WAMC (3.8/521) CA ORM

[flyingpotato125]

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Hello, I appreciate all the help. Trying to currently formulate a school list and a get a good view on what my chances are to some of the schools I already have. Service based app, yes I know avg. hours but they are quite meaningful.

• 3.81 cGPA/3.81 sGPA
• MCAT: 521 (131 C/P, 128 CARS, 131 B/B, 131 P/S)
• CA
• White (Arab)
• CA state school
• Clinical: 350 hrs (Personal attendant for patients with disabilities)
• Research: 250 hrs immunology research, no pubs (joined late Junior year so not a lot of time but LOR might come from research PI due to positive relationship)
  1. published on 2 case studies during shadowing internship
• Shadowing: 150 hours across specialties
  1. Hematology shadowing internship that spanned 3 weeks (where case studies from above came from), possible LOR from doctor
• Volunteering: 200 hours homeless shelter, 100 hours nursing home companion, 25 hours educating children about nutrition
• Community Service chair/Vice President of pre-medical fraternity (500+ hours in leadership time)
  1. VP of cultural organization (75 hours)

Tentative School List:

• UCSF
• Duke
• Vanderbilt
• WashU
• Cornell
• Mayo
• UCLA
• UCSD
• Ohio St
• SLU
• Rosalind Franklin
• Tulane
• GWU
• USC
• Pitt
• Colorado
• Rochester
• Iowa
• USF Morsani
• UA Phoenix
• UCincinnati
• Emory
• Michigan
• UCIrvine
• UCDavis
• Kaiser
• Einstein
• Dartmouth
• NYMC
• Hofstra
• Wayne State
• Creighton
• VCU
• WVU
• Wisconsin
• Wake Forest
• Temple
• Penn St

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Read

Finding Your Purpose as a Health Professional | SDN

In the 2004 Tony-award-winning musical Avenue Q, Princeton, a recent college graduate (with an English degree from a prestigious university), searches to

www.studentdoctor.net

My first impression is while I think you have enough hours to avoid getting screened out (descriptions pending), I feel your hours are low for the applicant pools of "brand schools" or the most highly coveted. 150 shadowing hours... stop shadowing. 250 hours as a patient attendant... you need more or at least another experience that involves you with more of the healthcare system than I can discern. Again, your descriptions matter... I'm not sure you have insight into the challenging daily work on the wards/clinics. Nothing disclosed pops out to me regarding your purpose as a physician.

 

[flyingpotato125]

Read

Finding Your Purpose as a Health Professional | SDN

In the 2004 Tony-award-winning musical Avenue Q, Princeton, a recent college graduate (with an English degree from a prestigious university), searches to

www.studentdoctor.net

My first impression is while I think you have enough hours to avoid getting screened out (descriptions pending), I feel your hours are low for the applicant pools of "brand schools" or the most highly coveted. 150 shadowing hours... stop shadowing. 250 hours as a patient attendant... you need more or at least another experience that involves you with more of the healthcare system than I can discern. Again, your descriptions matter... I'm not sure you have insight into the challenging daily work on the wards/clinics. Nothing disclosed pops out to me regarding your purpose as a physician.

I appreciate your reply and the analysis despite the little information provided. For what its worth, I agree with a lot of the points you made, but also keep in mind that these are my current hours, with over 6 months until the cycle begins. I also know that without descriptions its difficult to see any sort of narrative or purpose with my work, and although I may still be trying to hone in on what that is specifically, I definitely have some understanding of classic medical settings, due to the shadowing internship mentioned. Obviously not every flaw can be fixed in the time that remains, but what would you suggest are the priorities for me before the cycle starts. Going with that question, an extra year to develop myself as an adult and as a prospective medical professional has definitely crossed my mind, but many around me are pushing to me apply soon because of the competitive academic stats. I wanted to know if you had any ideas or things to think about for this dilemma.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You can't complain that my advice is vague if you give me a vague profile. I understand not wanting to doxx yourself, but I can't do better than an advisor who has more information like your grades and profile of activities.

I am struck by your school list. There are a few that might yield protect against you and others where you need to show me why they are included. Why are you interested in each school? I'll let others come up with a better list given what you describe, but you need to show specific affinity for each one as you begin writing secondary essay drafts.

Building Your Best School List | SDN

Your success in any application cycle depends on how well you match a school’s metrics profile and the schools where you send your application - your

www.studentdoctor.net

Write Your Secondary Essays First | SDN

Most advice to applicants focuses on the personal statement and description of work or activities required to complete the initial centralized application

www.studentdoctor.net

You have to decide how much effort you have to address the deficits because it's your time from now until May. Humility is a desirable trait, and it will save you a little frustration in this process. I just tell you where you should set your goals if your aspirations are truly set on UCSF, Duke, WashU, etc.

I'm sure you have a good idea of what is like to work in a hospital, but none of your activities above show this except for 150 hours of hematology. That's not the same as ER, peds, Ooncology, chronic pain, or obgyn. You help a patient with disabilities so do you help going to therapy appointments? I'm sure you have an idea, but so do caregivers and nurses. The details are important, and hopefully you will practice writing and reflecting in your upcoming writing to do.

 

[flyingpotato125]

You can't complain that my advice is vague if you give me a vague profile. I understand not wanting to doxx yourself, but I can't do better than an advisor who has more information like your grades and profile of activities.

I am struck by your school list. There are a few that might yield protect against you and others where you need to show me why they are included. Why are you interested in each school? I'll let others come up with a better list given what you describe, but you need to show specific affinity for each one as you begin writing secondary essay drafts.

Building Your Best School List | SDN

Your success in any application cycle depends on how well you match a school’s metrics profile and the schools where you send your application - your

www.studentdoctor.net

Write Your Secondary Essays First | SDN

Most advice to applicants focuses on the personal statement and description of work or activities required to complete the initial centralized application

www.studentdoctor.net

You have to decide how much effort you have to address the deficits because it's your time from now until May. Humility is a desirable trait, and it will save you a little frustration in this process. I just tell you where you should set your goals if your aspirations are truly set on UCSF, Duke, WashU, etc.

I'm sure you have a good idea of what is like to work in a hospital, but none of your activities above show this except for 150 hours of hematology. That's not the same as ER, peds, Ooncology, chronic pain, or obgyn. You help a patient with disabilities so do you help going to therapy appointments? I'm sure you have an idea, but so do caregivers and nurses. The details are important, and hopefully you will practice writing and reflecting in your upcoming writing to do.

I'm so sorry if you understood my reply as a complaint against you or as being defensive, I intended to say that I appreciate your feedback despite the little information that I had provided in the original post. In regards to your most recent comment about the school list, I completely understand. I was mainly looking for guidance as you provided about whether a list structured like that was even a good starting point. Again, not to challenge anything you're saying, as I greatly appreciate your help, you say a lot of valid things about possible holes in my narrative and application but then say certain schools will yield protect, would this be because of the stats? Also in terms of why I'm applying to each school, I've done very moderate research on many of the ones listed, but obviously need to hone in on mission fits and more specific reasons for being interested. This is something I was always expecting to do, so I appreciate you telling it how it is.

I have no problems with criticism and was hoping I'd get some constructive feedback through this post, but I'd also suggest you refrain from making assumptions about someone's personality or "humility" off the back of a bare-bones WAMC post. Not that it won't be something I reflect on, but its a large statement that I can't really see the backing of without being overly cynical.

I appreciate your comment on getting experience in classical clinical settings and have tried to do that through shadowing different specialties such as general surgery and cardiology in addition to Hem/Onc experience. I know that there needs to be a lot more than that, which is why I'm trying to supplement my app with more clear clinical work. Overall, I strongly appreciate you spending your time helping me.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

No problem. No offense taken. Of course the internet is not known for conveying tone, and experience has always taught me to be skeptical.