reapp school list/feedback (help...)

[AnonymousBunny]

Hello y'all, reapplying this cycle and wanted some insight/feedback on school list. I'm thinking of applying ~30 schools but rlly wanna apply to places I have a good shot at/mission fit/can see myself going there. Here's last year's list for reference (in comments)

Stats:
ORM Asian Female, CA resident
516 MCAT (I just retook 5/9 bc score will expire...hopefully I did better!)
GPA 3.98

Activities:

• Patient Care Coordinator (2100+ hrs) at GI office, most meaningful: paid clinical
• Hospital Volunteering (300 hrs): nonpaid clinical
• Volunteer at Adult Day Care Center for memory loss (110 hrs), most meaningful: community service/volunteer, mainly helped in the art class
• Wet Lab Research (450 hrs): research, no pubs or posters/presentations :/
• Shadowing (140 hrs): with 5 different docs across 4 specialties
• Cultural Club Leadership (320 hrs): across 2 diff positions
• Illustrator for Club making childrens’ books on pediatric health (135 hrs)
• Mentoring at Boys & Girls Club (60 hrs): volunteering/community service
• Sketch Artist at Hospital (60 hrs): community service/volunteer
• Health Fair Club (25 hrs): clinical volunteering

Reflection:

• Was early in my clinical job last cycle, did not have much MEANINGFUL clinical experience (y’all know how hospital volunteering is…)
• Research may be low/no big impact
• Volunteering is scattered/not many are across multiple years (started late bc of COVID, some got shut down, got most involved senior yr, etc…)
• Applied early and sent in secondaries in timely manner. I think I can improve my writing this cycle and made my personal statement at least a bit stronger for sure

Mainly looking for school list advice but if there’s any general feedback that would be great (but be polite please)

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[AnonymousBunny]

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Make sure you fill out the Spring 2025 Applicant Experience Survey (link in my signature) if you haven't done so already.

Did you get any feedback on your application? What were your feelings about Colorado's interview?

Service orientation: so it's lacking, but I'm not sure if you are at zero, 60 (BCBS), or 100 (adult senior center, art class). Both feel like "tutoring/mentoring". More importantly, which activities stretch you out of your comfort zone that do not involve clinic/healthcare? You should have 150 hours of service orientation activities (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation) on your application or it may get screened out at most schools.

To that end, can you list how each school on your wishlist can help you leverage your artistic skills further as a physician? What are their humanities-in-medicine programs like?

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools when you reapply:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Albany
New York Medical College
Rochester
Hackensack
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Georgetown
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Methodist (when it opens)
Belmont
Alice Walton
Roseman
TCU
St. Louis
Rosalind Franklin
Iowa
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Arizona (Phoenix)
California University
Kaiser

 

[AnonymousBunny]

Make sure you fill out the Spring 2025 Applicant Experience Survey (link in my signature) if you haven't done so already.

Did you get any feedback on your application? What were your feelings about Colorado's interview?

Service orientation: so it's lacking, but I'm not sure if you are at zero, 60 (BCBS), or 100 (adult senior center, art class). Both feel like "tutoring/mentoring". More importantly, which activities stretch you out of your comfort zone that do not involve clinic/healthcare? You should have 150 hours of service orientation activities (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation) on your application or it may get screened out at most schools.

To that end, can you list how each school on your wishlist can help you leverage your artistic skills further as a physician? What are their humanities-in-medicine programs like?

Ah I see I did not realize that service orientation activities were specifically those kinds of things--the adult senior center I was def not involved in the clinical side of things and the boys and girls club mentoring, I did through a school club. Maybe during the app cycle i can find something more directly service related to do on the weekends. I appreciate the feedback.

My Colorado interview was not the strongest, so I will do better interview prep. I did not feel I could properly showcase myself given some of their questions and since it was not a conversational interview, I did not know when to extend my answer, etc. It was a bit hard to gauge. I did ask for feedback and they said my clinical experience was low (at the time of my primary, I was only at my job for around a month, so only had 300 hrs for clinical volunteering--not a very active role).