School list help 3.87/515

[deleted980811]

Hey everyone, thanks for taking the time to read this! Any input would be awesome. Unsure how well I chose these school (feel like it could be too bottom heavy, but unsure. Also feel like I may have choose too many “low yield schools”). Any recommendations for schools that aren’t low yield and OOS friendly would be sweet!

State: CA

Ties: No ties to other states

URM: No

Year: Graduated summer 2020

Major: Psychological and Brain Sciences, BS

cGPA: 3.87

sGPA: 3.81

MCAT: 515 (128, 128, 127, 132)

Research: Was a research assistant for 2 quarters in a social psych lab. Did a poster presentation for that project. Then did a year long honors thesis project in the same lab with a virtual poster presentation.

Clinical: 2000+ hours scribing in the ED. ~400 hours medical assisting at an orthopedic surgery office. ~200 hours volunteering on a homeless street medicine team helping connect the homeless to local medical services.

Shadowing: None

Non-clinical volunteer: ~100 hours volunteering as a tutor for low income elementary students. ~100 hours volunteering providing companionship to elderly residents at skilled nursing facilities. ~80 hours on 2 volunteer dental trips to Nicaragua and Panama.

Other extracurriculars: Co-president of dental volunteer trip to Panama. Brotherhood chair of pre-medical fraternity. Treasurer of pre-dental club. VP of pre-dental club.

*** Reason for all the dental experience is I was pre-dental until my junior year when I switched to wanting to do medicine.

Other employment: 1 summer of being a camp counselor at a junior lifeguard camp.

Family in medicine: None

Speciality of interest: something surgical

Primary care: No

Rural health: No

List:

-UCSD
-UCLA
-UCSF
-UC Irvine
-UC riverside
-UC davis
-Stanford
-USC
-Kaiser
-Sinai
-Boston
-Ohio state
-Rochester
-Brown
-Hofstra
-U Colorado
-Dartmouth
-Einstein
-Tufts
-Georgetown
-George Washington
-Rush
-St. Louis university
-Thomas Jefferson
-USF
-Florida Atlantic
-FIU
-Wayne state
-Cincinnati
-U Miami
-Drexel
-Rosalind Franklin
-Wake Forrest
-Temple
-Tulane
-Albany
-NY medical college
-Vermont
-medical college Wisconsin
-Loyola Chicago

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[Faha]

You have a good list and should receive several interviews. You could add any of these schools:
Quinnipiac
Seton Hall
NOVA MD
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Western Michigan

 

[Banco]

Your application is good and list is solid.

I would maybe leave off the dental mission trip abroad.

 

[deleted980811]

Your application is good and list is solid.

I would maybe leave off the dental mission trip abroad.

Even despite the significant leadership experience of setting up that trip and leading the team? I was thinking along the same line as you, but that was a pretty hugely impactful leadership experience.

 

[deleted980811]

You have a good list and should receive several interviews. You could add any of these schools:
Quinnipiac
Seton Hall
NOVA MD
TCU-UNT

Thank you! I will look into all of those
Creighton
Western Michigan

 

[Banco]

Even despite the significant leadership experience of setting up that trip and leading the team? I was thinking along the same line as you, but that was a pretty hugely impactful leadership experience.

Well if it was like a long term project then maybe it’s okay. Short term stints are like medical tourism and can come across negatively. Secondly maybe you want to minimize the pre-dental experiences. No need to eliminate them all together because you do have solid leadership positions, but you also want to show your “commitment” and form a strong narrative of why you want to now focus on medicine. Just a suggestion and that is by no means gospel. Some adcoms are likely totally okay with it.

 

[deleted980811]

Well if it was like a long term project then maybe it’s okay. Short term stints are like medical tourism and can come across negatively. Secondly maybe you want to minimize the pre-dental experiences. No need to eliminate them all together because you do have solid leadership positions, but you also want to show your “commitment” and form a strong narrative of why you want to now focus on medicine. Just a suggestion and that is by no means gospel. Some adcoms are likely totally okay with it.

I appreciate the insight! Will probably put “pre-dental club leadership” as one experience on the application and talk about being treasurer and VP in it and then another experience for the year of setting up and leading that volunteer dental trip. That’ll be all the dental experience I put on the app.