WAMC 4.0/521, MD resident, ORM

[oceaNman6]

Hi! I finally decided I wanted to apply pre-med and am thinking of applying this upcoming cycle.

• cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
  • 4.0 cGPA/sGPA (currently a senior) in a STEM major
• MCAT score(s) and breakdown
  • 521 (132/125 /132/132)
• State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
  • Maryland
• Ethnicity and/or race
  • South Asian Male
• Undergraduate institution or category
  • T10 in the Northeast
• Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
  • Volunteer in a community clinic in an urban setting doing essentially social work. 90 percent phone calls with patients, 10 percent direct patient interaction. 800 hours. MME for sure and what made me decide that I want to pursue medicine, but a bit concerned that it might not qualify as clinical experience or that I would need another experience that is more hands-on.
• Research experience and productivity
  • 6 years in one lab (MME). 1 mid-author publication. Difficult to say if I will have more evidence of productivity in the next few months, but I do have independence in the lab and work on my own projects 25-35 hours/week.
• Shadowing experience and specialties represented
  • 30 hours Oncology and Infectious Disease
• Non-clinical volunteering
  • Tutoring middle schoolers and science outreach through clubs (~400-600 hours?)
• Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
  • Gaming (haha, but competitive and intercollegiate)
  • Will be taking a gap year to do research (same lab)
  • TA/tutor for students at my university for various courses (chemistry, biology, etc.)
  • Leadership in four organizations (2 non-clinical volunteering, 1 clinical volunteering, and one other), president of one (non-clinical volunteering) for past three years
• Relevant honors or awards
  • Nothing worth mentioning
• Anything else not listed you think might be important
  • I am LGBT (bi, some unusual life experiences involving this) but not super relevant I think

Help with my school list and general advice would be appreciated. In particular, I feel like I definitely not have enough shadowing and I might benefit from having more varied experiences (especially clinical). I also do not have a strong "theme" to my application as I have been participating in activities that I enjoy rather than trying to craft a story. I also only recently decided to commit to pre-med so maybe I should take another year off?

Also would it be a red flag to put gaming on my application? I have spent a lot of hours playing on a team for my college and am looking to coach too once I graduate. The game itself also does not have a great rep. I really want to be authentic on my application but am a bit worried that the stigma around gaming is still very much a potential concern.

Thanks so much in advance!

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[Mr.Smile12]

So what made you decide now is the time to apply (really next summer)? Was it how well you did on the MCAT? How much networking have you done with schools near you? Have you connected with the Medical Student Pride Alliance?

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

One bi medical student to another: I would be careful about including your sexuality without evidence of service to the LGBTQ+ community. Not because of fears of discrimination - that's something for each individual applicant to carefully consider - but because of other implications. Namely, that admissions committees might think that you are cynically checking a box in order to get "diversity points" without actually being a member of that community or something like that. Good luck, though; your app is strong!