WAMC? 517/3.8

tacobell4life · Mar 1, 2021

Hello! I'm applying this cycle and am looking for some guidance on my overall candidacy for med school/school list/any areas of improvement? Thanks in advance!

State of Residence: California
Ties to other States/Regions: No
URM: No (Asian, Male)
Year in School: Senior
Undergrad: Top Public University
Major: Molecular Bio
Cumulative GPA: 3.80
Science GPA: 3.70
MCAT Score: 517 (131/130/128/128)
Research Experience:
- 2 years in molecular bio lab (genotyping/mice colony maintenance; no projects/publications)
- 2 years in public health research group (1 student-led project; no publications)
Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer):
- medical assistant (paid) 300 hours by the time I apply but projected 2000 hrs on app (gap year full-time job)
- hospital volunteer ~115 hours
Physician Shadowing: None (aside from direct observation of physician/patient in Medical Assistant position)
Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- 1 year as community health outreach volunteer for heart center
- 2 years as volunteer medical interpreter/translator (Spanish)
- 1 year as science instructor for local elementary schools
Other Extracurricular Activities:
- President of undergrad campus cultural organization
- Undergraduate TA for physiology course
Other Employment History:
- 2 years as Resident Assistant (RA) in campus dorms (providing emergency response, crisis/mental health support, etc for residents)
Immediate family members in medicine? No
Interest in Primary Care: No
Interest in Rural Health: No
Medical School List: (I want to narrow this down to ~50 schools total, with SDN's help )
In-state (13)
- UC Davis
- UC Irvine
- UCR
- UCSD
- UCLA
- UCSF
- Kaiser
- USC
- CUSM
- Cal Northstate
- Loma Linda
- Touro-CA (DO)
- Western-Pomona (DO)
Out-of-state (47)
- UArizona-Phoenix
- Colorado
- George Washington
- Georgetown
- Florida Atlantic
- Florida International
- U of Central FL
- Miami
- USF Morsani
- Loyola
- Rush
- U of Illinois (Chicago)
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Boston
- Tufts
- UMass
- Oakland
- Wayne
- Western Mich
- Minnesota
- SLU
- Creighton
- Dartmouth
- Rutgers NJMS (Newark)
- Albany
- Einstein
- Hofstra
- Buffalo
- NYMC
- Stony Brook
- SUNY Downstate
- SUNY Upstate
- Rochester
- Case Western
- Cincinnati
- Drexel
- Geisinger
- Temple
- Penn State
- Thomas Jefferson
- Pittsburgh
- TCU/UNTHSC (Texas)
- Vermont
- EVMS
- MCW

dirtcobain · Mar 1, 2021

For some CA schools to remove, I'd recommend removing one of UCR or UCD depending if you're from NorCal or SoCal. Also Loma Linda unless you're comfortable with it being very religious, and maybe Northstate since it's for-profit and I heard some bad things about it (do more research on it though).

For OOS schools, Rush requires like thousands of volunteer hours, and Arizona has specific prereqs, so keep that in mind. Don't know much about other schools but probably just remove some low-yields (Drexel, Georgetown), or locations that you don't like, or the ones that have low OOS (I think Rutgers, Colorado)

Banco · Mar 1, 2021

Your app is great, but that’s a lot of OOS schools.

SUNYs, Rutgers, and many of the other state schools are low yield for you. Cut those.

Faha · Mar 2, 2021

I suggest these schools from your list:

UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCR
UCSD
UCLA
UCSF
Kaiser
USC
CUSM
Loma Linda
Touro-CA (DO)
Western-Pomona (DO)
Colorado
George Washington
Georgetown
Miami
USF Morsani
Loyola
Rush
Boston
Tufts
Oakland
Wayne
Western Michigan
SLU
Creighton
Dartmouth
Albany
Einstein
Hofstra
NYMC
Rochester
Case Western
Cincinnati
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
Thomas Jefferson
Pittsburgh
TCU/UNTHSC (Texas)
Vermont
EVMS
MCW

To be MD · Mar 2, 2021

tacobell4life said:
Hello! I'm applying this cycle and am looking for some guidance on my overall candidacy for med school/school list/any areas of improvement? Thanks in advance!

State of Residence: California

Ties to other States/Regions: No

URM: No (Asian, Male)

Year in School: Senior

Undergrad: Top Public University

Major: Molecular Bio

Cumulative GPA: 3.80

Science GPA: 3.70

MCAT Score: 517 (131/130/128/128)

Research Experience:

2 years in molecular bio lab (genotyping/mice colony maintenance; no projects/publications)

2 years in public health research group (1 student-led project; no publications)

Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer):

medical assistant (paid) 300 hours by the time I apply but projected 2000 hrs on app (gap year full-time job)

hospital volunteer ~115 hours

Physician Shadowing: None (aside from direct observation of physician/patient in Medical Assistant position)

Non-Clinical Volunteering:

1 year as community health outreach volunteer for heart center

2 years as volunteer medical interpreter/translator (Spanish)

1 year as science instructor for local elementary schools

Other Extracurricular Activities:

President of undergrad campus cultural organization

Undergraduate TA for physiology course

Other Employment History:

2 years as Resident Assistant (RA) in campus dorms (providing emergency response, crisis/mental health support, etc for residents)

Immediate family members in medicine? No

Interest in Primary Care: No

Interest in Rural Health: No

Medical School List: (I want to narrow this down to ~50 schools total, with SDN's help )

In-state (13)

UC Davis

UC Irvine

UCR

UCSD

UCLA

UCSF

Kaiser

USC

CUSM

Cal Northstate

Loma Linda

Touro-CA (DO)

Western-Pomona (DO)

Out-of-state (47)

UArizona-Phoenix

Colorado

George Washington

Georgetown

Florida Atlantic

Florida International

U of Central FL

Miami

USF Morsani

Loyola

Rush

U of Illinois (Chicago)

Indiana

Iowa

Maryland

Boston

Tufts

UMass

Oakland

Wayne

Western Mich

Minnesota

SLU

Creighton

Dartmouth

Rutgers NJMS (Newark)

Albany

Einstein

Hofstra

Buffalo

NYMC

Stony Brook

SUNY Downstate

SUNY Upstate

Rochester

Case Western

Cincinnati

Drexel

Geisinger

Temple

Penn State

Thomas Jefferson

Pittsburgh

TCU/UNTHSC (Texas)

Vermont

EVMS

MCW

You're overapplying, but I can't blame anyone for that. Just be ready to write the hell out of some secondary essays...

Goro · Mar 3, 2021

tacobell4life said:
Of your list, I suggest;

UC Davis

UC Irvine

UCR (delete if you're not from the Inland Empire)

UCSD

UCLA

UCSF

Kaiser

USC

CUSM

Loma Linda (ONLY if you're SDA or very devout Christian)

Touro-CA (DO) ONLY if you're dying to stay in CA!

Western-Pomona (DO) ONLY if you're dying to stay in CA!

Colorado

U of Central FL

Miami

USF Morsani

U of Illinois (Chicago)

Iowa

Boston

Tufts

Western Mich

SLU

Emory

Dartmouth

Einstein

Hofstra

Rochester

Case Western

Cincinnati

Thomas Jefferson

Pittsburgh

Vermont

NYU.LI, Mayo, Brown,

WAMC? 517/3.8

tacobell4life

Full Member

dirtcobain

Full Member

Banco

Full Member

Faha

Full Member

To be MD

Med School Or Bust

Goro

Full Member

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