WAMC? 3.96 cGPA/ 3.93 sGPA CA ORM Lacking Research

[acacia7]

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Hi everyone! Looking for any insight on my resume strengths/weaknesses and school list. Looking to apply 2022/23 cycle. Also, any advice on how to spend my gap year/ these next few months before graduation is welcome 🙂 Thank you!

1. cGPA: 3.96, sGPA: 3.93
2. MCAT: 521 (129, 131, 130, 131)
3. CA resident
4. ORM, female
5. Currently a senior undergrad at a top UC, neuroscience major. Will be taking a gap year.
6. Clinical experience: 280 hours (200 as a paid medical assistant for a private practice; 80 volunteering in a clinic in an under-resourced area).
7. Research experience: None (I realize this is the most glaring gap in my application. Covid put a hitch in my plans, I have interviewed for some undergrad clinical research positions, so far no luck but we’ll see if anything comes of it. I am generally more interested in primary care than research, but still heavily considering spending my gap year doing research. Not sure if this would be too late to include in applications though).
8. Shadowing: 60 hours (Radiology, Cardiology, Family Practice, Internal Medicine).
9. Non-Clinical volunteering: 250 hours (mostly at an inner-city soup kitchen/ meal center).
10. Played several club and intramural sports; one year as an undergraduate assistant for an upper division science class; heavily involved in an on-campus religious organization (3 years leadership, including 2 as community service liaison/ director, over 1000 hours total as a leader).
11. Dean’s List? Other than that not really.
12. Interested in primary care/ rural medicine.

Tentative school list:

1. UC Davis
2. Loma Linda
3. UCSF
4. UCLA
5. UCSD
6. UC Irvine
7. Kaiser
8. Stanford
9. Keck USC
10. California University of Science and Medicine
11. UC Riverside
12. Cal Northstate
13. University of Oregon (long shot but would really love to go here)
14. University of Hawaii (same as above)
15. UVA
16. UNC Chapel Hill
17. University of Colorado
18. University of Wisconsin
19. University of Minnesota
20. Ohio State
21. University of Vermont
22. Northwestern
23. Vanderbilt
24. Emory
25. NYU
26. Eastern Virginia
27. Geisel Dartmouth
28. Icahn Mount Sinai
29. Columbia
30. University of Rochester

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please explain what experiences you have had that contribute to your interest in rural medicine or primary care. Did you ever grow up in a rural setting?

 

[acacia7]

Please explain what experiences you have had that contribute to your interest in rural medicine or primary care. Did you ever grow up in a rural setting?

I grew up in a small town with outlying rural areas, but not in a rural setting myself. My parents (now US citizens) are originally immigrants from overseas, and one parent grew up in a rural community there. Much of my extended family still lives in that country, with some working in healthcare in rural areas. I visited with my family there often while growing up, and my experiences seeing and talking with them has had a big impact on my interest in primary care and rural medicine. Another big factor has been a few short-term service trips I did to very rural areas (in that country and others), and led to me wanting to do long-term humanitarian medical work abroad someday.