Need help creating a school list

[vr2791]

Hi all!

I'm a senior at a competitive state school in California and am planning to apply this cycle. Could anyone recommend some schools I should consider applying to? Below are my stats and relevant ECs.

State of Residence: California (I do have some concerns about this because I've lived out of the country for several years, but I'll be working in CA for over a year before matriculation)

Stats:
cGPA: 3.800, sGPA: 3.741
Major: Molecular biology
MCAT score: 518
Ethnicity/gender: South Asian, female

Extracurriculars:
1. 1 year of biomedical research (wet lab, no pubs) (15h/week)
2. Pear learning facilitator (tutor) for lower division biology course (6 mos, 12h/week)
3. Vice President and a founding member of outreach organization that aims to teach emergency medicine and first aid concepts to homeless and underserved populations
4. Current Board member and clinical research assistant in nephrology department - over 2 years of clinical research experience (12h/week), including patient visits, study startup and exposure to IRB applications and protocols. Presented a poster on the study I worked on and wrote submitted paper on molecular mechanism of drug to PI and department.
5. Intern in radiology dept in a clinic in India (1 month)

I'll be working as a regulatory coordinator in a clinical research office during my gap year and am considering taking a phlebotomy course so that I can assist with blood draws during study visits. I'm a little concerned because I don't have much shadowing experience, but there are strict policies at my school that make that a little difficult. Will this significantly impact my chances of getting into an MD school?

I would ideally love to go to a California school, with UCSF, UCLA, and Stanford being my top choices. Besides that, I would be happy in any location.

Thanks in advance! I would appreciate any advice that anyone could provide on how to go about picking schools and finding out what information from MSAR is most important.

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[Faha]

You should accumulate 50 hours of physician shadowing (including primary care) before you apply. Do have any clinical volunteering with patient contact hours in this country ?

 

[vr2791]

Hi,

Besides my interactions with dialysis patients while assisting clinical study coordinators, I don't have other significant clinical volunteering experiences. Does this change the schools I should be looking at, and would it look unfavorable on my application if I tried to get this exposure right before applying?

 

[Faha]

Hi,

Besides my interactions with dialysis patients while assisting clinical study coordinators, I don't have other significant clinical volunteering experiences. Does this change the schools I should be looking at, and would it look unfavorable on my application if I tried to get this exposure right before applying?

With no shadowing and very limited clinical exposure it does decrease you chances for interviews significantly. Try and accumulate 200+ hours of clinical volunteering with patient contact before you apply. With your current lack of shadowing and clinical volunteering I suggest these schools:
California University
Loma Linda
Kaiser
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Hofstra
Seton Hall
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
NOVA MD
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin

 

[vr2791]

Thanks for your input! If I'm able to accumulate 50+ hours of shadowing/clinical volunteering before June would that open up some more options for me? I finish school in March so I'll have time to put into clinical exposure during the week as well.