WAMC and School List - 520 MCAT, 3.96 sGPA

[KrebCycleSurvivor]

Hello! I’m looking to apply this upcoming cycle and would greatly appreciate any advice on my school list. Thank you in advance!

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS

cGPA: 3.98; sGPA: 3.96

1. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts.

520 (131/127/131/131)

1. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)

New York

1. Ethnicity and/or race

ORM

1. Undergraduate institution or category

Ivy

1. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)

ER Scribe (most meaningful): ~650 hours
PMR Nursing Assistant (most meaningful): ~500 hours

1. Research experience and productivity

Lab 1: ~250 hours; 1 publication (low authorship, high impact journal)
Lab 2: ~1500 hours; no publication yet, only poster.

1. Shadowing experience and specialties represented

50 hours neurosurgery; 30 hours colorectal surgery; 20 hours gastroenterology

1. Non-clinical volunteering

Crisis Text Line: 125 hours
Food Pantry (most meaningful): ~100 hours

1. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)

Teaching assistant (1 year physics, 1 semester biology lab)
President of a club athletics team

1. Relevant honors or awards

Honor societies, Dean’s List

1. Anything else not listed you think might be important
2. Tentative School List

Stanford, Duke, UCSF, Columbia, Penn, WashU, Chicago, NYU, Sinai, Cornell, Pittsburgh, Case Western, USF, Northwestern, Michigan, Vanderbilt, Einstein, Hofstra, Rochester, Brown, Dartmouth, UVA, Ohio State, SUNY Downstate, SUNY Upstate, Stonybrook, Buffalo, Albany, NYMC

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Your nonclinical activities are low. I presume you want to play with the high metrics applicants, so you need 250 hours at submission of service orientation activities. Right now you list only food pantry, and crisis hotline doesn't count (not in person). 250 is the minimum siggestion to stay on pace; your peers will have hundreds or thousands more.

I don't see a mission fit, which is essential to make yourself stand out. I sense surgery interests, so what hobbies highlight your fine manual dexterity?

 

[Faha]

You could add these schools to your application:
Cincinnati
Tufts
Boston University
UMass
Mayo

 

[KrebCycleSurvivor]

Welcome to the forums.

Your nonclinical activities are low. I presume you want to play with the high metrics applicants, so you need 250 hours at submission of service orientation activities. Right now you list only food pantry, and crisis hotline doesn't count (not in person). 250 is the minimum siggestion to stay on pace; your peers will have hundreds or thousands more.

Thanks for the thoughtful feedback. I agree that my nonclinical service hours aren’t as extensive as they could be, and I’ve been working on increasing my number of hours before application. I’m also involved in community philanthropy that I didn’t want to delve into for privacy reasons.

I don't see a mission fit, which is essential to make yourself stand out. I sense surgery interests, so what hobbies highlight your fine manual dexterity?

I continue to remain pretty undecided on specialty, and was wondering if you suggest leaning in one direction?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I continue to remain pretty undecided on specialty, and was wondering if you suggest leaning in one direction?

Mission fit is different than specialty choice. Watch the Expert Advice Live conversation on mission fit and look at the resources we mentioned. Look for the subforum.