DonPetohmi
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2024
- Messages
- 9
- Reaction score
- 3
1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
• cGPA: 3.96
• sGPA: 3.94
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts
• Score: 523
• Breakdown: 132/128/131/132
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
• Pennsylvania (PA)
4. Ethnicity and/or race
• White — ORM
• Male
5. Undergraduate institution or category
• Public State School
• Major: Biochemistry
• Minors: Chemistry, Exercise Science
• Certificate: Ethics/Philosophy of Medicine
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
• 250 hours – Nursing Assistant (nursing home)
• 220 hours – Scribe at pediatric cardiology clinic
• 200 hours – Volunteer at cancer center
• 150 hours – Hospital food services (delivered food to patients and helped them eat; unsure if this counts as clinical, could certainly smell them)
7. Research experience and productivity
• 1500 hours – Cancer immunotherapy lab (most meaningful)
• 3 posters at university fairs
• 1 poster at national conference (also planning on applying to NCUR this year)
• 1 mid-low author publication
• 1 second-author manuscript in prep (expected submission Spring 2026)
• Thinking about NIH IRTA Postbac during gap year (‘26-‘27). Would love some feedback on this and if it would be better to just stick with my current lab as a technician, or look elsewhere.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
• 100 hours across ~10 physicians in:
• Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Radiology, Emergency Medicine
9. Non-clinical volunteering
• 200 hours – Crisis Text Line
• 280 hours – Soup kitchen (2 years)
• 80 hours – Conversations to Remember (weekly video calls with seniors)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc.)
Leadership / Teaching
• Suicide prevention club: 1 year member, 2 years on executive board
• AMSA mentor: 2 years
• STEM UTA: 2 semesters
Hobbies / Interests
• Lifting/bodybuilding (5 years) – Passionate and ties into exercise science minor. (Unsure if I will include)
• Movies (Lifetime?) – Over 1000 rated on Letterboxd, could talk about this with interviewers extensively (Unsure if I will include)
• Learning Spanish (1 year) – Started learning 2 months ago and got obsessed. Currently at low B1 level. Expecting to be conversational (B2ish) by app time; very interested in language acquisition and its science, but newer hobby. (Unsure if I will include)
11. Relevant honors or awards
• University’s Honor’s College
• Merit-Based University scholarship (10K/yr for all 4 years)
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
Letters of Recommendation
• Research PI — Strong (known 4 years in lab and attend his “at-home” lab dinners, very confident in LOR)
• STEM professor (TA’d for) — Decent
• Certificate professor — Said would be “very good,” but hasn’t uploaded to Interfolio after few months so a little worried, still in no rush though.
• Unknown second STEM professor — TBD during senior year (beginning in fall)
• Soup kitchen staff — Considering asking (they’ve offered multiple times and I know a lot of staff on a personal level, recently helped manager, and likely writer, move into his new home)
Not sure if I should select low SES due to complicated divorced parent situation. I was raised by a single mother with full custody of 3 who constantly had 2-3 jobs to provide for us, however we did receive child support from my father who is a physician and fairly wealthy. The support however was limited and outside of this there was no further assistance. I have qualified each year for Pell Grant and similar state grants and this year received 5K from Pell. Also will quality for FAP. So, in short, I really don’t know what to select because I’ve seen some classifications of low SES focus on qualifications for these grants and others look at education/profession of parent(s).
One thing I’ve been debating regarding my school list is how many schools to apply to. Rn it is quite long, but I also know that reapplying is quite costly and I want to make sure there is as small of a chance of that as possible. However, if I could reduce my list, I would like to. Also please let me know if there’s anything you think I should focus on in my last year (going into 4th year of undergrad) to strengthen my app. I’m still not exactly sure how I’ll be tying my app together (I have yet to start prewriting although I’d like to start soon) but I do know I’m shooting for research focused schools and that an interest in cancer work will be talked about. I have other interests like mental health, fitness, etc. that I may talk about too. I’m also not sure what to select for my other meaningful experience, to me, volunteering at the soup kitchen was quite meaningful, but I haven’t yet decided if I’ll select it. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for reading! You all have been so helpful thus far!
Harvard
UCSF
Johns Hopkins
Columbia
Duke
Penn
NYU
Stanford
WashU
Michigan
Yale
Mayo
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Pitt
Cornell
Mt. Sinai
Chicago
Einstein
Emory
Ohio State
USC Keck
UVA
Case Western Reserve
Brown
Colorado
Rochester
BU
Cincinnati
Hofstra
USF Morsani
TJU Kimmel
Georgetown
Geisel
VCU
Temple
Penn State
Drexel
Geisinger
• cGPA: 3.96
• sGPA: 3.94
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts
• Score: 523
• Breakdown: 132/128/131/132
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
• Pennsylvania (PA)
4. Ethnicity and/or race
• White — ORM
• Male
5. Undergraduate institution or category
• Public State School
• Major: Biochemistry
• Minors: Chemistry, Exercise Science
• Certificate: Ethics/Philosophy of Medicine
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
• 250 hours – Nursing Assistant (nursing home)
• 220 hours – Scribe at pediatric cardiology clinic
• 200 hours – Volunteer at cancer center
• 150 hours – Hospital food services (delivered food to patients and helped them eat; unsure if this counts as clinical, could certainly smell them)
7. Research experience and productivity
• 1500 hours – Cancer immunotherapy lab (most meaningful)
• 3 posters at university fairs
• 1 poster at national conference (also planning on applying to NCUR this year)
• 1 mid-low author publication
• 1 second-author manuscript in prep (expected submission Spring 2026)
• Thinking about NIH IRTA Postbac during gap year (‘26-‘27). Would love some feedback on this and if it would be better to just stick with my current lab as a technician, or look elsewhere.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
• 100 hours across ~10 physicians in:
• Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Radiology, Emergency Medicine
9. Non-clinical volunteering
• 200 hours – Crisis Text Line
• 280 hours – Soup kitchen (2 years)
• 80 hours – Conversations to Remember (weekly video calls with seniors)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc.)
Leadership / Teaching
• Suicide prevention club: 1 year member, 2 years on executive board
• AMSA mentor: 2 years
• STEM UTA: 2 semesters
Hobbies / Interests
• Lifting/bodybuilding (5 years) – Passionate and ties into exercise science minor. (Unsure if I will include)
• Movies (Lifetime?) – Over 1000 rated on Letterboxd, could talk about this with interviewers extensively (Unsure if I will include)
• Learning Spanish (1 year) – Started learning 2 months ago and got obsessed. Currently at low B1 level. Expecting to be conversational (B2ish) by app time; very interested in language acquisition and its science, but newer hobby. (Unsure if I will include)
11. Relevant honors or awards
• University’s Honor’s College
• Merit-Based University scholarship (10K/yr for all 4 years)
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
Letters of Recommendation
• Research PI — Strong (known 4 years in lab and attend his “at-home” lab dinners, very confident in LOR)
• STEM professor (TA’d for) — Decent
• Certificate professor — Said would be “very good,” but hasn’t uploaded to Interfolio after few months so a little worried, still in no rush though.
• Unknown second STEM professor — TBD during senior year (beginning in fall)
• Soup kitchen staff — Considering asking (they’ve offered multiple times and I know a lot of staff on a personal level, recently helped manager, and likely writer, move into his new home)
Not sure if I should select low SES due to complicated divorced parent situation. I was raised by a single mother with full custody of 3 who constantly had 2-3 jobs to provide for us, however we did receive child support from my father who is a physician and fairly wealthy. The support however was limited and outside of this there was no further assistance. I have qualified each year for Pell Grant and similar state grants and this year received 5K from Pell. Also will quality for FAP. So, in short, I really don’t know what to select because I’ve seen some classifications of low SES focus on qualifications for these grants and others look at education/profession of parent(s).
One thing I’ve been debating regarding my school list is how many schools to apply to. Rn it is quite long, but I also know that reapplying is quite costly and I want to make sure there is as small of a chance of that as possible. However, if I could reduce my list, I would like to. Also please let me know if there’s anything you think I should focus on in my last year (going into 4th year of undergrad) to strengthen my app. I’m still not exactly sure how I’ll be tying my app together (I have yet to start prewriting although I’d like to start soon) but I do know I’m shooting for research focused schools and that an interest in cancer work will be talked about. I have other interests like mental health, fitness, etc. that I may talk about too. I’m also not sure what to select for my other meaningful experience, to me, volunteering at the soup kitchen was quite meaningful, but I haven’t yet decided if I’ll select it. Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for reading! You all have been so helpful thus far!
Harvard
UCSF
Johns Hopkins
Columbia
Duke
Penn
NYU
Stanford
WashU
Michigan
Yale
Mayo
UCLA
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Pitt
Cornell
Mt. Sinai
Chicago
Einstein
Emory
Ohio State
USC Keck
UVA
Case Western Reserve
Brown
Colorado
Rochester
BU
Cincinnati
Hofstra
USF Morsani
TJU Kimmel
Georgetown
Geisel
VCU
Temple
Penn State
Drexel
Geisinger