WAMC - ORM, TX, 4.0, 518

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alychee

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Hi! I am a recent undergrad graduate taking 1 gap year and applying during the 2025-2026 cycle! I'm trying to solidify a school list and would love to get all the help I can get. I moved to Texas in 2019 but had lived my whole life prior in the Midwest; because of that, I don't have a huge attachment to Texas and would love to leave for medical school if possible, but I recognize that the instate tuition and quality schools here are a hard bargain to beat. I'll be applying to all Texas medical schools but am trying to tailor my OOS list. I know it's a bit top heavy but I figure it would be best to only apply to those that I would choose over Texas schools. At the same time, however, I'm open to adding a few more OOS targets.

Stats and Demographics
  1. cGPA: 4.0 sGPA: 4.0
  2. MCAT Score Breakdown - 518
    • C/P: 129
    • CARS: 130
    • B/B: 128
    • P/S: 131
  3. US Citizen; Texas Resident
  4. ORM - Asian (underrepresented Asian ethnicity - not that it matters though haha)
  5. Undergrad: Top Texas university
  6. Clinical experience (paid)- I recognize this is a weakness and am working on getting them higher right now!
    1. Part-time MA at an Allergy clinic (70 hours - low bc the work environment was terrible and I ended up leaving within 3 months, not sure whether to include)
    2. Part-time scribe at Urology clinic (55 hours - low bc I got a job offer elsewhere where I am currently working; also not sure whether to include)
    3. Full-time Medical Assistant at another clinic (160 hours, will definitely get 300 more hours by May/time of application as I've graduated and work here 40 hours a week)
  7. Clinical experience (volunteer)
    • Hospital volunteer (~300 hours, included answering phones for patients, bringing them water or anything they needed, rounding on patient rooms to check that bed alarms are on)
  8. Non-clinical volunteering
    1. Hospital volunteer (~240 hours, includes making and delivering fall kits - not strictly patient interaction so I put it here?)
    2. Canteen Host at Blood Drive Center (30 hours - just started this, planning on getting hours to 50+)
    3. Community garden volunteering (30 hours - help plant and harvest food to increase food accessibility/equity; LOVE doing this, only have lower hours because I started it last semester and they have had no new open volunteer dates until March/April because of winter - planning on going back and getting this up to 50+ hours)
    4. Just started as a Crisis Hotline Volunteer - they require 4 hours a week so hoping to get around 50 hours by May
  9. Research experience and productivity
    • Clinical Research Lab involving diabetes in underrepresented population (400 hours, 1 pending pub as 3rd author (should be out in the next month or so), 2 posters - 1 poster going to a national conference soon) - was not a wet lab but more a clinical based lab where we'd meet a couple times a month for data collection, hence lower hours. But loved my time here, it was defining in understanding how our backgrounds contribute to our experience with our health and with medicine.
    • Recently accepted to a T5 institution as a full-time clinical research associate for a neuro/psych research project - will be starting in April or May. Is outside of Texas and will be here for my gap year; projecting around ~1000 hours by the time I hopefully matriculate. Will be at the other clinic position until I start here!
  10. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
    • 60 hours shadowing in various pediatric specialties such as Neurology, Internal Medicine, Emergency, and the OR/anesthesiology/cardiology (not intending to go Pediatrics necessarily, just happened to be the doctors that were happy to have me shadow!)
    • Planning on going back to shadow psychiatrists as I have a special interest in mental health. Will likely go up 10-15 hours.
  11. Work Experience
    • Organic Chemistry TA (~120 hours, 1 semester, unpaid, involved weekly office hours, meetings with prof, exam grading, attending lectures, etc)
    • AP/ACT/SAT & elementary through high school general tutoring (~250 hours, did every kind of virtual tutoring you can think of through a company, just whatever their students needed from me!)
    • Korean restaurant server (~1000 hours, large number of hours because this job was how I helped pay for school!)
  12. Other extracurricular activities
    • President/Director at mental health organization (~1000 hours, biggest pride and joy, spent lots of time planning fundraising events for mental health, had workshops and socials to create an educational safe space and community for students, hold Youth Mental Health Certification from this)
    • Director at South Asian-led multimedia magazine organization (~400 hours, in charge of meetings, printing vendors, reaching out to artists/creators for features, etc)
    • Oxford Summer Literature Program - study abroad program in the UK for a month and a half, lots of fun with classes touching on both the classics and post-colonial literature
    • Violinist in various ensembles affiliated with school chamber orchestra (~300 hours, performed end of semesters)

I recognize that a lot of what I'm putting on here for volunteer work or clinical work is contingent on how I do the next few months with these hours but that was the reason I took a gap year and I've been making it my priority to get them higher. My other extracurriculars are high because I was initially unsure about the medical school path and joined whatever I felt like. Now that I'm certain and going to apply, I would appreciate all the help I can get. I would love to apply to schools that have a special focus on diversity and equity, as well as on mental health, as I want the majority of my application to convey my desire to understand the people around me, and to take special consideration into their backgrounds and their stories - which is why writing/the arts have always been a passion to me - and I believe that it takes that special understanding and drive towards patients to be a great doctor. However, I also love psychiatric/neuroscience research - and although my research hours aren't very high, I still would like to consider schools that emphasis that as well, especially considering where I'll be going for my gap year.

School List (Need lots of help!)
Texas
  1. UH - Houston
  2. Texas Tech - Lubbock
  3. Texas Tech - El Paso
  4. A&M
  5. UTMB in Galveston
  6. TCOM (DO)
  7. UT Tyler
  8. McGovern - Houston
  9. Long - San Antonio
  10. Baylor - Houston
  11. Dell - Austin
  12. UTSW - Dallas

OOS

Reaches
  1. Albert Einstein
  2. Icahn at Mt Sinai
  3. Yale
  4. Harvard
  5. UCLA
  6. UCSF
  7. NYU
  8. Columbia
  9. Stanford
  10. Cornell
  11. UChicago Pritzker
  12. Northwestern
  13. Mayo Clinic of Alix
  14. U of Michigan

Targets...?:
  1. Boston University School of Medicine
  2. Loyola Stritch School of Med - Chicago
  3. U of Rochester
  4. UCSD - (took no Texans one year but I am very attached to the idea of going to school in Cali; not sure if it's a good idea)
  5. U of Minnesota
  6. U of Vermont

Considering:
1. GWU
2. Georgetown
3. Stony Brook
4. Wake Forest
5. Brown University

Location wise I would love to be in the east or west coast or Chicago (but who doesn't lol), but open to adding a few other schools that would be a good mission fit. Very open to change in this list in general, but again, applied to reaches bc they have funding to offer more money and/or I would choose to attend them over Texas schools. Please let me know y'alls thoughts! 🙂
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Where did you grow up if you are a relatively new Texas transplant (where is your high school)?

Conservatively speaking, your lack of non-clinical service orientation activities could be problematic. I don't pay attention if you have fewer than 50 hours in a specific activity (except shadowing), so have you shown yourself capable of being comfortable in uncomfortable situations or with uncomfortable people? California and West Coast schools generally have more sensitivity to underrepresented Asian ethnicities than most of the rest of the country, but it's not impossible (for large metro medical schools in diverse cities).
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
Where did you grow up if you are a relatively new Texas transplant (where is your high school)?

Conservatively speaking, your lack of non-clinical service orientation activities could be problematic. I don't pay attention if you have fewer than 50 hours in a specific activity (except shadowing), so have you shown yourself capable of being comfortable in uncomfortable situations or with uncomfortable people? California and West Coast schools generally have more sensitivity to underrepresented Asian ethnicities than most of the rest of the country, but it's not impossible (for large metro medical schools in diverse cities).
Click to expand...

I grew up in Kansas and did my first two years of high school there before I moved to Texas (junior and senior year in Texas). And absolutely - I agree. I'm making it a priority to get those non-clinical service hours up; I aim to have everything at least above 50 hours by the time I apply. I think my time working with older POC participants in diabetes research could possibly count towards being comfortable in uncomfortable situations; likewise my time with my mental health organization could speak to difficult topics we addressed such as anxiety, depression etc. If I can get those crisis hotline volunteer hours up, I am hoping that can also speak to something.
 
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