WAMC ORM 524/4.0

[cookielover101]

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I am a third-year, applying this summer (2026-2027 cycle)
1. GPA: 4.0
2. MCAT: 524 (132/130/132/130)
3. Ohio
4. Asian
5. Public Land Grant Uni
6. Shadowing (6 different specialties - 60 hours) --> spread through 3 years
7. Hospital Volunteering (52 hours across 1 year)
8. Clinical volunteering at unhoused sites (triage) for 3 years - 100 hours
9. Study abroad May-mester (Health based)
10. Summer Internship with a Free Clinic Company (150 hours in office + 175 clinical hours including dental assistant work)
11. Free clinic volunteering (all 4 years): 150 hours (clinical)
12. Co-founder of respite care organization
13. Co-founder of transplant donor registry organization
14. VP of org advocating for unhoused folk
14. Another free clinic org (local): 50 hours (over two years)
15. Lab TA: 260 hours by the end of this semester
16. Two exceptional awards (including full ride)
17. Meditation/Spirituality Hobby
18. Research: Neuro (first two years) and Early Childhood Clinical (last two years - planned) --> Abstract presentations, no pubs

I should have one exceptional LOR (STEM) and one "fine" LOR (STEM) and one "fine" LOR (non-STEM). Two research LORS which are "good" and an internship LOR which is closer to exceptional.

Need help crafting a school list! Thank you so much I really appreciate you guys 🙂

 

[Faha]

You would benefit from 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter since some schools screen at 150 hours.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
Case Western
Cincinnati
Ohio State
NEOMED
Toledo
Wright State
U Michigan
Northwestern
U Chicago
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Mayo
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Johns Hopkins (free tuition)
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Mount Sinai
NYU (free tuition)
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Yale
Boston University
Tufts

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

I'll add, with your metrics, I think you need MORE clinical exposure; I think I need descriptions and a timeline for a better idea to justify my impression. I appreciate the breadth of experiences, but the level of commitment is not deep. It feels good for a social work direction (unhoused community), especially with being involved establishing respite care and donor registry orgs. I just get the sense you have lots of pots cooking, but they're only boiling pasta or peas. 50 hours over 1 year is one hour per week; as described, it's hard to understand why you have 50 hours in one free clinic and 50 hours in a different one; maybe you have a story why you can't consistently work at one site.

With your metrics, you should have at least 250 hours of clinical exposure, and you are competing against applicants with more consistent hours and deep impact (for the brand name schools). Even if I bundle your homeless advocacy into a category of activities, you should aspire for 250+ hours minimum.

Work on this over the next few months before April. You have time to shape up your profile. Do your networking. Enroll in Becoming a Student Doctor to articulate your purpose as a physician and assess mission to schools on your list.

As on Ohio resident, you have a lot of in-state choices. Hopefully you're going to OMED next weekend, which is an opportunity for all the medical schools to talk with aspiring 2026 applicants and their prehealth advisors about preparing your best application.

 

[cookielover101]

You would benefit from 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter since some schools screen at 150 hours.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
Case Western
Cincinnati
Ohio State
NEOMED
Toledo
Wright State
U Michigan
Northwestern
U Chicago
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Mayo
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Johns Hopkins (free tuition)
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Mount Sinai
NYU (free tuition)
Columbia
Cornell
Harvard
Yale
Boston University
Tufts

Oh I totally forgot to include my non-clinical volunteering! I volunteer at an unhoused camp with the club I am VP of every weekend (since freshman year), so I am at well over 150 hours from that (closer to 200-250 including some food bank stuff).

 

[cookielover101]

Welcome to the forums.

I'll add, with your metrics, I think you need MORE clinical exposure; I think I need descriptions and a timeline for a better idea to justify my impression. I appreciate the breadth of experiences, but the level of commitment is not deep. It feels good for a social work direction (unhoused community), especially with being involved establishing respite care and donor registry orgs. I just get the sense you have lots of pots cooking, but they're only boiling pasta or peas. 50 hours over 1 year is one hour per week; as described, it's hard to understand why you have 50 hours in one free clinic and 50 hours in a different one; maybe you have a story why you can't consistently work at one site.

With your metrics, you should have at least 250 hours of clinical exposure, and you are competing against applicants with more consistent hours and deep impact (for the brand name schools). Even if I bundle your homeless advocacy into a category of activities, you should aspire for 250+ hours minimum.

Work on this over the next few months before April. You have time to shape up your profile. Do your networking. Enroll in Becoming a Student Doctor to articulate your purpose as a physician and assess mission to schools on your list.

As on Ohio resident, you have a lot of in-state choices. Hopefully you're going to OMED next weekend, which is an opportunity for all the medical schools to talk with aspiring 2026 applicants and their prehealth advisors about preparing your best application.

Hello! I totally agree about the clinical aspect, I think that is one of the weakest parts of my application. Most of these activities have been since freshman year. I can understand how it would seem like the level of commitment is not deep - I am hoping my descriptions for each activity (I am thinking of writing a meaningful anecdote from each experience) will make up for the plethora of activities. I just need to communicate that clearly and I feel that my personal statement will help bring it together rather than hurt. The 50 hours is because I can only volunteer for two hours a week every semester at my college since it is huge. I am still getting hours from that though. One of the free clinics (50 hours) is local, and once again, limited shifts since our college is huge. The other one (150 hours and the summer internship) is national, so I am limited in terms of distance from clinics. I like having both free clinics so I can volunteer more often (this is one of my favorite activities).

Also I am a bit confused - adding up the clinical hours I have, I think I have 50 (hospital)+100 (unhoused sites)+175 (free clinic)+150 (free clinic)+50 (free clinic)=525 hours. Do you mean I should get 250+ more hours?

Thank you SO much for all of your help. I greatly appreciate it!!

 

[cookielover101]

Oh I totally forgot to include my non-clinical volunteering! I volunteer at an unhoused camp with the club I am VP of every weekend (since freshman year), so I am at well over 150 hours from that (closer to 200-250 including some food bank stuff).

And this is a different unhoused camp not the same one I do clinical volunteering for. Both camps are under the same organization though.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hello! I totally agree about the clinical aspect, I think that is one of the weakest parts of my application. Most of these activities have been since freshman year. I can understand how it would seem like the level of commitment is not deep - I am hoping my descriptions for each activity (I am thinking of writing a meaningful anecdote from each experience) will make up for the plethora of activities. I just need to communicate that clearly and I feel that my personal statement will help bring it together rather than hurt. The 50 hours is because I can only volunteer for two hours a week every semester at my college since it is huge. I am still getting hours from that though. One of the free clinics (50 hours) is local, and once again, limited shifts since our college is huge. The other one (150 hours and the summer internship) is national, so I am limited in terms of distance from clinics. I like having both free clinics so I can volunteer more often (this is one of my favorite activities).

Again, I tend to ignore activities with fewer than 50 hours unless you are shadowing. It's harder to ignore once you get to 150 hours per listed activity.

Also I am a bit confused - adding up the clinical hours I have, I think I have 50 (hospital)+100 (unhoused sites)+175 (free clinic)+150 (free clinic)+50 (free clinic)=525 hours. Do you mean I should get 250+ more hours?

Thank you SO much for all of your help. I greatly appreciate it!!

Doing clinical activities in a homeless shelter could be construed as clinical experience by many adcoms. When I assign your hours this way, you have zero non-clinical community service hours (I count being VP of a club as leadership). That will be enough to rule your application out at most schools. If this is wrong, give the proper details.

I'm disregarding your 50 hours' worth of activities because 1 hour a week for 2 years is not much compared to your peers in this pool. The fact you have three different free clinic experiences is easily dismissed without more identifiable details here. Again, we are limited here in advising you because we don't have an idea what you are doing nor the impact of these experiences. Your impact won't be effectively communicated with just anecdotes.

Given your extensive clinical experience working with unhoused populations, research which schools on Faha's list offer students a solid experience in working with home-insecure patients. If that's not your purpose as a physician, reconsider the activities you are involved in beyond just "checking the box."

The WAMC profile is not your real application. Work hard on your written descriptions of activities and your essays to make your purpose as a physician clear so adcoms can properly assess your mission fit/alignment. That's the area you need to focus on before you apply so your application experience will be successful.

 

[cookielover101]

Again, I tend to ignore activities with fewer than 50 hours unless you are shadowing. It's harder to ignore once you get to 150 hours per listed activity.


Doing clinical activities in a homeless shelter could be construed as clinical experience by many adcoms. When I assign your hours this way, you have zero non-clinical community service hours (I count being VP of a club as leadership). That will be enough to rule your application out at most schools. If this is wrong, give the proper details.

I'm disregarding your 50 hours' worth of activities because 1 hour a week for 2 years is not much compared to your peers in this pool. The fact you have three different free clinic experiences is easily dismissed without more identifiable details here. Again, we are limited here in advising you because we don't have an idea what you are doing nor the impact of these experiences. Your impact won't be effectively communicated with just anecdotes.

Given your extensive clinical experience working with unhoused populations, research which schools on Faha's list offer students a solid experience in working with home-insecure patients. If that's not your purpose as a physician, reconsider the activities you are involved in beyond just "checking the box."

The WAMC profile is not your real application. Work hard on your written descriptions of activities and your essays to make your purpose as a physician clear so adcoms can properly assess your mission fit/alignment. That's the area you need to focus on before you apply so your application experience will be successful.

Awesome thanks!