Need advice on med-school list! (IL resident, 514/3.91)

[u/Economy-Bit4890]

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Originally had what I thought was a good list, but realized most of these schools are reaches and I didn't have enough target/safety options. Built my updated list using a combination of admit.org, MSAR data, and AI-assisted brainstorming, but want experienced human feedback before I pay to add these to AMCAS.

I already applied to 24 schools and I'm keeping all of them since secondaries are basically done — just adding target/safety schools to balance it out.

Stats:

• cGPA: 3.91 | sGPA: ~3.97
• MCAT: 514 (CP: 130, CARS: 125, BB: 129, PS: 130) — 89th percentile
• State of residence: Illinois
• Ethnicity: White, non-URM
• Undergrad: UIUC (Bioengineering, Spanish + Chemistry minors), graduating May 2027
• Clinical hours: 1,100 (CNA at two long-term care facilities)
• Research hours: 1,000 (undergrad lab + NIH BESIP summer internship)
• Shadowing: 0 hours, have opportunities lined up for end of summer
• Hospital volunteering: 56 hours (one semester on orthopedic surgery, one in ED)
• Other ECs: Fraternity alumni relations chair, founding treasurer of a new campus club, marathon runner, James Scholar
• Honors: Gilman Scholar, Dean's List multiple semesters
• Publications: None
• LORs (6): PI, post-doc in my lab, two bioengineering faculty, director of the institute I studied abroad at, DON at the nursing home I work at

Background: Socioeconomically disadvantaged, first-generation college student. Gilman Scholar, studied abroad in Costa Rica.

Primary submitted June 7th, still awaiting verification.

These are the schools I am thinking about. I know it's reach heavy, but most of these already wrote secondaries for so just going to keep them. Interested on advice about the target and safeties and will be trimming this because I recognize 42 is a lot of schools:

REACH (19): Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Penn, Mt. Sinai, UVA, Case Western, Vanderbilt, Duke, WashU, Hopkins, Northwestern, UMich, UChicago, Mayo, Pittsburgh, Emory, Brown

TARGET (10): Carle Illinois, Kaiser Permanente, NYU Grossman Long Island, Vermont, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Creighton, TCU, Georgetown, Tufts

SAFETY (13): Loyola, Rush, UIC, Oakland/Beaumont, Rosalind Franklin, SIU, Western Michigan/Stryker, Wake Forest, Quinnipiac, MCW, Wayne State, Temple, EVMS

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Your lack of shadowing and non-clinical volunteering makes most of your list rather challenging. Your clinical experience does not include experiences with physicians, so I'm curious how you would pitch your preparation. Your non-clinical volunteering is below par for most schools (need 150 hour at submission), so your application is at high risk of getting screened out. I'm wondering if you are going after research-focused med curricula because you lack non-clinical service orientation activities.

 

[u/Economy-Bit4890]

Your lack of shadowing and non-clinical volunteering makes most of your list rather challenging. Your clinical experience does not include experiences with physicians, so I'm curious how you would pitch your preparation. Your non-clinical volunteering is below par for most schools (need 150 hour at submission), so your application is at high risk of getting screened out. I'm wondering if you are going after research-focused med curricula because you lack non-clinical service orientation activities.

Yes, this is the critique I have been receiving. I took the approach of getting involved with CNA work first (helped pay for school), then got involved with research, and have been volunteering this past year (capped at 3 hours per week for about 9 weeks a semester, hence low count). As soon as I got my NIH email for my internship, I reached out to shadow and had a couple things set up, but was then told I couldn't shadow during work hours, so looking for weekend shadowing. I'm curious if you think pursuing shadowing and volunteering hours before I submit my secondaries and before interviews would be helpful at all, or if you are suggesting a gap year.

Definitely interested in med schools that emphasize research and hoping I have some better chances at those schools.

Thanks.

 

[Faha]

What is the breakdown by hours and activities for your 56 hours of non clinical volunteering?

 

[u/Economy-Bit4890]

What is the breakdown by hours and activities for your 56 hours of non clinical volunteering?

Sorry, I mislabeled it as non-clinical, it should be clinical. The 56 hours were at Carle Foundation Hospital, with half of the hours on the orthopedic surgery floors (where I stocked supplies and made admit kits) and the other half in the ED (where I mostly directed people around the ED, walked them to other parts of the hospital, showed people to the bathroom).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sorry, I mislabeled it as non-clinical, it should be clinical. The 56 hours were at Carle Foundation Hospital, with half of the hours on the orthopedic surgery floors (where I stocked supplies and made admit kits) and the other half in the ED (where I mostly directed people around the ED, walked them to other parts of the hospital, showed people to the bathroom).

Then where are your community service/service orientation hours/activities?

 

[Faha]

With zero non clinical volunteering and shadowing hours, your chances for interviews are limited. Some schools screen at 150 hours and schools such as Creighton, Georgetown, Loyola and Rush expect many hundreds of hours. You should accumulate 50 hours of in person physician shadowing (including primary care) and 250+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank or homeless shelter in the coming year in case you need to reapply. I suggest adding these schools to your application:
Ponce (St. Louis)
TCU
Roseman
Alice Walton
Belmont
Methodist
Virginia Commonwealth
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
New York Medical College
Albany

 

[u/Economy-Bit4890]

Then where are your community service/service orientation hours/activities?

I suppose this is something I never considered.