WAMC/School List 3.5 cGPA 3.3 sGPA 514 MCAT URM (Heavy research applicant)

[Saturnalia_1]

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Hey everyone, please let me know what my chances are + what schools I should subtract!

1. cGPA: 3.49 (3.76 average for last 6 semesters)
2. sGPA: 3.3
3. MCAT 1st attempt: (502: 125/125/127/125) 2nd attempt: (514: 127/125/130/132)
4. State: Va but reside in NY
5. Ethnicity: Male, URM (gay + Hispanic), first generation college student, single parent from Panama, born in USA (Va)
6. Undergrad: VCU
7. Clinical experience:
   1. 2500 hours of paid clinical work as a patient care tech/EMT/Pharm Tech/Clinical Research Associate at NYU
   2. 1000 projected
8. Research experience and productivity:
   1. Undergrad research: 200 hour across 3 labs
   2. Post grad research: 2000 hours at NIH
      1. 4 Posters
      2. 8 Publications (2 first author and 4 second author in high impact journals)
9. Shadowing experience and specialties represented:
   1. Pediatric ER- 10 hours
   2. Plastic Surgery 15 hours
   3. Psychiatry 20 hours
10. Non-Clinical Volunteering:
    1. 312 hours for Trevor Project Crisis Counselor
    2. 50 hours for Philanthropy Chair for Fraternity
11. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Gap year: research
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important:
13. Letter of Rec current stash:
    1. STRONG LOR from respected MD PI at NYU
    2. Strong LOR from PI in undergrad
    3. LOR from science professor
14. School List
    1. MD:
       1. Albany
       2. Einstein
       3. Rosalind Franklin
       4. Hofstra
       5. Drexel
       6. EVMS
       7. Quinnipiac
       8. Geisel Darmouth
       9. George Washington
       10. Georgetown
       11. Hackensack Meridian
       12. UBuffalo
       13. Temple U
       14. Med College of Wisconsin
       15. NYU Gross
       16. UVermont
       17. Sidney Kimmel Thomas JeffersonU
       18. SUNY Upstate
       19. SUNY Upstate
       20. Brown U
       21. Tufts
       22. Tulane
       23. UCSD
       24. U Illinois COM
       25. UMiami
       26. UWisconsin
       27. VCU
       28. Virginia Tech
       29. Wake Forest
       30. Wayne State
       31. West Va
    2. DO:
       1. Have 16 on my list

 

[Chromium Surfer]

You have a very solid application. Congrats on that awesome improvement on your MCAT and your upward GPA trend will help as well. I dont see any glaring "weakness" in your app but it would be worth doing some primary care shadowing if you can. Its not a deal breaker but would be helpful to round things out and also just good in terms of career exploration.

I would add Pitt! I'm not sure what your interests are career wise but Pitt is a very strong school and will set you up well for anything. They are very strong in the surgical subspecialties and there are abundant research opportunities. If you're intentional there's also a lot of opportunities to get involved in primary care work as well. If money isn't a concern you could consider adding 5-10 "reach" schools

I am certainly not an expert so I would defer to the experts on here, but based on your improvement you might not need to apply to DO schools(or significantly limit the number that you do apply to), and could replace some of the current MD schools on your list with the 5-10 reaches that you have. With the potential changes on the horizon for student loans etc, the best value is MD schools as often they can be cheaper than DO schools while providing more benefits both in medical school and for residency matching.

Good luck this cycle! 🙂

 

[Saturnalia_1]

You have a very solid application. Congrats on that awesome improvement on your MCAT and your upward GPA trend will help as well. I dont see any glaring "weakness" in your app but it would be worth doing some primary care shadowing if you can. Its not a deal breaker but would be helpful to round things out and also just good in terms of career exploration.

I would add Pitt! I'm not sure what your interests are career wise but Pitt is a very strong school and will set you up well for anything. They are very strong in the surgical subspecialties and there are abundant research opportunities. If you're intentional there's also a lot of opportunities to get involved in primary care work as well. If money isn't a concern you could consider adding 5-10 "reach" schools

I am certainly not an expert so I would defer to the experts on here, but based on your improvement you might not need to apply to DO schools(or significantly limit the number that you do apply to), and could replace some of the current MD schools on your list with the 5-10 reaches that you have. With the potential changes on the horizon for student loans etc, the best value is MD schools as often they can be cheaper than DO schools while providing more benefits both in medical school and for residency matching.

Good luck this cycle! 🙂

Thank you so much, many good tears were shed when I saw my score. Also totally overlooked Pitt but definitely going to add that to my list! What do you think some good reach schools match with my application? I was on the fence about adding UCSF and Hopkins because of how wildly unrealistic they are for me but maybe my research will persuade them haha

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

What feedback has your prehealth advising office given you?

 

[Saturnalia_1]

Welcome to the forums.

What feedback has your prehealth advising office given you?

Hi thanks for the welcome! I didn't use my pre-health advising office too much because, understandably, they thought with my freshman year GPA, I was doomed, but my PI at NYU, who works in admissions and a current med student in our lab have been telling me to apply across the whole spectrum of schools because top 20 schools might really value the research I've done and may be more forgiving of the lower GPA especially with my MCAT score.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Not all schools "compensate" low GPAs if you have a high MCAT. Both provide information about your abilities to recall and process.