WAMC 3.66/523 ORM school list assistance and questions

[suga_moons]

Hi! I'm in that weird bucket where my GPA is not great but my MCAT is pretty good, so I'm really confused about where I should be applying based on MSAR GPA and MCAT ranges and would appreciate any advice!

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.66/3.5ish
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: Took twice, 511 -> 523 (131/130/130/132)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US) IL
4. Ethnicity and/or race: ORM
5. Undergraduate institution or category: T10, majored in Computer Science
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): No volunteer experience, currently working full time as an ophthalmic tech ~4000 projected hours
7. Research experience and productivity: 2000-3000 hours, 1 coauthor pub (possibly 2-3 more if they get accepted), several posters. An even mix of traditional wet lab research, Compsci research/internships/projects, and public health stuff. I spent a summer analyzing COVID data at the NIH which was pretty cool, and developed informational resources for LGBTQ+ older adults in nursing facilities.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 75 hours split between Internal Medicine and Derm
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 50 hours tutoring IL kids via a nonprofit. Getting more non-clinical hours is my current focus so I will likely have 300+ by the time I apply.
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc): I do a lot of digital illustration and have a following (25k) on Tiktok for it. I did a lot of graphic design for a club on campus (leadership position) and painted set backgrounds for theater. I also write poetry and have some poems published in student magazines, but nothing super major.
11. Relevant honors or awards: N/A
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important: My GPA has more of a U-shaped trend than a linear positive trend. During the COVID years, I was temporarily disowned by my family after my sexuality got outted to them and that severely impacted my mental health (and consequently my grades). I also totally bombed the first MCAT because my dad had a brain tumor and had surgery scheduled around that time. I'm still trying to make up for how horrible those years were, but I'm hoping the improvement in the MCAT and somewhat decent senior year grades help a little bit.

My current plan is to apply somewhat broadly. I am definitely applying to every school in Illinois except SIU, and many in California because my significant other currently lives there (I am aware that applying to California out of state is like throwing a dart at a board located ten miles away)

My list so far:

-Albert Einstein
-Boston Uni
-California Northstate
-California University of Science
-Carle Illinois
-Rosalind Franklin
-Loyola
-Kaiser Permanente
-Mayo
-Rush
-University of Illinois
-Wake Forest
-UNC Chapel Hill
-UCLA
-Mt Sinai
-Brown
-UCSF
-Duke
-UCSD
-UC Irvine
-Northwestern
-Keck USC
-Tufts
-Emory
-Wisconsin
-Temple

Questions:
1. Does anyone have any school suggestions that I should add? OOS friendly schools etc.? Is my school list too top heavy, should I be removing certain schools? Should I apply DO as well?
2. Is it necessary to have clinical volunteering experience if I have many clinical hours? I can definitely volunteer at a local hospital if so.
3. Any other advice you might have?

Thanks so much!

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[Mr.Smile12]

50 hours tutoring IL kids via a nonprofit. Getting more non-clinical hours is my current focus so I will likely have 300+ by the time I apply.

You can add more tutoring, but you need other service orientation community service (food distribution, shelter work, job placement or tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation) of 150 hours minimum before youn submit an application to avoid getting screened out. Rush and Loyola will require even more (500+ hours for Rush). You will be screened out of most schools without the 150 minimum hours of service orientation.

California also is sensitive to the patient communities served by each school. I don't see that much work with disadvantaged communities that puts your on par with them.

You need more face to face clinical experience. Ophthalmology tech may be great for an app.as an optometrist, but not sure it's enough for other areas of medicine.

 

[Faha]

California Northstate has accreditation issues. UNC, UC Irvine and UCSD admit few non residents with no connection to the state. Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants with far more non clinical volunteering hours than you have. You could add these schools:
Western Michigan
USF Morsani
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Rochester
Hofstra
Einstein
New York Medical College
Clinical volunteering hours with patient contact in a hospital would be helpful.

 

[suga_moons]

You can add more tutoring, but you need other service orientation community service (food distribution, shelter work, job placement or tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation) of 150 hours minimum before youn submit an application to avoid getting screened out. Rush and Loyola will require even more (500+ hours for Rush). You will be screened out of most schools without the 150 minimum hours of service orientation.

California also is sensitive to the patient communities served by each school. I don't see that much work with disadvantaged communities that puts your on par with them.

You need more face to face clinical experience. Ophthalmology tech may be great for an app.as an optometrist, but not sure it's enough for other areas of medicine.

Is teching not enough clinical experience? I work directly with 10+ patients a day, including scribing, taking their history, teeing up Rxs, running tests, refracting etc. Is that not face-to-face enough? I usually spend at least half an hour with the patient before the doctor comes in and does their visit...I would say my job is very similar to that of a medical assistant in other fields.
Definitely agree with the service orientation. I'm looking for some right now and will be spending my weekends volunteering!
Thanks for the advice!

 

[suga_moons]

California Northstate has accreditation issues. UNC, UC Irvine and UCSD admit few non residents with no connection to the state. Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants with far more non clinical volunteering hours than you have. You could add these schools:
Western Michigan
USF Morsani
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Rochester
Hofstra
Einstein
New York Medical College
Clinical volunteering hours with patient contact in a hospital would be helpful.

Thank you so much for the school recs! I did undergrad near UNC which is why that's on my list, I figured I could argue a connection to the state given how often I visited their campus. I'll probably take UCI and UCSD off, and hopefully, with the amount I'm volunteering lately I'll be able to apply to Rush/Loyola by the time application season comes around. I'll also look into those clinical volunteering hours

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is teching not enough clinical experience? I work directly with 10+ patients a day, including scribing, taking their history, teeing up Rxs, running tests, refracting etc. Is that not face-to-face enough? I usually spend at least half an hour with the patient before the doctor comes in and does their visit...I would say my job is very similar to that of a medical assistant in other fields.

Thanks for the description. That definitely clarifies it for me. I presume you will list your certification on your application. (I was thinking the job nomenclature went the other way from op tech to assistant... apparently it is from op assistant to tech...?)

 

[suga_moons]

Thanks for the description. That definitely clarifies it for me. I presume you will list your certification on your application. (I was thinking the job nomenclature went the other way from op tech to assistant... apparently it is from op assistant to tech...?)

It is a little confusing that the nomenclature is flipped in ophthalmology but tech is > assistant in terms of what we do. I didn't get a certification as I was trained on the job due to completion of undergrad being enough for them to hire me, but if that's concerning I can certainly look into getting certified...it's just quite a lengthy process with a year+ of schooling and I wouldn't be certified before my applications are due.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It is a little confusing that the nomenclature is flipped in ophthalmology but tech is > assistant in terms of what we do. I didn't get a certification as I was trained on the job due to completion of undergrad being enough for them to hire me, but if that's concerning I can certainly look into getting certified...it's just quite a lengthy process with a year+ of schooling and I wouldn't be certified before my applications are due.

If you are doing this for 4000 hours, I hope there was at least a benefit like a certificate, even if it didn't mean that much in the med school admissions process. Even MA's should get something after that many hours of work (2 years full-time). It's not required but still...