WAMC 3.81/516 2022-2023

[sunil2rao]

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I have received 0 interview invites and 2 rejections from USC Keck and UChicago Pritzker. I graduated from Ohio State with a Neuroscience Major in SP22. I am not sure where I went wrong. Is anyone in the same boat as me? Here are my stats:

MCAT: 516
GPA: 3.81
Primary Submission for Verification: June 14
Primary Submitted: July 15
Secondaries Submitted: July 18-August 10

1. State of residence: IL
2. Ethnicity: Indian Male
3. Undergraduate: Ohio State University
4. Clinical experience: 1000+ hours working as a CNA, scribe, and MA
5. Research experience: 500+ hours, completed UG Research Thesis
6. Shadowing experience: 100+ hours: Orthopedics, Neurology, Primary Care, Virtual Shadowing
7. Non-clinical volunteering: 900 hours. Created a tutoring organization; Peer Mentor; Blood Donor Ambassador for Red Cross
8. Other extracurricular activities: Classical Indian singing; Spikeball Club
9. Currently working as an MA in an Orthopedic Clinic during my gap year.

Colleges Applied:

NYU

Icahn Mount Sinai

Johns Hopkins

University of Chicago

Northwestern

Stanford

Mayo Clinic

WashU

Case Western

OSU

USF

Michigan

UPMC

Keck USC

Cincinnati

UNC-Chapel Hill

Tufts

Colorado

Emory

Saint Louis University

Miami

Georgetown

Carle Illinois College of Medicine

UIC

Rush

Loyola Univ

New York Medical College

University of Wisconsin

Indiana University

Southern Illinois

Wake Forest

Medical College of Wisconsin

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please complete a WAMC template with the requested details so we can help.

 

[chilly_md]

SIU is really more for students south of I-80 or who are from a rural area of Illinois. UNC takes almost no OOS students. Carle has a strong preference for engineering majors (since you didn’t mention that in your post).

Your non-clinical volunteering is essentially all on campus it seems and deals with tutoring students/club organizations. The private Chicago schools in Rush and Loyola expect more hands-on service within the local community. Were any of your hours projected on your app? Over what time period was your clinical experience?

You did have a good deal of very competitive schools like NYU and Johns Hopkins on your list as opposed to schools like Rochester or Jefferson. However, I am surprised you have not heard from UIC or OSU yet. If you end up having to reapply, you should have multiple people (including experienced readers on SDN) review your essays and a different school list.

 

[sunil2rao]

Thank you so much for your reply. I am trying to find some clarity in this situation so that if I do need to reapply, I can have a better approach and gameplan as to what I need to fix and improve. How can I find people who would review my essays?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Use the search function for the forums.

How many hours did you have as an MA when you applied?

Break down your shadowing hours, please. Remove virtual shadowing hours from the calculation.

Break down that 900 hours of non clinical volunteering. Creating an organization goes under leadership, and tutoring should be separate.

I don't have any sense of your mission for our purpose pursuing Medicine from the descriptions of activities. Any networking before applying?

 

[srirachamayonnaise]

With your MCAT, the first 9 schools on your list are totally donations. Target lower tiered schools next cycle.

 

[sunil2rao]

SIU is really more for students south of I-80 or who are from a rural area of Illinois. UNC takes almost no OOS students. Carle has a strong preference for engineering majors (since you didn’t mention that in your post).

Your non-clinical volunteering is essentially all on campus it seems and deals with tutoring students/club organizations. The private Chicago schools in Rush and Loyola expect more hands-on service within the local community. Were any of your hours projected on your app? Over what time period was your clinical experience?

You did have a good deal of very competitive schools like NYU and Johns Hopkins on your list as opposed to schools like Rochester or Jefferson. However, I am surprised you have not heard from UIC or OSU yet. If you end up having to reapply, you should have multiple people (including experienced readers on SDN) review your essays and a different school list.

I am surprised too (OSU and UIC)...more surprising is not getting rejections from universities either (especially OSU and UIC). Not sure how to interpret this. Any thought on when colleges sent rejection notices prior to interview?

 

[chilly_md]

I am surprised too (OSU and UIC)...more surprising is not getting rejections from universities either (especially OSU and UIC). Not sure how to interpret this. Any thought on when colleges sent rejection notices prior to interview?

They likely will just wait till March but could still offer interviews through January.

Did you get a chance to review the questions Mr. Smile and I asked?

 

[sunil2rao]

Use the search function for the forums.

How many hours did you have as an MA when you applied?

Break down your shadowing hours, please. Remove virtual shadowing hours from the calculation.

Break down that 900 hours of non clinical volunteering. Creating an organization goes under leadership, and tutoring should be separate.

I don't have any sense of your mission for our purpose pursuing Medicine from the descriptions of activities. Any networking before applying?

1. Approximately 50-60 of those 100+ shadowing hours were from shadowing Neurologists at the Sports Medicine Center at OSU. I've gotten 500+ shadowing hours at the Orthopedic Center that I started working at after submitting my application in July 2022. 20 hours were from shadowing a couple PCPs at a local hospital. 10 hours are from shadowing a nephrologist.

2. I created an organization at OSU that centered around providing supplemental education to elementary students in the Columbus area struggling with the transition to virtual learning. Over the course of 2 years, we gathered 50+ college volunteers to advise ~100 elementary pupils. We even partnered with an organization called Healthy LifeStars, which serves to education youth about how to lead healthy lifestyles. I have accumulated over 400 hours creating and contributing to this organization.

3. I volunteered for over 300 hours as a Neuroscience Ambassador (Peer Mentor) for a group of 5 incoming freshman majoring in Neuroscience. I served as anything they needed: a tutor, an advisor, a friend to talk to, a ride if they were stranded, etc. anything they needed to ease their transition to college life and how to manage the responsibility that comes with independence.

4. 100 hours as a Blood Donor Ambassador for American Red Cross. Volunteered at local Red Cross Blood Drives about once a month

5. 50 hours volunteering at local food banks in Columbus

 

[sunil2rao]

SIU is really more for students south of I-80 or who are from a rural area of Illinois. UNC takes almost no OOS students. Carle has a strong preference for engineering majors (since you didn’t mention that in your post).

Your non-clinical volunteering is essentially all on campus it seems and deals with tutoring students/club organizations. The private Chicago schools in Rush and Loyola expect more hands-on service within the local community. Were any of your hours projected on your app? Over what time period was your clinical experience?

You did have a good deal of very competitive schools like NYU and Johns Hopkins on your list as opposed to schools like Rochester or Jefferson. However, I am surprised you have not heard from UIC or OSU yet. If you end up having to reapply, you should have multiple people (including experienced readers on SDN) review your essays and a different school list.

Clinical Experience was from 2018-present

 

[chilly_md]

1. Approximately 50-60 of those 100+ shadowing hours were from shadowing Neurologists at the Sports Medicine Center at OSU. I've gotten 500+ shadowing hours at the Orthopedic Center that I started working at after submitting my application in July 2022. 20 hours were from shadowing a couple PCPs at a local hospital. 10 hours are from shadowing a nephrologist.

Shadowing is fine. Keep the in-person hours and you don’t need to include all 500 from the orthopedic center as shadowing. You can take like 50 hours and then put 450+ as clinical experience. Don’t double count the hours.

Keep volunteering at the food bank, get to around 200 hours. This is the only service activity of yours that was non-academic related.

I suggest:

UIC
OSU
Cincinnati
USF
Miami
Nova MD
Einstein
Rochester
Hofstra
Jefferson
Temple
Dartmouth
Tufts
Vermont
SLU
Creighton
VCU
EVMS
Rosalind Franklin
Western Michigan
Wayne State
Hackensack
Quinnipiac
Iowa
Colorado

If you come away with no interviews at the end of the cycle, you may want to apply to a few DO schools as well. Consider:

PCOM
CCOM (high tuition though)
KCU
DMU

 

[charactercomic2]

VERY similar ECs and the same MCAT/GPA, but I have had success. Biggest thing was your school list, it is very top-heavy. I'm also an IL ORM but I targetted a lot more mid-tiers in the midwest. No love from IL schools though. PM me and I can send you my school list (and results so far)