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[Python Forever]

I don't think 100 hours at a hospital gift shop counts as non-clinical volunteering; NCV usually entails service to those less fortunate than yourself in a non-clinical setting, like a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter, and I don't think you can stretch gift shop volunteering to fit that description.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
The UC's
USC
Kaiser
California University
Vermont
Tufts
Hofstra
Einstein
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Case Western
Washington University
Jefferson
UVA
Ohio State
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Tulane
Western Michigan
Duke
Accumulate 25 hours of primary care physician shadowing before you apply.

 

[DoctorSnow]

Your app is severely lacking in volunteer experience and looks like box checking on paper. Gift shop does not count. During your gap year, you could shoot for:

1000 hours clinical experience scribing or working as a NA
200 hours volunteering (work with those less fortunate than you)
50 more hours of physician shadowing

If you do these things, the world is your oyster.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

@Goro, any thoughts?

 

[deleted966008]

Hey SDN,

So I'm currently a graduating senior, and plan on applying this upcoming cycle. I plan on applying to every California MD program, but am not sure where else I should apply. Here are my specs:

4th year bio major at a top public school

California resident, Asian

cGPA: 3.80
sGPA: 3.75
MCAT: 521 (130/132/129/130)

Research: 1 summer at a cancer bio lab, ~400 hours of wet lab work, no publications

Clinical Volunteering: 220 hours at an inner-city surgery center (not a trauma hospital or anything, just in the inner city) /// went on a medical brigade to Panama (not sure how to classify this, more on it later)

Non-clinical Volunteering: 100 hours at the hospital gift shop /// ~40 hours for various events my club hosted or participated in

Clinical Shadowing: ~25 hours - Radiology

Leadership/Extracurricular activities: campus outreach officer for a global brigades club for 2 years

No immediate family members in medicine

Open to a variety of specialties, but Oncology in particular has my eye

No graduate degrees

Not interested in rural health as a career

Will work as a medical scribe for gap year

Putting in my two cents because you have somewhat similar stats/resume to what I had going in to apply this year. You should receive several interviews if you are okay applying to schools where you are "underselling" your stats (i.e. where your MCAT is 4-8 points higher than the school's median). However, there's likely not enough on your resume to "pop out" at the T10 schools so for the most part I'd stay away from applying to those (except WashU and NYU). Also don't talk too much about those Global Brigades in your app, my understanding is they are largely seen as voluntourism

 

[deleted688779]

Putting in my two cents because you have somewhat similar stats/resume to what I had going in to apply this year. You should receive several interviews if you are okay applying to schools where you are "underselling" your stats (i.e. where your MCAT is 4-8 points higher than the school's median). However, there's likely not enough on your resume to "pop out" at the T10 schools so for the most part I'd stay away from applying to those (except WashU and NYU). Also don't talk too much about those Global Brigades in your app, my understanding is they are largely seen as voluntourism

Asking for my own application and school list: What do you think is lacking from OP's app that would make it "pop out"?

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Military service, Peace Corps, or Teach for America. Thousands of hours of volunteering, perhaps Division I athletics, or first-author publications. As it is it's worth applying to five to eight top-20 schools, but don't get too top-heavy.

 

[capriccio]

@OP, I really recommend you to find a non-clinical volunteer position during your gap year, preferably with an underserved population (ESL tutoring, homeless shelter, soup kitchen, crisis hotline, etc, etc.)

Military service, Peace Corps, or Teach for America. Thousands of hours of volunteering, perhaps Division I athletics, or first-author publications. As it is it's worth applying to five to eight top-20 schools, but don't get too top-heavy.

Walter, stop feeding the neuroticism on this site lmao. You might need those types of things if you wanted to sweep your T20 applications, but if you want a couple T20 interviews and an acceptance or two from those interviews, none of those things are needed. OP's problem isn't that they didn't do Peace Corps or military, their problem is that their application comes off as box-checking: they only did 1 summer of research, they didn't really look for a meaningful non-clinical volunteer activity (I am really skeptical that you can learn anything from volunteering at a gift shop), only shadowed 1 specialty, and seems to be on the lighter side in regards to extracurricular clubs, not to mention the one that they're involved in may be considered voluntourism.

Asking for my own application and school list: What do you think is lacking from OP's app that would make it "pop out"?

My humble opinion is that top adcoms want to see people who have passions and interests beyond grades and getting into medical school. They want to see people who demonstrate in action and in writing/interviews that they've committed themselves to long-term activities that they enjoy, find meaningful, and can positively predict the kind of doctor they might end up being—these activities don't have to be world-class or superstar, but they have to be genuine.