URM 514, 3.78 GPA, 3.72 sGPA school list help!

[soccermama17]

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[Soccer171983]

You definitely have good odds somewhere between tier 1 and 2. With your good mcat, good gpa, extra curricular activity with obvious diversity you are a fairly strong candidate. It is very tough to predict these days what chances are but I would say if you applied into 25 schools with 10 being top tier and 10 being 2nd tiers you would be okay with and 5 absolute back ups you would tolerate if all else fails, you shouldn't have a problem landing somewhere.

 

[shopsteward]

You seem to have a complete lack of clinical experience (either paid or volunteering) within the USA. Your medical mission abroad will be discounted as medical tourism by many schools.

I'm hoping you've just left it off your post, or have really compelling essays about why you want to be a doctor even without any first-hand knowledge of what being around patients in a professional setting is like, because otherwise you are looking at being in the 5% of African-Americans with your stats that don't get accepted.

 

[soccermama17]

@Soccer171983 thank you for your input! I appreciate it

 

[soccermama17]

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[Faha]

I suggest adding these schools:
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
West Virginia
You should receive several interviews from your llist.

 

[Soccer171983]

I suggest adding these schools:
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
West Virginia
You should receive several interviews from your llist.

muhlenberg, new york medical college, ohio state, drexel, south carolina could also be added.

 

[Dox4lyfe]

With a 91st percentile mcat, above the accepted average gpa, UiM female status along with your other ECs, your application will definitely not be thrown aside as a previous poster has mentioned.

That being said, if you want a solid application without any visible gaps, I suggest beginning clinical volunteering ASAP and I would not wait any longer. This way, instead of saying that you will begin clinical volunteering in the future, you can say that you have already begun volunteering at xyz and will be continuing through the rest of the year.

Also, because you are not a resident of NJ, I'd remove Rutgers from your list as it highly favors in-state applicants.

 

[shopsteward]

I understand the medical tourism viewpoint but I was hoping that because it is an organization that I have been working with for years and the mission was in the country that my family is from (which is where my interest in medicine began as explained in my personal statement) that I would be okay having that as my only clinical volunteering. I definitely agree clinical volunteering is a weak point for me however I didn't realize that it was weak enough to put me in the 5%.
Here's what I'm thinking of doing now (and I would appreciate your input on this idea): Since I'll be graduating in December, I could use the "is there anything else you want us to know" space on secondaries to state how I'll be spending my gap semester (a clinical volunteering position). Or if the secondary has a gap year prompt, I'll write about it there. I was planning on doing something medically related in my semester off anyway, but now I think it may be important to explicitly state it on each secondary. I know it might be "too little, too late" but maybe adcoms will be a little more reassured seeing I'm planning on specifically clinically volunteering? My interest in medicine stems from a combination of my experience being from a medically underserved region, volunteering with underserved populations, and shadowing in low-income counties. I feel that I was able to write a compelling statement explaining why I want to be a doctor based on the experiences I currently have. But I do understand that without the mission being really counted, I'm missing a critical component. Thank you for pointing that out.

Tell your story well and start your clinical volunteering as soon as you can, as Dox4lyfe mentions. My concern is that without USA clinical experience you would get interviews but then be waitlisted. So if you can remedy your lack of clinical experience by interview time you will be in a good position to get offers.