MD WAMC CA ORM 515/3.62

[Vibhash2003]

Hiya! Mainly looking for both advice on what I can do to strengthen my app, and good schools to apply to. I’m really hoping to get in this cycle since it’s my senior year and I’d also like to know if that’s a reasonable hope or if the chances are minimal.


cGPA: 3.62 (strong upward trend, I had a really bad semester in my sophomore year after COVID relented)

sGPA: 3.45 (Ditto)

MCAT: 515 on my last practice (130 for CARS and Psych, 129 for B/B and 126 for C/P).

State: California

Ethnicity: Asian American

Undergrad: California State University, Northridge. Public Health. I’m graduating this May.

Clinical Experience: 500 hours, 220 of those are regular volunteer at a hospital that mainly caters to the surrounding underprivileged community and 280 were an internship at Kaiser.

Research Experience: None atm, but I’ve got an acceptance to a project that’ll get me around 50-125.

Shadowing: 50 hours in the OR, 14 hours gastroenterology

Nonclinical: 160 hours tutoring for mainly first gen immigrants of my community who need a little help in school/college

Other ECCs: None unfortunately. Was wheelchair bound for a while and by the time I came out, I needed to fix my GPA. Might be able to get some leadership over the summer though as part of my internship.

Extra: I took biochem and both physics online during summer semesters so I could finish before I left college. I’m also a trad applicant if that matters!



School List:

UC riverside (My goal school as I have family there, the GPA and MCAT averages are ones I’m higher than, and my family as a whole just moved there)

UCLA

UC San Diego

UC Davis

Loyola

NYU

Rochester

Howard

Tulane



Pretty much all the California ones in truth.

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[diltiazemm]

MCAT: 515 on my last practice (130 for CARS and Psych, 129 for B/B and 126 for C/P).

It's hard to give concrete advice without a definite MCAT...

It looks like your application is very community-centered, which is great for Riverside! Especially since you have ties to the IE 🙂

However, your school list is a bit confusing. You should a look at MSAR to find better fits for your GPA/MCAT (when official). Maybe check out these: Indiana, Colorado, Rosalind Franklin, Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, Vermont, Quinnipiac

Is there a reason you have such specific OOS schools? For example, Howard is an HBCU, so I'm curious why you selected it with such a small list.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Your don't have to go into public detail, but why were you in a wheelchair?

Was your tutoring done with students on the IE? I also prefer having completed 150 hours of service orientation activities like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. I don't know if you have enough mission fit to override this expectation for your local schools on your list.

 

[Vibhash2003]

It's hard to give concrete advice without a definite MCAT...

It looks like your application is very community-centered, which is great for Riverside! Especially since you have ties to the IE 🙂

However, your school list is a bit confusing. You should a look at MSAR to find better fits for your GPA/MCAT (when official). Maybe check out these: Indiana, Colorado, Rosalind Franklin, Drexel, Temple, Jefferson, Vermont, Quinnipiac

Is there a reason you have such specific OOS schools? For example, Howard is an HBCU, so I'm curious why you selected it with such a small list.

Hiya! And nope, those were just schools that were recommended to me since I’m lower stat/schools where I have friends or family around or attending. I’ll go ahead and take a look, I’m getting MSAR this weekend!

 

[Vibhash2003]

Welcome to the forums.

Your don't have to go into public detail, but why were you in a wheelchair?

Was your tutoring done with students on the IE? I also prefer having completed 150 hours of service orientation activities like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. I don't know if you have enough mission fit to override this expectation for your local schools on your list.

I had a pretty nasty spinal cord injury due to an accident. We got it fixed up by sophomore year and I spent most of the rest of that year trying to get used to walking again.

I’m afraid I don’t know what IE is, could you elaborate? And noted, I’ll keep that in mind for my post MCAT activities, to focus a bit on those!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I had a pretty nasty spinal cord injury due to an accident. We got it fixed up by sophomore year and I spent most of the rest of that year trying to get used to walking again.

I’m afraid I don’t know what IE is, could you elaborate? And noted, I’ll keep that in mind for my post MCAT activities, to focus a bit on those!

Inland Empire?

Did you take a medical leave to rehab?

 

[Vibhash2003]

Inland Empire?

Did you take a medical leave to rehab?

Oh! And not all of it. Our move was rather recent, so I’d say maybe 40 hours of it? I do plan to continue it up here though.

And I didn’t! It was recommended but I was dumb and figured I’d power through it so I could keep my education on track. I believe it was one of the major reasons that I did so bad in that one semester, since it was the semester right after the surgery.