WAMC 3.6 GPA, 514 MCAT, FL ORM

[ziggystardustlover]

---

Members don't see this ad.

1. AMCAS GPA: 3.60 cGPA and 3.54 sGPA. Started college during 2020 and was online and at home for the first year, which is the root cause of my rocky GPA. I do have an upwards trend following my first semester.
2. MCAT: 514; 128 C/P, 130 CARS, 128 B/B, 128 P/S
3. State: Florida
4. Indian F
5. My degree is a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from Florida State University.
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 650+ (non-volunteer) hours as a Patient Care Assistant at my university’s local hospital, whose patient population was largely made up of homeless/low income/marginalized members of the community. 350+ (and counting) hours as a volunteer scribe at a healthcare clinic that exclusively serves uninsured/low income patients, majority of whom are immigrants and Spanish-speaking (I am a non-native Spanish speaker). For the clinic, I work with both adult and pediatric providers.
7. Research: No outright research experience in a lab. I was a Psychology major for the first half of undergrad and took multiple research focused classes that prioritized the psychological/neurological aspects of medicine.
8. Shadowing: No outright shadowing yet, but I plan to have at least 50 hours with 2 different providers (Cardio and GI) by the time I submit my primary app. The clinic I work at does primarily have me volunteering as a scribe, but we have providers from every specialty that volunteer throughout the week, and I routinely shadow all of them unofficially. The specialties I get the most exposure to are OBGYN, endocrinology, and pediatrics.
9. Non-clinical volunteering: This is my weakest link (aside from research), but I am also hoping to get some hours with my local shelter (that I also volunteered at in high school) before submitting apps.
10. Letters of Rec: I will have 1 letter from a highly regarded FSU professor who is a higher up at the nursing school and a well known member of the community. It is hard to explain her impact, but she has her own scholarship with UWisconsin and is a respected figure in many healthcare circles, so I am hoping this will hold some weight. I am hoping to have 1 letter from my Physiological Psychology and Neuroscience Methods professor, who is the head of my college’s Psych Dept.. I know this does not count as stem, but unfortunately, I did not have a strong relationship with any of my stem professors because we simply did not have a great stem department and many of them were not present/reliable for office hours and did not respond to emails. I may reach out to my Chem 2/Orgo 2 professor, as I had an A in both of his classes and I believe he will remember me. My 3rd LOR will be from one of the head providers/founders of the clinic I volunteer at. This is the letter I believe will hold the most weight. I will also have a 4th and possibly 5th LOR from the 2 providers I will be shadowing.
11. Other extracurricular activities: I was a member of my school’s chapter of Dance Marathon, through which I raised nearly $1000 for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. I have been lucky enough to tour Shands Hospital, a CMN facility, and that is what led me to push so hard in my fundraising. I had known about the program before, but seeing the concrete changes and improvements that the money being raised was going towards was a defining moment for me. I was also a member of my school’s medical fraternity (coed).
12. Relevant honors or awards: Graduated cum laude
13. Hobbies: I love art and have explored many different branches of it, but my absolute favorite is sewing. I love the process of creating and the freedom of expression that comes with it. I am an avid reader, and specifically enjoy sociological/psychological theory, bonus points if the author is a woman (Bell Hooks, Simone de Buvoir, etc.). I love thrifting/second hand clothing/vintage, partly because of how unique your closet can be and how much of a treasure hunt it is, but mainly because of the impact of fast fashion on the climate crisis. I am very passionate about conservation/sustainability and would like to find a way to incorporate that interest into my application.
14. Extra info: My mother is a doctor but we have different last names. I used several late drops (2 Freshman fall, 1 Junior spring, 1 Senior fall) and have 4 W’s on my transcript, none of which affected my GPA. I have traveled all over the world, as my dad is in the travel industry, and have been to 28 countries (mainly in Africa and South America).

 

[Faha]

You should accumulate 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as homeless shelter, food bank, etc. before you submit your application. Otherwise, you could be screened out at some schools. I suggest these schools if you accumulate those hours:
U Florida
Florida State
Central Florida
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
NOVA MD
Miami
USF Morsani
Belmont
Alice Walton
TCU
Roseman
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wake Forest
Methodist (when it opens)
Virginia Commonwealth
George Washington
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Can I ask you to describe your post-high school activities focused on sustainability and the environment? If the answer is that you didn't do anything after high school, what do you have that can convince me you are passionate about this?

A similar question may be asked of you about your interest in medicine. If you don't have shadowing experience now, how would getting your 50 hours of shadowing switch the light bulb on? I think you can credit some hours from scribing over as shadowing experience (from your clinic work). But your clinical exposure tells me you want to work in healthcare, not that you are prepared to become a physician (as you have laid things out).

I will have 1 letter from a highly regarded FSU professor who is a higher up at the nursing school and a well known member of the community. It is hard to explain her impact, but she has her own scholarship with UWisconsin and is a respected figure in many healthcare circles, so I am hoping this will hold some weight.

Unless it's something related to privacy, if you can't articulate the value this letter will have to your application, you could be undermining your application by trying to push through a letter with limited impact or a skewed impression to adcoms. They'll wonder why you got someone who has a nursing background (unless there is more you are not sharing). You can't be "hoping" this letter will carry weight for you.