PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE
Hey everyone, thanks in advance for the advice. I’ve built a school list that I think is okay, but I’d like some advice on it. I was originally considering applying last cycle, but based on advice received in a previous post, I pushed my application back by one year. In that time, I've gained 1300 clinical hours, 1 poster presentation, 2 manuscript submissions, 100 shadowing hours, and 50 hours of non-clinical volunteering (all of this is bolded and says since May 2023).
Undergrad/Profile:
CA resident
ORM - Asian male
T50 public school in CA
Stats:
- cGPA: 3.987
- sGPA: 4.0
- MCAT: 521 (130/128/132/131)
Clinical Experience:
- 100 hours volunteering at a local hospital
- 1300 hours as a TMS technician (clinical job) (since May 2023)
Research/Lab:
- 850 hours working in a wet lab setting. No publications yet, but I should be 9th or 10th author (or around there) on a paper.
- 1 poster presentation at a brain injury conference (since May 2023) - clinical research
- 1 first-author and 1 second-author manuscript submitted to journals (likely won't be accepted until after June 2024) (since May 2023) - clinical research
Shadowing:
- 51 hours (plastic surgery)
- 100 hours (neuropsychiatry) (since May 2023)
Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- 50 hours as a volunteer tutor for students from underserved communities,
- As part of this, I helped design a curriculum for a class that is going to be taught next year
- Both since May 2023
Other ECs:
- 420 hours being an IA/TA for three undergrad courses (all biology courses)
- 400 hours being an SI Leader (basically a tutoring service provided by the school. It is similar to being a IA/TA, and I tutored for 4 total undergraduate chem and bio courses)
- 360 hours being Orientation Intern (I planned and designed the New Student Orientation Program for one-sixth of my school’s incoming class.)
- 130 hours being an Orientation Leader (Involved in aiding students’ transition to my university, led small group-based discussions and gave tours, that sort of thing. After being an Orientation Leader, I applied to be the Orientation Intern.)
- 180 hours being on my fraternity’s executive board (I was involved in two different positions - one being a sort of secretary role where I took minutes and sent reminders about upcoming events, meetings, etc. and the second where I was involved in teaching new members about the values of our fraternity and what we represent by holding weekly new member education sessions.)
- 170 hours being on my biology organization’s board (I held three different positions - one was planning academic and social events for the club, the second was a treasurer role, and the third was a position on a sub-committee of the biology org that planned and designed an undergraduate biology seminar course at my university)
- A note: none of these will continue accumulating hours, because I graduated.
Honors and Awards:
- Graduated summa cum laude
- Outstanding Senior(s) of the Year (They give seven of these awards out, but still a cool thing imo.)
Miscellaneous:
- I really like (both watching and playing) sports, especially soccer. So, sports are a hobby of mine.
- Leadership is (clearly) my strongest attribute. I am likely going to include leadership and what I have learned from my various experiences in my personal statement.
SCHOOL LIST:
I’m looking to apply to 30-35 schools. My main considerations are, in this order: 1) staying in California, 2) cost, and 3) urban campus. Ideally, I would go to a school in CA, midwest (IL/WI/MI), or east coast. I would appreciate any advice on schools I should add/get rid of (based on stats, OOS-friendliness, etc). Thank you in advance for your help and advice!
Kaiser
UCSF
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
UCLA
Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford
Harvard
UChicago
Columbia
Yale
John’s Hopkins
UPenn
UMich
University of Virginia (UVA)
NYU Grossman
Northwestern
Mt. Sinai
Vanderbilt
Case Western
THE Ohio State University
University of Wisconsin
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia
Western Michigan
Medical College of Wisconsin
Hey everyone, thanks in advance for the advice. I’ve built a school list that I think is okay, but I’d like some advice on it. I was originally considering applying last cycle, but based on advice received in a previous post, I pushed my application back by one year. In that time, I've gained 1300 clinical hours, 1 poster presentation, 2 manuscript submissions, 100 shadowing hours, and 50 hours of non-clinical volunteering (all of this is bolded and says since May 2023).
Undergrad/Profile:
CA resident
ORM - Asian male
T50 public school in CA
Stats:
- cGPA: 3.987
- sGPA: 4.0
- MCAT: 521 (130/128/132/131)
Clinical Experience:
- 100 hours volunteering at a local hospital
- 1300 hours as a TMS technician (clinical job) (since May 2023)
Research/Lab:
- 850 hours working in a wet lab setting. No publications yet, but I should be 9th or 10th author (or around there) on a paper.
- 1 poster presentation at a brain injury conference (since May 2023) - clinical research
- 1 first-author and 1 second-author manuscript submitted to journals (likely won't be accepted until after June 2024) (since May 2023) - clinical research
Shadowing:
- 51 hours (plastic surgery)
- 100 hours (neuropsychiatry) (since May 2023)
Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- 50 hours as a volunteer tutor for students from underserved communities,
- As part of this, I helped design a curriculum for a class that is going to be taught next year
- Both since May 2023
Other ECs:
- 420 hours being an IA/TA for three undergrad courses (all biology courses)
- 400 hours being an SI Leader (basically a tutoring service provided by the school. It is similar to being a IA/TA, and I tutored for 4 total undergraduate chem and bio courses)
- 360 hours being Orientation Intern (I planned and designed the New Student Orientation Program for one-sixth of my school’s incoming class.)
- 130 hours being an Orientation Leader (Involved in aiding students’ transition to my university, led small group-based discussions and gave tours, that sort of thing. After being an Orientation Leader, I applied to be the Orientation Intern.)
- 180 hours being on my fraternity’s executive board (I was involved in two different positions - one being a sort of secretary role where I took minutes and sent reminders about upcoming events, meetings, etc. and the second where I was involved in teaching new members about the values of our fraternity and what we represent by holding weekly new member education sessions.)
- 170 hours being on my biology organization’s board (I held three different positions - one was planning academic and social events for the club, the second was a treasurer role, and the third was a position on a sub-committee of the biology org that planned and designed an undergraduate biology seminar course at my university)
- A note: none of these will continue accumulating hours, because I graduated.
Honors and Awards:
- Graduated summa cum laude
- Outstanding Senior(s) of the Year (They give seven of these awards out, but still a cool thing imo.)
Miscellaneous:
- I really like (both watching and playing) sports, especially soccer. So, sports are a hobby of mine.
- Leadership is (clearly) my strongest attribute. I am likely going to include leadership and what I have learned from my various experiences in my personal statement.
SCHOOL LIST:
I’m looking to apply to 30-35 schools. My main considerations are, in this order: 1) staying in California, 2) cost, and 3) urban campus. Ideally, I would go to a school in CA, midwest (IL/WI/MI), or east coast. I would appreciate any advice on schools I should add/get rid of (based on stats, OOS-friendliness, etc). Thank you in advance for your help and advice!
Kaiser
UCSF
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
UCLA
Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford
Harvard
UChicago
Columbia
Yale
John’s Hopkins
UPenn
UMich
University of Virginia (UVA)
NYU Grossman
Northwestern
Mt. Sinai
Vanderbilt
Case Western
THE Ohio State University
University of Wisconsin
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia
Western Michigan
Medical College of Wisconsin
Last edited:
