WAMC for the rest of this cycle? 518/3.72

[w0ndermed25]

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Happy December y'all. Not feeling great about the cycle right now and starting to look at gap year options. Don't have any rejections, but only having what feels like a pity interview from my in-state school is making me nervous. Any thoughts or advice are welcome!

1. 3.72 cGPA, 3.41 sGPA
2. 518 (1st attempt) 130/125/131/132
3. Nebraska resident
4. White female, trad route
5. Private Jesuit Midwestern university for undergrad
6. Clinical
   1. 750 hrs paid hospital-based rural EMS
   2. 230 hrs paid private transport service
   3. 300 hrs paid phlebotomy level 1 trauma center
   4. 240 hrs volunteer EMS
7. Research: 2 summers of international archaeological research, resulting in 2 posters (4 total presentations), currently working on a thesis. No STEM research. MME due to the experiences working in a foreign culture. (300 hours)
8. Shadowing: 26 hours (damn near impossible to find where I’m at)
   1. 22 with a PCP
   2. 4 with an endocrinologist
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 80 hrs volley fire department (community outreach etc- separate from going on calls)
   2. 25 hours arts+social justice honors organization (running creative workshops with our local homeless shelter).
   3. In an update letter: added 75 hours this semester with the Empty Bowls event, raising money for said homeless shelter through creation of ceramics and working with residents of the shelter.
10. Extra activities
    1. Leadership: 525 hours president of nationally-ranked club sports team (3 seasons as president) **MME**
    2. Leadership/teaching: 330 hours as an adjunct EMT instructor **MME**
    3. Leadership/teaching: 90 hours cell biology TA
    4. Paid employment: Intern at our local art museum creating and leading school group tours. In progress, estimated 350 hrs over the year.
    5. Hobbies: Dancing (country swing, line dancing, and west coast swing). I choreographed a line dance that went viral and won a choreography award. It’s also been used multiple times as competition choreography.
11. Dean’s list every semester, Rookie of the Year (fire department), First Team All Conference (club sports).
12. Two speeding tickets. Oops. Both 60 in a 55.

Overall themes of my application: strong rural interest and love for education. PS dealt with the leadership aspect of my club sports role and focused on knowledge, connection, and leadership as my “why”.

Self-identified weaknesses-

• sGPA, mainly because with a humanities major I haven’t taken a lot of the “filler” STEM classes so it’s mostly the freshman year classes that tanked that. On track to finish this semester with a 4.0.
• Research: unsure if not having STEM research is hurting. I’m very passionate about what I’m researching (was asked about it in my one interview), but I’m worried that no lab work is a red flag.
• Shadowing: I fought tooth and nail for those few hours, and was hoping that my high clinical hours would make up for it a bit. I do work very closely with physicians in my rural EMS job.
• Committee letter- took an "advisory" letter because of my sGPA (committee didn't have my MCAT score at the time... not salty about it at all). Also took them forever to send the letter so even though all my secondaries were complete within two weeks, they weren't marked complete till 8/6.
• Timing: wondering if that later complete date is hurting?

School list (pls don’t tell me I should have applied to more I know and I regret it but it’s too late)

• WashU
• Yale
• Ohio State
• Colorado
• Iowa
• Cincinnati
• Geisel SOM/Dartmouth
• Wake Forest
• Nebraska (II)
• Creighton
• MCW
• Vermont
• Penn State

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Questions: do you have any interest in going to a medical school based at a Catholic university? How strong is your purpose to become a physician serving rural communities?

Obviously the home team (Nebraska) has sent you an II, and I hope you will do well. I'm intrigued your other regional schools aren't picking you up, but it could be a matter of time.

 

[w0ndermed25]

Questions: do you have any interest in going to a medical school based at a Catholic university? How strong is your purpose to become a physician serving rural communities?

Obviously the home team (Nebraska) has sent you an II, and I hope you will do well. I'm intrigued your other regional schools aren't picking you up, but it could be a matter of time.

Not personally Catholic, but I've loved the Jesuit education in my undergrad and identify very strongly with a lot of their values. So interest, yes.
The end goal (I say very naively, well aware things could change lol) is a physician working in a rural area in the ED and serving as a medical director for EMS agencies in the area as well. I love the different challenges that I've seen and the community formed in rural healthcare. I tried to make that clear in my app, talking about it in my PS and a lot of secondaries. I did apply for Colorado's rural program, and kinda surprised I haven't heard back from Iowa considering that the 750 hours is rural Iowa, and I have strong family ties.

 

[Faha]

Your low non clinical volunteering hours and possibly your low shadowing hours may limit your chances for interviews. Washington University, Yale and Ohio State are unlikely with your sGPA. In case you need to reapply, accumulate another 20+ hours of physician shadowing and increase your hours at the homeless shelter to 150+.

 

[chilly_md]

Iowa very much treats its OOS pool as a source for students with high stats and strong overall apps. They likely won't overlook the sGPA for your connection to the state since they have enough Iowa residents. They historically guarantee an interview to in-state applicants who meet a certain criteria.

 

[JimKimSlim]

Other than your shadowing hours, GPA, and your short school list, I don’t see major red flags. Based on your post, I do have a hard time, seeing your motivations as future physician. Also, personal statements are pretty important too. I hope your undergraduate institution had writing centers to help write your statements.