WAMC - School Critique

[GMedHope]

• CA Resident/ORM
• cGPA: 3.8
  • sGPA: 3.7
  • Degree in Engineering
• MCAT: 522 (C/P 130; CARS 129; B/B 132; P/S 131)
• Graduated from a large state school
• Volunteer Clinical experience:
  • 800 hours as a volunteer EMT
  • 75 hours on a volunteer council for the service
  • 100 hours post college at a large hospital ED (basic maintenance and hospitality duties nothing special)
• Volunteer Non-Clinical experience:
  • 30 hours w/ undergrad premed society
  • 330 hours w/ mentorship program for at risk kids
  • 50 hours post college with a relief org in US
• Research experience:
  • 1500 hours as an undergraduate research assistant w/ middle author paper (paid for some of the time credit for the other time)
  • 1500 hours post graduation 1 year (paid, no paper)
  • 2000+ hours clinical research coordinator post graduation 1.5 years (paid, no paper yet, one being submitted currently)
• Shadowing experience:
  • 80 hours w/ various specialties
• Other extracurricular activities:
  • 600 hours as a camp counselor post graduation
• Anything else not listed you think might be important:
  • I applied both my senior year and then the next cycle with a 513 MCAT to about 7 places each time. With hindsight, all essentially reach schools with my MCAT and GPA. I will be 3 years out of college with this cycle.

Draft School List
UNC
UCSF
U Michigan
UC Davis
U Colorado
UCLA
U Maryland
U Minn
U Rochester
U Pittsburgh
U Wisconsin
Indiana U
U Iowa
U Chicago
Emory
UCSD
Columbia
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Ohio State
Albert Einstein
U Cincinnati
USC
Case Western
UC Irvine


Any help with school selection would be greatly appreciated (add or remove)!

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[Saturday’s Child]

Which of these schools have you already applied to? And if so, how many times?

 

[MyOdyssey]

You might want to add Tufts, Boston University, Wash U, NYU.

Are U of Wisconsin and Indiana U open to OOS?

Congrats on the improved MCAT! How did you manage such a large jump in your score?

 

[GMedHope]

Which of these schools have you already applied to? And if so, how many times?

Iowa x2 (Interview x 2), Wisconsin x2, Minnesota x2, UNC x 2, UCSD x 2, Colorado x 2, Columbia x 1, Maryland x 1 (interview)

You might want to add Tufts, Boston University, Wash U, NYU.

Are U of Wisconsin and Indiana U open to OOS?

Congrats on the improved MCAT! How did you manage such a large jump in your score?

From what I've seen, Indiana yes since it has a large class size and Wisconsin is just ok (I wanna say their class is like 30% oos?). For my MCAT I dedicated significantly more time (~5 months working full time for the 522 vs 2 months during summer not studying hard). Used way more resources (UWorld, Anki, did more in depth content review). Happy to go into more detail if you'd like!

 

[m1redsox]

I’d remove:
-UNC
-Wisco
-Minnesota

Each for IS bias (albeit Wisco and Minn are not too terrible). Unless you are DYING to attend one of these schools, applying a 3rd time to a school doesn't look very good.

 

[GMedHope]

I’d remove:
-UNC
-Wisco
-Minnesota

Each for IS bias (albeit Wisco and Minn are not too terrible). Unless you are DYING to attend one of these schools, applying a 3rd time to a school doesn't look very good.

Alright, thanks for the advice!

Important piece of info I left out, I wasn't a CA resident before this cycle (no residence before).

 

[MyOdyssey]

Alright, thanks for the advice!

Important piece of info I left out, I wasn't a CA resident before this cycle (no residence before).

Might consider applying to all CA schools including those that are lower down that what you might otherwise consider given that this is your third attempt.

I suggested Tufts and Boston U because they are selective but not as selective as T10s.

Wash U, NYU are schools that might interview you because of your second, very high MCAT score.

Might also include Duke, which unlike U Mich, does not have an instate bias, and Dartmouth, which is Ivy but not as selective as the other Ivies. The most recent past cycle shows that Duke and Case (which you've already identified) have started to choose higher MCAT scoring applicants. This might help you.

Was your research related to engineering? I've read that some medical schools are more engineering friendly than others. Have you considered Harvard's track for people with an engineering background? (I realize Harvard's a reach for anyone.)

Regarding the MCAT, what CARS practice materials did you find to be most like the real MCAT CARS?

Was the 2d MCAT more difficult than the first? I've been reading about a trend to more difficult MCATs.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Might consider applying to all CA schools including those that are lower down that what you might otherwise consider given that this is your third attempt.

I suggested Tufts and Boston U because they are selective but not as selective as T10s.

Wash U, NYU are schools that might interview you because of your second, very high MCAT score.

Might also include Duke, which unlike U Mich, does not have an instate bias, and Dartmouth, which is Ivy but not as selective as the other Ivies. The most recent past cycle shows that Duke and Case (which you've already identified) have started to choose higher MCAT scoring applicants. This might help you.

Was your research related to engineering? I've read that some medical schools are more engineering friendly than others. Have you considered Harvard's track for people with an engineering background? (I realize Harvard's a reach for anyone.)

You might also consider some lower tiered private medical schools: e.g. Quinnipiac, UCF, U Miami. I don't know as much about these schools but they're out there. Any suggestions @Faha @Mr.Smile12 @Goro?

Have you considered applying DO as well given that this is your third attempt?

Regarding the MCAT, what CARS practice materials did you find to be most like the real MCAT CARS?

Was the 2d MCAT more difficult than the first? I've been reading about a trend to more difficult MCATs.

 

[GMedHope]

I'll definitely consider Tufts and BU! They seem competitive from the sheer number of applications but I seem like I'm in their ranges. Duke vs Michigan is an interesting flop, will have to look at them closer. Unfortunately my research isn't engineering related .

At this point in time I don't have a particular interest in going DO.

For CARS, AAMC material is king. I did both UWorld CARS and Next Step full length CARS and neither helped nearly as much as the CARS in the AAMC material. The AAMC logic is just something that you have to get used to and once I did enough of it I started to catch on.

2nd MCAT was not harder than the first tbh, but I was way more prepared this time than the last so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Degree in Engineering... just to cover the bases: BCPM GPA?

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
The UCs (except UC Riverside if you are not from that region)
USC Keck
California University
Kaiser
Dartmouth
Tufts
Boston University
Vermont
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
Jefferson
Duke
Emory
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
U Michigan
U Chicago
Northwestern
Washington University
Carle Illinois
Colorado

 

[GMedHope]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
The UCs (except UC Riverside if you are not from that region)
USC Keck
California University
Kaiser
Dartmouth
Tufts
Boston University
Vermont
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
Jefferson
Duke
Emory
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
U Michigan
U Chicago
Northwestern
Washington University
Carle Illinois
Colorado

Thanks Dr. Faha, I appreciate the list!

 

[GMedHope]

Degree in Engineering... just to cover the bases: BCPM GPA?

BCPM is the 3.7, I didn't include the engineering classes in the sGPA!

 

[imbesrs]

Add Carle Illinois- the med school for engineering majors they gonna love ya