Need help understanding what schools to target

[mantage1993]

MCAT: 33 (late 2014, going to retake June 17th as some schools require the new one)
cGPA 3.83 (both s&c, undergrad), majored in Physics
Graduate GPA : 3.5 - 3.7 at Hopkins' Biomedical Engineering Masters program

I'm finishing courses this year and doing a reasearch thesis on intravital imaging of corneal regeneration and immune system response paradigms

LoRs:
- 1 from my each PI (I have two, one is an MD at Hopkins, other is a PhD)
- 1 from a doctor I'm shadowing (chair of Opthamology)
- 1 from a prof I got two As with (two physics classes)
- 1 from a prof here at hopkins hopefully
- 1 from a scientific writing class prof

shadowing [70] : 30 hours ~2 years back (OPTH, Cardia surgery and orthopedics clinic) + ~ 40 hours in OPTH in surgery and clinic

Clinical volunteering [70] : 40 hours doing rounding with overnight patients + 20 hours with homeless people getting medical treatment (from an MD) at a homeless shelter (+ another 30 if you include future hours)

Non-clinical volunteering: none, thinking of starting some now

Research [at least 2500+ hours]:
- Worked in a biochem lab two summers, author on poster/podium presentations and a paper that's still being written 4 years later
- Worked as a researcher and lab tech at Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole doing Biophysics / Physiology research with a Caltech professor
- Worked a summer and two semesters in a physiology lab studying Cystic Fibrosis, was awarded a $4000 scholarship for this
- Currently working in a biology lab part time for now (school credits) studying corneal injury paradigms for my masters thesis - working full time as of June for the next year until summer 2018 or matriculation.

ECs:
Art:
- Can play guitar, piano, drums and bass really proficiently (main instrument is guitar). I won a $1k scholarship and placed as the top guitarist into the only level 1 funk/fusion band at Berklee college of music's summer program (out of 800 guitarists) back in 2011 when I was 18 and played for 1k+ people during the Berklee Blowout concert series. I have also played in a few bands at open mics and at a fundraiser for charity. I was the band leader for my band for about 2 years.
Sport:
- I have done serious training inMixed Martial Arts: Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (1 year) and Boxing (3 years),
- Weightlifting (8 years)
- Competitive squash in an intramural league at McGill (2 years)
- Played community pick up hockey games with my neighborhood since I was 15 years old

Past employment:
- Researcher and Lab Tech at Marine Biology Laboratory, Woods Hole (summer 2014)
- Used to be a personal trainer, I taught group aquatics classes to the elderly as well as children's swim lessons)
- Used to lifeguard
- Used to be a tutor for college level students and high school students in STEM

Leadership:
- I was a leader for group fitness classes as a personal trainer- aquatics classes for elderly women (class size 20-30)
- Taught swimming lessons to classes of 8-12 kids aged 4 to 10.
- I was a leader for my band (frontman/guitarist) wrote music and did crowd control on stage,
- I was a leader when tutoring kids (highschool STEM) and college students (calculus).
(Is this leadership a weak part of my dossier?)

THIS IS IMPORTANT, NEED ADVICE;
I have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I don't have any clinical symptoms now and am stable on treatment. Being diagnosed with this has changed my life significantly, and I have been the patient in a doctors office for serious matters discussing intense consequences of my disease. Overcoming the psychological and physical challenges and experiencing this first hand has really impacted how I see and connect with patients, as well as how I would interact with them.

While doing clinical volunteering I met several patients with MS, and having it myself really affected my interaction with them profoundly. I find myself on both the doctor and patient's side of things, and having built the strength to confront and deal with MS personally, I think that the experiences it's given me will make me a better doctor.

Also, related to my masters degree, I think that I can attribute my slightly lower GPA to having moved from Physics to Biomed, where my peers are all from biomed and have lots of past experience to draw on that I don't. I have been slightly successful, and I want to portray that as me being able to work and succeed in a new environment and that I have what it takes to study and adapt to new environments, such as Medicine.

Anyways, given all this, what are my chances, and where should I apply? I am a US citizen but grew up in Canada, so I will be OOS for all schools.

Also, I am white.

The Wedgedog ARS system gave me a score of 80, which is right on the edge of B/A applicant.

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[Goro]

Let's see YOUR list, and then we can advise. Aim high, BUT you need far more clinical volunteering and service to others, less fortunate than yourself. Medicine is a service profession, and you need to show off your humanisn and altruism.

 

[mantage1993]

Let's see YOUR list, and then we can advise. Aim high, BUT you need far more clinical volunteering and service to others, less fortunate than yourself. Medicine is a service profession, and you need to show off your humanisn and altruism.

OK - It seems really tedious to look through every single medical school's acceptance info regarding whether they prefer research or volunteering, emphasis on MCAT/ grades and so forth as well as pre-reqs, because I lack Org Chem 2. Is there some kind of way to streamline my search so I don't have to spend time looking at every one of the 130 something schools on MSAR?

 

[LizzyM]

OK - It seems really tedious to look through every single medical school's acceptance info regarding whether they prefer research or volunteering, emphasis on MCAT/ grades and so forth as well as pre-reqs, because I lack Org Chem 2. Is there some kind of way to streamline my search so I don't have to spend time looking at every one of the 130 something schools on MSAR?

Assume they prefer applicants who have both. You would be very foolish to apply without having any service to the needy.
I have no idea how to streamline the process of finding schools that don't require O-Chem II. Have you considered starting a thread asking people who have not taken O-Chem II to identify schools where they got interviews and/or where they have documented that the school doesn't require O-Chem II. You would want to then corroborate that information but it would be a start.

 

[Goro]

You're going to spend 4 years of your life, and over 250 grand on a school, and yet you don't want to take the time to do this?????


For Class's pre-reqs, invest in MSAR ONLINE.

OK - It seems really tedious to look through every single medical school's acceptance info regarding whether they prefer research or volunteering, emphasis on MCAT/ grades and so forth as well as pre-reqs, because I lack Org Chem 2. Is there some kind of way to streamline my search so I don't have to spend time looking at every one of the 130 something schools on MSAR?

 

[mantage1993]

You're going to spend 4 years of your life, and over 250 grand on a school, and yet you don't want to take the time to do this?????


For Class's pre-reqs, invest in MSAR ONLINE.

I hear ya. I will. I was just feeling really pressured and as if I didn't have enough time between now and May to do everything I need to do. I'm going to push back my application by a year and get a bunch of volunteering in between now and then.

 

[voteknope]

Hey, I don't know if this is helpful, but I applied with only one semester of Organic Chemistry and I believe all of these schools either don't require it or accept biochem as a replacement:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Lerner College, Cleveland Clinic (CWRU College Track)
Harvard Medical School
Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine at Hofstra University
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Keck Sch. of Med.University of Southern California
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Tufts University School of Medicine
University of Chicago - Pritzker
University of Michigan Medical School
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Warren Alpert Brown University
Washington University School of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Yale School of Medicine

Good luck with your applications!

 

[candbgirl]

OK - It seems really tedious to look through every single medical school's acceptance info regarding whether they prefer research or volunteering, emphasis on MCAT/ grades and so forth as well as pre-reqs, because I lack Org Chem 2. Is there some kind of way to streamline my search so I don't have to spend time looking at every one of the 130 something schools on MSAR?

Really? You want someone to do the work for you? There are so many variables like location, mission, etc in addition to what you've stated that we don't have any knowledge of what you want. This is something you should do yourself.


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[mantage1993]

Really? You want someone to do the work for you? There are so many variables like location, mission, etc in addition to what you've stated that we don't have any knowledge of what you want. This is something you should do yourself.


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile app

I'm going to wait a year to apply, and will do the work myself. Thank you voteknope for your list, I will definitely check back to it when doing this