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[bunsenburner66]

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[bunsenburner66]

@LizzyM @Mr.Smile12 @Goro @Faha I see your contributions to the forum and would greatly appreciate any advice. Love yall!

 

[LizzyM]

Buy access to the MSAR and strike all but one or two schools where your MCAT is below the 10th percentile. Ditto where your GPA is < 10th percentile.

Frankly, I'd hold off on applying until you have at least 100 hours of volunteer service in a community agency that addresses homelessness, food insecurity, refugee/migrant status, or similar hardships of the lowest social stratum. It doesn't appear that you have ever had non-clinical engagement with adults who have not attended college and yet they make up a significant proportion (>40/%) of American adults.

 

[bunsenburner66]

Buy access to the MSAR and strike all but one or two schools where your MCAT is below the 10th percentile. Ditto where your GPA is < 10th percentile.

Frankly, I'd hold off on applying until you have at least 100 hours of volunteer service in a community agency that addresses homelessness, food insecurity, refugee/migrant status, or similar hardships of the lowest social stratum. It doesn't appear that you have ever had non-clinical engagement with adults who have not attended college and yet they make up a significant proportion (>40/%) of American adults.

Hi LizzyM, thank you for your response! This initial list is primarily based on MSAR data for schools where I’m within 25-75th percentile for both MCAT and GPA.

I was planning to start volunteering at a local food kitchen to address that lacking area in my application.

 

[LizzyM]

Okay, then. the food kitchen might be too little to late if you're going to show February through May and the rest of the hours in the future. Looks like box checking.

 

[bunsenburner66]

Okay, then. the food kitchen might be too little to late if you're going to show February through May and the rest of the hours in the future. Looks like box checking.

I should’ve mentioned that ~70 of the 500 hours at the VA includes working in the canteen, helping disabled veterans shop for necessities. Honestly, a lot of this process feels like box checking.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I should’ve mentioned that ~70 of the 500 hours at the VA includes working in the canteen, helping disabled veterans shop for necessities. Honestly, a lot of this process feels like box checking.

Honestly, if it feels like box-checking, you have not reached competency with service orientation to be successful in medical school.

 

[bunsenburner66]

Honestly, if it feels like box-checking, you have not reached competency with service orientation to be successful in medical school.

That’s not exactly what I meant. I’m very passionate about serving veterans with or without regarding to medicine. I mean the entire process - doing research (which I hated), studying for the MCAT (which I hated), trying to appear like you are this perfect specimen when in reality we are all human. I absolutely love serving others, but I have to question its use when the motivation for many is so obviously tied into getting a specific amount of hours for admission. The experience I have done matters to me and I can write endlessly about its importance - why should hours matter?

 

[Faha]

You could include the 70 hours helping disabled veterans as non clinical volunteering. You still need 80+ hours in the local food kitchen before you submit your application since many school screen at 150 hours. You should also accumulate 50 hours of in person physicain shadowing. You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Your 3 NJ state public schools
Hackensack
Hofstra
NYMC
Albany
Rochester
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Tufts
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Pittsburgh
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
USF Morsani
Miami
Belmont
Alice Walton
TCU
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Colorado
U Iowa
U Illinois
Roseman

 

[bunsenburner66]

You could include the 70 hours helping disable veterans as non clinical volunteering. You still need 80+ hours in the local food kitchen before you submit your application since many school screen at 150 hours. You should also accumulate 50 hours of in person physicain shadowing. You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Your 3 NJ state public schools
Hackensack
Hofstra
NYMC
Albany
Rochester
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Tufts
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Pittsburgh
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
USF Morsani
Miami
Belmont
Alice Walton
TCU
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Colorado
U Iowa
U Illinois
Roseman

Thank you, Faha! I forgot to mention in my original post, I have 60 hours of shadowing (ophthalmology, cardiology, pediatric neurology, emergency, sports medicine). I’ll try to get my non-clinical up!