Medical Feedback on School List Please—Applying this Cycle

[Goro]

ORM, DC Resident, Female
Cum GPA: 3.97; BCPM GPA: 3.95
Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude
MCAT: 518 (128/129/129/132)
Gap year: NIH IRTA fellow, multiple sclerosis research; volunteering as an ESL teacher and/or reading tutor in DC

Research: 750 hrs Parkinson’s research in at well-known primate center
-completed senior thesis with highest honors
-co author on 2 abstracts
-orally presented poster at Society for Neuroscience conference

Shadowing: 160 hrs
-with neurologists in a movement disorders clinic

Volunteering:
-cancer clinic and ER (150 hrs)
-public health global brigades trip (50 hrs)
-tutoring French and serving breakfast to refugees in Paris during study abroad (15 hours)
-planning on teaching ESL classes and/or tutoring reading to immigrant children in DC during gap year (once a week)

Other:
-Wrote and edited for undergraduate medical journal (4 semesters)
-summer intern at health technology start up and wrote intro and discussion for 3 research studies on eye movements as bio markers for traumatic brain injury (one will published this summer)
-proficient in French (studied abroad twice)

School List as of Now:
WashU
Penn
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Northwestern
Cornell
Mt. Sinai
Duke
Michigan
Boston U
Case Western
Baylor
USC Keck
Pitt
Einstein
Emory
Tufts
Thomas Jefferson
Georgetown
Temple or Drexel
GW

Any additions or schools to be removed would be appreciated! Aiming to apply to min 20, max 25 schools.

Your volunteering is extremely weak. Generally, SDNers who get into the Really Top Schools have 100s, if not even 1000s of hours of service and/or clinical experience. This may sound a little harsh, but I would not call your research endeavorsan explanation for your weak ECs. I would call it evidence that you chose to prioritize the short-term over the long-term, which is not a particularly appealing characteristic in a potential physician. You will simply get crowded out by applicants with stronger apps.

I can't sugar coat this either, 15 hours of service to the refugees almost sounds like you were on vacation. Voluntourism, as it were.

 

[Goro]

So are you saying I don't have a shot? I obviously can't change my ECs from college and I recognize that my volunteering is weak, but I am trying to improve it by volunteering during my gap year as well. Yes, I chose to prioritize research and devoted a significant amount of time to it but I also did volunteer some, had a very meaningful shadowing experience with one physician for a year who I developed a close relationship with, had paid employment, and wrote for my school journal.

A gap year to fill in the weaknesses will make you a viable candidate.

Frankly, 160 hrs of shadowing is overkill, but what's done is done.

Focus on service to others less fortunate than yourself.

But as of right now, I'm not sanguine as to your chances.

 

[Goro]

Not hopeful for a top school or for any in general? I'm not trying to be arrogant and I fully recognize my weaknesses, but that still sounds a bit extreme that I don't have a chance at all. Also, how is 200 hours "extremely weak?" I chose to prioritize something else but I still made efforts to volunteer and am signed up to tutor English this summer and throughout the year.

Not hopeful for any school.

-cancer clinic and ER (150 hrs)
-public health global brigades trip (50 hrs)

You have 50 hours of what my pathologist calls "Medical tourism" and many schools discount this. You 150 hrs of real clinical exposrue is fine, but I think that having 200 of them would serve you more.

Again, you need service to others less fortunate than yourself.