MD WAMC - Non traditional student interested in community health. Want help narrowing down list

[asnadiga]

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cGPA 3.6
sGPA 3.73
MCAT score 219, (C/P)129, (CARS)130, (B/B)128, (P/S)132
California Resident (count as in state for New Mexico because I graduated high school there)
Asian
Carleton College Undergraduate
Clinical experience 700 hours scribing in an ED, 800+ongoing working at a Free Clinic as the Patient Access, Outreach, and Volunteer Program Coordinator
Theoretical Encryption Research at Los Alamos National Laboratory with a publication in 2023
No Shadowing experience
I used to work as a wilderness fire fighter.
GOAL: I want to pursue medicine to serve under-served communities. I love working at the free clinic that I am at right now, and want to continue with similar projects.

NOTE: I am working full time, so I don't think I will be able to deal with all of the secondaries. I want help narrowing down the school list. Also open to suggestions if you think I am missing an important school. Thank you all in advance for your input!

Albany Medical College
Drexel University
Georgetown University
Morehouse School of Medicine
Quinnipiac University
Rush Medical College
Temple University
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of New Mexico
Wright State University
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Dartmouth
Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
Oakland University
Saint Louis University
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Western Michigan University
Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science College of Medicine
Howard
Meharry Medical College
Oregon Health & Science University
Rosalind Franklin University
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
University of Vermont
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
Tulane
Creighton
University of Massachusetts T.H. Chan School of Medicine
NYU

 

[Faha]

You can assign 50 hours of your scribing to shadowing. Do you have any non clinical volunteering hours? Are you from a URM community?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

How long were you a wilderness fire fighter?

Tell me what courses you have taken that has given you the most insight about challenges facing marginalized communities. Tell me what your free clinic patients' most critical needs are and how your service orientation activities address it.

What support has your prehealth advising office given you?

 

[asnadiga]

I was a wildland firefighter for one fire season. During this time I got about 2300 hours of work.

I went to a liberal arts schools so I definitely purely had some courses that dealt with marginalized communities, but to be honest I don’t know how much I learned from academically studying these issues with a bunch of rich kids. I learned a lot more about these issues when I was living out of my backpack and hitchhiking across the world, because I came into contact with a much larger swath of humanity. I think I came to realize how much physically insecurity is at the heart of so many social issues. I think trying to address physical insecurity, whether it’s wildfires, or medical issues, has been a driving force for me.

As far as patients at our clinic go, we have a lot of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Additionally about 90% of our patients are undocumented and between past traumas and socioeconomic stressors, mental health is a huge issue. Personally at this time, I am interested in either psych or primary care of some kind (and I recently learned that there are combined residencies in FM and Psych!)

 

[asnadiga]

You can assign 50 hours of your scribing to shadowing. Do you have any non clinical volunteering hours? Are you from a URM community?

The only non clinical volunteer hours that I have are from unofficial organizations so I was hesitant to put it on the application. Not from an URM, but I am from a medically underserved area (I am unclear on how medical schools use that info in this process).

 

[Faha]

The only non clinical volunteer hours that I have are from unofficial organizations so I was hesitant to put it on the application. Not from an URM, but I am from a medically underserved area (I am unclear on how medical schools use that info in this process).

With no non clinical volunteering your chances for interviews are limited since some schools screen at 150 hours. Schools such as Rush, St. Louis, Creighton and Georgetown expect many hundreds of hours of non clinical volunteering. Howard, Meharry, Morehouse mainly admit applicants from the Black community. You should include your hours as a wilderness firefighter on your application.
I suggest these schools with your stats and ECs:
New Mexico
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Albany
Rochester
Hofstra
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn state
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Wake Forest
Methodist (when it opens)
NOVA MD
USF Morsani
Belmont
Alice Walton
Roseman
TCU
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Iowa
Colorado
Arizona (Phoenix)
California University
Kaiser
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)