MD MD final school list gpa3.89/3.80 mcat 517

[Tbilisig]

State: MI Female White

MCAT: 517 (128/129/131/129)

Undergrad cGPA/sGPA: 3.89/3.80

Undergraduate major: Biology & Spanish

Year in School: Just completed my undergraduate education at the University of Michigan. Taking 1 gap year.

Research: Total hours 1448, co-first author on a publication. Continuing research during my gap year.

Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~500 hours (teaching English to Spanish speaking immigrants)

Clinical Volunteering: ~670 hours
~ 292 ER volunteer
~ 374 as an EMT at a free women’s health clinic in Detroit

Clinical Employment: 1500 hours as an EMT
~anticipate 1400 more hours during my gap year (I have two EMT jobs, one for a private ambulance company and another in the ER)

Non-Clinical Employment: Anticipate 2000 hours during my gap year as a bartender. (not mentioned in my primary app)

Leadership: ~800 hours
-390 hours as Youth Development Officer of a university club aimed to aid students in educationally disadvantaged areas.
-426 hours: created my own club to tutor Ukrainian refugees in English

Social Justice/Advocacy: 640 hours
-Created my own non profit in order to help immigrants receive their COVID19 vaccine. Gathered a team of volunteers, delegated tasks, translated for and drove patients. Assisted 700+ people.

Teaching: 162 hours
-Physics 1 Tutor

Letters of Rec: 5 total
• 1 from an MD I worked with closely during my research team. Shadowing experience with them as well.
• 1 from research mentor in undergrad
• 1 from spanish prof
• 1 from bio lab prof
• 1 from bio prof

Misc: My PS/activities focus on my passion for serving marginalized communities. Marked myself as disadvantaged (Medicaid,worked in high school to pay family expenses, Pell Grant,socioeconomically disadvantaged). I mention in my PS how my immigrant grandfather was unable to receive adequate medical care because of his language barrier and because of his lack of health insurance. My socioeconomic status + cultural competency fuel most of my activities and passions.

Wayne State University School of Medicine
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Carle Illinois College of Medicine
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine

University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix
Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine
Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine
University of Central Florida College of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center
University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
University of Illinois College of Medicine
University of California Irvine School of Medicine
University of Florida College of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
University of California San Diego School of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine
University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
Western Michigan University Homer Stryker School of Medicine

New York Medical College
Tufts University School of Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine
Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell

California is #1 choice
Large cities with diverse populations #2 choice

Add or replace? Goal to apply to 40 schools

Thank you

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

40 is way too many schools. You should be in good shape with your in-state options, though I need better clarity on your purpose as a physician and how it aligns with the schools on your list. This will be extremely important if you are shooting for California schools.

You do have a lot of work where you teach others English as your only theme with your non-clinical community service. The actions you are doing don't resonate with service orientation activities where you are not the subject matter expert but help relieve others in distress. The refugee communities are fine and show you have a desire to help marginalized communities, but I am commenting that it is something that might be a challenge. Consequently, I'm not sure you have many hours for Rush or Loyola, but you might as well try.

One of the main cities to target is Boston whose hospitals have lots of opportunities to work with refugee communities. BU is on your list, and you should dig into opportunities for students and residents.

Immigrant and Refugee Health Center | Boston Medical Center

The BMC Immigrant & Refugee Health Center connects all of Boston Medical Center’s existing programs and expertise in immigrant and refugee health care into one central point of entry where any immigrant patient can be connected with all of BMC’s medical, mental health and social services that...

www.bmc.org

Of interest

Boston Medical Center ends policy that allows migrant families to shelter overnight

For over a year, the hospital let migrant families without housing sleep overnight. Now, citing safety concerns, BMC is barring the parents and children from staying and redirecting them elsewhere. Some families have been given free transportation to Logan Airport to wait there until state field...

www.wbur.org

See where student fellows of the Arnold Gold Foundation attend and check out their projects:

https://www.gold-foundation.org/newsroom/news/13-medical-students-named-2023-gold-student-summer-fellows/

Homework for your list: ideally you should have 25-30, especially given your high probability of getting attention in Michigan.
Check all OOS statistics for public schools. UW is not friendly to you.
UC schools also prefer students from the home region so how much you know about the marginalized populations in each region served by the UC schools will help you. UC Riverside is out of bounds unless you grew up in the Inland Empire.
Remove Carle (engineering-based curriculum, check out prereqs, but it doesn't fit your profile)
Arizona-Phoenix may like your Spanish proficiency, but it's not clear you know the culture of the local population from what you describe here. Also very IS-focused from my perspective.
Penn State's not in a big city. UF is not in a big city. U of I is expensive for OOS and not in a big city.

 

[Dr_Pediatrics]

Marked myself as disadvantaged (Medicaid,worked in high school to pay family expenses, Pell Grant,socioeconomically disadvantaged

Wow OP, your app is amazing, especially with all the barriers you've faced! We need more people from your background in medicine! Best of luck!

 

[Tbilisig]

40 is way too many schools. You should be in good shape with your in-state options, though I need better clarity on your purpose as a physician and how it aligns with the schools on your list. This will be extremely important if you are shooting for California schools.

You do have a lot of work where you teach others English as your only theme with your non-clinical community service. The actions you are doing don't resonate with service orientation activities where you are not the subject matter expert but help relieve others in distress. The refugee communities are fine and show you have a desire to help marginalized communities, but I am commenting that it is something that might be a challenge. Consequently, I'm not sure you have many hours for Rush or Loyola, but you might as well try.

One of the main cities to target is Boston whose hospitals have lots of opportunities to work with refugee communities. BU is on your list, and you should dig into opportunities for students and residents.

Immigrant and Refugee Health Center | Boston Medical Center

The BMC Immigrant & Refugee Health Center connects all of Boston Medical Center’s existing programs and expertise in immigrant and refugee health care into one central point of entry where any immigrant patient can be connected with all of BMC’s medical, mental health and social services that...

www.bmc.org

Of interest

Boston Medical Center ends policy that allows migrant families to shelter overnight

For over a year, the hospital let migrant families without housing sleep overnight. Now, citing safety concerns, BMC is barring the parents and children from staying and redirecting them elsewhere. Some families have been given free transportation to Logan Airport to wait there until state field...

www.wbur.org

See where student fellows of the Arnold Gold Foundation attend and check out their projects:

https://www.gold-foundation.org/newsroom/news/13-medical-students-named-2023-gold-student-summer-fellows/

Homework for your list: ideally you should have 25-30, especially given your high probability of getting attention in Michigan.
Check all OOS statistics for public schools. UW is not friendly to you.
UC schools also prefer students from the home region so how much you know about the marginalized populations in each region served by the UC schools will help you. UC Riverside is out of bounds unless you grew up in the Inland Empire.
Remove Carle (engineering-based curriculum, check out prereqs, but it doesn't fit your profile)
Arizona-Phoenix may like your Spanish proficiency, but it's not clear you know the culture of the local population from what you describe here. Also very IS-focused from my perspective.
Penn State's not in a big city. UF is not in a big city. U of I is expensive for OOS and not in a big city.

Thanks for the detailed response! What other schools would you recommend for me to apply to? I really hope to move out of state, and have been trying to find schools in big cities that are out of state friendly and also have programs for helping underserved immigrant/refugee communities.BU mission/statement is perfect fit for me. Should I apply to more schools in Florida/New York/New Jersey for example? Add more reach schools?
Also, what would you recommend I could do during my gap year to potentially strengthen any weaknesses in my application?

 

[Tbilisig]

Wow OP, your app is amazing, especially with all the barriers you've faced! We need more people from your background in medicine! Best of luck!

Thank you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the detailed response! What other schools would you recommend for me to apply to? I really hope to move out of state, and have been trying to find schools in big cities that are out of state friendly and also have programs for helping underserved immigrant/refugee communities.BU mission/statement is perfect fit for me. Should I apply to more schools in Florida/New York/New Jersey for example? Add more reach schools?
Also, what would you recommend I could do during my gap year to potentially strengthen any weaknesses in my application?

You have an idea of locations since most immigrants and refugees find their way to the main US ports in Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Houston of course, but that's TMDSAS territory, and Texas is shipping migrants out as is Florida thanks to their governors. I guess Miami and Orlando, but the state politics has soured on immigrants in the last... month. I could include Arizona and New Mexico but those schools really like people who are from those states.

There are probably other cities with refugee/immigrant health clinics, so that's homework for you to find opportunities at other cities like New Orleans, Detroit, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Denver, etc.

Anything to strengthen your application in your gap year: check out any Americorps opportunities. Diversify to get 150+ hours of typical service orientation activities like food distribution, housing rehabilitation, job/tax services, or shelter work. Stay away from teaching and tutoring... you've got enough there.

What I want you to do is NARROW your list. 40 secondaries means at least 40 days of writing and sending responses in a very challenging schedule. Your quality ultimately drops due to exhaustion. Stick to 20-30 really strong matches.

I'll let the usual listmakers send their suggestions to help.

 

[Tbilisig]

@Faha @Goro really would appreciate your help.

Thank you

 

[Faha]

Remove Carle Illinois since they are looking for applicants with an engineering background. Remove U Washington since they admit less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest. You could also remove state public schools that admit few non residents with no connection to the state including U Florida, UC Irvine, SUNY Downstate.

 

[Tbilisig]

Remove Carle Illinois since they are looking for applicants with an engineering background. Remove U Washington since they admit less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest. You could also remove state public schools that admit few non residents with no connection to the state including U Florida, UC Irvine, SUNY Downstate.

Thank you. What schools would you recommend to add instead? Friend was telling me Brown, Dartmouth,Columbia(?) Cornell(?) NYU(?)Duke(?) Emory. I just feel they are out of my reach. Any other non Ivy schools I could consider?

 

[Faha]

Thank you. What schools would you recommend to add instead? Friend was telling me Brown, Dartmouth,Columbia(?) Cornell(?) NYU(?)Duke(?) Emory. I just feel they are out of my reach. Any other non Ivy schools I could consider?

Any of those schools are fine but applying to 40 schools is far too many. If you add any more schools then subtract more OOS public schools such as Arizona, Central Florida, Illinois.

 

[Tbilisig]

Thank you, I'm trying to get out of state. I had my chance as undergrad (UCLA,Berkley) but financial problems hold me back. 35 schools is doable I think I pre wrote some secondaries.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you. What schools would you recommend to add instead? Friend was telling me Brown, Dartmouth,Columbia(?) Cornell(?) NYU(?)Duke(?) Emory. I just feel they are out of my reach. Any other non Ivy schools I could consider?

I don't think you're listening to yourself.

Brown (likes other East Coast Ivy-like students) is in Providence... not a big city.
Dartmouth... not a big city
Duke... not sure how much they have with refugee/immigrant health (I'm sure there is some, but not sure how it compares to what you want)

Stop focusing on brands if location and service to refugee communities is really important to you. Unless it isn't after all. Consider if you would attend if you had no financial aid scholarships (which in likelihood, you'll be loading on loans unless you get some help from NHSC or other scholarships designated for SES applicants).

 

[Goro]

I suggest the following.
Cornell
Duke
Mayo
Northwestern
U Chicago
Case
Hofstra
Stanford
Baylor
BU
Pitt
Sinai
USF Morsani
Brown
Kaiser
Rochester
SUNY-SB
USC/Keck
Albert Einstein
Dartmouth
Emory
NYMC
Ohio State
U Cincy
U IA
U MA
UCSF
Creighton
Gtown
Hackensack Meridian
Jefferson
Miami
NYU-LI
SLU
Tufts
U CO
U VM
UCF
UCLA
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
VCU
Your state school(s)
Yes, it's a long list. Your job is to cull it down, based upon your needs/interests.

 

[Tbilisig]

Financials I'm ignoring for now.I will end up with huge amount of loans no matter what.I'm not going to let financials hold me back at this time, I let go of my dream school as undergrad because of my financial problems. I'm debt free now, working 3 jobs to save.
Names don't matter, good match rate is important,( cardiovascular, OBGYN for now )research is also important, diverse population preferred.
#1priority is out of state
Preferably big city/near big city, would love to be with immigrant low SES population (that's all I have done all my life, would love to continue/contribute, hopefully open a free clinic in the future,I work in Detroit as an Emt love cultural diversity, feels comfortable) BUT if I have to go out of my comfort zone so be it. Ready for change. I'm worried I'm late, not getting in any school or getting only in state.
Thank you very much.

 

[Tbilisig]

I suggest the following.
Cornell
Duke
Mayo
Northwestern
U Chicago
Case
Hofstra
Stanford
Baylor
BU
Pitt
Sinai
USF Morsani
Brown
Kaiser
Rochester
SUNY-SB
USC/Keck
Albert Einstein
Dartmouth
Emory
NYMC
Ohio State
U Cincy
U IA
U MA
UCSF
Creighton
Gtown
Hackensack Meridian
Jefferson
Miami
NYU-LI
SLU
Tufts
U CO
U VM
UCF
UCLA
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
VCU
Your state school(s)
Yes, it's a long list. Your job is to cull it down, based upon your needs/interests.

Thank you very much!

 

[Tbilisig]

In case I need to reapply next year do you suggest retaking mcat ? I know I can do much better. Or it's waste of my time?

 

[Faha]

In case I need to reapply next year do you suggest retaking mcat ? I know I can do much better. Or it's waste of my time?

You should not retake a MCAT of 517.