WAMC: 3.82/519

[ghermione1900]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for feedback on my application and school list and how multiple MCAT attempts and a slightly low sGPA might affect my application chances this cycle. Last cycle, I applied with only two MCAT scores of 501 and didn't hear anything. I'm a 3 year graduate and kind of rushed to applied without a gap year which was bad judgement on my end. Since then, I've retaken the MCAT (519) and strengthened my application by adding more EMT hours, volunteering, and research (poster presentation). My gpa also slightly improved with a 4.0 the past 2 quarters.

cGPA: 3.82 | sGPA: 3.76
MCAT: 501 (124/124/123/130), 501 (126/124/124/127), 519 (130/128/130/131)
CA ORM, T20 undergrad

Clinical Experience:
- Hospital volunteer (direct patient contact, feeding patients, etc): 175 hrs
- MA (primary care/gastro, worked with Medicare patients): 150 hrs
- EMT: 600 hrs (+1400 anticipated during gap year)

Research Experience:
- Clinical research: 700 hrs (1 publication in progress, 1 poster presentation) (+300 hrs anticipated)
- High school → freshman-year undergrad project: 1 publication in journal with IF ~5

Shadowing Experience: 100 hrs (pulmonology, surgery, oncology, critical care, primary care)

Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- Tutor English to underprivileged foreign students: 200 hrs (+100 anticipated)
- Assisted living facility volunteer: 200 hrs (+100 anticipated)
- Cultural events committee volunteer (organizing events 3x/year): 200 hrs
- Donation drives for local homeless shelter: 100 hrs (+35 anticipated)
- Meals on Wheels volunteer: 40 hrs (+30 anticipated)
- Co-founder/president of medical inequalities club: 100 hrs

Other Activities / Extracurriculars:
- TA for science lab: 480 hrs
- Graphic designer for small business: 125 hrs (+50 anticipated)
- Yoga/meditation: 250 hrs

Honors / Awards: Dean’s List

Letters of Recommendation: 8.5/10
Essays / Writing: 9/10

School List
Reaches: UCSF, Cornell, Duke, Stanford, UChicago, Icahn, WashU, Mayo Clinic, Columbia, Yale, Vanderbilt, UPenn, NYU Grossman (extreme-reach)
Targets / Mid-tier: Alice Walton*, Vermont*, Geisinger*, Sidney Kimmel, Georgetown, Creighton, UMiami, UColorado, UPitt, USC Keck, UCSD, UCLA, UCI, GW, Emory, Tufts, Case Western, UVA, Dartmouth, Brown, Kaiser, Boston, Einstein
Low-targets: UC Davis* (NorCal resident), Rush*, UCR,* Penn State*, Albany*, Rosalind Franklin*, Wake Forest*, CUSM*, Drexel*, Quinnipiac*, Temple*, UMD, Virginia Tech, Tulane, UWM

I’m mainly worried about how admissions committees (especially at top schools) might view multiple MCAT attempts (2x501 --> 519) and my slightly lower sGPA. I will be reapplying to the schools marked with a (*). To my knowledge, only Kaiser, Boston, and Einstein (from my list) explicitly ask on secondaries whether I have previously applied anywhere; will I still be considered a reapplicant at the other schools? Thanks in advance!

 

[Faha]

Some schools will average your scores. Any school you applied to previously will know you are a reapplicant. You have too many reaches and should concentrate on more realistic schools and include DO schools. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
UMass
Albany
New York Medical College
Hofstra
Rochester
Hackensack
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
Methodist
NOVA MD
USF Morsani
Belmont
Tulane
Alice Walton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Iowa
Colorado
U Illinois
Roseman
Arizona (Phoenix)
Kaiser
California University
UC Davis
UCSD
UCLA
UC Irvine
USC Keck
For DO schools I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
AZCOM
TUNCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
CUSOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Many schools average all attempts, especially for screening. Obviously the jump up for your last attempts will be viewed positively. Did you get any interviews? I'm assuming your 519 happened very recently? Upward GPA trends that matter begin with a GPA lower than 3.0, and I'm not sure you have had that bad of a starting point, if you have been an undergrad for 3 years finishing with the GPAs you report. I agree your reaches are unreasonable without knowing your mission fit... and that might be a real stretch.

I'm a little worried about your hours. Clinical hours still seem light when I consider your anticipated hours (that you will have completed when you apply). Your high school research doesn't matter unless you really want that paper to count when you apply for residency, and even so, that's a pretty old research unit of productivity that may have nothing to do with the specialty you want to pursue (since we don't know what you did). Rush wants more hours than you listed, since you also included teaching and leadership in your 700-hour total; it also waters down a sense of your service orientation, and I'm not sure where you show longevity in your community involvement.

You must include DO schools. Many schools can penalize applicants who are 3x applicants, and those where you are a reapplicant may penalize your application if you didn't show significant improvement in your application (including the major essays).