WAMC: 4.0 GPA, 518 MCAT (24-25 cycle)

[kuronomaru]

Hello, I’m a senior looking to apply in the 2024-2025 cycle. Any advice on my school list or how to strengthen my application would be appreciated. Thank you for your time!

• cGPA: 4.0 / sGPA: 4.0
• 518 MCAT (129/127/130/132)
• White MI non-trad (had to take gap semester in middle of undergrad due to outside circumstances)
• Clinical experience: 400 hours as paid medical assistant in surgical oncology. 120 hours medical assistant volunteer in internal med. I’ll have ~100 hours volunteering in an underserved community by June.
• Research: 1800 hours, volunteering/internship. Presented at 2 conferences, at internship program, and one poster presentation. One publication just submitted and plan to have a second in review by June for a major biochemistry journal (co-author on both). Received various awards.
• Shadowing: 32 hours surgical oncology and internal med. Goal is 20-30 more hours.
• Non-clinical work experience: 150 hours charting and directing documents to physicians. 40 hours clinical research data entry.
• Non-clinical volunteering: 50 hours leading community service club and volunteering with nonprofit parent organization, 30 hours in second nonprofit org (both are ongoing). I'm aiming for at least 20 hours in hospice care by June.
• Extracurricular activities: Secretary for a club sport. Just started MCAT tutoring.
• Other: My hobbies include creating/selling my own art, advocating for chronic illness through various platforms, and recreational sports.

I have a strong background story and should have strong LoRs from faculty, a research PI, an office manager, and a physician. I realize that my tutoring and non-clinical volunteering hours are very low. Is it a good idea to focus mainly on those? Would a TA position help strengthen my application?

School list (still working on this): U Michigan, Michigan State, Western MI, Central MI, Oakland, Wayne, Hopkins, Mayo (AZ), U Arizona (Phoenix and Tucson), Vanderbilt, Toledo, Ohio State, Wisconsin

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[atriablack]

I realize that my tutoring and non-clinical volunteering hours are very low. Is it a good idea to focus mainly on those? Would a TA position help strengthen my application?

Tutoring isn't essential to your app but non-clinical volunteering is. Get those non-clinical hours up asap. Seems like your current non-clinical hours are split over different orgs, I'd say focus in on one that allows for direct face-to-face interaction with the population you serve. Prioritize getting those hours upto 100-150. If a TA position doesn't put too much of a drain on your time and prevent you from getting non-clinical volunteering then sure, it can help strengthen your app.
Also, Hospice volunteering counts as clinical volunteering, not non-clinical.

 

[kuronomaru]

Tutoring isn't essential to your app but non-clinical volunteering is. Get those non-clinical hours up asap. Seems like your current non-clinical hours are split over different orgs, I'd say focus in on one that allows for direct face-to-face interaction with the population you serve. Prioritize getting those hours upto 100-150. If a TA position doesn't put too much of a drain on your time and prevent you from getting non-clinical volunteering then sure, it can help strengthen your app.
Also, Hospice volunteering counts as clinical volunteering, not non-clinical.

Thank you! I'll make sure to work on those. I appreciate it.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please note, with your stats, if you are trying to shoot higher, you need more hours of experience. 150 is generally the threshold to avoid getting screened out, but you would be behind par if you try to go for brand schools, including U of Michigan. Hopkins and Vandy sound like you want to send them a gift of money and a chance to see if you're good enough. I don't know how you appeal to them otherwise. Need more insight on your research and how that fits into anything. Your lack of community service or any campus organizations that isn't your community service org feels incomplete for what they are looking for. (Your art hobby could be interesting, but not sure it's compelling.)

I'm not sure if charting for physicians doesn't otherwise count as clinical. It does on the dental side. You do that when you are scribing, and you don't have to be in the same room when you are finalizing your chart notes. Wouldn't you need physician sign-off on your work for legal purposes?

Hospice care is a gray area as clinical or clinical-adjacent. It just depends on what you do, but given how really challenging the environment is to work with that cohort of patients, we do strongly favor getting some experience to understand mortality and morbidity up close.

Every premed tutors someone. It doesn't help you stand out if that's what you are concerned about.

No idea what your mission fit is from the above.

 

[KaiBuzz]

Remove UA Tucson unless you are an AZ resident or attend that university.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Yeah - ideally you'd have 300 hours each of clinical and non-clinical volunteering; if you've had clinical work experience, you can have 500 hours of nonclinical volunteering and still be solid. That is a solid number anywhere other than top-20 schools, where it checks the box. In order to look like you've checked the box...get at least 200 hours of nonclinical volunteering completed. That's the weakest part of your application; the rest of it looks like top-20 pack fodder. Which is a pretty good place to be!

Your advocacy work is also somewhat interesting - how many hours did you put into that? You might be able to call it nonclinical volunteering. What ultimately came of the work?