School List Help

[Btad]

Hey everyone! I hope you're all doing well during this crazy time. I'm planning on applying this upcoming cycle to MD programs and just wanted to get some feedback on my school list. I graduated last May and plan to pursue more opportunities in research/community service during my second gap year. Any and all advice is appreciated!



1. cGPA: 3.991, sGPA: 4.0 (Biology Major)

• Switched from a music major after my first year and realized that I wanted to pursue medicine halfway through my sophomore year

2. MCAT: 517 (131/126/131/129)
3. State of residence: GA
4. Ethnicity: Hispanic male (Stateside Puerto Rican)

• To this day, I’m still trying to figure out if this is considered an underrepresented minority lol. Regardless, I want to serve the Latino community in the future.

5. Undergrad: Small liberal arts school in GA
6. Clinical experience:

• EMT (current)
  • Approximately 400-500 hours over the last year working in an emergency and non-emergency setting
• Hospice volunteer
  • Roughly 200 hours over 2 years
• Clinical Research Lab (current)
  • Around 300-400 hours over the past couple of months. We were working towards a publication, but the research has been put on hold due to the public health concerns (I’m not sure if I should put this under clinical experience or just research experience, but I interact with patients every day in this lab through surveys, cognitive testing, and application of mobile health technologies. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this)

7. Research experience:

• Two research internships at top 30 med schools during undergrad
  • First project involved circadian rhythms of glycogen metabolism in the murine heart (⁓500 hours)
  • Second project studied the role of LNK in JAK/STAT signaling pathways underlying inflammatory cytokine-derived hypertension (⁓500 hours)
• Worked in two labs at my undergrad
  • Worked for 2 years (junior and senior) in a lab investigating the role of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9 in human artery in-stent restenotic lesions (⁓300-400 hours)
  • Joined another lab (senior year) that synthesized and tested novel lead anti-biofilm compounds in different bacterial strains (⁓150-200 hours)
• One middle author publication
• Presented 4 posters and 2 oral presentations at 7 different conferences
  • 3 national, 4 regional

8. Non-clinical volunteering:

• Local homeless shelter
  • Approximately 100 hours over two years
• Local volunteer clinic
  • Approximately 50 hours over a year. Mainly administrative work
• Local music instructor
  • Approximately 50 hours. Led an outreach project during my last semester teaching songs on hand bells in a local daycare for individuals with mental disabilities
• Academic Tutor and Mentor
  • Approximately 30-40 hours. I currently volunteer for an organization that provides free after-school tutoring for Hispanic students within metro Atlanta, ages 5-10

9. Other extracurricular activities:

• Music
  • Approximately 1200 hours, my second passion , participated in multiple ensembles, quartets, and lessons during the course of my undergrad
• Biology and chemistry lab TA
  • Roughly 100 hours over 1 year, guided students during labs answering questions and explaining important concepts
• Officer of Alpha Epsilon Delta (pre-health honor society)
  • Approximately 50-60 hours over 1 year (⁓150 hours of total club involvement over 2 years), helped organize meetings, wrote about the experiences of the club in a national journal, attended a national leadership conference with the exec board, and connected students with local volunteer organizations

10. Shadowing

• 120 hours overall
  • ⁓50 in primary care (internal and pediatrics), ⁓55 in cardiology, ⁓15 in other specialties
  • Roughly 3/4 in an urban setting, 1/4 rural

Lastly, I just wanted to share some random information about my interests and current goals. Ultimately, I want to serve underrepresented groups through academic medicine. I love working within the community and plan to get more involved with student mentorship/teaching. I’m strongly interested in cardiology or primary care, but I don't plan on applying to any residency specific programs in order to keep my options open. Lastly, I’m teaching myself Spanish/guitar this year while working as an EMT and research intern with hopes of utilizing those skills to better connect with patients in the future.

• Einstein
• Case Western
• Duke
• Mount Sinai
• UCLA
• UCSF
• Keck
• UPitt
• Cornell
• UNC Chapel Hill
• Baylor
• Miami
• USF Morsani
• Emory
• Medical College of Georgia
• Morehouse
• Mercer

Reach Schools (please share if you think any of these are donations lol)

• WashU
• Stanford
• Yale
• Pritzker
• Northwestern
• Columbia
• Harvard
• NYU
• Upenn
• Vanderbilt
• Johns Hopkins
• Mayo

Thanks again for taking the time to read this post. Stay safe everyone!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Do you have a prehealth advisor working with you? Any academic enrichment program participation? Have you signed up for the AAMC Virtual Fair? Have you connected with medical students on this forum (underrepresented forum), through AMSA, or LMSA? You really should also connect with diversity/student affairs administrators at the medical schools near the top of your list before you apply.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Do you have a prehealth advisor working with you? Any academic enrichment program participation? Have you signed up for the AAMC Virtual Fair? Have you connected with medical students on this forum (underrepresented forum), through AMSA, or LMSA? You really should also connect with diversity/student affairs administrators at the medical schools near the top of your list before you apply.

What kind of questions students ask during AAMC virtual fair?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What kind of questions students ask during AAMC virtual fair?

I can advise that students DON'T ask predicable questions like: what's the minimum GPA/MCAT. Take the advice given to you earlier in this thread to come up with your own unique questions that are relevant for most applicants.

 

[Faha]

You can add any of your reach schools that interest you.

 

[Btad]

Do you have a prehealth advisor working with you? Any academic enrichment program participation? Have you signed up for the AAMC Virtual Fair? Have you connected with medical students on this forum (underrepresented forum), through AMSA, or LMSA? You really should also connect with diversity/student affairs administrators at the medical schools near the top of your list before you apply.

First, thank you for your input. You brought up some really great points that I will look into. I have a pretty close relationship with my prehealth advisor, but she's often very busy. I have discussed my list with her though, and we talked about some strategies to pinpoint my top choices. Additionally, I recently applied for an academy enrichment program to hone my skills in advocacy and research over my 2nd gap year, and I should hear back from them in about two weeks.

I have not yet connected with students from AMSA/LMSA, but that will definitely be something to search this site for in the future. I never used SDN until recently, but it will definitely be a great asset moving forward.

Lastly, I attended the AAMC Virtual Fair last year, but I really felt like I did not get that much out of it. I asked some questions in the chat room that were not super basic, and they were answered, but I wasn't sure how to leverage these conversations to get a more meaningful experience outside of Q&A. Could you offer some advice about how to better utilize the Virtual Fair this time around? I've been put into contact with some representatives from the Med-MAR registry, but I would like to continue networking with my other schools of interest.

 

[Btad]

You can add any of your reach schools that interest you.

Thanks so much for your input. Have a great week!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Lastly, I attended the AAMC Virtual Fair last year, but I really felt like I did not get that much out of it. I asked some questions in the chat room that were not super basic, and they were answered, but I wasn't sure how to leverage these conversations to get a more meaningful experience outside of Q&A. Could you offer some advice about how to better utilize the Virtual Fair this time around? I've been put into contact with some representatives from the Med-MAR registry, but I would like to continue networking with my other schools of interest.

(Rare solicited advice since the Virtual Fair is coming up.)

With networking, you have to get to the point where you can find someone at the school who will support you. If you join that school's community, you get a leg up finding the people who will support you when you have challenges (and everyone has them in medical school). I have been on the receiving end of many virtual fairs, and the questions I enjoy answering allow me to point out unique or special opportunities or relationships that I think makes my program outstanding or unique in addressing the concerns an attendee articulates. So ask how active the LMSA or SNMA chapters are, if there are students or faculty advisors of those clubs you can connect with. Ask about how the academic enrichment opportunity you are considering is valued in the screening process. And this is just from what this thread has uncovered from your disclosures (in other words, I don't have your AMCAS application).

The most tiring questions I get at recruitment fairs and chats in those fairs are all focused on the application process, "What do you look for in an applicant?" or "Would this experience count as shadowing?" It reminds me of all the panicky threads on SDN. IMO, the best questions don't make me look at the questioner as an applicant or application but allow me to show you the strengths of the program I represent in addressing your educational interests.

Ask the MMAR contacts these questions when you get a chance... and come up with strong followup questions based on what answers you get.

I'll agree if you do this right, especially with your reach schools, you're hopefully going to leave a positive impression that excites you about applying to the school and them for having the honor to review your file.

 

[Btad]

(Rare solicited advice since the Virtual Fair is coming up.)

With networking, you have to get to the point where you can find someone at the school who will support you. If you join that school's community, you get a leg up finding the people who will support you when you have challenges (and everyone has them in medical school). I have been on the receiving end of many virtual fairs, and the questions I enjoy answering allow me to point out unique or special opportunities or relationships that I think makes my program outstanding or unique in addressing the concerns an attendee articulates. So ask how active the LMSA or SNMA chapters are, if there are students or faculty advisors of those clubs you can connect with. Ask about how the academic enrichment opportunity you are considering is valued in the screening process. And this is just from what this thread has uncovered from your disclosures (in other words, I don't have your AMCAS application).

The most tiring questions I get at recruitment fairs and chats in those fairs are all focused on the application process, "What do you look for in an applicant?" or "Would this experience count as shadowing?" It reminds me of all the panicky threads on SDN. IMO, the best questions don't make me look at the questioner as an applicant or application but allow me to show you the strengths of the program I represent in addressing your educational interests.

Ask the MMAR contacts these questions when you get a chance... and come up with strong followup questions based on what answers you get.

I'll agree if you do this right, especially with your reach schools, you're hopefully going to leave a positive impression that excites you about applying to the school and them for having the honor to review your file.

This was great advice. Thank you so much!