WAMC: 3.83/522

[thefakesleeper]

I'm an applicant in the current cycle, submitted all secondaries by mid-August (0 II's and 0 R's).

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.83/3.83
2. MCAT: 522 (132/128/132/130) 1 attempt
3. State: CA
4. Ethnicity and/or race: ORM (East asian)
5. Undergraduate institution: T10
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):

• Medical assistant (1800 hrs, 10 month full-time)
• Volunteer in oncology unit (280 hrs)

7. Research experience and productivity:

• Research assistant in translational lab (1500 hrs, 2.5 yrs)
  • (One 2nd author review paper in mid-high impact factor journal, one 1st author poster presented at large international conference)

8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:

• 70 hrs (gastroenterology, ophthalmology, internal med, plastics)

9. Non-clinical volunteering:

• 520 hrs with local chapter of national service organization (elected service chair for 1 semester)
• 150 hrs as an afterschool tutor at local community center in underserved neighborhood

10. Other extracurricular activities:

• Co-captain of university tennis club (300 hrs/4 yrs)
• Resident advisor in university residence hall (400 hrs/1 yr)
• Organic chemistry peer tutor through university-affiliated organization (200 hrs/2 yrs)

11. Relevant honors or awards

• Fulbright Research Award (1 yr)
  • Currently completing as my gap year, started 8/24 and will end in 6/25
  • Continuation of undergraduate research, development of stem-cell therapy in ophthalmology

12. LORS:

• 2 strong ones from lab PI and physician I worked with as a medical assistant
• 2 generic ones from professors

13. Anything else to add:

• Heavy research focus throughout writing
• Physician parent (mentioned in PS, but clearly established my own motives for going into medicine)
• Feel like I struggled to generate compelling content in my writing (no significant life challenges, no a-ha moment for why medicine)

School list:

Harvard, Stanford, UCSF, UPenn, NYU, Columbia, Duke, Vanderbilt, WashU, Cornell, Yale, UCSD, UCLA, Northwestern, UMich, Mt Sinai, Case Western, UPitt, UVA, UChicago, Georgetown, Emory, USC, UC Irvine, Brown, Einstein, Dartmouth, GW, BU, Tufts, Wake Forest, UC Davis, Hofstra, Temple

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Really??? No bites at all at this point? It's early, and I'm surprised. Is the med school your parent attended included on this list? It's not too late to panic, but I can understand that your metrics should get you more attention.

Where are your service orientation activities? Please give me more information about your 520 hours in your national service organization.

Also you have a lot of hours in private practice (which I presume is not the clinic where you may have relatives working, correct?). You racked up a lot of hours in a short amount of time vs. your oncology unit experience. Can you get other clinic experience (in the US after your Fulbright) in a traditional hospital setting that is not ophthalmology (since you already have a ton of this)?

 

[thefakesleeper]

Welcome to the forums.

Really??? No bites at all at this point? It's early, and I'm surprised. Is the med school your parent attended included on this list? It's not too late to panic, but I can understand that your metrics should get you more attention.

Where are your service orientation activities? Please give me more information about your 520 hours in your national service organization.

Also you have a lot of hours in private practice (which I presume is not the clinic where you may have relatives working, correct?). You racked up a lot of hours in a short amount of time vs. your oncology unit experience. Can you get other clinic experience (in the US after your Fulbright) in a traditional hospital setting that is not ophthalmology (since you already have a ton of this)?

Yes, my parent attended Wake Forest, which I hope will not yield protect me, since my GPA is more in their range and I wrote a lot about their renowned regenerative medicine program in my secondaries since it aligns well with the research I’m conducting now.

As for service, many of the 520 hrs consists of miscellaneous one-off volunteering experiences at local nonprofits (soup kitchen, community garden, local park cleanup, etc), but I wrote most extensively about one particular homeless shelter that I built a relationship with while in my one semester leadership position.

Do you feel like the bulk of my clinical hours coming from private practice may have left a poor impression? In the case I need to reapply, I will certainly look to fill my next gap year with broader clinical experience in a traditional hospital setting, but I’m pretty limited in how I can obtain clinical exposure at the moment, being in a foreign country for my Fulbright grant.

I appreciate the surprise in your reply haha, I’ve been doing my best to stay patient but doubts about my strength as an applicant were inevitably starting to form.