Help with School List

[laila192]

Hello! I just got back my MCAT and I was hoping to get help tailoring my med school list. Hoping to apply this cycle with no gap year.

Residence: Michigan (hoping to stay in state)

Background: ORM (Muslim, South Asian Female)

cGPA/MCAT: 3.64/519 -130/127/131/131

LORs/PS: LORs are from two MD and two science profs should be average/above avg, and the PS is fairly basic discussing cultural competency in medicine mainly.

Shadowing: 110 hours in Oncology + 44 hours Pediatrics

Clinical: 100 hours in Phlebotomy (projected about 200 hours more)

Volunteering: 30 hours volunteering in general ward of hospital (restocking, patient surveys) + 100 hours Crisis Text Line (projected 50 hours more)

Leadership: On board of an advocacy/tutoring club, raised $3000+ for an initiative to help local community schools, about about a year and a half, 150 hours

Research: Worked 300 hours in a wet lab where biological basis of neurological diseases were studied, 1 publication out of it (non first author)

Misc: involved in the campus Muslim Student Association, was heavily involved in student life/student organization logistics, was involved in secretary work at a religious academy, misc hobbies

Which schools are not worth keeping on here/reaches to add? Which should I add for target/baseline? I made this list prior to getting my MCAT back, so I'm not sure what is my best step after this. I'm hoping to mainly apply MD, is that a possibility with my stats/background?

I received advice to ask here as well, and I have looked on admit.org, but many of the stats look a bit outdated.

Thank you so much for the help!

School List:
University of Michigan Medical School (reach, i attend UMich right now for undergrad)
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Western Michigan Homer Stryker School of Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
University of Chicago (reach)
The Ohio State University College of Medicine
Northeast Ohio Medical University
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Howard University College of Medicine
State University of New York Upstate Medical University
State University of New York Downstate Medical University
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine
Albany Medical College
University of Cincinnati
East Virginia Medical School
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Tulane University
Albert Einstein College of Medicine (reach)

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[Mr.Smile12]

Have you looked at the AMMSA chapter list and connected with student representatives/officers? Did you attend their recent annual meeting?

I don't see a problem with your list except for a few mission mismatches based on geography. Check OOS for SUNYs, Northeast Ohio, VTC, Tulane, and Rochester for example. Discuss your social justice advocacy accomplishments to help me see if you are more for Loyola/Georgetown/Einstein/UChicago or not. Howard is an HBCU program, so do you fit their profile as a Black/very low SES candidate from a historically marginalized community? That said, you should get some attention in-state and within the region.

 

[laila192]

Have you looked at the AMMSA chapter list and connected with student representatives/officers? Did you attend their recent annual meeting?

I don't see a problem with your list except for a few mission mismatches based on geography. Check OOS for SUNYs, Northeast Ohio, VTC, Tulane, and Rochester for example. Discuss your social justice advocacy accomplishments to help me see if you are more for Loyola/Georgetown/Einstein/UChicago or not. Howard is an HBCU program, so do you fit their profile as a Black/very low SES candidate from a historically marginalized community? That said, you should get some attention in-state and within the region.

hello! thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

i have not connected with AMMSA members in specific, however I have some friends involved in their med school MSAs. would getting more connected with the AMMSAs at my interested universities aid my pre-med journey?

regarding social justice advocacy, in my leadership/student org, we were focused on helping lower SES elementary students who have acquired lunch debt pay this off, and succeeding in paying off two elementary schools with $3500, this was done thru community fundraising, grant writing (of which we were granted one $1000 award and one $1500 award). further, much of my shadowing was done in hospitals that served economically disadvantaged individuals, so gave me the opportunity to sit in on many plans of care that included a large social worker presence. working with crisis text line has also been a great way in connecting underserved populations with online resources in moments of crisis (dealing with heavy topics like suicide, depression, and more). i'd be happy to explain more!

and about HBCUs, thank you for catching that! i was under the impression that Howard was geared towards any POC, and I'm a South Asian Female wearing Hijab, so I added that to my list earlier. i will remove it now, thank you!

i'm highly interested in going to UMich, would my application be considered competitive at all for that school, especially considering I am not as heavily involved in research?

 

[Faha]

Your clinical hours (130) and non clinical hours (100) are low and will limit your chances for interviews. I suggest these schools with your stats:
University of Michigan Medical School (reach, i attend UMich right now for undergrad)
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Western Michigan Homer Stryker School of Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Albany Medical College
East Virginia Medical School
Medical College Wisconsin
TCU
Belmont
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)

 

[laila192]

Your clinical hours (130) and non clinical hours (100) are low and will limit your chances for interviews. I suggest these schools with your stats:
University of Michigan Medical School (reach, i attend UMich right now for undergrad)
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Western Michigan Homer Stryker School of Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Albany Medical College
East Virginia Medical School
Medical College Wisconsin
TCU
Belmont
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)

Hello! thank you so much for taking the time to reply! i appreciate the help! for each of the experiences, is it that the medical schools only look at those two (clinical paid work, and volunteering) the most? other items I have listed in misc items, i have over 200+ more hours, would that still not be enough to accommodate for the lower clinical hours? also would it not be worth applying to any high reach schools, such as UChicago, then?

 

[Faha]

Hello! thank you so much for taking the time to reply! i appreciate the help! for each of the experiences, is it that the medical schools only look at those two (clinical paid work, and volunteering) the most? other items I have listed in misc items, i have over 200+ more hours, would that still not be enough to accommodate for the lower clinical hours? also would it not be worth applying to any high reach schools, such as UChicago, then?

With your low clinical and non clinical hours it is not worth applying to any reach schools since many of the applicants to those schools have hundreds or thousands of hours each of clinical and non clinical hours.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

hello! thank you so much for taking the time to reply!

i have not connected with AMMSA members in specific, however I have some friends involved in their med school MSAs. would getting more connected with the AMMSAs at my interested universities aid my pre-med journey?

It always helps knowing the culture of student support, and especially given the last few years and my presumption of your identification as Muslim, being connected will help you figure out how you would thrive at the schools you want to attend. You'll leverage these connections throughout your career should you become a student doctor.

regarding social justice advocacy, in my leadership/student org, we were focused on helping lower SES elementary students who have acquired lunch debt pay this off, and succeeding in paying off two elementary schools with $3500, this was done thru community fundraising, grant writing (of which we were granted one $1000 award and one $1500 award). further, much of my shadowing was done in hospitals that served economically disadvantaged individuals, so gave me the opportunity to sit in on many plans of care that included a large social worker presence. working with crisis text line has also been a great way in connecting underserved populations with online resources in moments of crisis (dealing with heavy topics like suicide, depression, and more). i'd be happy to explain more!

and about HBCUs, thank you for catching that! i was under the impression that Howard was geared towards any POC, and I'm a South Asian Female wearing Hijab, so I added that to my list earlier. i will remove it now, thank you!

All you can do is ask. There are many African Muslims too (one cannot assume based on religious identity alone). A few South Asians I have helped who got into Howard were immigrants/refugees denied access to healthcare due to their religious or social group identity. I just make that statement that if you are not used to HBCU culture, read more into it. If Howard offers some opportunities that you want to participate in before you earn your MD degree, research before deciding to add or delete from your list.

i'm highly interested in going to UMich, would my application be considered competitive at all for that school, especially considering I am not as heavily involved in research?

Since you're more familiar with the campus vibe and have access to students at Michigan than me, I'm sure they would be more direct in saying how much research is considered in an applicant file. I doubt every Michigan student at the medical school published papers before they were admitted. On face value, your GPA may not be closer to their applicant median GPA, but they would be able to tell you how much they value it over a more holistic assessment of your application. The challenge is if you are below their applicant median GPA, then what will you do. You are probably closer to that metric at many of the other Michigan schools.