)
   2. Cardiology (30 hrs)
   3. Orthopedics (30 hrs)
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. Internship at local clinic (250 hrs)
   2. Own local project (700 hrs)
   3. School fellowship (320 hrs)
10. Non-clinical job
    1. Public health related (800 hrs)
11. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Program ambassador (350 hrs)
12. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Funding for nutrition-related project
    2. fellowship
    3. research grant
    4. Published non-fiction work in regional journal
13. Anything else not listed you think might be important

Options currently considering (want to limit to 35 schools)

1. UCI
2. UCSD
3. UCLA
4. UCD
5. California University of Science and Medicine
6. Loma Linda
7. UPitt
8. Rush
9. NYU-LI
10. NYU
11. Columbia
12. UPenn
13. Yale
14. Stanford
15. Mayo Clinic
16. WashU
17. Northwestern
18. UChicago
19. Duke
20. Johns Hopkins
21. Vanderbilt
22. GW
23. Harvard
24. UCSF
25. USC
26. Kaiser Permanente
27. UCincinnati
28. Case Western
29. CCLCM
30. Icahn
31. Albert Einstein
32. BostonU
33. UMich
34. Weill Cornell
35. Emory
36. UWisconsin
37. Tufts
38. Ohio State
39. UIowa
40. St. Louis

**My narrative is centered around my work in heart health education for the underserved.**

Advice on:
- school list advice
- clinical experiences
- organizing activities
- WAMC?

Thank you so much!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[pdidd3]

Its hard to say how competitive you are because your post doesn't really describe narrative and how it relates to the impact/scale of your activities (How much research funding? What was your local project/impact?). With what is in the post, too top heavy imo. you may luck into a t20, but this is already uphill for you as an Asian male from CA (are you viet/cambodian?). This may be an unpopular opinion, but if you want to shoot your shot at t20s I think you need to expand your school list and prewrite early. If you must cut down schools, to increase chances of admission, I would cut out the t10s in your list, except UCSF and UCLA and add more mid tier CA-friendly OOS schools.

admit.org would be useful and I'm curious what it says. My cycle has been relatively accurate to it.

I also don't think your research is strong enough for CCLCM.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Experience quality is as important as quantity. Agreeing with the above, you lack detail to give me evidence your narrative works. Plus, can't you do the same heart health education as a nurse or a public health officer? Lots of possible volunteer opportunities with the American Heart Association that don't require an MD. We need people in health communication, so why not there? You have disparate mentions of doing public health work (which could include your capstone and your "own project").

I am limited on giving your advice on clinical experience without knowing what you are observing or doing as a scribe. If you only have what you describe, you need more hours. I would pursue being an MA. Your 150 hours working at free clinics can be "clinical" if you are doing patient-facing activities as if you were working in hospital clinics, but you don't say.

Overall, some of your activities may not be properly characterized. I don't understand how being a club president is clinical... I presume the 300 hours are only on your direct-patient work, so where's the leadership?

 

[ophthoaspirant]

Hello! Just seeking advice on my application and my school list. Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: 4.0
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts: 519 (130,129,130,130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): CA
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Asian
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Low-tier state school
   (All activity hours are by time of application for 2025-26 cycle)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   1. Scribe (300 hrs)
   2. student club president (300) - performed basic vitals test and diabetes education supervised in a hospital setting and community health centers - does this count?
   3. Two free clinics (150 hrs) - can I use one activity space for both?
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. Summer lab (1200 hrs) - late author on two national conference abstracts, late author on intramural poster, mid-author on submitted publication, working on 1st author abstract (prob not ready by time of application)
   2. Capstone project (400 hrs) - won research grant, school symposium poster
   3. 1st author school fellowship poster (state level)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
   1. Family med (26 hrs)
   2. Cardiology (30 hrs)
   3. Orthopedics (30 hrs)
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. Internship at local clinic (250 hrs)
   2. Own local project (700 hrs)
   3. School fellowship (320 hrs)
10. Non-clinical job
    1. Public health related (800 hrs)
11. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Program ambassador (350 hrs)
12. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Funding for nutrition-related project
    2. fellowship
    3. research grant
    4. Published non-fiction work in regional journal
13. Anything else not listed you think might be important

Options currently considering (want to limit to 35 schools)

1. UCI
2. UCSD
3. UCLA
4. UCD
5. California University of Science and Medicine
6. Loma Linda
7. UPitt
8. Rush
9. NYU-LI
10. NYU
11. Columbia
12. UPenn
13. Yale
14. Stanford
15. Mayo Clinic
16. WashU
17. Northwestern
18. UChicago
19. Duke
20. Johns Hopkins
21. Vanderbilt
22. GW
23. Harvard
24. UCSF
25. USC
26. Kaiser Permanente
27. UCincinnati
28. Case Western
29. CCLCM
30. Icahn
31. Albert Einstein
32. BostonU
33. UMich
34. Weill Cornell
35. Emory
36. UWisconsin
37. Tufts
38. Ohio State
39. UIowa
40. St. Louis

**My narrative is centered around my work in heart health education for the underserved.**

Advice on:
- school list advice
- clinical experiences
- organizing activities
- WAMC?

Thank you so much!

Add VCU, UIC, MCW and Belmont.