WAMC (3.88, 517)

[kidcat]

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Hello! I am trying to build a school list and would appreciate any advice/recommendations/comments.

Overview:
2025-2026 cycle
Non-gap year

Stats:
Current GPA: 3.88 / sGPA: 3.83
State: Missouri
Asian female, ORM
T20 undergrad

Clinical Experience:
350 volunteer hours at Cancer Center
250 volunteer hours at Children's Hospital
500 work hours as a patient care tech
-have received 10 TULIPS (award for patient care)

Research:
1000 hours phage research leading to 6 published annotations (not a journal paper, just annotations in a database) and 1 poster presentation
1500 hours stroke lab -> potential 2nd author publication this spring

Shadowing:
50 hours in the ED

Non-clinical volunteering:
Cat shelter (250 hours)
Policy change in ED (100 hours)

Other extracurricular:
TA-ed for multiple courses: orgo, phage bioinformatics, genetics, calculus 3 (combined total of about 350 hours)

Potential school list:
I know it is a bit top heavy right now so any edits would be helpful! I also don't know too much about OOS/IS bias so that would also be helpful to know as I edit my list.

Brown
Boston
Columbia
UPenn
Yale
Uchicago
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
WashU
Mayo Clinic
Duke
UVA
Baylor
Cornell
Stanford
Case Western
Mount Sinai
UMich
Zucker School of Medicine
UCSF
Emory
USC
University of Colorado
Einstein
UC Irvine
UNC
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
UC San Diego
Umass Chan
Tufts
UCLA

 

[Mr.Smile12]

MSAR is your friend for looking at IS/OOS for the public schools on your list.

On the surface, with a 517, I'm not sure if your Ivy+ schools are in play without more insight about your activities (and MCAT feels low). (Brown seems to like other Ivy grads, but who knows.) Did you run your list with your spouse, considering they don't know where they are going to school? What conditions govern the geographical constraints (like where in California or NY)? How imminent is your move?

I'm missing signs of campus leadership, though I don't know if that is hindered by being married.

What is your purpose as a physician? It feels like you want to be involved with systems change regarding safety and efficiency in the clinic (in addition to your patient-serving roles). Managerial roles are important but you don't have to be a doctor for that.

 

[kidcat]

MSAR is your friend for looking at IS/OOS for the public schools on your list.

On the surface, with a 517, I'm not sure if your Ivy+ schools are in play without more insight about your activities (and MCAT feels low). (Brown seems to like other Ivy grads, but who knows.) Did you run your list with your spouse, considering they don't know where they are going to school? What conditions govern the geographical constraints (like where in California or NY)? How imminent is your move?

I'm missing signs of campus leadership, though I don't know if that is hindered by being married.

What is your purpose as a physician? It feels like you want to be involved with systems change regarding safety and efficiency in the clinic (in addition to your patient-serving roles). Managerial roles are important but you don't have to be a doctor for that.

Thank you for the response! I have run the initial list and we are fine with long distance (it is only 3 years) so the location doesn't really matter. CA or NY just because he will likely either attend Berekely or Columbia for law. I would move fall 2026. Is there somewhere I can submit more information about my activities? (Sorry I have never really used SDN!)

I agree, I don't have much campus leadership (besides being president of low hour clubs). This was mostly due to the fact that I needed to work throughout college. Is this a red flag?

I am glad you bring up the purpose question! It allows me to see how I may be weak without good explanation. It is true I want to affect systems, but I want to work directly with patients long term as well. In one of my activity descriptions I mention that a strong realization I had was caring for a comatose patient in the ICU who was eventually transferred to stepdown and discharged (over the course of a couple months). I really enjoyed being a critical part in their healing process and being able to see someone at their best and worst. I think my essays are quite strong so I hope that the physician purpose vs managerial is more explicit

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the response! I have run the initial list and we are fine with long distance (it is only 3 years) so the location doesn't really matter. CA or NY just because he will likely either attend Berekely or Columbia for law. I would move fall 2026. Is there somewhere I can submit more information about my activities? (Sorry I have never really used SDN!)

I agree, I don't have much campus leadership (besides being president of low hour clubs). This was mostly due to the fact that I needed to work throughout college. Is this a red flag?

I am glad you bring up the purpose question! It allows me to see how I may be weak without good explanation. It is true I want to affect systems, but I want to work directly with patients long term as well. In one of my activity descriptions I mention that a strong realization I had was caring for a comatose patient in the ICU who was eventually transferred to stepdown and discharged (over the course of a couple months). I really enjoyed being a critical part in their healing process and being able to see someone at their best and worst. I think my essays are quite strong so I hope that the physician purpose vs managerial is more explicit

If you have to work to support your education, that context is important to note. Otherwise, it's hard to call for all schools how much that might impact your file review holistically.

On purpose: Many physicians find ways to impact patients' well-being by working within or changing parts of the system to get their patients better access to proper care or resources. Witnessing a patient's recovery is awesome too, but is that the type of interaction you want to have every day for 10 years of residency/fellowship? Not all endings will be good ones. Just thinking.

 

[Faha]

Remove UNC and Rutgers since they admit few non residents with no connection to the state. You should receive interviews from the other schools on your list. You could add Kaiser.

 

[chilly_md]

UCI and UCSD are not the best for OOS applicants, and would not be very conducive to traveling to/from Berkley. You can swap them for Stony Brook, Hackensack and Jefferson.