Help with School List please! 3.99 / 515

[rb_]

Hellos! Hoping I could get some input on my school list. Thank you in advance for your help!

ORM, caucasian

• Year in school: Graduating Spring 2020
• Undergrad: large public school
• Country/state of residence: CA
• Cumulative GPA: 3.991 (1 A-)
• Science GPA: 3.98
• MCAT Scores: 515 (128/127/131/129)
• Research –
  • Basic Science Research; Jan 2018 - Jun 2021; 400 hrs - autoimmune lab focusing on multiple sclerosis; worked with mice, presented research at poster days / symposiums
  • Clinical Research; April 2018 - Jun 2021 600 hrs; worked with cardiac arrhythmia center collecting data points from patients medical records
• Volunteering (clinical) –
  • hospital volunteer internship; 950 hrs; Feb 2018 - Aug 2020 - volunteered in different hospital departments, interacted with patients / nurses
    • gained leadership role with helping run the program; Nov 2018 - Aug 2020
  • general volunteer; 650 hrs; Sept 2017 - July 2021, club focused on running free preventative heart EKG screening for young athletes
    • gained leadership role with club; May 2019 - July 2021, as volunteer director, assisted with running the club, keeping track of volunteer attendances, etc
• Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties:
  • 207 hrs at various times since June 2017. Shadowed physicians from primary care, peds, surgery, orthopedic surgery, cardiac EP.
• Non-clinical volunteering:
  • Jan - April 2018; repeated 2019 - general volunteer for Science Olympiad - wrote exams and proctored events
    • Jan - April 2020; repeated 2021 - President of school's Science Olympiad chapter - wrote exams / proctored events / kept track of our volunteer base and their work / led general meetings
  • undergraduate assistant for systems anatomy class, sept 2019 - dec 2019, 80 hrs, taught systems anatomy topics with the help of human cadavers
• Employment history:
  • Jan 2019 - Jan 2020; 1500 hrs; worked as an EMT
• Extracurricular activities:
  • Travelers' Century Club (world travelers who have been to 100 countries); Jan 2018 - present; ~ 80 hrs with the club, 1000s of hours traveling
  • into hiking / outdoors activities
• Immediate family members in medicine? : parents are pharmacists
• Specialty of interest: surgery, but think it's too soon to say definitively
• Graduate degrees: N/A
• Interest in rural health: not particularly
• Schools to which you are applying:
  • All UC's
  • USC
  • Kaiser
  • U Virginia
  • Sinai
  • UPitt
  • Ohio State
  • Michigan
  • UCincinnati
  • Hofstra
  • USF Morsani
  • Stony Brook
  • Einstein
  • UMass
  • U Iowa
  • Emory
  • U Arizona
  • U Miami

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[Davidfromcali]

ORM?

 

[rb_]

ORM?

yes, caucasian
sorry, forgot to mention. edited above now!

 

[Davidfromcali]

I’d remove Emory,U of A, and UCinn (OOS median mcat is 519)

Consider Tufts, Temple, Jefferson, UCF, VCU, SUNY Downstate, SLU, Creighton, Wayne State, Oakland, NYMC, Case Western (high median mcat here), EVMS, Penn State

 

[Faha]

You should receive several interviews from your list. You could add these schools:
Boston University
Tufts
Rochester
Case Western
Jefferson
St. Louis
Western Michigan

 

[rb_]

thank you @Faha and @Davidfromcali for your help! much appreciated!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

The only blip I can sense from your description is that I'm missing a community service experience in which you truly immersed yourself in the concerns of vulnerable populations. You have a lot of educational-related activities, but that's the only thing that sticks out.

 

[rb_]

The only blip I can sense from your description is that I'm missing a community service experience in which you truly immersed yourself in the concerns of vulnerable populations. You have a lot of educational-related activities, but that's the only thing that sticks out.

Thank you for your advice! I was hoping that my traveling experiences could help speak to that topic. Having traveled to countries that have much less resources / opportunities / freedoms than what we have in the states has been important in exposing me to the divide between the haves and the have nots. I was planning on discussing this as traveling was 1 of my 3 most influential experiences.

Also, through the EKG screening organization, we are focusing on trying to bring screenings to underrepresented / underprivilaged areas as those are the areas in which incidences of sudden cardiac arrest are the highest.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your advice! I was hoping that my traveling experiences could help speak to that topic. Having traveled to countries that have much less resources / opportunities / freedoms than what we have in the states has been important in exposing me to the divide between the haves and the have nots. I was planning on discussing this as traveling was 1 of my 3 most influential experiences.

Also, through the EKG screening organization, we are focusing on trying to bring screenings to underrepresented / underprivilaged areas as those are the areas in which incidences of sudden cardiac arrest are the highest.

Your 650 hours includes future hours. Break it down to how much involved planning and organizing versus actual logistical setup and execution. How frequently were these screenings? How did you do outreach and education? 650 hours over 46 months (Sept 2017 - July 2021) is 14 hours per month. That's not a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of travel, but it doesn't address the concern of "immersed yourself in the concerns of vulnerable populations" especially as it pertains to the United States.

 

[rb_]

Your 650 hours includes future hours. Break it down to how much involved planning and organizing versus actual logistical setup and execution. How frequently were these screenings? How did you do outreach and education? 650 hours over 46 months (Sept 2017 - July 2021) is 14 hours per month. That's not a lot.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of travel, but it doesn't address the concern of "immersed yourself in the concerns of vulnerable populations" especially as it pertains to the United States.

As a general volunteer with the screening organization I did:

• 2 hr/mo on general meetings
• 2 hr/mo on external committee meetings where we would plan outreach events and create material for those events
• 4 hr/mo on actual outreach which involved going to sites and doing "heart talks"
• 18hr/mo on volunteering at the screenings
  • 18 months as a general volunteer * 26 hr/ mo = 468 hr (I didn't include july and august b/c we aren't active)

As the volunteer director with the organization I did:

• 2 hr/mo on general meetings
• 4 hr/mo on staff meetings
• 2 hr/mo on outreach events
• 18 hr/mo volunteering at screenings
• 16 hr/ mo with physical setup of the tents, tables, ekgs at the screening sites; and also organizing our volunteers to have shifts at the screenings
  • 22 months in leadership role * 42 hr / mo = 924 hr (I didn't include july and august b/c we aren't active)

1392 total hours

When I actually calculated out the hours it was more than what I had estimated. On average we had 2 screenings per month with outreach / education being done by heart talks at community centers, high schools where would host screenings and nearby high schools in the area.

Would it be a good idea to parse out the hours difference in the work / activities general description section while including bringing screenings to underrepresented / underprivilaged areas in the most meaningful section?