School List: CA resident, ORM, 3.7 cGPA/sGPA, 511 MCAT

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Azaesal

Full Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2025
Messages
33
Reaction score
17
CA resident
Asian -- Vietnamese (ORM)
511 MCAT
Preview 9/9
Pending CASPer
3.7 cGPA/sGPA
Undergrad: California State University, Sacramento (I know...state school...but I'm proud of my alma mater! Go Shaq & Mike Bibby!)
First-time applicant
Many hours in clinical experience & community service

In-State:
California Northstate
California University of Science & Med
UC Davis (Dream)
UCLA
UC Riverside (Questionable, I have no ties to IE...from NorCal...thoughts?)
UCSD
UCSF

Out-of-State:
Netter
George Wash U
Howard (maybe?? go back and forth on this one because it's an HBCU)
Morehouse (same reason as above)
Univ of Hawaii (cause why not)
Chicago Med at Rosalind Frank
Univ of Illinois
Loyola U
Rush Med
Tulane
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
UNLV (family ties)
Roseman
Albany Med
Oregon Health & Sci
Drexel
Geisinger
Jefferson
Penn State
Temple U
SFE at UofUtah (grew up here, many family ties)

Maybe:
UCI (probably will be screened out)
Loma Linda (I'm not sure if I will fit)
Charles R. Drew (HBCU...foolish since I'm considering Morehouse/Howard)
Keck (probably will be screened out)
Virginia Tech Carilion (No ties)
Vermont Larner (No ties)
Georgetown (lower stats compared to median)
Hackensack (much lower compared to median)
Michigan State?? (no ties)
Belmont U
Meharry
U of A - Tucson (no ties)
Uniformed (no ties)
Stryker
Wake Forest (I like Tim Duncan, but my stats are in range, maybe?)
 
WAMC Profile (for context)

Demographics:
Asian
URM (I come from low SES, so I think that's URM? Some have said being Asian makes you ORM...thoughts?)
Residence: CA
First-gen American w/ immigrant parents
State School (Didn't know how long COVID was going to be around, and I couldn't afford going to a UC since I was paying for school myself)

Here's my stats:
MCAT: 511 --- 127/126/130/128 (Studied after I graduated from undergrad last spring for 3 months... low score relative to other Asians... I know I'm a disappointment...)
cGPA: 3.70
sGPA: 3.72
PREview: 9/9
CASPer: Pending

EC/Activities: Paid Clinical
- 2023-Current: ER Scribe (3200 hrs) -- 1.5 years in this role (junior-senior year undergrad + after graduating... was working 40hrs/wk while in undergrad and while studying for my MCAT) -- Most memorable
- 2024-Current: ER Tech (1100 hrs) -- 6 months in this role (currently in this role as of now... 40hrs/week) -- Most memorable
- 2021: Immunization Technician (360 hrs) -- 6 months in this role...CVS trained us to start giving vaccines... I did mobile clinics with a few pharmacists around care facilities in our area)
- 2020-2021: Caregiver (1000 hrs) -- took care of my grandfather while he was sick...he's my 'how I got interested in medicine'... I'm hesitant to put this as a clinical experience, AAMC says so but I'm not sure it is/what else to list it as...Most memorable

EC/Activities: Paid Non-clinical
- 2018-2020: Starbucks barista (from 16y-19y w/ 2500 hrs... worth mentioning? first job and how I funded my business that I talk about below this)
- 2020-2024: Sneaker Reseller (1000 hrs) -- 4 years in this role...started my own business and it's how I paid off my undergraduate degree
- 2020-2023: Pharmacy Technician (2750 hrs) -- 3 years in this role (fresh-junior year in undergrad)


EC/Activities: Volunteer Non-clinical
- 2022-2024: Summer Camp Basketball Coach (3 summers ~ 300 hrs) -- wanted to help give back to my school/community and build ties with upcoming players in my local town/area
- 2024-2025: High School Basketball Assistant Coach (350 hrs) -- wanted to take part in rebuilding a powerhouse program here in NorCal so kids can start playing for scholarships again (a lot of kids still depend on them to attend college)...NCAA transfer portal has made it hard so that's why I'm so passionate about it.
- 2024-2025: Fundraising with Muslim Student Association (100 hrs) -- raised money to send a student back to Afghanistan to see his family... I was inspired to do this because he is an immigrant like my Dad... I'm super happy I did this because it helped me become more interest in learning from other cultures...

EC/Activities: Volunteer Clinical
- 2025: Volunteer at addiction clinic (120 hrs by end of May) -- free buprenorphine clinic...needle exchange...fentanyl testing...etc -- did this because of how much I saw addiction in the ER (which we couldn't treat)... wanted to help out in this way because I saw so much opiate withdrawal and OD's in the ER

EC/Activities: Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant
- 2022-2024: Organic Chemistry Tutoring through Peer Assisted Learning (180 hrs) -- Program offered at my undergrad to tutor our peers in STEM classes using integrative team methods instead of 1-on-1.
- 2023-2025: Human Physiology Teaching Assistant (400 hrs) -- Did so much because my school does not have a lot of free resources for students to learn, this is my way of giving back to my school.

EC/Activities: Research
- 2024-2025: Systematic Review of RSV bronchiolitis and bacterial pneumonia co-infection using SQL (100 hrs) -- (I learned SQL so I could build the database...my undergrad was in Bio...my PI is an EM physician at the ED I work at... was inspired to do this because exposure to peds EM at my ER) --- (hesitant to list this cause it's not real research)
- 2023-2024: Student research intern for neurovascular physiology lab (240 hours)...didn't know I could include this as research because I was preparing cell cultures for our grad students, learned a lot of interesting lab techniques (hesitant to list this)

EC/Activities: Hobbies
- Basketball, reading, traveling
 
Top