Good Grades / 37 MCAT

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forgetful

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My MCAT scores were just released, so it's time for me to come up with a school list for the next application cycle. I'm a non-traditional student who graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Biology. Pretty much all of my health-related ECs are from my undergrad days, so I know for sure that I need to get some more recent clinical exposure. My plan for the next year is to volunteer in-home hospice care and get more shadowing experience.

MCAT: 11 PS / 13 V / 13 BS

Undergrad Science Grades
Gen Chem: A (only offered 1 semester)
O-Chem: A / B
Biology: 10 As

Post-Bac Science Grades
Physics (taken as a post-bac at community college): 4.0/ 4.0 / 4.0
Gen Chem (retaken as post-bac at community college):4.0 / 4.0 / 4.0
Biochem (taken as a post-bac at local flagship state school): 4.0 / 3.3

Activities
Teaching
  • TA for Genetics (2 semesters), Intro Biology (2 semesters), Evolutionary Biology (2 semesters), Human Evolution (1 semester)
  • Adult Education Instructor and Program Coordinator (2 years, 25 hours/week)
  • ~600 hours volunteer ESL teacher
  • Chemistry, biology, geology, physics tutor for student-athletes (3 years, 20-30 hours/week)
Research
  • 1 year as an undergrad researcher in a neurophysiology lab. Third author on a publication.
Leadership Experience
  • Volunteer labor organizer. Member of union committee at my job. (2 years, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Campus Coordinator for a student-run public health organization. (1 year, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Project Coordinator for a student immersion program on social justice. (1 semester)

I know these experiences are somewhat...unusual. I honestly have no idea if adcoms would regard them as valuable at all. Is there anything besides sustained volunteer clinical experience that I need to add to my ECs this year?

Tentative School List
University of Washington (first choice; I'm a resident)
Warren Alpert -- Brown (attended as undergrad)
...?

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Congrats on the good mcat, what is your question?
 
My MCAT scores were just released, so it's time for me to come up with a school list for the next application cycle. I'm a non-traditional student who graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Biology. Pretty much all of my health-related ECs are from my undergrad days, so I know for sure that I need to get some more recent clinical exposure. My plan for the next year is to volunteer in-home hospice care and get more shadowing experience.

MCAT: 11 PS / 13 V / 13 BS

Undergrad Science Grades
Gen Chem: A (only offered 1 semester)
O-Chem: A / B
Biology: 10 As

Post-Bac Science Grades
Physics (taken as a post-bac at community college): 4.0/ 4.0 / 4.0
Gen Chem (retaken as post-bac at community college):4.0 / 4.0 / 4.0
Biochem (taken as a post-bac at local flagship state school): 4.0 / 3.3

Activities
Teaching
  • TA for Genetics (2 semesters), Intro Biology (2 semesters), Evolutionary Biology (2 semesters), Human Evolution (1 semester)
  • Adult Education Instructor and Program Coordinator (2 years, 25 hours/week)
  • ~600 hours volunteer ESL teacher
  • Chemistry, biology, geology, physics tutor for student-athletes (3 years, 20-30 hours/week)
Research
  • 1 year as an undergrad researcher in a neurophysiology lab. Third author on a publication.
Leadership Experience
  • Volunteer labor organizer. Member of union committee at my job. (2 years, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Campus Coordinator for a student-run public health organization. (1 year, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Project Coordinator for a student immersion program on social justice. (1 semester)

I know these experiences are somewhat...unusual. I honestly have no idea if adcoms would regard them as valuable at all.

I know my stats are good, but are my ECs decent enough to shoot for top-tier schools?
It looks as if you don't have any healthcare EC's over the past 5 years. So I would say your ECs aren't good enough. Some sustained Clinical volunteering/work would go a long way, I think.
 
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cGPA? sGPA? PB-GPAs???

My MCAT scores were just released, so it's time for me to come up with a school list for the next application cycle. I'm a non-traditional student who graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Biology. Pretty much all of my health-related ECs are from my undergrad days, so I know for sure that I need to get some more recent clinical exposure. My plan for the next year is to volunteer in-home hospice care and get more shadowing experience.

MCAT: 11 PS / 13 V / 13 BS

Undergrad Science Grades
Gen Chem: A (only offered 1 semester)
O-Chem: A / B
Biology: 10 As

Post-Bac Science Grades
Physics (taken as a post-bac at community college): 4.0/ 4.0 / 4.0
Gen Chem (retaken as post-bac at community college):4.0 / 4.0 / 4.0
Biochem (taken as a post-bac at local flagship state school): 4.0 / 3.3

Activities
Teaching
  • TA for Genetics (2 semesters), Intro Biology (2 semesters), Evolutionary Biology (2 semesters), Human Evolution (1 semester)
  • Adult Education Instructor and Program Coordinator (2 years, 25 hours/week)
  • ~600 hours volunteer ESL teacher
  • Chemistry, biology, geology, physics tutor for student-athletes (3 years, 20-30 hours/week)
Research
  • 1 year as an undergrad researcher in a neurophysiology lab. Third author on a publication.
Leadership Experience
  • Volunteer labor organizer. Member of union committee at my job. (2 years, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Campus Coordinator for a student-run public health organization. (1 year, ~10 hrs/week)
  • Project Coordinator for a student immersion program on social justice. (1 semester)

I know these experiences are somewhat...unusual. I honestly have no idea if adcoms would regard them as valuable at all.

I know my stats are good, but are my ECs decent enough to shoot for top-tier schools?
 
Congrats on the good mcat, what is your question?

Thanks. Sorry for the vagueness of my original post. I guess I'm just looking around for next steps. Since I have another year before applying, what more ECs could I engage in for the next year or two to be competitive in the 2015-2016 cycle? I'm also trying to think through a school list, and as I'm doing this on my own with no institutional or community support, I kind of have no idea what to look for. Like, if my stats fit within a reasonable range of matriculants for a given school, does that mean that it's reasonable for me to apply there? Or are my ECs so underwhelming that I should limit myself to mid-tier schools?
 
cGPA? sGPA? PB-GPAs???

I didn't post my GPA because I've attended a zillion colleges, each with their own grading systems, so it's a total pain for me to calculate my GPA. But my sGPA is something like a 3.96. PB-GPA is a 3.89. cGPA is ~3.9.
 
It looks as if you don't have any healthcare EC's over the past 5 years. So I would say your ECs aren't good enough. Some sustained Clinical volunteering/work would go a long way, I think.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm about to begin volunteering 5-10 hrs/week at a skilled nursing facility. Do you think that if I stick to it for the next year or more, this would be considered sufficient clinical exposure in addition to ~100 hours of shadowing?
 
Yes I do!
Thanks for the feedback! I'm about to begin volunteering 5-10 hrs/week at a skilled nursing facility. Do you think that if I stick to it for the next year or more, this would be considered sufficient clinical exposure in addition to ~100 hours of shadowing?
 
Do the volunteer work every week and continue it through the interview season when you apply. Don't stop volunteering and coast after you submit your app. Because of your deficit in this area over the past 5 years, I'm guessing they will inquire about the continuation of this experience. At least I would ask about it. Show them the commitment!

Your stats are phenomenal. You can apply to any school you like as long as you increase the clinical exposure.
 
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