- Joined
- May 23, 2019
- Messages
- 28
- Reaction score
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Hi all,
I’m a senior graduating this spring. I am planning on applying this coming cycle, and would appreciate advice on my schools list. Additionally, I am concerned about my lack of clinical experience. I’d also appreciate any input on this aspect of my application, and advice as to whether I should consider taking an additional gap year to build up more clinical experience. Thank you so much!
Schools list (aiming for 25)
Out of State
Am I aiming too high given my current stats, experiences, and activities? I feel like I'm probably aiming too high, especially given some of the other threads in this forum I've seen so far, so I would appreciate any advice on schools should I consider removing/adding!
Also, this is probably the bigger question for me now, but should I consider taking an extra gap year to build up additional clinical experience? Ideally, I would want to apply this cycle but I know that I'm lacking in this area.
Hi all,
I’m a senior graduating this spring. I am planning on applying this coming cycle, and would appreciate advice on my schools list. Additionally, I am concerned about my lack of clinical experience. I’d also appreciate any input on this aspect of my application, and advice as to whether I should consider taking an additional gap year to build up more clinical experience. Thank you so much!
- cGPA and sGPA
- cGPA: 3.96, sGPA: 3.97
- MCAT score and breakdown
- 519 (132/128/131/128)
- State of residence or country of citizenship
- California
- Ethnicity and/or race
- Asian American
- Undergraduate institution or category
- Top public school in CA
- Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
- Volunteer: 40 hours
- Mostly accompanying patients and their families outpatient waiting areas
- Some teaching and working with hospitalized children (was hoping to do more teaching this semester but that got cut short due to the pandemic)
- Volunteer: 40 hours
- Research experience and productivity
- 1st Lab: ~800 hrs
- Summer internship in pharma (full-time, paid): ~500 hrs
- 2nd Lab: ~1000 hrs
- No publications, finishing up honors thesis in current lab
- Shadowing experience and specialties represented
- 60 hrs, mostly in GI, some ENT/anesthesiology
- Non-clinical volunteering
- Mentoring elementary/middle school students: all 4 years of college, ~150 hrs
- Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
- Mentorship: held leadership position for 2 years in addition to volunteering
- Biotech/healthcare consulting: actively involved for 3.5 years, "officer"-but-not-"exec"-level leadership
- Dance team for 3 years
- Anything else not listed you think might be important
- Expecting average rec letters, as my professors definitely know who I am, but do not know me well outside of the classroom/scope of the course
Schools list (aiming for 25)
Out of State
- Harvard
- Johns Hopkins
- Washington University in St. Louis
- University of Pennsylvania
- Cornell
- Columbia
- Yale
- University of Michigan
- Icahn at Mt. Sinai
- University of Pittsburgh
- Boston University
- Emory
- Dartmouth
- Hofstra
- Tufts
- Stanford
- UCs (UCSF, UCLA, UCSD, UCI, UCD)
- USC
Am I aiming too high given my current stats, experiences, and activities? I feel like I'm probably aiming too high, especially given some of the other threads in this forum I've seen so far, so I would appreciate any advice on schools should I consider removing/adding!
Also, this is probably the bigger question for me now, but should I consider taking an extra gap year to build up additional clinical experience? Ideally, I would want to apply this cycle but I know that I'm lacking in this area.
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