- Joined
- May 7, 2021
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Hey all,
So I am in a bit of a complicated situation right now. GW has offered me guaranteed admission for the 2026 cycle if I am not offered a spot off the waitlist for 2025, but with the freedom to reapply to any other school I wish. Knowing this, I suppose I have a lot of leniency in where I apply since there is no pressure to get an acceptance.
Additionally, I have made some substantial improvements to my app from the previous year that are not necessarily tangible, mostly with regards to my overall story and mission fit. I had developed a strong interest in community service and primary care, but did not have the hours to back it up. Thus, I believe my app was a bit all over the place with weak writing about the limited service experience I had conflicting with the lack of emphasis on my 4000+ hours of research. Now having nearly 6x my service hours, I am confident in my writing and the very meaningful experiences I have gained over the last year. I guess it also helps that I scored a 522 on my MCAT retake (up from 516) as it was going to expire haha.
From the 2025 cycle, I only received 2 interviews: one at GW where I am now accepted and one at VCU where I was rejected post interview.
I have in bold the new/updated information.
cGPA: 3.71 (Upward trend: 3.54->3.89)
sGPA: 3.82
MCAT: 516 (131/127/129/129) -> 522 (131/130/129/132)
Residency: MD
Ethnicity: Asian male
Undergraduate: UMD graduated in 2022
Clinical Experience:
ER scribe: ~700 hours
Volunteer scribe/medical assistant at a nonprofit clinic for underserved patients (ongoing): 200 hours -> 1200 hours with a lot more direct patient responsibilities/interaction, new physician LOR
Research Experience:
Two separate summers at the same basic research lab at NIH (collective ~1000 hours, no pubs, 1 poster)
NIH Post Bac Research Program in a molecular biology lab (No pubs yet, 2 posters, ~4000 hours)
Shadowing Experience:
Orthopedic Surgeon: 40 hours
PCP: 20 hours
Non-clinical Volunteering:
Prison tutor (virtual, ongoing): 50 hours -> 150 hours
Volunteer middle school tutor: 50 hours
Food pantry (ongoing): 150 hours -> 300 hours
Elder Community Volunteer (ongoing): 50 hours
School List:
Boston University
Hofstra
Emory
Georgetown
Hackensack
Icahn
Kaiser
NYU LI
Miami
UMD
Colorado
UCSF
Tufts
Brown
Einstein
Stanford
UVA
Duke
Cornell
There are a lot of reaches (especially with my GPA) since I've mostly filtered out schools that are only marginally more competitive/less competitive than GW with my guaranteed acceptance in hand. Let me know if there are any schools I could add or if there are any absolute donations. Thanks in advance!
So I am in a bit of a complicated situation right now. GW has offered me guaranteed admission for the 2026 cycle if I am not offered a spot off the waitlist for 2025, but with the freedom to reapply to any other school I wish. Knowing this, I suppose I have a lot of leniency in where I apply since there is no pressure to get an acceptance.
Additionally, I have made some substantial improvements to my app from the previous year that are not necessarily tangible, mostly with regards to my overall story and mission fit. I had developed a strong interest in community service and primary care, but did not have the hours to back it up. Thus, I believe my app was a bit all over the place with weak writing about the limited service experience I had conflicting with the lack of emphasis on my 4000+ hours of research. Now having nearly 6x my service hours, I am confident in my writing and the very meaningful experiences I have gained over the last year. I guess it also helps that I scored a 522 on my MCAT retake (up from 516) as it was going to expire haha.
From the 2025 cycle, I only received 2 interviews: one at GW where I am now accepted and one at VCU where I was rejected post interview.
I have in bold the new/updated information.
cGPA: 3.71 (Upward trend: 3.54->3.89)
sGPA: 3.82
MCAT: 516 (131/127/129/129) -> 522 (131/130/129/132)
Residency: MD
Ethnicity: Asian male
Undergraduate: UMD graduated in 2022
Clinical Experience:
ER scribe: ~700 hours
Volunteer scribe/medical assistant at a nonprofit clinic for underserved patients (ongoing): 200 hours -> 1200 hours with a lot more direct patient responsibilities/interaction, new physician LOR
Research Experience:
Two separate summers at the same basic research lab at NIH (collective ~1000 hours, no pubs, 1 poster)
NIH Post Bac Research Program in a molecular biology lab (No pubs yet, 2 posters, ~4000 hours)
Shadowing Experience:
Orthopedic Surgeon: 40 hours
PCP: 20 hours
Non-clinical Volunteering:
Prison tutor (virtual, ongoing): 50 hours -> 150 hours
Volunteer middle school tutor: 50 hours
Food pantry (ongoing): 150 hours -> 300 hours
Elder Community Volunteer (ongoing): 50 hours
School List:
Boston University
Hofstra
Emory
Georgetown
Hackensack
Icahn
Kaiser
NYU LI
Miami
UMD
Colorado
UCSF
Tufts
Brown
Einstein
Stanford
UVA
Duke
Cornell
There are a lot of reaches (especially with my GPA) since I've mostly filtered out schools that are only marginally more competitive/less competitive than GW with my guaranteed acceptance in hand. Let me know if there are any schools I could add or if there are any absolute donations. Thanks in advance!
