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[xjustbreathex]

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Fairly new poster here and I would appreciate any advice.

Stats:
Science GPA: 3.62
Overall GPA: 3.62
Practice MCAT Scores: 31-35 (took on May 23rd)
Florida Resident

ECs:
Clinical
-Volunteering in hospitals since 7th grade (several awards for number of hours) (about 1000 hours total)
-EMT-B certified (120 hours in Hospitals and Fire Stations as EMT)
-Shadowed a few doctors - probably 16 hours total
-Participated in Medical Mission to Guatemala - 5 Days - alot of exposure to medicine - scrubbed in on two surgeries!
Work - paid positions
-Swim Instructor and Director of Swim Program - taught kids how to swim and managed the business end and 20 employees (freshman year to present)
-Lovaas Behavioral Therapist - gave ABA (applied behavioral analysis) to autistic 4 year old for course of 8 months. Took data, submitted to Lovaas for research purposes and had alot of fun!
Other
- Assistant Water Polo Coach for a High school - 1 season
- few clubs on campus
- semi-pro poker player
- Eucharistic Minister

My GPA is low due to my mother's severe illness but shows an upward trend. Here is the list of schools I am thinking about applying to right now I want to cast a pretty wide net due to my lower stats. Money isnt a huge issue, but its always nice to spend less. Any comments about which I should take off or what my chances are at these schools would be great.

Albany Medical College
Boston University School of Medicine
Drexel University
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Florida State University
George Washington
Georgetown
Loyola Chicago
Oregon Health and Science University
Penn State
Rosalind Franklind University
Rush
Temple University
Jefferson
Tufts
Tulane
University of Alabama
University of Colorado
University of Florida
University of Central Florida
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Maryland
University of Miami
University of Pittsburg
University of South Florida
University of Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth University
Albert Einstein – Yesiva



THANKS SOOOO MUCH!

 

[ChubbyChaser]

add FIU and take off oregon and rush...I hear oregon shows sig. regional bias.

 

[xjustbreathex]

anybody else want to help me out? Pretty please?

 

[carlyMD]

One thing I would say is to not mention that you scrubbed in on two surgeries. If it is something that you would not do here, you should not be doing it in a developing country. This is very controversial and depending on the adcom it could be looked upon very poorly and considered quite unethical.

Also, you might want to consider mt sinai

 

[TexasTriathlete]

You are listing a lot of state schools that won't give your application a second look, simply because they have such a huge bias towards in-state applicants.

 

[xjustbreathex]

Thanks for all your replies. I will definitely look into taking off some of the state schools.

CarlyMD: Thanks for your advice. When I scrubbed in on the surgeries, all I did was suction and balance a retractor with my hand because their retractor was broken. I definitely didn't do anything that would be considered unethical, the surgeon truly just needed someone who could speak both spanish and english to be close enough to the patient to translate to the staff and that meant I had to be sterile.

 

[SketchLazy]

Thanks for all your replies. I will definitely look into taking off some of the state schools.

CarlyMD: Thanks for your advice. When I scrubbed in on the surgeries, all I did was suction and balance a retractor with my hand because their retractor was broken. I definitely didn't do anything that would be considered unethical, the surgeon truly just needed someone who could speak both spanish and english to be close enough to the patient to translate to the staff and that meant I had to be sterile.

I agree with CarlyMD that you probably shouldn't bring this up. The simplicity of the procedure doesn't really matter. If you participated at all, it could be seen as unethical depending on the interviewer. Here, in the OR, you're lucky if you even get to watch a surgery without any licenses or certifications. Hospitals in the US don't require licensure for surgery techs just to give them some job security. It's important that the people in there know exactly what to do and how to respond in case something serious happens. Even if other countries don't have the same requirements, that doesn't really mean that it's ok for you to do it there. In my opinion it would look worse, because it looks like you circumvented the system here so you could fulfill your own curiosities at the expense of someone else's safety. I'm not saying that that is what you did, but it can easily be construed in that way. I'd be very careful when talking about it.

 

[sacrament]

add FIU and take off oregon and rush...I hear oregon shows sig. regional bias.

I went to school there several years back, and 40% of the class was out-of-state. I don't think that has changed much. I say keep it on.