WAMC and school list help! 3.6/512

[tippecando]

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1. cGPA:3.6 and sGPA:3.5
2. MCAT:506-->512
3. State of residence:NY
4. ORM/Asian
5. Undergraduate institution😛ublic state school
6. Clinical experience: 130 hours of hospital volunteering over 3 years. 1200+ hours of medical assisting at an urgent care
7. Research experience : 600 hrs over 2 years of undergrad research but no pubs or posters
8. letters of rec: 1 from research PR, 1 from physician(MD), 1 from orgo lab professor, 1 from bio course professor
9. Shadowing experience: ~25 hours shadowing an anesthesiologist
10. Non-clinical volunteering: currently 50 hours of crisis text hotline but will def get up to 200+ hrs by time of application
11. Other extracurricular activities: TA for orgo lab for 1 semester. TA for physiology course for 2 semesters. Writer for a student run science journal for 2 semester

Strengths: I think my biggest strength is definitely my clinical experience from medical assisting. Got to do a lot of hands on stuff like venipuncture, covid nasal swabs, EKGs, administering medication, do X-rays, etc. All under physician supervision of course. Was hoping to make a school list centered around schools that value clinical experience and research since I really enjoy research as well.

Weakness: Definitely my average GPA and MCAT. Not sure if having only one non-clinical activity might also count as a weakness?

School list SO FAR:
Stony Brook
NYMC
Downstate
Upstate
University of Maryland
Penn State
Touro(DO)
NYIT(DO)
Temple
George Washington
Buffalo
Georgetown
Mount Sinai
Hofstra
Robert Wood Johnson
Thomas Jefferson
Drexel
University of Rochester
Boston University

 

[m1redsox]

You should add Albany and consider Einstein.
Then probably add some programs like
TCU-UNT
Seton Hall-Hackensack
NOVA-MD
Tulane
MCW
Wake Forest
EVMS
Vermont
Rush
Loyola
Geisinger
And you should probably get some shadowing hours in primary care specialties before applying.

 

[tippecando]

You should add Albany and consider Einstein.
Then probably add some programs like
TCU-UNT
Seton Hall-Hackensack
NOVA-MD
Tulane
MCW
Wake Forest
EVMS
Vermont
Rush
Loyola
Geisinger
And you should probably get some shadowing hours in primary care specialties before applying.

Will do. Thanks! On a worst case scenario if I don’t happen to find shadowing by the time application opens, you think it’s possible to spin medical assisting as shadowing too? There are ER docs and primary care docs(peds, family med) that rotate each week and they sometimes let me come into the patient rooms with them to see their interactions.

 

[m1redsox]

Will do. Thanks! On a worst case scenario if I don’t happen to find shadowing by the time application opens, you think it’s possible to spin medical assisting as shadowing too? There are ER docs and primary care docs(peds, family med) that rotate each week and they sometimes let me come into the patient rooms with them to see their interactions.

I mean they would be under separate categories on your 15 experiences since "physician shadowing/clinical observation" is its own category and MA would fall under "Paid Clinical experience", but I don't really think it's a serious problem. You could also explain it in the "how has covid affected your application?" section that most schools have on their secondaries.

 

[tippecando]

I mean they would be under separate categories on your 15 experiences since "physician shadowing/clinical observation" is its own category and MA would fall under "Paid Clinical experience", but I don't really think it's a serious problem. You could also explain it in the "how has covid affected your application?" section that most schools have on their secondaries

Awesome thanks! Do you see any other weak areas I can work on before app opens in two months? Also do you think the school list I have is balanced for the stats and EC I have? I’m really aiming for downstate, stony, upstate , or Buffalo. Sorry for all the questions I’m just really trying to get in the first time around.

 

[m1redsox]

Awesome thanks! Do you see any other weak areas I can work on before app opens in two months? Also do you think the school list I have is balanced for the stats and EC I have? I’m really aiming for downstate, stony, upstate , or Buffalo. Sorry for all the questions I’m just really trying to get in the first time around.

Make sure you get that non-clinical volunteering up as well. 200 would be good before you apply and schools like Rush and Loyola will look for high quality service activities. The list is pretty good. You are prettymuch limited to the low stat private schools throughout the country and your IS public schools, so adding DO schools is smart to be safe. I would also throw PCOM, VCOM, and UNECOM on your list since they are in your region. I also forgot about VCU to add to your MD list.

 

[tippecando]

Make sure you get that non-clinical volunteering up as well. 200 would be good before you apply and schools like Rush and Loyola will look for high quality service activities. The list is pretty good. You are prettymuch limited to the low stat private schools throughout the country and your IS public schools, so adding DO schools is smart to be safe. I would also throw PCOM, VCOM, and UNECOM on your list since they are in your region. I also forgot about VCU to add to your MD list.

Thanks again. You’ve been very helpful.

 

[Banco]

I would remove RWJ, Maryland and Penn State unless you went to undergrad there.

Your MA experience is fantastic. I would honestly just double dip and count some of those hours as shadowing if you were with a physician - I certainly did that when I applied.

You should add more schools though:

Albany, Quinnipiac, SLU, Tulane, Vermont, MCW, Geisinger, PCOM.

 

[tippecando]

I would remove RWJ, Maryland and Penn State unless you went to undergrad there.

Your MA experience is fantastic. I would honestly just double dip and count some of those hours as shadowing if you were with a physician - I certainly did that when I applied.

You should add more schools though:

Albany, Quinnipiac, SLU, Tulane, Vermont, MCW, Geisinger, PCOM.

Hey thanks for the reply! I read that if you have “ties to the state” you can be considered for that OOS school. This is a dumb question and seems far fetched but I have uncles and cousins living in Maryland. Is this enough to keep Maryland on my list? Also I recall on seeing that Penn State was listed as a private school on MSAR. They still favor in state and students that attended penn state for undergrad? Also in terms of double dipping the MA experience how exactly does splitting the hours work?

 

[Banco]

Hey thanks for the reply! I read that if you have “ties to the state” you can be considered for that OOS school. This is a dumb question and seems far fetched but I have uncles and cousins living in Maryland. Is this enough to keep Maryland on my list? Also I recall on seeing that Penn State was listed as a private school on MSAR. They still favor in state and students that attended penn state for undergrad? Also in terms of double dipping the MA experience how exactly does splitting the hours work?

I'm not sure if that is enough ties for Maryland - also keep in mind generally OOS students need to be above average to begin with. For Penn State I think you're already a bit under the stats for OOS - but if the numbers on MSAR look in your favor, go for it. Rutgers really would be a tough sell.


With regards to double dipping, I think it's not really "necessary" for you since you have already checked the shadowing box officially. People will know that MA experience involves physician contact and you will write about it too. But if you want to be certain, you can take subtract like 40 hours from the MA activity and just make a separate shadowing entry for the same doctors from the MA experience.