Need help picking school / advice

[Boundtofail]

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I applied to 30 schools this year and I only got one interview. Chances are I won't get accepted, so I'm thinking of reapplying. However, i want to know if there are things that I can change on my app to make me a better applicant.

My stats:

overall gpa - 3.6
sci gpa - 3.6
MCAT P12 B12 V11 WS O (My test score expired so I would need to retake the test again, hopefully i can get roughly the same score)

EC:

Resident assistant for 3 years, volunteered abroad for a month, research for 1.5 year, shadow one day every week for 6 months

LOR:

1 from my boss when i was a resident assistant (ok letter, but don't know if it's good for med school)
1 from immuno prof (quite generic letter)
1 from biochem gsi cosigned by my prof (don't know if it's good)
1 from business prof (short)
1 from my research mentor (strongest letter)

Schools i've applied to:

I think I made a big mistake here and applied to a lot of the top tier schools. I later found the school selection spreadsheet and most of the schools I've applied to are hopeful. I think one of the things I'll change is to apply to more high chance schools.

Any suggestions or critiques will be highly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[drizzt3117]

Applying more broadly would likely help a lot. 3.6/35 are pretty good stats, and if you applied broadly you would probably have had quite a bit more success. Did you take a look at the MSAR before you applied?

 

[flip26]

"Volunteered abroad for 1 month" is a red flag. Doing what? Even if it was medically related, it doesn't count for much applying to US med schools because the purpose behind the volunteering is to expose you to the work that doctors do "here" and not "over there," but more importantly, a month of volunteering, even if it is a concentrated amount yielding 100+ hours, is not viewed as favorably as volunteering done in the US, preferably in a clinical setting, over a longer period of time...2 hours a week for a year is viewed more favorably than 100 hours in a month...and to be even average in the volunteer / clinical numbers game, you should have upwards of 4 hours per week for 1.5 to 2 years showing commitment and exposure over a long period of time...these are all "unwritten" rules of the med school admissions game, but they are the rules nonetheless...

 

[Boundtofail]

I did look at the MSAR before I applied, but I got a little over ambitious in my school choices. I know not to make that mistake again. Do you have any suggestions as to some of the schools I should be looking at? Forgot to mention that I'm CA resident.

In terms of volunteering abroad, it was more shadowing with very little volunteering besides the usual talked to the patients while they wait for the doctors. Also, I spent most of the time in surgical rooms. Would you suggest me to take another year off to volunteer? Ideally I would like to reapply this year, but if volunteer for a year will make a drastic improvement to my application then I would definitely consider it.

Thanks for all the useful information so far!

 

[drizzt3117]

I did look at the MSAR before I applied, but I got a little over ambitious in my school choices. I know not to make that mistake again. Do you have any suggestions as to some of the schools I should be looking at? Forgot to mention that I'm CA resident.

In terms of volunteering abroad, it was more shadowing with very little volunteering besides the usual talked to the patients while they wait for the doctors. Also, I spent most of the time in surgical rooms. Would you suggest me to take another year off to volunteer? Ideally I would like to reapply this year, but if volunteer for a year will make a drastic improvement to my application then I would definitely consider it.

Thanks for all the useful information so far!

I don't think taking a year off to volunteer is going to be a good idea. I think you should get a volunteer position now, then if you don't get in, apply again, and note on your AMCAS that you are volunteering X hours a week and will have X hours by the time you matriculate.

I would look at the usual schools that take a lot of OOS: VCU, EVMS, Loyola, Rush, Jefferson, Tufts, BU, GWU, GT, MCW, Creighton, UVM, Tulane, etc. Pick schools where your stats make you an average or above average applicant statwise. What schools did you apply to anyways?

How did your MCAT expire? You took it as a soph?