WAMC: 513 MCAT, 3.81 cGPA, 3.84 sGPA, ORM, Sorta Pseudo/Non-Traditional

[majorlazer4196]

State/Country of Residence: Georgia

Ties to other States/Regions: None besides extended family members that went to med schools I'm applying to; uncles and aunts that live in San Diego and Florida

URM? (Y/N): N, except for UCSF (Vietnamese)

Year in School: college graduate 3 years out of undergrad, didn't pursue graduate degree

Undergraduate Major(s)/Minor(s): Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Major/Vietnamese Studies Minor

Graduate Degrees (if applicable): None, considering informal post-bacc for 1-2 additional classes for med school pre-req requirements (mainly physiology for TCU SOM but unsure how strict they are about that requirement, and I could possibly apply there without physiology and then consider taking it upon acceptance as a condition of my acceptance)

Cumulative GPA: 3.81

Science GPA: 3.84

MCAT Score(s): 513 (128/124/129/132)

Research Experience: Worked 4 research labs in the past 5 years (my AMCAS application doesn't fully reflect the breath of experience I have as one of the labs I had a bad experience with and often excluded it from my CV). First 3 labs were done at my undergrad. 1st lab: veterinary Mosquito-borne diseases lab for 1 summer. 2nd lab: Translational Drug Delivery Systems Lab for 1 spring semester. 3rd lab: Basic Science Microbiology lab for 1 academic year and 1 summer. My current 4th lab at Johns Hopkins Hospital working in Gynecological Oncology Translational Research and Female Epidemiology Research since December 2021.

Publications/Abstracts/Posters (include how you were credited e.g. first author, second author, etc.): 2 poster presentations at a university conference and a national conference respectively in my 3rd lab. Recently an Oral Presentation with my current lab at Hopkins. Currently working on a systematic review manuscript that's expected to be submitted to a OB/GYN journal by the end of August 2022 (i'll be an author, but I don't know what author rank i'll be yet).


Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer): (see below)

went on a medical trip to Peru serving rural and underserved communities in the coastal regions of Peru for 4 weeks. Roughly 200 hours of clinical volunteering hours.

Physician Shadowing- I shadowed a chronic pain management anesthesiologist for about 2-3 years (~150 hours). I've also shadowed a Family Medicine doctor for about 2 years (only ~12 hours). I also did some minor shadowing of a cardiologist and a GI doctor in Peru.


Non-Clinical Volunteering: (see below)

Did volunteering at a hospital in a cardiology and pulmonary unit for 2 semesters. About 84 hours.

Shifa Clinic volunteering serving office work for underserved Muslim population in a suburban college town. About 150 hours

Volunteered in a Outpatient clinic of a children's hospital for a semester. About 25 hours

Other Extracurricular Activities:

was part of my university's premed magazine as a copy editor, then a treasurer, and as a co-founder of a podcast series for the magazine publication for 3 years.

Elected as a liaison for a pre-med honor society for 1 year.

Served as an advisory mentor to an organization assisting minority pre-health students at my university about academic advice and effective study habits

Other Employment History:

Currently in a paid position at Johns Hopkins Medicine working as a research assistant in a translational research lab, although the lab doesn't have much patient interaction, predominantly basic science lab environment with access to human tissues for PDX on mice models and Tissue Banking. I also collaborate with an epidemiologist outside of the lab at Hopkins too where I work on public health research.

Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N):

No, but have extended family members that went to VCU and GWU for med school and University of Maryland for residency and was told those schools recognize legacy ties. I also have extended family that went to Duke Fuqua School of Business if that counts as legacy.

Specialty of Interest (if applicable): Open-minded about fields right now, though I'm low-key leaning towards anesthesiology/chronic pain management (wanna do a hands-on, surgical-like medical specialty w/o the stress of a surgeon). I also have an interest in competitive specialties like IR, Derm, and Ortho, which is partly why I wanna boost my research right now. But still keeping an open-mind between specialties and primary care

Interest in Primary Care (Y/N): I'm leaning towards no, but I'm open-minded to it.

Interest in Rural Health (Y/N): I'm open-minded to it, but unlikely to be interested in rural health

Medical School List:

MD Schools I applied for already this current cycle: (note: I'm open to any suggestions to med schools where my stats would be around the 75th percentile of their accepted applicant pool as I'm AAPI)


Tufts
GW
BU
Mercer
Wake Forest
Sidney Kimmel
Georgetown
VCU
Albert Einstein
Dartmouth
UNC-Chapel Hill
UCSD
University of Maryland
Case Western
UCLA
Drexel
Mount Sinai
MCW
Carle Illinois
University of Cincinnati
Penn State
NYMC
University of Vermont
Hofstra
UMiami
USF
SUNY-Downstate
MCG
Emory
St. Louis
Oakland Beaumont
Johns Hopkins
UCF
University of South Carolina-Greenville
Loyola
Temple
Tulane
Ohio State
Yale
UIC
EVMS
Rush
Wright State
University of South Carolina-Columbia
Uwisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
TCU (I haven't fulfilled their physiology requirement, but could upon acceptance through a post-bacc with my undergrad)
Brown
NYU
Hackensack-Meridian
MUSC (already rejected as an OOS applicant)

Considering Adding:
OHSU
USC-Keck
Loma Linda
Morehouse
A couple of TMDSAS schools


I didn't have DO schools on my list, but I'm considering applying to PCOM-GA, 1-2 FL DO schools, and UNT COM





I'm aware that I may not have very much clinical experience outside of my medical trip to Peru. Another thing I'm concerned about are my 3 gap years as it wasn't productive (I studied the MCAT full-time during this period and also spent time enjoying hobbies outside of studying like backpacking and triathlon; I also used this time to kinda get away from studying and be with family and friends I got distant from) until December 2021 when I took my research position at Hopkins. If there's any schools y'all recommend I remove, lmk (i'm already struggling to get several schools, especially the competitive ones with lengthy secondaries, in within the 2-week period). If there's any high yield MD school recommendations y'all know of that fit my profile that I haven't applied for, lmk (I acutally don't know which schools on my list are high yield or not, if y'all have info to share about that, lmk too!). Happy to hear any thoughts about my chances and any school recommendations as well as application feedback.

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[Faha]

You have 2 weaknesses in your application.
#1 No clinical volunteering/employment with patient contact in this country
#2 You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state as well as several unrealistic reaches. None of the schools you are considering adding are realistic except perhaps Loma :Linda (only if you fit their mission)
You could add theses MD schools to your application:
Western Michigan
NOVA MD
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
CUSOM
ACOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
MU-COM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
TUNCOM
NOVA DO

 

[majorlazer4196]

You have 2 weaknesses in your application.
#1 No clinical volunteering/employment with patient contact in this country
#2 You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state as well as several unrealistic reaches. None of the schools you are considering adding are realistic except perhaps Loma :Linda (only if you fit their mission)
You could add theses MD schools to your application:
Western Michigan
NOVA MD
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
CUSOM
ACOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
MU-COM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
TUNCOM
NOVA DO

Thanks for the suggestions! Following up, what about adding Morehouse SOM? It's also a Georgia school that a med student told me accepts half their class from my undergrad institution.

As for clinical experience and/or volunteering, is there anything I can do outside of my full-time research job (weekend work, part-time, etc.) to fill this gap during my coming gap year? Is volunteering in Hopkins' Adult ED gonna give any clinical volunteering hours?

Is part-time scribing considered clinical experience?

 

[Faha]

Part time scribing and volunteering in the ED is clinical volunteering. Were those hours included on your application. Morehouse mainly admits applicants from the African American community (94 of a total class of 110 two years ago).

 

[majorlazer4196]

I never done scribing before, but it's something I wanna do outside of my full-time research job this year. I only listed it on my gap year secondary when explaining what I will be doing this coming year, but I don't have scribing hours yet. I included my Adult ED Hopkins assignment as well, but I also don't have hours there yet. Just the hospital volunteering hours I already had from the 2 hospitals I volunteered before.

 

[majorlazer4196]

You have 2 weaknesses in your application.
#1 No clinical volunteering/employment with patient contact in this country
#2 You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state as well as several unrealistic reaches. None of the schools you are considering adding are realistic except perhaps Loma :Linda (only if you fit their mission)
You could add theses MD schools to your application:
Western Michigan
NOVA MD
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
CUSOM
ACOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
MU-COM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
TUNCOM
NOVA DO

For Loma Linda, is my GPA still competitive for Loma Linda as a Vietnamese ORM? Here's their GPA stats for accepted applicants.

 

[Faha]

You are competitive for Loma Linda.

 

[majorlazer4196]

You are competitive for Loma Linda.

Thanks for the suggestion, I think i'll add Loma Linda as I think I can speak about some of my spiritual background that I didn't talk about in my application! It's not too late to add Loma Linda into AMCAS this far into cycle, is it?

 

[Faha]

Thanks for the suggestion, I think i'll add Loma Linda as I think I can speak about some of my spiritual background that I didn't talk about in my application! It's not too late to add Loma Linda into AMCAS this far into cycle, is it?

No

 

[majorlazer4196]

You have 2 weaknesses in your application.
#1 No clinical volunteering/employment with patient contact in this country
#2 You have many state public schools on your list that admit few non residents with no connection to the state as well as several unrealistic reaches. None of the schools you are considering adding are realistic except perhaps Loma :Linda (only if you fit their mission)
You could add theses MD schools to your application:
Western Michigan
NOVA MD
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
CUSOM
ACOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
MU-COM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
TUNCOM
NOVA DO

And what're your thoughts about adding NYU, not the main Grossman campus, but the smaller, suburban Long Island Campus? They have more similar stats to mine unlike the Grossman campus and a smaller applicant pool, but at the same time, I see from AAMC data they only had 9 matriculants.

 

[Faha]

And what're your thoughts about adding NYU, not the main Grossman campus, but the smaller, suburban Long Island Campus? They have more similar stats to mine unlike the Grossman campus and a smaller applicant pool, but at the same time, I see from AAMC data they only had 9 matriculants.

View attachment 358305

NYU is too competitive and as you can see less than 1% of applicants matriculate.

 

[candbgirl]

So you are applying (have applied ) this cycle. In addition to no clinical experience in the US, why did you include “Did volunteering at a hospital in a cardiology and pulmonary unit for 2 semesters. About 84 hours” and “Volunteered in a Outpatient clinic of a children's hospital for a semester. About 25 hours” as nonclinical volunteering?
Stop shadowing and do something about your total lack of clinical experience.

 

[majorlazer4196]

I was told those didn't count by my pre-med advisor, which was confusing as I feel I got a good amount of patient interaction from my times volunteering at the hospital, not so much at the outpatient clinic, but in the cardiology and pulmonary units yes.

P.S.: part of me regrets following my OB/GYN aunt's insistence on me accepting the research position at Hopkins as I was originally wanting to take up a scribing job to boost up my clinical experience hours as I'm lacking in that. Taking up this research job had the opportunity cost of me losing time away from more clinical experience/volunteering. Though, I think I can find a way to get a part-time scribing job in while on my full-time research obligations.