I might be a reapplicant - How can I improve?

[fd25]

Hi all! I am an applicant for the current cycle. I applied all MD to 23 schools (all of which were mid to low tier).
My cycle went as follows: 3II --> 3WL (haven't heard back from any of them yet)

While I know I still have a chance of getting accepted off a waitlist, I am planning for the upcoming cycle in case I need to reapply. Below, I will give an outline of my previous cycle's application and the things I have added since then. If any of you have some feedback for me, any help is greatly appreciated!

NY state, ORM
cGPA: 3.63
sGPA: 3.56
MCAT: 511 (126/130/127/128)
Secondaries complete end of July/first week of August

Hours listed on previous application:
- Research lab (wrote senior thesis, no pubs/posters): 450 hours
- Attended awesome conference, met leader of NIH: 10 hours
- Research lab (paid summer intern, wrote report, no pubs/posters): 260 hours
- Shadowing (4 different pediatric neurosurgeons, attended tumor board meetings, helped writing clinical research grant): 75 hours
- Clinical volunteering (neurology and cardiac-ICU, some opportunity to shadow, watched a surgery): 135 hours
- Recipient of University's research grant
- Research lab (volunteered during sophomore year): 300 hours
- Artistic endeavors (highly trained classical musician, pretty cool performance I mentioned): 150 hours
- Paid employment (non-clinical): 1500 hours (worked ~18 hours a week throughout undergrad)
- Leadership (president of University organization that did mission trips - I did not emphasize this heavily for fear of volunteerism perception, but it was actually meaningful for me, and I spearheaded a lot of fundraisers throughout the year): 450 hours
- EC (senior editor of medical publication): 30 hours

Things I have been doing during my gap year that would be on my new application:
- 320 hours paid EMT work for two months (worked for a private company, loved working with patients, but hated the work environment
- ~2000 hours working full-time as a research tech in the same lab that I did my senior thesis, I manage the lab and also run my own independent experiments, have done a ton of in vivo and in vitro work on my own, listed as an author on a paper our lab published this year and MIGHT get my own pub from my work but not sure yet


If any of you have thoughts on how I can improve my application, or how you think my chances might be for this upcoming cycle, or any school recommendations, any feedback is greatly appreciated!

One thing I would like to add, I do genuinely think that if I dedicated ~2-3 months to study hardcore, I could retake and improve my MCAT score. My study conditions for the first exam weren't great, and I do think I could do better. But that is a high risk situation and might risk me applying not as early as I would like.

Thank you for any advice

EDIT: I think I am an above average writer, and I think my interviews were decent. Not amazing, but decent, definitely not bad. 2 were MMIs and I think they were a bit stronger than my traditional interviews. I don't think my interviews broke me, but they definitely didn't make me either (obviously)

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[Goro]

1. Work on interview skills
2. Get in more service to others less fortunate than yourself.

 

[baz2020]

- Clinical volunteering (neurology and cardiac-ICU, some opportunity to shadow, watched a surgery): 135 hours

Emphasis on this. Sounds like an extremely passive almost shadowing like experience, which makes your clinical hours extremely low even with EMT being a short 2 month job. As @Goro mentioned non-clinical is non existant from what I see

Also, 2000 + 450 + 260 + 300 = 3010 hours of research. You are reaching MD/PhD levels of research hours but not with the MD/PhD stats.

 

[fd25]

1. Work on interview skills
2. Get in more service to others less fortunate than yourself.

Thank you for your feedback! I’m definitely working on finding opportunities to volunteer more. It’s something I do enjoy and I regret I haven’t been able to do it more over the years.

i volunteered about 40 hours at a soup kitchen my freshman year but honestly forgot to put it on my application last year. Would it be suspicious if on my second app I add an activity from four years ago?

 

[fd25]

Emphasis on this. Sounds like an extremely passive almost shadowing like experience, which makes your clinical hours extremely low even with EMT being a short 2 month job. As @Goro mentioned non-clinical is non existant from what I see

Also, 2000 + 450 + 260 + 300 = 3010 hours of research. You are reaching MD/PhD levels of research hours but not with the MD/PhD stats.

I’m considering becoming CNA certified to work in that field for the upcoming year. I was genuinely unhappy working for a private ambulance company because emphasis was never put on the patient, and I didn’t like that. So I decided to go with the research job. Employment has been a necessity for me throughout undergrad, and I still have to choose the opportunities where I can be had because I also have a child to support.

Do you think getting a clinical job (CNA) while volunteering a little bit each month would be a feasible idea?

Also, I’ve never wanted to pursue MD/PhD so thankfully by non-MD/PhD stats won’t hurt me as much.

 

[Deltasidearm]

Get plenty of non-clinical volunteering, try to get some actually meaningful clinical experience (yes, a CNA position could fit this--I did this working as a PCA in a hospital and it was a great experience and required no formal certification), and apply DO.