MD URM Status, No Research experience, school list opinions

[Lovett_Owl_17]

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Hi everyone, new to this thing but here are some of my stats.
Male, born in Mexico, moved to Texas early, went back to Mexico for middle school and have been back in Texas since start of high school.
cGPA - 3.96, sGPA - 3.98 (Top 20 school)
MCAT - 521
Clinical Experience:
- 50 hours of surgical shadowing summer after freshman year
- 30 hours of pediatric shadowing during sophomore year
- 30+ hours of Spanish interpretation at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a course through my school
- Currently in a surgical program through BCM which will total 400+ hours by the end of the summer
EC's:
- Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor for 3 years now and continuing
- Middle School tutoring volunteer for 2 years
- Official tutor through my University for people taking O-chem, Biochem, P-chem, and Physics
Not sure how relevant this is but I have a working proficiency in French
First generation in my family to go to college
Have worked as a car mechanic since a very young age, and worked summers before and after freshman year
Research:
- None

Schools I'm applying to:
Texas:
- UT Southwestern
- UT San Antonio
- UT Houston
- Dell Medical School
AMCAS:
- Baylor
- UC San Francisco
- Stanford
- Johns Hopkins
- Harvard
- Columbia
- U Pennsylvania
- Vanderbilt
- Mayo

I hope nobody takes offense to this because I know I have a solid application and don't have much room to complain, so please forgive me beforehand. However, it's pretty obvious that I'm applying to research heavy schools and don't have any legitimate research on my resume. I'm interested in going into research in the future, I just decided early on in college that I would rather focus on other things to figure out what career I wanted to go into and never got around to getting involved with research. I'm hoping that you guys can tell me whether most of these schools will look passed that, or should I consider adding some other schools that are less research oriented. Thanks for your input! Good luck to everyone else!

 

[brochacho123]

Are you a Texas resident?
I'm assuming you are fluent in Spanish given your role as an interpreter.
Any activities working with the Hispanic community?

No research may hurt you but there are very few Mexicans applying with a 3.96/521. Others may disagree, but you should be fine applying to all Texas schools (if you are a Texas resident) and any OOS schools that appeal to you. I believe you'll receive plenty of interest from top 20 schools.

 

[Lovett_Owl_17]

Are you a Texas resident?
I'm assuming you are fluent in Spanish given your role as an interpreter.
Any activities working with the Hispanic community?

No research may hurt you but there are very few Mexicans applying with a 3.96/521. Others may disagree, but you should be fine applying to all Texas schools (if you are a Texas resident) and any OOS schools that appeal to you. I believe you'll receive plenty of interest from top 20 schools.

Yes I am a Texas resident. I've heard that Texas schools have a match system but I don't completely understand what that entails, if you know much about it I would appreciate any explanation.

Yes I am fluent in Spanish. I don't have any formal work with the Hispanic community outside of the interpretation I did. My role basically consisted of going to appointments of Spanish speaking patients and interpreting the conversation between them and the physician. Also just to clarify I am a dual citizen so I am not applying as an international.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[gyngyn]

Yes I am a Texas resident. I've heard that Texas schools have a match system but I don't completely understand what that entails, if you know much about it I would appreciate any explanation.

Yes I am fluent in Spanish. I don't have any formal work with the Hispanic community outside of the interpretation I did. My role basically consisted of going to appointments of Spanish speaking patients and interpreting the conversation between them and the physician. Also just to clarify I am a dual citizen so I am not applying as an international.

Thanks for the feedback!

You are good to go for the best schools in TX.

 

[brochacho123]

Yes I am a Texas resident. I've heard that Texas schools have a match system but I don't completely understand what that entails, if you know much about it I would appreciate any explanation.

Yes I am fluent in Spanish. I don't have any formal work with the Hispanic community outside of the interpretation I did. My role basically consisted of going to appointments of Spanish speaking patients and interpreting the conversation between them and the physician. Also just to clarify I am a dual citizen so I am not applying as an international.

Thanks for the feedback!

Sorry, I do not know how the match system works, but you are competitive from pretty much any school

 

[aalamruad]

Sorry, I do not know how the match system works, but you are competitive from pretty much any school

With 0 research experience, I'd say that's definitely an overstatement.

 

[brochacho123]

With 0 research experience, I'd say that's definitely an overstatement.

AA and Mexican-Americans are two of the most underrepresented groups in medicine. There are so few applicants like OP, that I would not be surprised if he gets a lot of interest from Top 20 schools w/ merit aid offers as long as he interviews decently and everything else in his application is in order. I may be wrong, but I hope OP lets us know how his cycle goes so we can better advise future applicants similar to him

 

[wysdoc]

Hi everyone, new to this thing but here are some of my stats.
Male, born in Mexico, moved to Texas early, went back to Mexico for middle school and have been back in Texas since start of high school.
cGPA - 3.96, sGPA - 3.98 (Top 20 school)
MCAT - 521
Clinical Experience:
- 50 hours of surgical shadowing summer after freshman year
- 30 hours of pediatric shadowing during sophomore year
- 30+ hours of Spanish interpretation at MD Anderson Cancer Center as a course through my school
- Currently in a surgical program through BCM which will total 400+ hours by the end of the summer
EC's:
- Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor for 3 years now and continuing
- Middle School tutoring volunteer for 2 years
- Official tutor through my University for people taking O-chem, Biochem, P-chem, and Physics
Not sure how relevant this is but I have a working proficiency in French
First generation in my family to go to college
Have worked as a car mechanic since a very young age, and worked summers before and after freshman year
Research:
- None

Schools I'm applying to:
Texas:
- UT Southwestern
- UT San Antonio
- UT Houston
- Dell Medical School
AMCAS:
- Baylor
- UC San Francisco
- Stanford
- Johns Hopkins
- Harvard
- Columbia
- U Pennsylvania
- Vanderbilt
- Mayo

I hope nobody takes offense to this because I know I have a solid application and don't have much room to complain, so please forgive me beforehand. However, it's pretty obvious that I'm applying to research heavy schools and don't have any legitimate research on my resume. I'm interested in going into research in the future, I just decided early on in college that I would rather focus on other things to figure out what career I wanted to go into and never got around to getting involved with research. I'm hoping that you guys can tell me whether most of these schools will look passed that, or should I consider adding some other schools that are less research oriented. Thanks for your input! Good luck to everyone else!

I would suggest you apply to all the Texas medical schools. UTMB, Texas A&M also have research tracks. With the TMDSAS, the price of applying to one school is the same as the price applying to all.

 

[JessebenBenjamin]

You are good to go for the best schools in TX.

What are your thoughts for top 10 schools? I have never seen an applicant like this.

 

[gyngyn]

What are your thoughts for top 10 schools? I have never seen an applicant like this.

It could easily work. The only flaw is the relative lack of community involvement or research.

 

[JessebenBenjamin]

It could easily work. The only flaw is the relative lack of community involvement or research.

Yeah, the usual URM applicant I've seen has a lot of community involvement (+ research sometimes), but a low GPA or MCAT.

 

[7331poas]

OP really has zero ECs to speak for.