WAMC 3.98 GPA 521 MCAT, School List help

[Cheese_man]

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1. cGPA: 3.98, sGPA: 3.99
2. MCAT: 521 (130/129/130/132)
3. Connecticut Residency
4. White male
5. B.S. Biochemistry from UVA
6. Clinical experience:
   1. 1000+ hours as an EMT-B at a volunteer agency that serves a primarily less-fortunate community, promoted to driver and now to preceptor.
   2. 300+ hours as an MA at a pediatric clinic
      1. Responsible for taking histories, working with physicians to determine treatment plans, running cultures, etc
   3. 100 hours Peri-operative volunteer at a hospital helping prep/clean up after surgeries and transporting patient between pre-op, OR, and PACU
   4. 20 hours ED volunteer helping flip rooms
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. 2.5 years of research (2000+ hours) in a pharmacology lab, couple solo projects researching a new drug class for treating autoimmune diseases
   2. One mid-author publication in a mid-impact journal about this new drug class
   3. Participating in a DMP that will be a thesis + poster + symposium presentation in May
   4. Will have another poster presentation/symposium in one my classes
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. 100 hours shadowing various surgeries (general, OB/GYN, podiatric, orthopedic). Was able to scrub in and assist on some dental procedures (so cool)
   2. 10 hours shadowing an anesthesiologist attending.
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. <10 hours Crisis Text Line volunteer (just started this January)
   2. <10 hours Homeless shelter breakfast crew (see above^)
   3. 80 hours receptionist for surgical center at a hospital
      1. Greeting those who have checked in and alerting OR nurses that they have checked in.
10. Leadership activities
    1. Membership coordinator at my rescue agency (300 hours)
       1. Oversee the orientation, voting, and evaluation process for all pre-probationary members in a 150+ person agency
       2. Manage administrative duties of filing paperwork, attending monthly committee meetings, and creating agency-level changes.
    2. Co-founder and secretary of a surgery interest group (50 hours)
       1. Coordinate with physicians to schedule lectures, set-up suture clinics, animal dissection labs.
    3. Senior teaching assistant of physics for pre-health students (500+ hours)
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Received competitive $5000 scholarship for a solo research project
    2. Received Lightning Bolt award from ED for stroke pre-alert as an EMT resulting in TNK administration within 26 minutes.
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. Over 4 years of restaurant experience including as a line cook, kitchen manager, server, food runner, and host

Reaches:
Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago, NYU, Northwestern

Target:
Michigan, UCLA, Vanderbilt, Cornell , Mt. Sinai, BU, Arizona, UVA, Brown, UCSF

Foundation:
UVA, UConn, Quinnipiac, VCU, Dartmouth, Illinois, Creighton, Colorado

Editorial: This is a very tentative school list. My overall feeling is that yes my stats are strong but do I have the EC's/everything else to be a candidate for these types of reaches/targets? Appreciate any advice!!!

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[Goro]

How many hours of non-clinical volunteering in total? I don't know how the receptionist gig will go over, given that you're supposed to be engaged in service to others less fortunate than yourself. The other two venues are good

I've modified your list a little bit as I remove the low yield schools



Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago, NYU, Northwestern
Michigan, UCLA, U Conn, Vanderbilt, Cornell , Mt. Sinai, BU, UVA, Brown, UCSF
UVA, VCU, Dartmouth,

ADD:
Pitt
U VT
USF/MORSANI
U CINCI
EMORY
U ROCHESTER
WESTERN MI
SLU
WASHU
SUNY.SB

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Quantity and quality count. Number of hours per activity and a better description gives me a better idea of you have a purpose as a physician or your are more in the cannon fodder category.

 

[Cheese_man]

How many hours of non-clinical volunteering in total? I don't know how the receptionist gig will go over, given that you're supposed to be engaged in service to others less fortunate than yourself. The other two venues are good

I've modified your list a little bit as I remove the low yield schools



Harvard, Stanford, Penn, Yale, Columbia, Duke, Chicago, NYU, Northwestern
Michigan, UCLA, U Conn, Vanderbilt, Cornell , Mt. Sinai, BU, UVA, Brown, UCSF
UVA, VCU, Dartmouth,

ADD:
Pitt
U VT
USF/MORSANI
U CINCI
EMORY
U ROCHESTER
WESTERN MI
SLU
WASHU
SUNY.SB

Hey - thanks for your reply. The homeless shelter and CTL gigs have just started so they are currently less than 10 hours each, but expect to pick up during this semester. Appreciate the help!

 

[Goro]

Hey - thanks for your reply. The homeless shelter and CTL gigs have just started so they are currently less than 10 hours each, but expect to pick up during this semester. Appreciate the help!

Get service hours to >200

 

[Cheese_man]

Quantity and quality count. Number of hours per activity and a better description gives me a better idea of you have a purpose as a physician or your are more in the cannon fodder category.

I've updated the hours and descriptions of most of the activities! Thanks for your help.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Agree with @Goro. Your service orientation is insufficient. I ignore most activities with fewer than 50 hours except shadowing, so you have a few months to build what you have. You must have 150 hours to avoid getting screened out in service orientation activities like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. Some rescue agency responsibilities could satisfy this expectation.

However given your metrics, you should have 250 minimum at submission to be viable for an interview at brand schools such as the reaches and some targets on your list. You will be up against other applicants with hundreds more hours.

 

[Cheese_man]

Agree with @Goro. Your service orientation is insufficient. I ignore most activities with fewer than 50 hours except shadowing, so you have a few months to build what you have. You must have 150 hours to avoid getting screened out in service orientation activities like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. Some rescue agency responsibilities could satisfy this expectation.

However given your metrics, you should have 250 minimum at submission to be viable for an interview at brand schools such as the reaches and some targets on your list. You will be up against other applicants with hundreds more hours.

That makes total sense. I plan to work a bunch of shifts for the crisis text line and homeless shelter, but would you recommend taking on something else entirely? While my rescue squad definitely has a large service aspect to it that has allowed me to give back to less-fortunate populations, I'm now doubting that (even with 100 more CTL/shelter hours) I will pass that initial screening.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

That makes total sense. I plan to work a bunch of shifts for the crisis text line and homeless shelter, but would you recommend taking on something else entirely? While my rescue squad definitely has a large service aspect to it that has allowed me to give back to less-fortunate populations, I'm now doubting that (even with 100 more CTL/shelter hours) I will pass that initial screening.

Crisis text line is valuable but doesn't involve face to face interaction, so it doesn't have much weight for service orientation.