Please critique my school list along with my chances

[blou1064]

Hi, everyone. I am applying to med school this summer and I've already submitted my primary. It has been verified already thankfully but I am still working on my school list a little bit. I have submitted 12 schools so far. I am still deciding on the last 8. My goal is to create a balanced list of about 20 schools without being too top heavy. If you guys could give your opinions on what I have right now and if you could suggest some other schools, I would appreciate it! I feel like my list is pretty top heavy right now. I think my WARS score was like 90-95 but I also would also like your opinions on my chances. Thank you so much!

Also, please feel free to suggest any other schools you think might fit.

Year in school: Graduated this May from state school
ORM
Country/state of residence: SC
Cumulative GPA: 4.0
Science GPA: 4.0
MCAT Scores: 522
Research - 700 hours with a poster and last author publication
Volunteering (clinical): 70 hours in a research clinic
Physician shadowing: 80 hours of various specialties
Non-clinical volunteering: 250 hours (with leadership positions)
Extracurricular activities: member of dance during senior year, office of undergraduate research assistant
Employment history: 350 hours in clinical research (listed as clinical activities) and 150 hours in a retail store


Schools submitted thus far:
* USC-Greenville
* USCSOM
* MUSC
* UPenn
* UChicago
* Vanderbilt
* Case Western
* Emory
* UVA
* Ohio State
* Harvard
* NYU

Schools I am still looking at:

* Columbia
* Miami
* Wake-forest
* Baylor
* Cincinnati
* VCU
* Michigan
* UCSF
* Eastern Virginia
* Western Virginia

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[ihoop24]

Where is your clinical experience? Clinical research =/= clinical experience.

 

[blou1064]

I worked with patients a lot during those experiences and not always just in a research context so I was advised to count that as clinical experience. Is that an issue?

 

[ihoop24]

I worked with patients a lot during those experiences and not always just in a research context so I was advised to count that as clinical experience. Is that an issue?

What other contexts did you work with patients and for how many hours?

 

[blou1064]

Like scheduling appointments, screening them on EMRs, working with them on the study therapy and also working with non-study patients on the same therapy. I don't know the exact number of patient specific interaction but maybe 200-300 or so. I got the 350 from paystubs.

 

[ihoop24]

Like scheduling appointments, screening them on EMRs, working with them on the study therapy and also working with non-study patients on the same therapy. I don't know the exact number of patient specific interaction but maybe 200-300 or so. I got the 350 from paystubs.

Seems tricky. Maybe @Goro can help us here

 

[blou1064]

From what I've read on other sdn posts and reddit, it seems that if you had a lot of patient interaction, it can count. These were both in patient clinics, not just working in a lab. Besides this part, which I will definitely investigate more, do you have any other opinions on my application? Thanks again!

 

[blou1064]

Are you close enough to smell patients? Are you in the facility itself or working from a remote location? Can you hear other staff members interacting face to face with patients?

See if you can get some shadowing with physicians at the facility or otherwise serving in patient exam rooms in addition to what you are doing now.

Also, I found this by LizzyM and I think, according to her, it counts. What do you think?

 

[LizzyM]

On the face of it, you can apply anywhere you want and you should be good at the research-intensive schools. There is some concern given that your clinical exposure seems sparse and limited to research subjects who were, I suppose, people who were concurrently receiving clinical services under the direction of a physician.

Would you consider the interactions you had to have been with subjects or with patients?

 

[blou1064]

It was honestly a mixture of both because I did work with non-study patients to offer them the therapy. It was more with subjects though. I should mention that I am entering my gap year where I am working under a doctor as a research assistant. I should be getting a decent amount of patient interaction as I will be helping out in his clinic at least once or twice a week, albeit in a slightly research setting with collecting survey data alongside his usual appointments. What do you think? Thank you for your help!

 

[MyOdyssey]

I worked with patients a lot during those experiences and not always just in a research context so I was advised to count that as clinical experience. Is that an issue?

70 total hours of clinical volunteering is too little. From reading SDN, I gather the average is around 150 hours.

Moreover, at best only part of the 70 hours you've identified will be regarded as clinical volunteering. If you search SDN, you will see that many ad coms who post here point out that dealing with someone as a research subject is not the same as dealing with that person as a patient. Definitely bolster your application with some real clinical volunteering over the next year. Ideally, you would submit with a larger clinical volunteering total.

 

[ihoop24]

From what I've read on other sdn posts and reddit, it seems that if you had a lot of patient interaction, it can count. These were both in patient clinics, not just working in a lab. Besides this part, which I will definitely investigate more, do you have any other opinions on my application? Thanks again!

Other than the tricky clinical experience, your application looks good.

 

[ihoop24]

It was honestly a mixture of both because I did work with non-study patients to offer them the therapy. It was more with subjects though. I should mention that I am entering my gap year where I am working under a doctor as a research assistant. I should be getting a decent amount of patient interaction as I will be helping out in his clinic at least once or twice a week, albeit in a slightly research setting with collecting survey data alongside his usual appointments. What do you think? Thank you for your help!

Focus on a clinical experience that doesn't involve any research, such as volunteering at a hospital, free clinic, etc. You have a good amount of research already.

 

[blou1064]

I understand. The problem is I already submitted my application and I can’t change my activities. I really do think working in the research clinic did allow me to learn a lot about working with patients and how different medical providers interact with patients and it definitely convinced me to continue to go towards medicine. But I am worried that adcoms would not see it that way. Should I talk about the clinical experiences I will be getting during my gap year in the secondaries? Will that suffice? Thank you again for your time!

 

[Goro]

Hi, everyone. I am applying to med school this summer and I've already submitted my primary. It has been verified already thankfully but I am still working on my school list a little bit. I have submitted 12 schools so far. I am still deciding on the last 8. My goal is to create a balanced list of about 20 schools without being too top heavy. If you guys could give your opinions on what I have right now and if you could suggest some other schools, I would appreciate it! I feel like my list is pretty top heavy right now. I think my WARS score was like 90-95 but I also would also like your opinions on my chances. Thank you so much!

Also, please feel free to suggest any other schools you think might fit.

Year in school: Graduated this May from state school
ORM
Country/state of residence: SC
Cumulative GPA: 4.0
Science GPA: 4.0
MCAT Scores: 522
Research - 700 hours with a poster and last author publication
Volunteering (clinical): 70 hours in a research clinic
Physician shadowing: 80 hours of various specialties
Non-clinical volunteering: 250 hours (with leadership positions)
Extracurricular activities: member of dance during senior year, office of undergraduate research assistant
Employment history: 350 hours in clinical research (listed as clinical activities) and 150 hours in a retail store


Schools submitted thus far:
* USC-Greenville
* USCSOM
* MUSC
* UPenn
* UChicago
* Vanderbilt
* Case Western
* Emory
* UVA
* Ohio State
* Harvard
* NYU

Schools I am still looking at:

* Columbia
* Miami
* Wake-forest
* Baylor
* Cincinnati
* VCU
* Michigan
* UCSF
* Eastern Virginia
* Western Virginia

Drop U WV, replace with U VM. And JHU

Get on more direct patient contact experience...50-75 more hours, and then you're fine.

 

[LizzyM]

Get more direct PATIENT experience outside of a research setting, perhaps as a once a week volunteer in a pediatric unit, NICU, emergency department or other facility where you could get some volunteer hours outside of your work hours. Send this as an update to any school that hasn't invited you for an interview by October 1. Having 3 months of volunteering with another 9 months of planned volunteering should show that you are working to improve your exposure to clinical care outside of research settings.

 

[blou1064]

That sounds like a plan to me. I'll get on that. I've always been interested in volunteering at a hospice center. Just to make sure, that should be fine right? Also, thank you so much for your help and advice, everyone!