GPA/sGPA: 3.84/3.81
MCAT: 521 (130/130/130/131)
Race: ORM
State: PA
College: Lower-tier Ivy, rising senior
Major(s): Biology and Psychology
**Listing hours in terms of how many I have by the time I graduate
Research: 800-900 hours at 2 labs, 1 poster, earned scholarships/fellowships worth $5,000
Clinical Experience Not Including Shadowing: Patient Communication Facilitator (200 hours), Surgical Equipment Transporter (120 hours)
Shadowing: Outpatient Shadowing (120 hours), Inpatient Shadowing (80 hours, variety of specialties)
Volunteering: Food Shelf (200 hours), Tutor for underserved youth in home state (150 hours)
Leadership: VP of Debate Team Sophomore/Junior Years, Captain of Debate team Senior year, Student Chair for Food Shelf
Other ECs: Paid Work before college, Debate (600 hours), Attending College Dem/Repub Events (50 or so hours)
Immediate Family in Medicine: Yes
LORs/Personal Statement: Who knows at this point. LORs should be decent. I got a good review for PS from health advisor, but it would be disingenuous to say I know the quality of either of these.
1) I need advice on College List (PA resident): Dartmouth, Pitt, Boston, Drexel, Temple, Geisinger, Penn State, Kimmel, Case, Duke, Mt Sinai, UCSF, Stanford, St Louis, U Michigan, UCLA, NYU, Columbia, Harvard, JHU, Mayo, Wash U, Penn, Northwestern, Chicago, Yale, Cornell, Vandy, UVA, OSU
**Note: I've basically pre-written almost all the secondaries so far for these schools
**Note: My list is top heavy so if you could recommend some "fit" schools that would be great
2) What are my chances at T-20? I know it's a crapshoot either way, but I want to maximize my chances.
3) I am strongly considering gapping for a few reasons. First, my GPA is in the 25% of most T20s, so I'm trying to increase it. Second, no in-person interviews would probably hurt me. Third, my clinical experiences would be more supplemented through a scribe position because right now they're kind of lacking (I'm not even sure if the equipment transporter is even considered clinical by most schools). Fourth, I can improve one of my LORs. Right now, I have an LOR from a teacher who gave me a B+ but I had to pick him because he was the only science teacher I could reasonably pick.
