School List Help/WAMC - 3.97s/522 CA Applicant - Thanks!

[Top_Ramen]

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Hi!! Currently prepping my school list and would greatly appreciate any brutally honest advice 🙂 Aiming for 40 schools, and preferably have no more than the current number of reaches I have on my list (low risk > ~ < ). Thank you so much!

3.96c/3.97s GPA, 522 (129/131/130/132) MCAT
CA Resident, ORM Asian
T35 Undergrad
2 gap years, First time applicant

Clinical:

• 1320 hrs, anticipated 2000 hrs, primary/urgent care lead MA (gap yr)
• 120 hrs free clinic/health fair volunteer
• 60 hrs medical mission trip

Non-clinical Volunteering:

• 450 hrs volunteer lead of after-school health/STEM program for at-risk children
• 300 hrs Co-Founder/volunteer lead of budgeting nutrition program for seniors
• 250 hrs Founder/volunteer lead of book club program for at-risk children
• 60 hrs arts and crafts volunteer with assisted living elderly
• 150 hrs community farm/food bank distribution

Research:

• 1100 hrs Alzheimer’s Disease basic science - 2 symposiums, 1 first-author poster, 1 accepted first-author paper in school peer-reviewed journal (declined publication), 1 grant award, 1 research award, 1 NIH grant in review

Shadowing:

• 100 hrs Neurology, Cardiac Surgery, OBGYN, Orthopedic Surgery, Digestive Surgery

Non-clinical employment:

• 1,600 hrs laboratory assistant

Teaching:

• 90 hrs AP tutor (gap yr)
• 60 hrs upper division science TA

Leadership:

• 500 hrs exec board of non-profit pre-health org

Extracurriculars

• 1,750 hrs, anticipated 250 hrs freelance digital artist (gap yr)
• 288 hrs, anticipated 36 hrs band drummer (gap yr)

Misc. Award:

• 1 merit-based school scholarship

LORS: 1 PI (very strong), 1 volunteer coordinator (very strong), 1 clinical job boss (strong), 1 science professor for TA (strong), 2 science professors (good), 1 tutor boss (good)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You look good in theory. I hope your purpose is clear. I'm not sure how your purpose aligns with each school on the list, so to me it's up to your writing and your references.

 

[Top_Ramen]

You look good in theory. I hope your purpose is clear. I'm not sure how your purpose aligns with each school on the list, so to me it's up to your writing and your references.

Thank you! I have a clear purpose in mind but I agree it's up to my writing to determine how well I can convey it. So far, my personal statement revolves around wanting to lead efforts to treat/teach diverse patient populations long-term. My volunteer LOR and clinical LOR are likely the most relevant; my PI LOR should be pretty strong too since I still value research, but it's slightly more difficult to connect to my purpose. Based on this information, would you recommend any changes to the current list I have?