WAMC (3.68/519) 24 y.o ORM male

[pleasehelpme12]

Hi everyone, I am looking to apply for the first time this upcoming cycle, but I am feeling a bit lost when it comes to making a school list. I feel like my GPA holds me back from top schools, but also feel that my volunteering hours makes me a mediocre fit for service based schools. If anyone has any ideas of what additional schools I could add I would greatly appreciate it.

1.
GPA: 3.68
sGPA: 3.68
Freshman year - 3.01, Sophomore year - 3.78, junior year - 3.93, Senior year - 4.0
Online school due to covid sophomore spring quarter through junior spring
2. 519 (129/130/130/130)
3. Oregon
4. White male
5. Oregon state school
6. 1800 hours as a pediatric scribe in a clinic with large emphasis on medicaid patients and medically fragile children.
Will be starting a clinical research coordinator job in pediatric oncology later this year, will have 500 hours by the time of application and 2600 projected by matriculation
7. 1100 hours in a muscle cell physiology lab that studied tissue biopsied from volunteer subjects in the community. I was awarded a research grant through my university to complete a 10 week dedicated research study over the summer term for this lab. No publications.
8. 25 hours pediatrics, 10 hours shadowing an IM doc who does DPC primary care
I know this is very week and am working on setting up some hours with a surgeon and a hospital specialist, estimate 60+ hours by application
9. 80 hours working in no turn away emergency homeless shelters which activate during winter storms. We provide 3 hot meals, clothing replacements, blankets, and medical care
45 hours Hospice volunteering
10. OTHER ACTIVITIES I PLAN TO LIST
Physiology lecture and anatomy lab TA: 180 hours
- TA for one year of upper division physiology lectures and one term of upper division anatomy lab.

Philosophy research assistant: 100 hours
- for the past year I have been volunteering under a professor in the philosophy department to help him digitize/ organize notes related to his research. His work centers on the development of contemporary property law with regard to colonialism. I don’t expect this to move the needle for medical schools, I just really enjoy the reading and I spend enough time on it that I feel it is worth including.

Tutoring for my younger siblings: 200 hours
- I am the oldest of 5 and my two youngest siblings are currently in a public High School. For the past 2 years I have been spending a couple of hours each week helping them with homework.

Maintenance worker: 2000 hours
-While in undergrad I worked summers and weekends in a retirement community doing maintenance on the property. This helped me afford school, but was also a big part of why I ended up choosing medicine. I really enjoyed getting to build lasting relationships with the people who lived on the property. This job is why I chose to pursue hospice volunteering.

Homeless shelters: 70 hours
-I volunteer at overnight homeless shelters that open when the average temperature for a 24 hour period is below freezing. I also help sort clothes on the weekends when we get new donation shipments.

Hospice volunteer: 60 hours


Tumor boards: idk about hours honestly, less than 20 by application
-The onc docs at the job mentioned that I would be welcome at the hospital's weekly solid tumor boards, and I plan to attend. Very few hours by the time of application, but I still plan to list it.

11. N/A
12. Was raised in a rather unique religious environment, arguably a cult, that was very medically illiterate. After leaving this group when I was around 8 my family was quite poor. This is something I plan to discuss in the other significant experiences essay. This is also why working in a low income focused pediatric clinic was meaningful and why tutoring my siblings is so important to me.


SCHOOL LIST
Now onto my current school list. I feel like it is already top heavy and it seems like several people fail to get an A each year due to overestimating the impact of a good MCAT. I would like to apply to 20 schools in total. With this in mind, what schools do you think I should add? I am also open to eliminating any of the reach schools that are not in LA if people think my app would be DOA for any of the schools listed below, or if I am just too top heavy and need to do some cleavage.


OHSU - Oregon resident

Boston U - idk why really seemed like a reasonable one given stats and my buddy who interviewed there liked it

Kaiser- my best friends live 10 minutes from the campus and I have a strong family connection to LA

UCLA - See above

USC - See above

UCSF - born in the bay and have gone back to visit often, plus I want to shoot my shot even if odds are low, if I truly have no shot I don’t mind kicking this for something more realistic.

University of Vermont - OOS friendly and lower stats, plus I like Oregon and Vermont seems similar enough

Utah - have some family friends there(I am not Mormon despite the 4 siblings) and I love snow sports (really expensive OOS tuition tho which gives me pause)

Colorado - no family or friends but OOS friendly enough and snow

Hofstra - I like their curriculum and would like to move to a larger city since I’ve spent most of my time in a small town. I know a resident at a Hofstra affiliated hospital and he said the medical students seem pretty happy.

Mt Sinai/Pittsburg - I wanted to add one more top 20 just to try it but I'm split between these two, seems like I don’t even have a chance at any other top 20’s

Emory - cool city, stats matchup decent, curriculum seems good

Case western - OOS friendly enough, good match list, idc anything about OH honestly

Einstein - now free

Dartmouth - no good reason

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[ClashRoyaleKing]

Your GPA has a nice upward trend to finish around matriculant average and your MCAT is very strong. Adding more nonclinical volunteering would also be beneficial.

Duke
Northwestern
Harvard
Cornell
Stanford
Pitt
Icahn
Case Western
Boston
Brown
USF Morsani
Hofsta
TCU
Colorado
Rochester
Iowa
Einstein
Dartmouth
Cincinatti
Virginia Commonwealth
Tufts
Hackensack
Miami
Emory
Sidney Kimmel
OHSU
Temple
Drexel
Western Michigian
Nova
EVMS
Quinnipiac
NYMC
OUWB
Wake Forest
Creighton

Shoot your shot at UCSF, UCLA, Kaiser, and USC, but they have a heavy in-state bias and are VERY competitive. Scroll through the threads on here to see what I mean.

I think Vermont is too far below your stats to realistically get accepted/interviewed (yield protection). I don’t know much about Utah so I can’t speak to that.

You’re not DOA for any of the top schools you have. 519 is definitely within their accepted range.

 

[AJS59]

Maybe investigate getting some more non-clinical going between now and application season? If you're able to do 8-10ish hours a week at a food pantry or soup kitchen you can hit the 150 hours to avoid getting screened out. Otherwise, things look solid.

As for schools - lacking any family ties, I'd rule out Utah; only around 20% of their class is from OOS which is not very OOS friendly. What I would recommend is pick carefully amongst the high-tier/reach schools (especially due to low non-clinical volunteer hours) and then identify some of the schools where your stats/mission fit (by mission fit, I mean like the type of medicine/population you want to serve) fit well. Regardless, you should at least have a fair shot at OHSU.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

A little more insight into your childhood and pre-college background. Did you qualify for FAP?

If you grew up in a more rural location in Oregon (meaning not that close to the cities), you should also add COMP-NW which is a DO program and a possible place to do medicine if you cannot get into OHSU or other MD programs.

Describe your purpose as a physician.

 

[LunaOri]

Your GPA has a nice upward trend to finish around matriculant average and your MCAT is very strong. Adding more nonclinical volunteering would also be beneficial.

Duke
Northwestern
Harvard
Cornell
Stanford
Pitt
Icahn
Case Western
Boston
Brown
USF Morsani
Hofsta
TCU
Colorado
Rochester
Iowa
Einstein
Dartmouth
Cincinatti
Virginia Commonwealth
Tufts
Hackensack
Miami
Emory
Sidney Kimmel
OHSU
Temple
Drexel
Western Michigian
Nova
EVMS
Quinnipiac
NYMC
OUWB
Wake Forest
Creighton

Shoot your shot at UCSF, UCLA, Kaiser, and USC, but they have a heavy in-state bias and are VERY competitive. Scroll through the threads on here to see what I mean.

I think Vermont is too far below your stats to realistically get accepted/interviewed (yield protection). I don’t know much about Utah so I can’t speak to that.

You’re not DOA for any of the top schools you have. 519 is definitely within their accepted range.

Don’t worry about yield protection if you think you would fit in well at a school. It isn’t as much of a “thing” as applicants think.

 

[pleasehelpme12]

A little more insight into your childhood and pre-college background. Did you qualify for FAP?

If you grew up in a more rural location in Oregon (meaning not that close to the cities), you should also add COMP-NW which is a DO program and a possible place to do medicine if you cannot get into OHSU or other MD programs.

Describe your purpose as a physician.

Would not qualify for FAP at this time. I grew up poor, and was on need based scholarship during undergrad, but our family transitioned into the middle class over the last 3 years or so. That being said the initial poverty we faced is large part of why I wish to practice medicine. After we left the religious group in question, we were a family of 7(mom, step-dad, and 4 siblings plus myself) living in a two bedroom apartment for over a year. My mom had an unknown health condition which prevented her ability to work. She eventually found treatment after shifting away from the anti-medical sentiment of her previous life, which allowed her to become much more autonomous and effective in her career. She was able to work us into the middle class, which then in turn laid the foundation for my pursuit of college education. Its a bit more complicated than this, but I'm not going to post my full personal statement publicly.

I did not grow up in rural Oregon, and don't intend to apply to DO schools. I do know some previous comp northwest students though and they did quite like the school if any reads this and becomes interested in the program. It is worth looking in to.