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I don't see any glaring issues. If you're getting interviews at T10s, I don't think your on paper app is holding you back too much. Could be interviews or you could just have gotten a bit unlucky.

The total clinical hours looks absolutely fine, especially for top schools like most of your list. I'm also unsure about counting contact tracing as clinical though.

Your complete date looks fine unless your LORs came way after your secondaries. Mid-late August is not early, but it's not late either.

Good luck with your last decision!
 
In the worst case do you think I would be fine reapplying right away? Or next year? I don't want to have to retake my MCAT so this is tough.
 
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Your application looks great. I would not worry about written materials or recommendation letter "flags" with 3 interviews. Some of your clinical experiences may be mis-identified, but i don't think it's a particularly big deal.

If you haven't had practice or feedback on how you interview, I would start there. You are fine reapplying next cycle (if needed). Apply to several schools you haven't applied to the first cycle and think of how to frame your strengths and improvements for applications that ask if you've applied before (not all will).
 
Where is your service orientation? Creating a philosophy discussion circle won't really resonate and could fall under leadership. Your major is (also) philosophy so it doesn't really show you stretching out of your comfort zone in a position of humble learning about others distress. I would say it is similar to you doing chemistry outreach to the public... just with philosophy. Arguably, this is showing me your academic competency to extend that metaphor.

You have more hours in this activity than your most meaningful experience, which is health adjacent. In fact it overlaps with your clinical experience, it seems. Can you tell me if these were in fact different clinics?

I suspect your R&D work was interesting to Yale and Hopkins. Did they ask you any questions that you felt uncomfortable with answering? (I don't want to out you so you don't have to answer. )
 
*Ah the most meaningful was supposed to be the workshop activity, not the one below it.

To answer your last question, I did coordination/volunteer leadership for the same clinic but I kept this commitment separate from the time I actually spent volunteering myself so there was no overlap.

It's on me to properly convey that it was service oriented so your point about it being academic is valid. I tried to stress this in my app but it was an important goal of mine, faculty, and shelter directors to strictly avoid academic programming (i.e. lectures/seminars) in favor of encouraging personal/intellectual interaction in transient communities that might not have had spaces to do so (using philosophy as a medium). It was modeled after The Free Philosophy Project in Boston to give a clearer picture. If this still seems too academically oriented, then I would do well to reorient this activity so any thoughts would be appreciated.

I don't remember any uncomfortable questions. I am curious to hear why they might be interested in my work. Could I ask what you mean by uncomfortable?
 
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yunleed said:
*Ah the most meaningful was supposed to be the workshop activity, not the one below it.

To answer your last question, I did coordination/volunteer leadership for the same clinic but I kept this commitment separate from the time I actually spent volunteering myself so there was no overlap.

It's on me to properly convey that it was service oriented so your point about it being academic is valid. I tried to stress this in my app but it was an important goal of mine, faculty, and shelter directors to strictly avoid academic programming (i.e. lectures/seminars) in favor of encouraging personal/intellectual interaction in transient communities that might not have had spaces to do so (using philosophy as a medium). It was modeled after The Free Philosophy Project in Boston to give a clearer picture. If this still seems too academically oriented, then I would do well to reorient this activity so any thoughts would be appreciated.

I don't remember any uncomfortable questions. I am curious to hear why they might be interested in my work. Could I ask what you mean by uncomfortable?
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Answering the latter question first: I was under the impression Yale and Hopkins faculty sometimes like to stress their applicants with questions that take interviewees a bit out of their comfort zone. Did this happen?

Sometimes familiarity is helpful in the screening process, so this also can explain possible interest from BU... but who knows. You can only describe it the best way you can. Sometimes networking with admissions staff helps to gauge how familiar these activities are for the staff in case screeners have questions.
 
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yunleed said:
Currently, I'm legally in California.
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You have no major weaknesses so you could reapply in June. It would increase your chances to add some mid tier schools and avoid schools such as U Washington (admit less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest). I suggest these schools:
UCSD
UCLA
UCSF
USC KECK
UC IRVINE
UC DAVIS
Stanford
Kaiser
Mayo
Washington University (in St. Louis-surprised you did not receive an interview there)
Northwestern
Western Michigan
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Vanderbilt
Miami
USF Morsani
Duke
U Virginia
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
Jefferson
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Rochester
Boston University
Yale
Brown
 
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Thank you for putting this together!

I am curious about Yale, JHU, and BUSM though. I'm under the impression they wouldn't interview me a second time... do you know anything about this?
 
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yunleed said:
Thank you for putting this together!

I am curious about Yale, JHU, and BUSM though. I'm under the impression they wouldn't interview me a second time... do you know anything about this?
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Since they were interested in you the first time you applied they may be interested again.
 
yunleed said:
Thank you for putting this together!

I am curious about Yale, JHU, and BUSM though. I'm under the impression they wouldn't interview me a second time... do you know anything about this?
Click to expand...
Some schools do not re-interview recent re-applicants. It might be worth asking them. Let us know what they say!
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
Answering the latter question first: I was under the impression Yale and Hopkins faculty sometimes like to stress their applicants with questions that take interviewees a bit out of their comfort zone. Did this happen?
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This is less institution-dependent than faculty-dependent (and also dependent on how the student interprets the situation. People have different temperaments for what they consider "stressful.") Anecdotally, my most difficult/bully-like interview was at the same school that I had my easiest/least formal interview (HMS). Programs with traditional interviews tend to have less oversight and more variability than programs with recorded MMIs.
 
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I’m pretty surprised you didn’t get more interviews. Your submission was not late. I think it could be a weak LOR
 
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