WAMC? Non-traditional/Academic Reinvention

Started by shiv14
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Is it too late to address your school list? How much time have you set aside to do all of these secondaries? How many schools have you made significant connections to know they reward you for your postbac coursework? It seems to me you seek confirmation and not actionable advice given when this was posted.

I also don't quite understand the FAP issue. Doesn't getting an FAP entitle you to one application submission over two years? So you got the FAP in 2023? It feels like you're disappointed you couldn't get 20 free submissions, now that you have the money to submit to 57 schools.

Remove all references to activities done before 2020, though working in your family restaurant is important in essays. Student government VP and tutoring during that time period isn't that important. You want us to reward you for work done since 2022 when you are doing your postbac academically.

I feel that you are overwhelming us with all of your perceived X-factors, but it's coming across as a lot of noise and very little signal on what you want to do as a physician. What do you want to do in 15 years after you're done presumably with school, residency, and fellowship? Why not become a clinical trials manager (which you seem to do excellently and we need people who can do this) or consider medical affairs? I am concerned your WAMC profile shows me that you are focused solely on getting into medical school and lack a longer-term vision for your career. You sound like someone I would want to be a standardized patient/actor given the depth of background experiences... maybe as someone I want as an oncology nurse, medical assistant, or clinical trials manager. You lack the focus and the confidence of being a successful physician it seems.

I can be totally off because I don't know if you have reached out to schools on your list. What I can say is that your list is way too long and you will exhaust yourself as you are running through secondaries. You have so many OOS publics that will likely pass on your file unless you strongly connect with their mission. If you have been mentored to go this route and flood the zone with all of the things that you have overcome, I hope they're right for your sake. However, you are better off focusing on 25-30 schools closest to you.

If you wind up getting zero interview invitations by October, you must consider DO schools. I have doubts you are prepared to execute this strategy mentally (all these eggs in the MD basket). Many UC schools prefer applicants who grew up near them (especially Davis and Riverside).
 
Please reread @Mr.Smile12 ‘s post. It has such good information. I was overwhelmed reading your post. It almost seems like you dug out everything from your past and put it up to see if anything sounded good. You have way too much info but none of it weaved a story about your path to medicine and where you want to go from here.
Did you apply for this cycle?
 
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Hi Faha, I have submitted my primary application this July 2025 and am awaiting verification while I solidify my school list.
I suggest these schools with your MCAT of 513, post bacc GPA of 4.0 and cGPA of 3.14 and sGPA of 3.23:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Albany
Hackensack
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Georgetown
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Wake Forest
Methodist (when it opens)
NOVA MD
Belmont
Alice Walton
Roseman
TCU
Tulane
Creighton
St. Louis
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Loyola
Rush
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
California University
Kaiser
The UCs (except Riverside unless you are from that region)
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
Arizona (Phoenix)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
WVSOM