Non-Trad, CA Teacher | WAMC + School List Help

[changeitup]

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Hello everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read and offer feedback!

My biggest concern is being competitive based on my clinical experiences and non-clinical hours. I'm unsure if I should take another gap year to build up those clinical hours or not. Am I on track to being an overall competitive applicant?

Overall Questions​

1. Is my clinical experience timeline/projected hours (ED volunteer → EMT → ER Tech) competitive for 2027 matriculation?
2. Any gaps or weaknesses I should address before the 2026–2027 application cycle?
3. Should I add more non-clinical volunteering, or is my current longitudinal service sufficient?

Overview​

• cGPA: 3.90
• sGPA: 3.86
  • Recent course work: organic chemistry II w/ lab - A (no other pre-reqs needed), Gen Chem I & II w/ lab - A's
• MCAT: 515 most recent practice score - will update later on!
• State of Residence: California
• Ethnicity/Race: White
• Undergrad: Biology
• Graduate Degree: M.S. Sustainability and Health
• Non-traditional background: High school science teacher/sustainability coordinator (5 year full time), with instructional leadership, environmental health and sustainability leadership, and significant mentoring experience. LGBTQ.
• TLDR - Why change to medicine? As a teacher in a Title I school, I often supported students facing mental health crises, chronic illness, and environmental stressors, but I couldn’t fully care for them. I wanted to move beyond advocacy for healthier, sustainable schools to actually protect student health through direct care. ER volunteering, shadowing across IM, pediatrics, and Med-Peds, and pursuing EMT training have all confirmed that medicine is where I can best serve the youth and families I’ve worked with.

Clinical Experience​

• Projected clinical hours at time of application (May 2026): ~200 ER volunteer hours; ~100 EMT hours; 1 year of full-time ER Tech projected hours.
  
  • Emergency Department Volunteer (started summer 2025): 4 hrs/week, ongoing. Recently promoted within the volunteer program with expanded responsibilities supporting ED flow and new volunteer mentorship.
  • EMT: Plan to work ~one weekend IFT shift starting spring 2026
  • ER Tech Plans: Intend to transition to full-time ER Tech/EMT work beginning July 2026.
• Shadowing: 44 hours (orthopedic surgery, internal med, pediatrics, allergy/immunology, PMNR)

Research Experience​

• Non-medicine
  
  • Two full-time university marine ecology research fellowships (9 weeks each) - 720 hours
  • Independent projects on invasive species ecology with poster presentations
  • Co-author 1 publication
  Medicine
  • Supporting journal article submission on sustainable hospitals w/ MD researcher - hours ~50 hours projected
  • 2nd project likely - TBD

Non-Clinical Volunteering​

• 5 years as faculty advisor for a youth service/leadership club at a Title 1, low income diverse high school supporting over 80 youth annually performing 2000+ service hours and fundraising $2000+ for local hospital pediatric trauma program (250+ hours)
• Board member of a youth development nonprofit focused on community health and safety (multi-year, ~150 hours)
  • Leading a pediatric-focused community health outreach project centered on sun safety and skin cancer prevention (grant-funded)
  • Fundraised and donated feminine hygiene/care packages to local youth shelters

Other Extracurriculars & Leadership​

• Significant leadership roles: instructional leadership, PD facilitation, mentoring teachers, and work related to improving school environmental health
• Graduate degree focused on sustainability and health intersections
• Sustainability coordinator role led to local, state, and national recognition and awards for efforts to reduce campus ecological footprint and indoor health
• School and state-level awards for teaching and leadership

School List (Early Draft) - mainly looking for service-oriented non-trad schools​

California MD Programs
UC Riverside (husband from IE, I'm from inland SoCal - open to moving back to IE)
UC San Diego (big reach - but hopeful!)
UC Davis
USC Keck
Kaiser
CUSM

Out-of-State MD Programs
Michigan State University CHM
George Washington University
Tufts University
Loyola Stritch
University of Arizona Tucson
University of Rochester

DO Programs?
Touro University California
Western University of Health Sciences COMP
ATSU-SOMA

Thank you very much for the feedback!

 

[Faha]

Your clinical hours are adequate. 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter would be helpful. It is not possible to create a realistic school list without an actual MCAT score so post your score here when available and we can suggest schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Your full-time teaching experience does carry weight because of the investment of your time getting to know the community where your students live and navigate (and their families). I would say an additional 150 hours of non-clinical volunteering helps, but ask yourself which stories about the students/families you have had the privilege of teaching would assist your future medical school peers to understand the importance social context has to health and wellness. I'm confident you have the answer, but you must show how you leverage these interactions when you become a doctor.