WAMC + School List (3.64, 515)

[oregonian19]

WAMC:

1. cGPA/sGPA/nsGPA: 3.64/3.52/3.93
2. MCAT: Taking the real deal on 05/23
   1. AAMC FL1: 513 (127/130/127/129)
   2. AAMC FL2:
   3. AAMC FL3: 515 (129/128/130/128)
3. State of Residence: OR (Strong ties to NY and VT)
4. Race/Ethnicity: White, non-Hispanic
5. UG Institute: Ordinary state school
6. Clinical experience: by matriculation --
   1. 1200+ hours as a scribe for a surgeon
   2. ~300 hours volunteering at a diabetes clinic (moderate amount of patient contact over the telephone)
7. Research experience:
   1. ~900 hours in a biology lab during UG (paid, mostly lackey work)
   2. ~250 hours working on a UG thesis w/ poster presentation and defense
   3. 120 hours volunteering at a cancer research lab at a medical school
8. Shadowing:
   1. 52 hours w/ two different PCPs (both were DOs; one private practice, one HMO)
   2. 3 hours w/ a pediatric endocrinologist (MD)
9. Non-clinical volunteering: by matriculation --
   1. 215 hours as a pharmacy technician at a charitable pharmacy
   2. ~120 hours as teaching civics/history for citizenship classes
10. Other extracurricular activities:
    1. Health outreach club during UG; helped re-design application process and made a personal effort to reach minority students to encourage them to apply (~150 hours)
    2. Biology TA for 1 term (~80 hours)
    3. Summer after graduation: ~200 hours as a paid health educator, educating new university students about health & wellness resources on campus.
11. Honors & Awards:
    1. $20,000 academic scholarship from my university (based on HS GPA & SAT/ACT)
    2. $1,000 scholarship from local medical center (based on volunteerism, LORs, HS GPA)
    3. Dean's List (one term, fall of my freshman year)
    4. Service award from my health outreach club
12. Other:
    1. Hobbies I plan on mentioning in my app: architecture/design, therapy dog training
    2. LORs:
       1. Research PI/thesis adviser (also taught me in one upper-division science course I got an A in)
       2. Biology instructor; got an A in her course, TA'd for her class later; she has written me a LOR before
       3. Literature professor; got an A in both classes I had with her, we have a good rapport
       4. Surgeon I scribe for
       5. Social worker who is my volunteer manager at the diabetes clinic; she always has super positive things to say about me when talking with others
       6. My supervisor for the health education job I had, also adviser for the outreach club I was part of

School List:
Because I haven't taken the MCAT yet and only have taken AAMC FL3 (score listed above), I have prepared two lists. One list is if I do approximately the same or better than my FL, one if I do a little worse.
I made these lists by using WARS and then using MSAR to check for 10/90 percentile GPA and MCAT. I also took location and in-state bias into account.


If I do about the same/better (n=19):

• Duke
• Emory
• Pittsburgh
• Mayo
• Dartmouth
• Hofstra
• Rochester
• Creighton
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• Vermont
• Quinnipiac
• Wake Forest
• OHSU
• Tufts
• Albany Medical College
• Georgetown
• George Washington
• New York Medical College
• SUNY Upstate

If I do worse (n=20):

• Emory
• Dartmouth
• Rochester
• Creighton
• Medical College of Wisconsin
• Vermont
• Quinnipiac
• Wake Forest
• OHSU
• Tufts
• Albany Medical College
• Georgetown
• George Washington
• New York Medical College
• SUNY Upstate
• Tulane
• Rosalind Franklin
• Temple
• Drexel
• Loyola

I would love any thoughts and opinions! Thank you so much!

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[oregonian19]

Would love some thoughts from the Dream Team!
@Goro @Faha @LizzyM @gyngyn

 

[LizzyM]

You've done your due diligence in making your lists. Now go and take 4 more practice MCATs under test conditions. You need more practice to do your best on the real thing!

 

[Faha]

Which schools on your list that are realistic will depend on your actual MCAT score. Post your score here when available in June.

 

[oregonian19]

You've done your due diligence in making your lists. Now go and take 4 more practice MCATs under test conditions. You need more practice to do your best on the real thing!

Which schools on your list that are realistic will depend on your actual MCAT score. Post your score here when available in June.

Alright, thank you! I was hoping for some input with the one practice test, but I totally understand.

I will return later with more practice tests or my actual score!

 

[LizzyM]

Alright, thank you! I was hoping for some input with the one practice test, but I totally understand.

I will return later with more practice tests or my actual score!

I don't need more scores to "chance you". You need more practice tests in order to do your best on the exam. It is a proven method.

 

[oregonian19]

I don't need more scores to "chance you". You need more practice tests in order to do your best on the exam. It is a proven method.

Okay, makes sense.
I was planning on doing the additional two AAMC FLs and maybe the four NextStep tests.

Would it be possible to get chances now, or would you prefer to wait for more information/real MCAT score?

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Definitely do the additional AAMC FLs. As for the Next Step tests: they and any other third party tests are mostly good for content review and not the type of reasoning that the MCAT teaches.

 

[oregonian19]

Definitely do the additional AAMC FLs. As for the Next Step tests: they and any other third party tests are mostly good for content review and not the type of reasoning that the MCAT teaches.

So should I not spend money on the NS practice tests? If not, is there something better I could purchase (like other AAMC materials)?

 

[Walter Raleigh]

AAMC Section Banks and CARS question packs. Buy those. Take them timed, giving yourself the same amount of time per question that you'd have on the real MCAT.

 

[oregonian19]

AAMC Section Banks and CARS question packs. Buy those. Take them timed, giving yourself the same amount of time per question that you'd have on the real MCAT.

The section banks are different from the question packs, right? So you're suggesting the section bank pack and only the two CARS packs?

 

[Walter Raleigh]

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. For the 100-question section banks, you can break those out into two sections and have a 10-minute break between them. 80 minutes/50 questions. For the 120-question CARS question packs, same deal but 100 minutes/60 questions. The Question Packs are questions from the pre-2015 MCAT; for CARS they're the best you've got and haven't changed much. For the Section Banks, those are new MCAT questions and what you should be using. Good luck.

Third party exams are nothing but fodder, good mostly for getting you used to taking the long test and showing weaknesses in content knowledge, rather than reasoning. Kaplan's exams are deflated and Next Step's too calculation-heavy; they're more like a college final than the MCAT.

 

[oregonian19]

Yes, that's what I'm suggesting. For the 100-question section banks, you can break those out into two sections and have a 10-minute break between them. 80 minutes/50 questions. For the 120-question CARS question packs, same deal but 100 minutes/60 questions. The Question Packs are questions from the pre-2015 MCAT; for CARS they're the best you've got and haven't changed much. For the Section Banks, those are new MCAT questions and what you should be using. Good luck.

Third party exams are nothing but fodder, good mostly for getting you used to taking the long test and showing weaknesses in content knowledge, rather than reasoning. Kaplan's exams are deflated and Next Step's too calculation-heavy; they're more like a college final than the MCAT.

Thank you for your advice!

 

[Walter Raleigh]

You're welcome. Good luck. When you study, do a writeup for each question you get wrong. It should contain:

• Why you picked the incorrect answer.
• Why your answer was wrong.
• Why the correct answer is correct.

Do content review based on these writeups. Do this for the other two AAMC tests you have - and the Sample Test (take this next, then the other AAMCs), and you could well be looking at a 520 come Test Day. Good luck - and a 3-5 point increase is not out of the realm of possibility.