WAMC/School List: (3.83, 522) ORM, Reapplicant

[Sakkarai7481]

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Hi all! I am a reapplicant who applied in 2022-23 without much success. I am two years out of college, and I used my time in my gap years to work extensively in clinical research and build up my volunteer hours a bit more. I also had to retake my MCAT due to my old score expiring. Although I technically live in Massachusetts right now, it doesn't count for UMass since I haven't lived here long enough, and I don't have any other in-state residency 🙁 It would be amazing to get some help and insights into my chances and my school list for this cycle!

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
   1. 3.83 cGPA and 3.85 sGPA
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
   1. 522 (132/128/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   1. MA (but doesn’t count for UMass)
4. Ethnicity and/or race
   1. Asian, ORM
5. Undergraduate institution or category
   1. UVA
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer) (~1800 hours total)
   1. ~300 hours total clinical volunteering
   2. ~1500 hours clinical research (peri-operative research studies involving blood/drug orders, cognitive assessments, data collection in OR/ICU, and extensive patient interaction)
7. Research experience and productivity (~4700 hours total)
   1. 700 hours working in undergrad nephrology lab, 1 poster at my undergrad
   2. 4000 hours working in clinical research lab, 4 posters (3 at my institute, 1 at national conference), presenting author, 1 first author & 2 middle-author manuscripts in review stage
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented (~250 hrs total)
   1. 200 hours, nephrology and transplant departments at my undergrad hospital
   2. ~50 hours, shadowing in OR, primarily cardiac cases
9. Non-clinical volunteering (~300 hours total)
   1. 100 hours working with international service/aid organization I helped found in college
   2. 150 hours volunteering at food kitchen, nursing homes, and medical camps through local service org
   3. 50 hours virtually working with another international service org
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. President of undergrad a cappella group
    2. Founded a chapter of an international service org at my undergrad
    3. TA for 3 semesters (physiology and biotransport)
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Rodman Scholar (Top 5% of admitted students in engineering school at UVA)
    2. Bronze Presidential Volunteer Award at current institution
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. Undergrad major: biomedical engineering

Here is a preliminary school list, but I am open to adding 5-10 more. Any schools I should add/remove? I know my service might be a little lower especially for service-oriented schools. Should I consider adding DO schools to my list?

1. Boston University
2. Carle Illinois
3. Columbia
4. Duke
5. Drexel
6. Einstein
7. EVMS
8. Geisinger
9. Georgetown
10. GW
11. Harvard
12. Kaiser Permanente
13. Michigan
14. Mount Sinai
15. Mayo Clinic (Phoenix)
16. NYMC
17. NYU Grossman
18. Pitt
19. SUNY (Either Up/Downstate)
20. Tufts
21. Temple
22. UChicago
23. UIC
24. UMD
25. UMass
26. UVA
27. UVM
28. VCU
29. Virginia Tech Carilion
30. Western Michigan

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As a reapplicant, where did you apply before, and what were the results?

 

[Faha]

Did you have any interviews or waitlist in your previous cycle ?

 

[Sakkarai7481]

As a reapplicant, where did you apply before, and what were the results?

Here is my school list from 2022. I unfortunately did not receive any interviews 🙁 After speaking to some folks I came to the conclusion that it was due to a combination of factors including top heavy list, lack of community service, limited clinical experience, and application mistiming (I was later in submitting the schools I had a better shot at):

1. Boston University
2. Case Western
3. Columbia
4. Duke
5. EVMS
6. GW
7. Georgetown
8. Harvard
9. Mount Sinai
10. Johns Hopkins
11. USC Keck
12. Mayo Clinic (Phoenix)
13. Michigan State
14. Northwestern
15. NYU Grossman
16. UPenn
17. Rutgers NJMS
18. Stanford
19. Tufts
20. Tulane
21. UCLA/Drew
22. UArizona - Phoenix
23. UAMS
24. UCSF
25. UChicago
26. Cincinnati
27. UMD
28. UMass
29. Michigan
30. UNC
31. Pitt
32. UVA
33. VCU
34. Virginia Tech Carilion
35. Wake Forest
36. WashU
37. Yale

 

[Sakkarai7481]

Did you have any interviews or waitlist in your previous cycle ?

No unfortunately not 🙁 due to a combination of factors including top heavy list, lack of community service, limited clinical experience, and application mistiming like I mentioned in an above reply

 

[Faha]

Remove Carle since they are looking for applicants with an engineering background. Geisinger and SUNY have a strong instate preference. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UMass
Tufts
Boston University
Vermont
Dartmouth
Brown
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
NYU
Rochester
NYMC
Temple
Jefferson
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Johns Hopkins
George Washington
Georgetown
UVA
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Duke
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Washington University
Northwestern
U Chicago
Western Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Mayo
Kaiser

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Just correcting for Faha, OP has a biomedical engineering background and an award as a top student among those graduates. That checks the box.

To that end, activities don't point towards application of engineering unlike other engineers who had opportunities to. It is what that is, I presume.

There's a fair amount for service, including leadership in forming a non-profit. I don't know how this is described in the application, but one would think OP could get more mileage. Again, nice activities, but I don't see much from the descriptions to compel me to send an interview invitation. If it's just getting more hours from last cycle, I hope the current inventory is fine... but it still doesn't move me.

 

[Sakkarai7481]

Remove Carle since they are looking for applicants with an engineering background. Geisinger and SUNY have a strong instate preference. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UMass
Tufts
Boston University
Vermont
Dartmouth
Brown
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Columbia
NYU
Rochester
NYMC
Temple
Jefferson
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Johns Hopkins
George Washington
Georgetown
UVA
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Duke
USF Morsani
Miami
Vanderbilt
Washington University
Northwestern
U Chicago
Western Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Mayo
Kaiser

Thank you for the suggestions!

 

[Sakkarai7481]

Just correcting for Faha, OP has a biomedical engineering background and an award as a top student among those graduates. That checks the box.

To that end, activities don't point towards application of engineering unlike other engineers who had opportunities to. It is what that is, I presume.

There's a fair amount for service, including leadership in forming a non-profit. I don't know how this is described in the application, but one would think OP could get more mileage. Again, nice activities, but I don't see much from the descriptions to compel me to send an interview invitation. If it's just getting more hours from last cycle, I hope the current inventory is fine... but it still doesn't move me.

I see. What may be something that you would like to see in the application (e.g. activities, essays, etc.) that may make it more likely that I get an interview invite?

 

[awood]

I see. What may be something that you would like to see in the application (e.g. activities, essays, etc.) that may make it more likely that I get an interview invite?

I'm just another applicant this cycle, so I'm not an authority.

But to my eyes and comparing what you've written out here to people I know who've gotten into med school, your activites/hours all look good enough to at least garner an interview. Honestly, I would take a good hard look at your activities and PS writing to make sure they are well-written (get outside feedback if possible) as that is a big thing that could have held back your app that people on here wouldn't be able to see. Another possibility is that there is some red flag in your LORs that you may be unaware of maybe? Those are two big factors that could have really influenced getting no interviews to consider as well that people on here can't really look at.

Additionally, pay attention to mission fit to schools that you apply to in order to make sure your profile meshes well (e.g. you don't seem to have any primary care orientation, and some schools are super big on primary care, so they probably wouldn't bother interviewing you in my opinion).