WAMC 3.82/520 + school list recs

[sliu2025]

Hello everyone! I'm planning to apply this upcoming cycle (May 2024) and was wondering if I could receive some advice on my list of schools and get some answers to questions I have. I'm a third year undergraduate and am not planning to take a gap year. Any advice/constructive criticism for my application would be greatly appreciated, especially on whether a gap year would be necessary.

1. Current GPA: cGPA: 3.82; sGPA: 3.80
2. MCAT score and breakdown: 520 (129, 127, 132, 132) - 1 attempt
3. State: Missouri residence
4. Race/Ethnicity: Asian, ORM
5. Undergrad School: T10 in Chicago
6. Clinical: By May 2024, around 200 clinical volunteering hours, 500-600 paid clinical hours. My clinical hours are working as a physical therapist aide, which I've enjoyed as I'm heavily considering rehabilitative medicine. I'm assuming that since my hours aren't in a hospital-specific environment, a common interview question will be "if you like PT so much, why not just do PT instead of medicine?". Not 100% sure how to navigate this question so any advice is appreciated.
7. Research: around 500 hours, no publications, but one presentation. Worked on two projects, one during freshman and one during sophomore year, each under different postdocs, but now doing an independent research with my PI's guidance.
8. Shadowing experience: ~40 hours (neurosurgeon, neurologist, ophthalmology). Should I shadow a physician in rehabilitative medicine/spinal cord injury medicine to better demonstrate my interest in the medical field, not just physical therapy?
9. Non-clinical volunteering: ~50 hours in a music org that performs at senior living centers and for hospice patients.
10. Extracurriculars: chair (1 year) and executive (1 year) for PhiDeltaEpsilon (premedical fraternity). Music production (~2000 hours). Owner and founder of music record label (500 hours). Bodybuilding and competitive powerlifting (7-10 hours a week since high school freshman). Photography, chess, watch collecting (each ~100 hours). MCAT tutoring (50 hours).
11. Relevant honors or awards: Billboard #1 and platinum certification for an album I helped produce. Nationally ranking powerlifter
12. Other info: Trilingual, legacy at UMich.

School List:

• UMich
• Mayo Clinic
• Stanford
• Icahn at Mount Sinai
• UCLA
• Harvard
• UPitt
• URochester
• UCSF
• Emory
• U of Missouri - Columbia
• Albert Einstein
• NYU
• Columbia
• UPenn Perelman
• Yale
• Cornell
• Duke
• Vanderbilt
• UVA
• Case Western
• USC Keck
• Hofstra
• Ohio State
• St. Louis University
• UChicago
• WashU
• Stony Brook
• UMiami

My biggest concern right now is that my GPA is lower than the median for several top schools, although my MCAT balances it out a bit. Based on the WARS calculator, it says I should apply 45% to top schools, but I'm a bit skeptical of this. Is it worth taking a gap year so that my senior year GPA is factored in to my overall GPA, or is my current GPA + MCAT good enough to apply this cycle? Also, though my extracurricular achievements are the major strong point of my application, how influential are extracurriculars really in attracting admissions officers? I feel that my extracurriculars are unique and personally meaningful, so should I emphasize what I've done outside of exploring medicine during essays/interviews?

Thanks so much for any feedback and please let me know if my school list is way too ambitious.

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[Faha]

Your non clinical volunteering hours are too low and you should accumulate another 150+ hours before you apply. Also another 10+ hours of physician shadowing in rehabilitative medicine is a good idea. You could add Northwestern, Cincinnati and USF Morsani to your list.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

a common interview question will be "if you like PT so much, why not just do PT instead of medicine?". Not 100% sure how to navigate this question so any advice is appreciated.

You need to have an answer. We cannot give you one. If you don't have an answer, you are not ready.

 

[atriablack]

Is it worth taking a gap year so that my senior year GPA is factored in to my overall GPA, or is my current GPA + MCAT good enough to apply this cycle?

Imo, you are fine, but how much would your GPA go up by if you add in those 2 semesters with the best case scenario of all As? An incremental increase isn't going to make your profile that different.

Also, though my extracurricular achievements are the major strong point of my application, how influential are extracurriculars really in attracting admissions officers? I feel that my extracurriculars are unique and personally meaningful, so should I emphasize what I've done outside of exploring medicine during essays/interviews?

ECs help define you beyond your stats, it is how you show you are human on paper and helps Adcoms see how you would fit in the community/values. Absolutely mention things outside of medicine if there is a space to in an essay prompt. Doubly so in interviews.