WAMC: Help creating school list; 3.97 522

[B Z]

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.97 cGPA 3.94 sGPA
2. MCAT and breakdown: 522 (130 / 130 / 131 / 131)
3. State of residence: NC
4. Ethnicity: Asian
5. Undergraduate: T25 public school, public health major
6. Clinical experience: 800 hours CNA in hospital
7. Clinical volunteering: 50 hospital volunteering (I quit because I got burned out with CNA on top of everything else)
8. Research experience: 1800 hours, one first author and one co-author basic science publications in relatively impactful journals for field, one population health co-author, one summer REU that led to a poster, and a couple policy related “publications” part of projects that weren’t published in an academic journal (I don’t think this counts). I am planning on taking a gap year to do more research, but this isn’t sorted out yet.
9. Shadowing experience: 50 hours, 30 in primary 20 in various specialties. I think this might be a bit low.
10. Non-clinical volunteering: 300 hours in a soup kitchen
11. Other extracurriculars: (200 hours) learning assistant, (200 hours) I designed and taught a small seminar class on a subject closely related to my research and taught it to undergrads (this was part of a program that lets undergrads design seminar classes and teach them, I received academic credit for this so I don’t think it counts as an EC), (400 hours) I am president of a club that does outreach and education in public health, (200 hours) I collaborated with a professor to design a medical school elective on the same subject that i taught my seminar in (this course is still in development), (450 hours) paid summer internship where I worked with a public health agency and did lots of rural community outreach, I bike and workout for fun
12: Relevant awards or honors: A couple school-level awards and two conferences attended

I’m not sure what schools I should be targeting. At the minimum, I want to get into my in-state medical schools, so both of those will be on my list. I don’t know what other schools I’d be competitive for.

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[Mr.Smile12]

Your shadowing hours and non-clinical volunteering are fine. You shouldn't have issues with your clinical experience. You should be a solid applicant, especially in-state and many of the brand name schools. Now, you need to find your mission and purpose as a physician rather than make it appear you are checking a box with your public health major. You should network and make the schools that are high on your wishlist want you.

 

[B Z]

Your shadowing hours and non-clinical volunteering are fine. You shouldn't have issues with your clinical experience. You should be a solid applicant, especially in-state and many of the brand name schools. Now, you need to find your mission and purpose as a physician rather than make it appear you are checking a box with your public health major. You should network and make the schools that are high on your wishlist want you.

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t specify this, but I am a nutrition major in the public health college in my university. My narrative is about bridging the gap between nutrition science, public health, and medicine. My science research is in food allergy, my public health experience and research is all with community nutrition, and the courses I taught and club I lead are about connecting the science and community aspect of nutrition.

When you say brand name schools, I’m not sure the breadth of brand name schools you think I’m competitive for. Should I be aiming for T50 schools, T30 schools, T20, etc? Is my narrative strong enough to make a case for a school to pick me over the thousands of other applicants with my stats?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t specify this, but I am a nutrition major in the public health college in my university. My narrative is about bridging the gap between nutrition science, public health, and medicine. My science research is in food allergy, my public health experience and research is all with community nutrition, and the courses I taught and club I lead are about connecting the science and community aspect of nutrition.

This description still is not as specific match with schools to me. A lot of schools have (finally) acknowledged the role of nutrition in medicine, so does this mean you see yourself in primary care where such preventative and lifestyle modifications are key to your impact? Are you going to focus on allergies (which is a really challenging specialty)? Do you want to get involved with liver disease, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, or oncology (as an example)? How do you want to continue your involvement in medical school, and what would that look like for you?

You will also spend a little time in more urgent/emergent care while in medical school where food as medicine doesn't play as big a role. How do you expect to be successful under those conditions? (Where are you a CNA?)

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
North Carolina
East Carolina
Duke
U Virginia
Emory
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
U Chicago
Mayo
UCSF
Case Western
Cincinnati
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Brown
Boston University
Yale

 

[mike-sheree]

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t specify this, but I am a nutrition major in the public health college in my university. My narrative is about bridging the gap between nutrition science, public health, and medicine. My science research is in food allergy, my public health experience and research is all with community nutrition, and the courses I taught and club I lead are about connecting the science and community aspect of nutrition.

When you say brand name schools, I’m not sure the breadth of brand name schools you think I’m competitive for. Should I be aiming for T50 schools, T30 schools, T20, etc? Is my narrative strong enough to make a case for a school to pick me over the thousands of other applicants with my stats?

Does focus on the school”rank” to formulate your list. Focus on schools where your mutual interests intersect, then narrow it down to those that excite you (geography, culture, climate, cost) and, preferably, are excited BY you.

 

[B Z]

At this point, I see myself pursuing GI. My ideal career would be in some role that incorporates both clinical care as a GI and research. I was under the impression that medical schools do not expect applicants to have decided upon a speciality, and instead prefer applicants to keep an open mind once they get into med school. If I was asked this in a secondary or interview, I would articulate how GI incorporates primary care (colonoscopies amongst other things) and I’d emphasize the role of the GI doc in promoting a diet that helps patient’s manage disease (IBD, Crohn’s) or prevent future problems (cancer). My involvement in medical school would be through continuing my undergraduate work of implementing nutrition education programs, working with faculty to create nutrition coursework within the medical school. I would also continue my nutrition community outreach work and advocate for good nutrition habits when interacting with patients in clinical settings. Of course, I’d continue research.

I don’t have any connections to GI outside of some shadowing experience and my knowledge of nutrition and the digestive system from my major. I‘m drawn to the specialty because I like the idea of doing procedures on top of doing patient education and research.

I’ve spent lots of time under more urgent/emergent care conditions. I am a CNA at my university’s hospital (Level 1 trauma). I float around, so I‘ve been everywhere from the ED to ICUs to geriatric care units and psych units. I’ve probably been to 80% of all units within the hospital. I’ve had multiple codes and been part of code teams (as my credentials are limited, my contributions are typically giving compressions, getting glucose, grabbing the code cart, etc). My clinical experience will be a big part of my writing. I’ve learned how to work within a healthcare team and developed a pretty good bedside manner/advocated for patients.

In terms of crafting a story and narrative, what areas of improvement do you see? I definitely feel like I’m stretching my nutrition/public health involvement into my desire to pursue medicine.