WAMC and School List advice? [deleted]

[madiisoriginal]

[deleted for privacy now that the cycle is in swing]

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[candbgirl]

You should only include hours you have completed. You can project hours to be completed but they don’t have much significance. You seem to have no nonclinical hours serving those less fortunate in your community. You know like the unserved/ underserved in your community. Is that correct?
Was that MCAT score your only one or was it a retake? Is your GPA 3.0 or 2.9? Is that cumulative or science?

 

[Goro]

Hi all,

I know my GPA is really low. I had two semesters in a row in which a friend committed suicide, and during that second semester I just plummeted. My grades before and after are about 3.4-3.3 each semester. I have taken two years off and am currently on my third. Stats and schools:

• Year in school: graduated in 2017 from an Ivy, with a degree in Molecular Biology, been out of school for the last two years
• cGPA/sGPA: 3.0/2.9~
• MCAT Scores: 520 (131/128/130/131)
• Research: no pubs, but ~750 hours as a research assistant for two years in the same lab at the Med School and then ~450 hours on my own research project in that lab (so like ~1100 hours total)
• Volunteering (clinical): Emergency Department with Spanish-speaking role, putting ~200 on my app since I plan to keep volunteering there during the app cycle, currently at like ~70
• Physician shadowing: 32 hours in GI over two months, 4 hours OB/Gyn one day, 4 hours Cardiologist one day, 3 hours Internal Medicine one day
• Volunteering: 10 hours tutoring for a non-profit
• Extracurricular activities: Debate group (held an office all 7 semesters I was in it), also started a group for multicultural/multiethnic people to discuss their experiences which ended up being accepted into the african-american cultural center
• Employment history: worked as a tutor part-time through most of college in addition to research assistant/research position, was a full-time tutor for students with learning differences last year and currently manage an established tutoring company now
• Specialty of interest: [insert primary care here], have always been drawn to OB/Gyn, but had the most opportunity to rotate through some GI docs because of a personal contact
• big desire to work in urban settings.
• URM: black female

Schools: (reaches) Yale, BU, Hofstra, Brown
(targets) Dartmouth, U Maryland, U Mass, Georgetown, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, Kaiser Permanente, NYU Long Island, Tufts, UConn, Quinnipiac, Penn State, George Washington
(undershoots? if there is even such a thing for me) New York Medical College, Hackensack, Geisinger, The Commonwealth Medical College, Howard, Morehouse

I know that my grades are really, really not ideal, but I think I can write about this in my adversity statement for schools, and I'm hoping my MCAT shows that I actually am a prepared student since I only took it once. What do you think of my schools? Should I narrow down or cast a wider net? Thanks in advance!

You are NOt ready to apply now, URM or no.
You need more clinical exposure, and more non-clinical volunteering.

Of your school list, I suggest:
Schools: BU, Hofstra
Dartmouth, Georgetown, Temple, Thomas Jefferson, Kaiser Permanente, NYU Long Island, Tufts, Quinnipiac, George Washington
New York Medical College,
Hackensack,
Geisinger, (only if you're from the Scranton area)
Howard,
Morehouse

ADD:
Your state schools
Meharry
UCLA/Drew
U Miami
Wake
NYMC
Albany
Drexel
Some DO schools

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
UConn
Quinnipiac
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
UCLA Drew
Vermont
Albany
New York Medical College
Hofstra
Seton Hall
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Georgetown
George Washington
NOVA MD
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Loyola
Creighton
St. Louis
TCU-UNT
Also apply to DO schools and include these:
UNECOM
LECOM (all schools)
MU-COM
WVSOM
UP-KYCOM
ACOM
ARCOM
NYIT-Arkansas
UIWSOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
CUSOM
If you apply this year you should apply this month and submit all your secondaries by August.

 

[candbgirl]

Nonclinical=service to the unserved/underserved. Volunteering in a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, coaching underprivileged kids in a team sport, Habitat for humanity etc..
clinical=direct patient contact . So working with LD kids wouldn’t count. They aren’t sick, no way do you or anyone else consider them patients. They are special needs kids period. And you are working under an educational psychologist. So no, ADCOMS wouldn’t count that work as clinical. I think there is an option for teaching though.

After reading @Goro’s post, I agree with him. I don’t think you are anywhere near ready to apply. You have big holes in your application. With your very low GPAs and very weak ECs another year or two before you apply would be a great idea. You really only want to apply once with the best possible application.

 

[ciestar]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond! In addition to your other suggestions I'll remove Geisinger, but for me UConn is my only state school. As for more clinical exposure, I worked full-time with students with learning disabilities under educational psychologists for a year and felt like that counted -- do you think schools will feel similarly? And regarding Drexel, aren't they losing their hospital? is that worth the risk?

Also, should I add non-east coast schools if a big part of why I want to go into medicine has to do with my relationship with the east coast/area I live in?

Sorry, I'm new to SDN so I don't know if a reply will ping you, but @Goro just in case!

In regards to Drexel, we’re losing Hahnemann, not the 20ish other clinical sites we have. If you’d rather not go to Drexel or reapply rather than go to Drexe because of this (this really goes for any school), don’t apply there. Ive heard Rosy Franklin and Quinnipiac also don’t have a home hospital and do what Drexel will be doing, FWIW.