WAMC 3.78 521 Looking to stay in-state (FL Resident) open to DO

[Eris1357]

I am an ORM (Chinese American) Florida resident planning to apply to all Florida MD/DO schools. My clinical volunteering is on the weak side, and I was wondering if I should take two gap years (current senior)? I really want to serve my community here in Florida, and I am hoping to go into family medicine.

College: Duke University
B.S. in Biology, Minor in Chemistry

cGPA: 3.78

sGPA: 3.68

MCAT Score: 521

Shadowing: 60 hours (Anesthesiology and Pathology)

Definitely going to try to shadow a family medicine doctor and try to hit 100 hours! I know this is a big point to improve upon.

Research:
Neurobiology lab (Investigated gut-brain axis, lots of basic science work) ~540 hours
Insect lab ~240 hours
Plant lab (summer, mostly grunt work) ~100 hours
Global health lab (currently working at, will have poster presentation) ~40 hours so far

I know my research is lacking a lot in tangible results so this is a category I'm nervous in.


Non-clinical volunteering: 150+ hours

Dreamcatchers (Organization that fulfills wishes of terminally-ill patients) ~80 hours
Chinese Language School (Tutor second-generation kids) ~70

Clinical experience: ~80 hours as ICU and OR volunteer at local hospital

I'm definitely very worried about my clinical volunteering, 80 hours is on the low end... I will be part-timing for my last semester and trying to improve that number, but I'm worried that will come off as disingenuous and just trying to increase hours.

Leadership and Awards:
President of MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)
Treasurer of SEDS (Students for Exploration and Development of Space)
Department Chair of Dreamcatchers (Handled house-cleaning and other physically-demanding work)
Logistics Manager of SSA (Singaporean Students Association)
Writing Prize - College prize granted to students for research conducted in class

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[ClashRoyaleKing]

Your application looks really good, however, if you only have 80 hours of clinical experience, that might be a point of concern. I would definetely take one gap year and build clinical experience, improve nonclinical volunteering, and hit your shadowing goal. Your MCAT of 521 opens doors to basically all schools and staying in Florida should really not be a problem.

Schools I suggest applying to (based on MSAR):

Florida Schools:
FAU
FIU
FSU
UCF
UF
Nova Southeastern
Miami
USF

If you want to improve your chances of getting into medical school and avoiding a re-application, I suggest applying to more schools. I defer to someone with more experience making for making additional references for OOS, if you are interested.

 

[atriablack]

I will be part-timing for my last semester and trying to improve that number, but I'm worried that will come off as disingenuous and just trying to increase hours.

If you want to apply this cycle, it doesn't matter what it will read as, you simply need to get your hours up.
That said, given the way AMCAS W&A classifies things (list Start Date and End Date along with hours) your hours distribution might read as more balanced than you think (depending on your start date, since it's hard to distinguish between few hours at the start with a huge amount toward the end vs a balanced contribution every week over the time frame).

 

[Faha]

What is the nature of your 150 hours of non clinical volunteering ? You need to add 100+ hours of clinical volunteering before you apply ?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What do your prehealth advisors recommend?

I would focus more on your clinical experience whether volunteering or employment. I don't think you need the shadowing hours but rather the primary care experience.

How much networking have you done to stay in Florida? How have you learned Spanish? Where have you worked beside Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinx nationals or immigrants? Which schools in Florida do significant outreach to Asian community health clinics for their students?

 

[Eris1357]

Your application looks really good, however, if you only have 80 hours of clinical experience, that might be a point of concern. I would definetely take one gap year and build clinical experience, improve nonclinical volunteering, and hit your shadowing goal. Your MCAT of 521 opens doors to basically all schools and staying in Florida should really not be a problem.

Schools I suggest applying to (based on MSAR):

Florida Schools:
FAU
FIU
FSU
UCF
UF
Nova Southeastern
Miami
USF

If you want to improve your chances of getting into medical school and avoiding a re-application, I suggest applying to more schools. I defer to someone with more experience making for making additional references for OOS, if you are interested.

Thank you for the break down! My goal is to hit all that volunteering next semester, and OOS schools are also on the table for me. I just want to become a physician, and the prestige of a school matters very little to me.

 

[Eris1357]

What do your prehealth advisors recommend?

I would focus more on your clinical experience whether volunteering or employment. I don't think you need the shadowing hours but rather the primary care experience.

How much networking have you done to stay in Florida? How have you learned Spanish? Where have you worked beside Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinx nationals or immigrants? Which schools in Florida do significant outreach to Asian community health clinics for their students?

My prehealth advisors also recommend doing more clinical hours, and since I'm currently OOS (also senior year) it's a bit difficult to participate in Florida-based volunteering.

The hospital and Chinese school are both local to Florida. My Spanish is limited to high school so no luck there, but one of my driving reasons for becoming a family medicine is based on my own family's (and other Asians we know) struggle to get access to primary care due to a language barrier. I'm a strong bilingual speaker, and I'm trying to expand my work to include other minorities and under-served communities in Durham (Duke area), but unfortunately I do not have a lot of opportunities to interact with Hispanic immigrants.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My prehealth advisors also recommend doing more clinical hours, and since I'm currently OOS (also senior year) it's a bit difficult to participate in Florida-based volunteering.

The hospital and Chinese school are both local to Florida. My Spanish is limited to high school so no luck there, but one of my driving reasons for becoming a family medicine is based on my own family's (and other Asians we know) struggle to get access to primary care due to a language barrier. I'm a strong bilingual speaker, and I'm trying to expand my work to include other minorities and under-served communities in Durham (Duke area), but unfortunately I do not have a lot of opportunities to interact with Hispanic immigrants.

Duke has branded itself as a university that has really tries to show community engagement, and it is one reason why a lot of Duke applicants shine, provided you have taken the Kool Aid and embraced this.

Duke Hospital is right on campus and opportunities to work in clinical settings there are abundant, and plenty of applicants from Duke have done their experience there or the VA. It's a big advantage over many other campuses where the medical campus is so distant from the undergrad campus. I'm a little surprised that you have so little experience. (Maybe things have changed...)

There's also a rather significant Spanish-speaking population in that part of North Carolina (too).

El Futuro | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

Gente Aprendiendo para Nuevas Oportunidades (GANO) | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

Iglesia Emanuel Food Pantry | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

 

[Eris1357]

Duke has branded itself as a university that has really tries to show community engagement, and it is one reason why a lot of Duke applicants shine, provided you have taken the Kool Aid and embraced this.

Duke Hospital is right on campus and opportunities to work in clinical settings there are abundant, and plenty of applicants from Duke have done their experience there or the VA. It's a big advantage over many other campuses where the medical campus is so distant from the undergrad campus. I'm a little surprised that you have so little experience. (Maybe things have changed...)

There's also a rather significant Spanish-speaking population in that part of North Carolina (too).

El Futuro | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

Gente Aprendiendo para Nuevas Oportunidades (GANO) | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

Iglesia Emanuel Food Pantry | Duke Partnership Platform

connect.community.duke.edu

Thank you so much for the advice! I'm currently applying to the Duke VA hospital volunteering program, and the sources you sent are very useful. I just signed up to do volunteering at the food pantry and will do my best to join the other organizations as fast as possible, I truly appreciate the information and will work towards integrating a hispanic component into my application.

I think in a lot of cases I used COVID as an excuse during the first two years of undergrad, and then actually caught COVID during the summer at a the hospital (I was hoping to get 120 hours clinical). This is a major point of weakness for me, and I fully recognize that.