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[nameishardtothink]

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[Mr.Smile12]

Ideally you need another 15 hours of postbac coursework that keeps your pbGPA above 3.8x. Fifteen hours is not convincing enough, even with your engineering degree. I don't know what other biomed courses you have that are included in your undergrad GPA.

UCLA Charles Drew is more an HBCU program, so unless you grew up in a predominantly Black/redlined neighborhood, you are not likely to be a fit. That said, you did apply to Howard, Morehouse, and Meharry, three HBCU programs as well.

My central theme has been working with underserved populations because I was part of the population and wanted to give back. I want to discuss the stigma and challenge underserved populations encounter, and how they are unaware of the abundant available resources leading to the gap in health care. My strength is I share a similar background as them and my diverse experiences with different groups allowed me to emphasize and provide more inclusive care and treatment plans for a diverse population. And I can become an advocate to link those populations to the available resources.

Maybe it's not clear how you were part of this population. How much detail did you describe your upbringing and childhood circumstances in Other Impactful Experiences or other secondary essays? Where did you grow up in California that was underserved?

Your non-clinical community service experiences do not point to the types of activities that reveal deep insights about the structural inequities historically underserved communities face. I'm sorry the start-up didn't work out, but the description does not sound like it was client-facing. Being an environmental engineer is helpful but also may not fit what adcoms are seeking.

 

[nameishardtothink]

Ideally you need another 15 hours of postbac coursework that keeps your pbGPA above 3.8x. Fifteen hours is not convincing enough, even with your engineering degree. I don't know what other biomed courses you have that are included in your undergrad GPA.

UCLA Charles Drew is more an HBCU program, so unless you grew up in a predominantly Black/redlined neighborhood, you are not likely to be a fit. That said, you did apply to Howard, Morehouse, and Meharry, three HBCU programs as well.


Maybe it's not clear how you were part of this population. How much detail did you describe your upbringing and childhood circumstances in Other Impactful Experiences or other secondary essays? Where did you grow up in California that was underserved?

Your non-clinical community service experiences do not point to the types of activities that reveal deep insights about the structural inequities historically underserved communities face. I'm sorry the start-up didn't work out, but the description does not sound like it was client-facing. Being an environmental engineer is helpful but also may not fit what adcoms are seeking.

Thank you for your feedback. I will look into other 15 hours of postbacc coursework that is available. I had taken biochem in undergrad. Any suggestions of courses I should take?

I grew up in a single mom family and we are all first gen asylum status immigrants, and we had medicaid (or MediCal). We were in SoCal area with many illegal immigrants. People with medical like my family were often rejected by many providers because they do not take that for insurance (or they were full already).

I thought working in the prison would show my involvement with inmates would be considered an underserved population. They also face many stigma and stereotypes when receiving treatment.

I did not list the Environmental engineer job on my activity, just some thing I am doing currently full time. But I mentioned it in secondary because my program provides funding to disadvantaged cities to improve their drinking water system (public health ish?)

 

[nameishardtothink]

HBCU program, so unless you grew up in a predominantly Black/redlined neighborhood, you are not likely to be a fit

My understanding was they like people helping all kind of underserved population. I worked with inmates, domestic violence victims, uninsured patients. And because of my geographic location, many of that group is native american populations. I don't want to single them out, but should I be explicit? Would that make my claim of working with underserved populations more valid?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I would suggest listening to many of the admissions directors' recruitment presentations to mentoring organizations. I'm not sure why they did not pick up your application from the communities you served. I would suspect that if you perceive your mission this way, you ought to have gotten noticed by many of the PRIME programs that the UC medical schools offer. It doesn't sound that you have. Partly this could be because of your MCAT and past academic history being in engineering (and them thinking it's not enough biomedical coursework to know?).

Network with the schools and do some homework about the PRIME programs. Look if you qualify for NHSC. Strategically think about how you wrote your Other Impactful Experiences. Add the DO schools like Western University in Pomona and Midwestern AZ. Arizona schools in general have an affinity for those who have experience with indigenous populations.

 

[nameishardtothink]

I would suggest listening to many of the admissions directors' recruitment presentations to mentoring organizations. I'm not sure why they did not pick up your application from the communities you served. I would suspect that if you perceive your mission this way, you ought to have gotten noticed by many of the PRIME programs that the UC medical schools offer. It doesn't sound that you have. Partly this could be because of your MCAT and past academic history being in engineering (and them thinking it's not enough biomedical coursework to know?).

Network with the schools and do some homework about the PRIME programs. Look if you qualify for NHSC. Strategically think about how you wrote your Other Impactful Experiences. Add the DO schools like Western University in Pomona and Midwestern AZ. Arizona schools in general have an affinity for those who have experience with indigenous populations.

I didn't apply for any UC schools because I did all of those clinical experiences in South Dakota and my state resident is not CA anymore. I also mentioned in my main post that I don't want to go back to CA for medical school. I just had bad experience from middle school to undergrad with cali education.

 

[Faha]

The only realistic MD school with your stats is South Dakota. Apply broadly to DO schools and I suggest these:
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
TUNCOM
AZCOM
UIWSOM
NYITCOM (both schools)
LECOM (all schools)
PCOM (all schools)
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
LMU-DCOM
ACOM
WCU-COM
Noorda-COM
Touro-Montana
RVU-Montana
ICOM
KHSC-COM
BUCOM
DUQCOM
BCOM (both schools)
OCOM

 

[candbgirl]

Don’t worry about MD v DO. You have to be in med school to match to any specialty. So keep the important thing in mind(getting into a med . I wouldn’t retake the MCAT. What you have now is okay. And many schools average multiple scores. Good luck.