School List help for potential reapplicant

[premedaloo]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hi everyone! As the current app cycle is wrapping up, I'm sitting here with 4 MD II but no acceptances. I've talked with some other folks about how I can improve my application, but I've been having a hard time figuring out a school list, so I'd greatly appreciate if you could help me make one for a potential re-application. Here are my details:

1. 3.75 cGPA and 3.69 sGPA
2. 512 MCAT (128/128/128/128)
3. VA resident
4. ORM (Asian)
5. T30 university in Virginia
6. Clinical Experience:
   1. ~1200 hours of scribing alongside an orthopedic surgeon (did this during my past gap year)
   2. 90 hours volunteering in a hospital ED
   3. 120 hours volunteering in a private family practice
7. Research experience and productivity:
   1. 150 hours of mutation research on bacterial enzyme, presented a poster on this at a university session
   2. 400 hours of work as a research assistant in an Immunology Lab (no pubs)
   3. 310 hours of working on an undergrad thesis. I wrote a 20 page summary of my research findings for the project and presented a poster at a university poster session)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. 90 hours shadowing cardiologist
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 10 hours volunteer tutoring online (I've realized that the lack of my non-clinical volunteering is a red flag, so I'm working on getting this up in the next year. I'd also appreciate other ideas for how to do more non-clinical volunteering since I'm having trouble getting started)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. 500 hours over 2 years working as an RA in college (counted this as leadership)
    2. 600 hours over 3 semesters working as a TA in college (counted this as TAing in AMCAS)
    3. Listed a few hobbies as well like linguistics and distance running
11. Anything else not listed you think might be important:
    1. My theme overall I'd say is primary care/underserved focus. For the past 5 years or so, had financial struggles and related difficulty with medical care, so it's part of my why medicine. I'm also trying to aim for a higher MCAT. For context, was getting like 518 on practice exams, so I decided to get the score up as it's something I can control to a degree. Also, applied to only 20 schools last time, so aiming to apply to like 30-40 schools for a reapplication. Would greatly appreciate OOS friendly schools/schools that I have a good chance at being accepted. Thanks in advance!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It would help us if you told us who interviewed you. All are waitlists?

 

[premedaloo]

It would help us if you told us who interviewed you. All are waitlists?

So I interviewed at Geisinger, Penn State, VCU, and EVMS. Currently, I have holds (which I'm pretty sure are automatic waitlists) for Geisinger and Penn state. VCU sends their last round of acceptances tomorrow, so I may be accepted or waitlisted then. Currently waiting to hear back from EVMS.

 

[tracylawrenceEnthusiast97]

For non-clinical volunteering ideas, I found food banks to be very helpful for talking to people in a service-served interaction. Also, any summer camps for sick or disabled children can help you build skills and even potentially have you helping people with their ADLs. Not an adcom expert or anything but I found a lot of value in these activities.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You could get some movement with EVMS, so cross your fingers. Your metrics should be satisfactory for them and VCU, and they should resonate with your stated desire to work with primary care under-resourced.

That said, I'm curious, you have more hours with the orthopedist as a scribe than anything primary care or under-resourced... or it's not that obvious to me. You have a TON of shadowing with the cardiologist to boot. I suppose your private family practice served under-resourced patients, but usually those patients are seen at safety net hospitals and free/community clinics. Do you have this? 90 hours in a hospital ED pales in comparison to the other hours. It didn't matter so much to Penn State or Geisinger since you interviewed with them. What do you think resulted in the alternate decision for those two?

 

[premedaloo]

You could get some movement with EVMS, so cross your fingers. Your metrics should be satisfactory for them and VCU, and they should resonate with your stated desire to work with primary care under-resourced.

That said, I'm curious, you have more hours with the orthopedist as a scribe than anything primary care or under-resourced... or it's not that obvious to me. You have a TON of shadowing with the cardiologist to boot. I suppose your private family practice served under-resourced patients, but usually those patients are seen at safety net hospitals and free/community clinics. Do you have this? 90 hours in a hospital ED pales in comparison to the other hours. It didn't matter so much to Penn State or Geisinger since you interviewed with them. What do you think resulted in the alternate decision for those two?

I see your point, and I definitely do see now how my activities are all around the place. The scribing job and shadowing were opportunities that I was lucky to get and ran with as I was struggling to get any other clinical experience/shadowing at the time. In all honestly, I did not really think much of how they would relate to my theme and purpose. I just wanted some experience to list. I don't have any experience with free clinics unfortunately. However, the family practice and the scribing job did expose me the care of some under-resourced patients, and it was these experiences that I wrote about in my activity descriptions/secondaries. I think going forward based on your feedback, my plan is to find some clinic work in a primary care/underserved care facility or at the very least shadow these physician so I have something to back up my words. How does this sound?
As for Penn State and Geisinger, I'd say my interviews were "good" but not "outstanding". I did prep, but after talking to some friends, I've realized that I should have prepped significantly more to obtain that "outstanding" interview that I would have liked. I think an okay interview combined with activities that seem a bit all over the place are what led to those alternate decisions, and I'm going to make sure I prep extra hard for any future interviews! Thank you so much for the in-depth advice, and currently keeping my fingers crossed for EVMS and VCU (they're my top choices)!