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- Nov 5, 2020
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Hello everyone! Posting again now that I'm at the finish line to push the button. I will be submitting in the next few days and need to start finalizing my school list. I will only be applying to one to get certified then add the rest once I get my score back.
My main important background is that I am not applying to state schools. I am a queer trans person with a queer trans fiance, and we do not feel comfortable staying in the state, especially as we plan to start our family during medical school. My PS addresses my gender transition as the trigger for my interest in medicine (I would like to be a PCP or Psych with a special interest in LGBT+ medicine). Any school list suggestions would be appreciated, we are primarily looking at more liberal locales but aren't picky beyond that! I am open to DO schools as well. I plan to apply to about 30 schools.
cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: ~3.7 sGPA, ~3.5cGPA, ~3.7pbGPA, I graduated with a liberal arts degree in 2014. Also 3.95 gGPA (graduated 2016, STEAM ). Still finishing up a few more courses over the next semester or two in case reapp, will send update letter after.
MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 509 (125/128/126/130)
State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): FL, not planning to apply in-state (see opening convo). Grew up as a kid and most of my family in NH, also lived and worked in Chicago for a year post-college.
Ethnicity and/or race: White trans man, beginner/intermediate Spanish (took it in HS, lived in Florida my whole life) and Chinese (4 semesters of study plus a trip)
Undergraduate institution or category: FL State School
Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
- 250h hospital volunteer/NICU baby cuddler
- 150h Volunteer MA #1
- 200h Volunteer MA #2
- 100h paid overnight respite care for family friend with advanced MS
Research experience and productivity:
These are not typical research experiences, but a few docs I know said they'd count it. 🤷♂️
- 200h on industry R&D tech project designed and pitched myself, won $45k in funding from an in-house competition
- 800h on grad school project, experimenting with an eye tracker device to interpret complex eye movements into actions in a 3D virtual environment
Shadowing experience and specialties represented
- 87h (60h in person), family med/obesity med and psych in person, a variety of subspecialties in an online program.
Non-clinical volunteering:
- 250h LGBT suicide hotline
- 50h camp counselor for kids with epilepsy
- 40h "community support", lumped in some food bank work, creating health info pamphlets for unhoused folks, and talking to a local at-risk veteran through the VA weekly
- 20h equine therapy assistant, I just started this after recently moving so I added it to show what I'll be doing in the next year
Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
- 6k hours software instructor (department lead), current job
- 10k hours software engineer and designer (peaked as a section lead)
- 5 LORs, 2 strong from science profs, 1 strong from a former software teacher who also was my manager at my first instructor job, 1 strong from MD I shadowed/MA'd for for 2 years, 1 decent from the suicide hotline supervisor I worked with most often
- Lifelong hobby of singing, well over 10k hours including rehearsals/practices/lessons/shows, currently singing in multiple groups 10h/wk, raised $10k+ over my life at benefit concerts
- Lifelong small time farmer, my dad always grew stuff when I was a kid and now I do too. Also a forager, I love to ID mushrooms and plants. I live in a rural area and would like to continue that.
Relevant honors or awards
- Multiple promotions and employee of the months at all pro jobs held
- $45k R&D award
- Most Innovative Award for the grad school project at an important industry conference's collegiate division
Anything else not listed you think might be important: I'm most interested in FM/Psych as future specialties. I would be happy at any MD or established DO school in a state where I can be safe, but would particularly like any notable queer friendly schools. Most of the reach schools in my list explicitly ask for LGBT or rural apps or have relevant specialty tracks; I'm just not sure how much weight is placed on my fit for these programs by admissions as a whole. Feel free to tell me to knock most of them off if I'm being delusional, I realize my stats aren't 100%. Also I know nothing about DO schools so please adjust.
MD School List:
- Pitt (yolo reach)
- UMich (yolo reach)
- UVM
- Dartmouth (below 10th percentile for MCAT) (grandma went to CRNA school here, first class that allowed women students, idk if that matters at all)
- Tufts (ME track pref)
- Quinni
- Rush
- Chicago Med
- Loyola
- Temple
- Drexel
- Hofstra (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- Einstein (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- MCW
- Hackensack (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- UColorado
- Kaiser (below 10th percentile for MCAT, but they request apps from LGBTQIA+)
- UMaryland
- Western Mich
- UWisconsin
- NYU LI
- UMass (below 10th percentile for MCAT, but strong mission fit for PURCH track and grew up next door in NH)
- USUHS
- UIllinois
- VCU
- EVMS
DO School List:
- Chicago
- LECOM Erie
- MSU
- NYIT
- PNW
- PCOM Philly
- Touro NY
- UNE
- RVU Colorado
- Western PNW
My main important background is that I am not applying to state schools. I am a queer trans person with a queer trans fiance, and we do not feel comfortable staying in the state, especially as we plan to start our family during medical school. My PS addresses my gender transition as the trigger for my interest in medicine (I would like to be a PCP or Psych with a special interest in LGBT+ medicine). Any school list suggestions would be appreciated, we are primarily looking at more liberal locales but aren't picky beyond that! I am open to DO schools as well. I plan to apply to about 30 schools.
cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: ~3.7 sGPA, ~3.5cGPA, ~3.7pbGPA, I graduated with a liberal arts degree in 2014. Also 3.95 gGPA (graduated 2016, STEAM ). Still finishing up a few more courses over the next semester or two in case reapp, will send update letter after.
MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 509 (125/128/126/130)
State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): FL, not planning to apply in-state (see opening convo). Grew up as a kid and most of my family in NH, also lived and worked in Chicago for a year post-college.
Ethnicity and/or race: White trans man, beginner/intermediate Spanish (took it in HS, lived in Florida my whole life) and Chinese (4 semesters of study plus a trip)
Undergraduate institution or category: FL State School
Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
- 250h hospital volunteer/NICU baby cuddler
- 150h Volunteer MA #1
- 200h Volunteer MA #2
- 100h paid overnight respite care for family friend with advanced MS
Research experience and productivity:
These are not typical research experiences, but a few docs I know said they'd count it. 🤷♂️
- 200h on industry R&D tech project designed and pitched myself, won $45k in funding from an in-house competition
- 800h on grad school project, experimenting with an eye tracker device to interpret complex eye movements into actions in a 3D virtual environment
Shadowing experience and specialties represented
- 87h (60h in person), family med/obesity med and psych in person, a variety of subspecialties in an online program.
Non-clinical volunteering:
- 250h LGBT suicide hotline
- 50h camp counselor for kids with epilepsy
- 40h "community support", lumped in some food bank work, creating health info pamphlets for unhoused folks, and talking to a local at-risk veteran through the VA weekly
- 20h equine therapy assistant, I just started this after recently moving so I added it to show what I'll be doing in the next year
Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
- 6k hours software instructor (department lead), current job
- 10k hours software engineer and designer (peaked as a section lead)
- 5 LORs, 2 strong from science profs, 1 strong from a former software teacher who also was my manager at my first instructor job, 1 strong from MD I shadowed/MA'd for for 2 years, 1 decent from the suicide hotline supervisor I worked with most often
- Lifelong hobby of singing, well over 10k hours including rehearsals/practices/lessons/shows, currently singing in multiple groups 10h/wk, raised $10k+ over my life at benefit concerts
- Lifelong small time farmer, my dad always grew stuff when I was a kid and now I do too. Also a forager, I love to ID mushrooms and plants. I live in a rural area and would like to continue that.
Relevant honors or awards
- Multiple promotions and employee of the months at all pro jobs held
- $45k R&D award
- Most Innovative Award for the grad school project at an important industry conference's collegiate division
Anything else not listed you think might be important: I'm most interested in FM/Psych as future specialties. I would be happy at any MD or established DO school in a state where I can be safe, but would particularly like any notable queer friendly schools. Most of the reach schools in my list explicitly ask for LGBT or rural apps or have relevant specialty tracks; I'm just not sure how much weight is placed on my fit for these programs by admissions as a whole. Feel free to tell me to knock most of them off if I'm being delusional, I realize my stats aren't 100%. Also I know nothing about DO schools so please adjust.
MD School List:
- Pitt (yolo reach)
- UMich (yolo reach)
- UVM
- Dartmouth (below 10th percentile for MCAT) (grandma went to CRNA school here, first class that allowed women students, idk if that matters at all)
- Tufts (ME track pref)
- Quinni
- Rush
- Chicago Med
- Loyola
- Temple
- Drexel
- Hofstra (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- Einstein (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- MCW
- Hackensack (below 10th percentile for MCAT)
- UColorado
- Kaiser (below 10th percentile for MCAT, but they request apps from LGBTQIA+)
- UMaryland
- Western Mich
- UWisconsin
- NYU LI
- UMass (below 10th percentile for MCAT, but strong mission fit for PURCH track and grew up next door in NH)
- USUHS
- UIllinois
- VCU
- EVMS
DO School List:
- Chicago
- LECOM Erie
- MSU
- NYIT
- PNW
- PCOM Philly
- Touro NY
- UNE
- RVU Colorado
- Western PNW
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