WAMC/ 4.0 / 520 / DE residence on birth certificate but really grew up in Canada/ School list help

[TunaSocks]

1. GPA:4.0
2. 520 (132/127/131/130)
3. Canadian and American citizen, birthplace of Delaware.
4. South Asian
5. Queen's University in Canada, majoring in Health Sciences
6. Clinical:
Volunteer at an addiction clinic (160 hours) creating and iterating an intake form for patients based on interactions between patients and clinicians
Outpatient physiotherapist volunteer (30 hours) where we help recently out of knee replacement surgery patients through exercises.
Plan on increasing this to 250 hours this summer volunteering at a long term care home.

7. Research:
700 hours in basic science research studying Alzheimer's using in vivo NMR (3 conference abstracts accepted where 2 are international and 1 local (first author on 2 and second author on 1), 1 poster presentation at the conference (1st author))
400 hours in a dry lab that is policy/advocacy-based research identifying gaps in Canadian healthcare relative to WHO guidelines for those experiencing deafblindness (1 conference abstract like 4th author, 2 publications in the pipeline where I'd be middle author in both).
Plan on increasing to 1800 this summer doing clinical research at BWH, Boston.

8. Shadowing:
17 hours for orthopedic surgeon
Plan to get this to 50 hours total shadowing neurologist, nephrologist, and/or vascular surgeon.

9. Non-clinical volunteering:
Football coach (10 hours)
Club member donating extra food from our dining halls to homeless shelters (20 hours)
Best Buddies volunteer (90 hours)
Vaccine clinic volunteer mostly sanitation and patient flow (24 hours)
High school tutor (65 hours).
Plan to get this to 250 hours total working at soup kitchen this summer.

10. Other ECs:
Introductory biochemistry TA (65 hours) where I created exam questions, led review sessions, and marked assignments
Leader of STEM-based outreach initiative on campus and did a whole bunch of stuff with this like created own programs focusing on scientific literacy for high school students and partnering with libraries to discuss topics like inclusivity in STEM and climate change (740 hours)

11. Awards: 2 research scholarships for this summer, Dean's list with distinction all years undergrad up to now, 1st place oral presentation,2 other research based scholarships, high school valedictorian (do I include this?)


School List (USMD only since that's what I'm more concerned about):
Stanford
Harvard
JHU
Duke
Northwestern
Cornell
U Chicago
Columbia
Mayo Clinic
UPenn
Michigan
University of Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Stony Brook
Case Western
Tulane
Tufts
Einstein
Dartmouth
Mount Sinai.

I know it's top heavy, but I approached it as schools I would pick over Canadian ones if by some miracle I get into both. How does it look? Any recommendations?

Thank you for all your help! I look forward to learning from you.

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[Mr.Smile12]

The more community service/service orientation activities you can do (get above 250 by submission) the closer you get to the "cannon fodder" middle. You need to be networking with the US schools' admissions teams. You shouldn't have a problem, but I don't know what your Queens transcript will reveal to adcoms who are more accustomed to seeing gen ed course subject diversity found on US transcripts. Availability of experiences is different when you go to a Canadian uni because you don't get the institutional resources (like a prehealth advisor) had to stayed in the US.

Work on the mission fit alignment, kill the Casper (both US and Canadian forms) and PREview exams, and you should be getting attention. Pick the schools where you want to take your shot, but I agree don't get too greedy.

 

[TunaSocks]

The more community service/service orientation activities you can do (get above 250 by submission) the closer you get to the "cannon fodder" middle. You need to be networking with the US schools' admissions teams. You shouldn't have a problem, but I don't know what your Queens transcript will reveal to adcoms who are more accustomed to seeing gen ed course subject diversity found on US transcripts. Availability of experiences is different when you go to a Canadian uni because you don't get the institutional resources (like a prehealth advisor) had to stayed in the US.

Work on the mission fit alignment, kill the Casper (both US and Canadian forms) and PREview exams, and you should be getting attention. Pick the schools where you want to take your shot, but I agree don't get too greedy.

Thank you for the advice! I know the community service is my weak point so I'm going gung-ho to get them up this summer. When you say networking with US admission teams, would that be through the conferences? Also in reference to cannon fodder middle, is it implied that I become more average by increasing the clinical hours? Or did I misunderstand?

I think it was also important to mention that as an aspiring physician, my purpose is education and patient empowerment, as well as research.

Is this a formidable list where I'm not too greedy given my stats and experiences?

Thank you again.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the advice! I know the community service is my weak point so I'm going gung-ho to get them up this summer. When you say networking with US admission teams, would that be through the conferences? Also in reference to cannon fodder middle, is it implied that I become more average by increasing the clinical hours? Or did I misunderstand?

Often schools host recruitment events, usually in the fall once the application cycle begins and after orientation. It doesn't help if you submit before July so all of those efforts are best done the year before. That said, many programs schedule virtual recruitment fairs over the next few weeks.

Building Your Best School List - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

I think it was also important to mention that as an aspiring physician, my purpose is education and patient empowerment, as well as research.

That's not a purpose. You could be a doctoral-level nurse practitioner and do those same things.

Charting Your Purpose by Writing Your Professional Oath - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

Is this a formidable list where I'm not too greedy given my stats and experiences?

Your stats are such that you probably would try for that list no matter what. There are 140-180 medical schools you can apply for, so the question is making a high-yield list. I don't have your application or essays or mission fit to comment further about the appropriateness of your list.

Besides, Canadian schools are so mysterious that I would expect you to apply into OMSAS at all of the Ontario schools, all of whom likely select by metrics first, despite any language saying they seek more diverse classes (limited data show this has been a systematic problem with very little progress).

What you have to worry about: Canadian schools may see you have US citizenship, and most know from experience US schools are better. US schools see you have schooling at Canada and perhaps few experiences in the US so do you really understand the problems with navigating the US healthcare system? Networking helps you figure out which schools are less likely to react to your application this way.

 

[TunaSocks]

Often schools host recruitment events, usually in the fall once the application cycle begins and after orientation. It doesn't help if you submit before July so all of those efforts are best done the year before. That said, many programs schedule virtual recruitment fairs over the next few weeks.

Building Your Best School List - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

That's not a purpose. You could be a doctoral-level nurse practitioner and do those same things.

Charting Your Purpose by Writing Your Professional Oath - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

Your stats are such that you probably would try for that list no matter what. There are 140-180 medical schools you can apply for, so the question is making a high-yield list. I don't have your application or essays or mission fit to comment further about the appropriateness of your list.

Besides, Canadian schools are so mysterious that I would expect you to apply into OMSAS at all of the Ontario schools, all of whom likely select by metrics first, despite any language saying they seek more diverse classes (limited data show this has been a systematic problem with very little progress).

What you have to worry about: Canadian schools may see you have US citizenship, and most know from experience US schools are better. US schools see you have schooling at Canada and perhaps few experiences in the US so do you really understand the problems with navigating the US healthcare system? Networking helps you figure out which schools are less likely to react to your application this way.

Thank you for the resources and pinpointing my misconception on what a mission is. I'll spend significantly more time on this then and place more emphasis interacting with the schools. As for Canada, the approach is 100% apply everywhere, which is why I'm so uncertain about the USMD approach where there are a lot more things to factor in (of which I am fearful of forgetting).

Again, thank you for your help.

 

[TunaSocks]

@Faha I was wondering what your opinions of this list was too! Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Faha]

@Faha I was wondering what your opinions of this list was too! Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

You could add these schools with your stats:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Yale
Hofstra
Cincinnati
Rochester

 

[TunaSocks]

You could add these schools with your stats:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Yale
Hofstra
Cincinnati
Rochester

Thank you for the additional schools! I will take a close look at them.