Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice on which schools to apply to in this cycle. I qualify as Disadvantaged on AMCAS and have FAP so I am able to apply to 20 schools. I’ve left off the Philly schools for personal reasons but am open to any other suggestions for my school list.
- cGPA: 3.7, sGPA: 3.6
- For additional context, I had a really rough first 3 semesters of undergrad which included loss of income for my family, a parent’s cancer diagnosis, and 2 hospitalizations for me (1 for emergency surgery, then had to go back due to complications) so I have a lot of B’s, a C in Cell Bio and C- in Organic I from my 1st 3 semesters. I have a strong upward trend for the last 5 semesters (all A+/A/A- s) and in classes such as Organic II, Molecular Bio, and Biochem.
- MCAT: 1st attempt 510 (125/128/126/131), 2nd attempt 515 (130/127/128/130)
- State of Residence: Arizona
- Demographics: White and Vietnamese, female
- Languages: English, Vietnamese (spoken in childhood home), Spanish
- Undergraduate institution: State school (outside of my state of residence)
- Major: Biology, Minors: Spanish and Computational Research
- LoRs are strong according to my pre-med advisor on Committee
- I have a Committee Letter which includes 5 letters: 2 science profs (1 from PI), 1 non-science Spanish prof, 1 physician who I’ve shadowed, and 1 from my manager at my food service job
- Paid Employment:
- Bussing/food running at a dine-in movie theater and a Thai restaurant (~1100 hours)
- Intro Biology lab TA (88 hours)
- Work study job at library on campus (~500 hours)
- Full time medical assistant and scribe at internal medicine clinic for gap year while I am applying, I just began and will continue working there for a year (2080 hours)
- Clinical Volunteer Work:
- President of student volunteer program doing health screenings in the community at the Salvation Army and in a rural health clinic (~100 hours)
- Patient education and Spanish medical interpreting at a disadvantaged clinic (~45 hours)
- Volunteer medical assisting in clinic (~75 hours)
- Nonclinical Volunteer Work:
- Mentoring and tutoring children (some who spoke mainly Spanish) at the public library in various subjects (~50 hours)
- Shopping for elderly/at risk people during pandemic (~25 hours so far, may be able to do more)
- Research:
- Research in drug leads for neurodegenerative diseases sophomore-senior year (including a summer). I have 2 poster presentations at university conferences, 2 live stream presentations through Honors College, but no pubs (~300 hours)
- Shadowing:
- Internal medicine (15 hours), Family Medicine (40 hours), Pediatrics (6 hours)
- Honors/Awards:
- Full out-of-state tuition merit scholarship for 4 years from my university
- Accepted into a prestigious honors program within the Honors College at my university (40 members accepted each year). I also received an additional scholarship from this program (they select 2-3 freshman each year as recipients).
- Inducted member of AED (pre-health honor society)
- Extracurriculars/Hobbies:
- Competed in a university wide and a statewide collegiate case competition for solving global health issues (was captain of my team)
- Songwriting and playing guitar, ukulele, and piano (I was a finalist in a songwriting competition in Nashville and the rights to one of my songs has been registered by an artist on Spotify)
- University of Arizona – Tucson
- University of Arizona – Phoenix
- Wake Forest
- Creighton
- St. Louis University
- Mayo AZ (Reach)
- Medical College of Wisconsin
- Rosalind Franklin
- Loyola
- Emory
- University of Miami
- George Washington
- Keck at USC (Reach)
- Hofstra
- USF Morsani
- University of Pittsburgh (Reach)
- Albany Medical College
- Boston University (Reach)
- Geisel at Dartmouth
- New York Medical College
- Oakland University
- Penn State
- University of Vermont
- Tulane
- Virginia Commonwealth
