WAMC - 3.91 cGPA, 511 MCAT, SC resident, Re-applicant (few schools originally)

[CaptainKirk1]

Hello everyone, looking to get some insight into my chances this upcoming cycle:

• cGPA at in-state honors college: 3.91
• MCAT(s) scores and breakdown: 511 (126/130/128/127)
• State of residence or country of citizenship (if-non-US): SC
• Ethnicity and/or race: White
• Undergraduate Institution or category: Low-tier
• Clinical Experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
  • Volunteer Medical Assistant in Dermatology Office (triaging patients, taking patients to exam room, semi-scribing) (100 hours)
  • ICU Volunteer (Just started this, stocking shelves, diverse patient population) (~30-40 hours at time of application)(projecting out for next 6 months)
• Research experience and productivity
  • Undergraduate Research (literature review) studying Glioblastoma (75 hours) with PI from medical school.
  • After pandemic had started so was difficult to transition to doing real bench work. PI wrote a letter of recommendation for me.
  • NIH CRTA gap year studying radiation oncology specifically glioblastoma (4000+ hours, started March 2021)
  • 1 Accepted Review article with 2nd author publication in respected journal. Another pub being submitted as 4th author. Tough to get 1st author pubs due to nature of the work.
  • Clinical exposure at work through research sample collection elaborated on in PS.
• Shadowing Experience and specialties represented.
  • Internal Medicine (50 hours)
  • General Surgery (40 hours)
  • Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (5 hours)
  • Virtual with Heal Clinic (5 hours)
• Non-clinical Volunteering
  • Volunteering with assisted living facility near NIH job doing memory care and exercises to fight onset of Alzheimer's and Dementia in elderly residents (50 hours). Projecting 50 hours for next year.
  • Scattered non-clinical volunteering in college (multiple different locales and missions) that I did a horrible job keeping up with the hours. Would going back and trying to quantify be helpful?
• Other Extracurriculars:
  • Cru Campus Ministry leadership role for short time and throughout college involvement (300 hours)
  • Study Abroad experience in Greece interacting with language learning and cultural immersion (~2000 hours)
  • Member in 2 Honors Societies
  • Member of organization on campus that oriented study abroad students to the university for a semester (before COVID hit)(100 hours)

School List:

• Albert Einstein COM
• University of Colorado SOM
• University of Central Florida COM
• Tufts University SOM
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
• University of Miami Leonard M. Miller SOM
• State University of New York Downstate Medical Center COM
• University of Maryland SOM
• Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science
• George Washington University SOM
• Georgetown University SOM
• Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
• Wayne State University SOM
• Charles E. Schmidt COM at Florida Atlantic University
• Loyola University Chicago Stritch SOM
• Drexel University COM
• Robert Larner, M.D., COM at the University of Vermont
• Nova Southeastern University College of Allopathic Medicine
• Oregon Health & Science University SOM
• Tulane University SOM
• Florida International University Herbert Wertheim COM
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• University of Illinois College of Medicine
• University of South Carolina SOM Greenville
• Medical University of South Carolina SOM
• Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences F. Edward Herbert SOM
• Oakland University William Beaumont SOM
• University of South Carolina SOM Columbia

List is roughly organized according to MSAR MCAT average data across the schools. Heard in interviews my LORs were glowing for what that's worth. Looking for ways to strengthen my application at all before submission at the end of this month.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chilly_md]

Low clinical experience likely held you back. You want to get to 150-200 hours completed by the time you submit. What was your school list last cycle? Did you receive interviews from your state schools or any OOS school?

For non-clinical, you might be able to move the memory care to clinical volunteering as you were helping elderly patients. The off and on things from college could help, but if you think they were less than 50 hours, I would save the time and not look into that any further.

 

[CaptainKirk1]

Thanks for the advice! I applied to 6 schools in 2020 (1 interview) and then only 1 school early decision this past cycle and got an interview there but have been waitlisted. It was the same school each year (hometown) that I got the interview at each time. Definitely trying to widen my net this time around with 25-30 schools in total.

I will try my best to get more hours in the ICU before May 31st so I can get up to and above 150 hours for clinical volunteering. I will also ask about classification for volunteering at the assisted living facility.

Any tips on what I can do to improve my school list? Clinical hours?

 

[chilly_md]

More clinical hours and non-clinical volunteering to the underserved (ie homeless shelter, soup kitchen, Big Brothers Big Sisters if you can commit the time etc) would help. The schools who have similar average stats to yours tend to be service-oriented. They probably saw you had 2000 hours for a study abroad and very little to none in helping those less fortunate. If you have an MD or DO LOR, I would include DO schools. I suggest:

Tufts University SOM
Jefferson
Rosalind Franklin
George Washington
Temple
Drexel
FAU
FIU
Vermont
Nova MD
Medical College of Wisconsin
University of South Carolina SOM Greenville
Medical University of South Carolina SOM
Uniformed Services University (if you understand the service requirement)
University of South Carolina SOM Columbia
Wake
VCU
Hackensack
Loma Linda (check if your religious beliefs are similar)
NYMC
Albany

For DO:
Campbell
LECOM (all campuses)
PCOM (all campuses)
Marian
KCOM
VCOM
ACOM
DMU
KCU
Touro NY
NYIT