WAMC + School List (3.97/521)

[plutomed]

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hey everyone, looking for some advice! I will be applying this upcoming cycle and wanted some advice about school list/anything else to think about before May 2026. My dream is to go to a top program, especially because I'm interested in pursuing an MBA concurrently at an M7 school (harvard, stanford, upenn, columbia, chicago, northwestern). I won't be applying MD/MBA, but definitely plan on pursuing that while in med school; would love any advice or thoughts before I apply, I understand the top schools are a bit of a crapshoot.

3.97 / 521
Virginia Resident, ORM
Top 50 Private Undergrad Institution
Majors: BS Public Health, BS Econ

Clinical
300 hours Patient Translator Free Clinic (hispanic populations)
1200 hours MA at plastic surg practice
180 hours shadowing (75 in primary care, rest surgical)

Research
850 hours clinical research at T3 hospital/med school, 3 pubs (all middle author, one first author coming in next few months, but probably not before applying unfortunately), will likely do my gap year as CRC here w a big clinical trial + a few other smaller projects
450 hours translational research at T3 hospital/med school, focus on healthcare innovation/system reform, (1 first author pub, 2 mid author coming soon)

note almost all the pubs are all in pretty solid journals, think B tier, but no Nature, NEJM, JAMA yet, unlikely before applying (exception 1 mid author in A tier journal)

Nonclinical Volunteering
700 hours Leadership at large national nonprofit, cancer related, been here for 5 years, tied heavily into first research lab. (have filled several roles here, am considering breaking it up into 2 activities)
120 hours volunteer music teacher (hispanic populations)

Other/Misc
300 hours Founder of research org at university, scaled to several faculty etc., mentored a lot of students in undergrad research, connected org into our med school
300 hours Intern at VC institute focused on impact investing, also tied to T3 global university. I'll be careful about how to frame this
960 hours Summer intern at MBB firm (consulting) (note, this ties into my narrative well to say I turned down a six figure job at 22yo to pursue medicine)
120 hours Founder/director of fellowship for international hispanic immigrants to get research here in US, small scale (~10 fellows) but super impactful for me
120 hours Pres of large club (1000+ members) on campus
Spent significant time (2 years) before undergrad volunteering in an international setting (nonclinical), learned spanish.
Hobby: I make and produce music, gonna tie this into my volunteering as music teacher, been a big part of my life for awhile

LORs should be solid, few from T3 institutions, not worried about them too much. For context, pretty much all of the clinical stuff will be ongoing til May when I move for the CRC thing, and the research is still kind of ongoing virtually until then. All the misc stuff will end come May except for the fellowship thing. Would love any thoughts, thanks!

 

[morak]

hey everyone, looking for some advice! I will be applying this upcoming cycle and wanted some advice about school list/anything else to think about before May 2026. My dream is to go to a top program, especially because I'm interested in pursuing an MBA concurrently at an M7 school (harvard, stanford, upenn, columbia, chicago, northwestern). I won't be applying MD/MBA, but definitely plan on pursuing that while in med school; would love any advice or thoughts before I apply, I understand the top schools are a bit of a crapshoot.

3.97 / 521
Virginia Resident, ORM
Top 50 Private Undergrad Institution
Majors: BS Public Health, BS Econ

Clinical
300 hours Patient Translator Free Clinic (hispanic populations)
1200 hours MA at plastic surg practice
180 hours shadowing (75 in primary care, rest surgical)

Research
850 hours clinical research at T3 hospital/med school, 3 pubs (all middle author, one first author coming in next few months, but probably not before applying unfortunately), will likely do my gap year as CRC here w a big clinical trial + a few other smaller projects
450 hours translational research at T3 hospital/med school, focus on healthcare innovation/system reform, (1 first author pub, 2 mid author coming soon)

note almost all the pubs are all in pretty solid journals, think B tier, but no Nature, NEJM, JAMA yet, unlikely before applying (exception 1 mid author in A tier journal)

Nonclinical Volunteering
700 hours Leadership at large national nonprofit, cancer related, been here for 5 years, tied heavily into first research lab. (have filled several roles here, am considering breaking it up into 2 activities)
120 hours volunteer music teacher (hispanic populations)

Other/Misc
300 hours Founder of research org at university, scaled to several faculty etc., mentored a lot of students in undergrad research, connected org into our med school
300 hours Intern at VC institute focused on impact investing, also tied to T3 global university. I'll be careful about how to frame this
960 hours Summer intern at MBB firm (consulting) (note, this ties into my narrative well to say I turned down a six figure job at 22yo to pursue medicine)
120 hours Founder/director of fellowship for international hispanic immigrants to get research here in US, small scale (~10 fellows) but super impactful for me
120 hours Pres of large club (1000+ members) on campus
Spent significant time (2 years) before undergrad volunteering in an international setting (nonclinical), learned spanish.
Hobby: I make and produce music, gonna tie this into my volunteering as music teacher, been a big part of my life for awhile

LORs should be solid, few from T3 institutions, not worried about them too much. For context, pretty much all of the clinical stuff will be ongoing til May when I move for the CRC thing, and the research is still kind of ongoing virtually until then. All the misc stuff will end come May except for the fellowship thing. Would love any thoughts, thanks!

Hey, congrats on the great experiences and stats. A few notes:

Why aren't you applying MD/MBA?

Where are your service orientation activities? The only service you have is teaching music. Adcoms are looking for things like volunteering at food banks, shelters, disaster response, or home rehabilitation programs. Anything that would put you out of your comfort zone and really bring you into the world of the less fortunate in your community. You're immensely focused on teaching and research right now, so you would definitely benefit from significant, sustained community work before you apply, especially if you're considering UChicago (which has a heavy social justice focus).

"LORs should be solid, few from T3 institutions, not worried about them too much." LORs should be GREAT, and they could be from the lowliest adjunct for all adcoms care. LORs are not meant to come from the most impressive sources, but from the ones who can write positive and personal things about you. Just make sure you're focusing on your relationship with letter writers rather than their positions.

I hope I'm not misreading this, but please remember to not seem conceited when writing or interviewing. Your statement that "this ties into my narrative well to say I turned down a six figure job at 22yo to pursue medicine" makes it seem like you think you're a gift to medicine just because you decided against a different well-paying career path. Pride comes before the fall, and you don't want to end up off-putting adcoms by making it seem like you're doing them a favor by applying to their schools. Every single T5 med school student could have been very successful in another field if they'd chosen to pursue a different path, and many med students already have fantastic achievements in unrelated fields before coming to medicine. Just a thought.

 

[morak]

Previously, in response to stating that you are interested in an MD because "more than anything I love that individual patient-provider relationship. Being able to work through a problem with an individual and help them feel better," you were asked this question:

What experiences have you had to substantiate this love?

How have you addressed this since then? I only see your free clinic translation work to this end.

this phrasing in your initial post on that old thread is also insane imo, you should at least pretend you enjoy community work if you want to be a physician:

I have a few experiences with underserved populations that I am hoping I can milk:

I would revisit some of the advice you were given in that old thread and really consider how much of it you've applied in the past 2 years

 

[RMR_1]

Your app looks great!

A couple thoughts:
1) You don't have to get a MBA in order to understand the business of medicine or run a successful practice. A lot of it boils down to microeconomics and common sense.
2) Have you tried shadowing/talking to people who have gotten MBA/MDs to see what they thought of the process?
3) I wouldn't talk about how you turned down a job that pays a lot for medicine. ADCOMs may just be like, "Well, then go back to the business-related job." It doesn't talk about why are interested in medicine; just that you made a sacrifice.
4) Don't worry about if it's a top school or not. You know what they call the doctor at the bottom of their med school class--a doctor. Don't worry much about rankings, don't worry about T10/T20 etc. Just do your best. You know what they say--shoot for the moon and land amongst the stars.

Good luck with everything! 🙂

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Where are your service orientation activities? The only service you have is teaching music.

OP has: "700 hours Leadership at large national nonprofit, cancer related, been here for 5 years, tied heavily into first research lab. (have filled several roles here, am considering breaking it up into 2 activities"

as service - nonclinical volunteering. Does this not count for some reason? I'd think that the OP's pack fodder, maybe towards the strong end of pack fodder, at most top-20 schools.

 

[morak]

OP has: "700 hours Leadership at large national nonprofit, cancer related, been here for 5 years, tied heavily into first research lab. (have filled several roles here, am considering breaking it up into 2 activities"

as service - nonclinical volunteering. Does this not count for some reason? I'd think that the OP's pack fodder, maybe towards the strong end of pack fodder, at most top-20 schools.

It's not service orientation, but it is nonclinical volunteering. I'm just trying to highlight that not all nonclinical volunteering is service oriented. I’m talking about activities that bring you to eye level with the least fortunate in your community. OP’s activity is impressive, but it’s a nonprofit/research-related leadership role, not a service activity.

On a side note, thanks for always looking for positivity in these threads. WAMC tends to be a pretty dour forum, so it's very appreciated!

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

It's not service orientation, but it is nonclinical volunteering. I'm just trying to highlight that not all nonclinical volunteering is service oriented. I’m talking about activities that bring you to eye level with the least fortunate in your community. OP’s activity is impressive, but it’s a nonprofit/research-related leadership role, not a service activity.

On a side note, thanks for always looking for positivity in these threads. WAMC tends to be a pretty dour forum, so it's very appreciated!

It really depends on whether they could see say cancer patients or families of cancer patients; if OP saw pediatric cancer patients that were impoverished, if it was something like the Ronald McDonald foundation or something like that...it's definitely service oriented. I definitely see the point you're trying to make here. Was this fundraising, or actual interaction with the people you were trying to serve, @plutomed?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

OP has: "700 hours Leadership at large national nonprofit, cancer related, been here for 5 years, tied heavily into first research lab. (have filled several roles here, am considering breaking it up into 2 activities"

as service - nonclinical volunteering. Does this not count for some reason? I'd think that the OP's pack fodder, maybe towards the strong end of pack fodder, at most top-20 schools.

It's not service orientation, but it is nonclinical volunteering. I'm just trying to highlight that not all nonclinical volunteering is service oriented. I’m talking about activities that bring you to eye level with the least fortunate in your community. OP’s activity is impressive, but it’s a nonprofit/research-related leadership role, not a service activity.

It really depends on whether they could see say cancer patients or families of cancer patients; if OP saw pediatric cancer patients that were impoverished, if it was something like the Ronald McDonald foundation or something like that...it's definitely service oriented. I definitely see the point you're trying to make here. Was this fundraising, or actual interaction with the people you were trying to serve, @plutomed?

Poor OP hasn't posted anything in weeks.

The description about 700 hours of leadership as a non-clinical volunteering opportunity... we are missing a lot of detail. To me, there is a potential for double-dipping a leadership experience as non-clinical volunteering. I agree that the main point is how the OP actually stretches beyond their comfort zone and is comfortable with uncomfortable people and situations.

I understand that most posters are trying to avoid getting doxxed, but that means we have to make assumptions on extremely limited descriptions. That leads to assumptions and falling into implicit biases, which are often completely wrong. Pack fodder comes with some measure of involvement and impact, and just saying one leads an organization for 700 hours means nothing to me. In short, I'm not as impressed with the OP's description of activities resembling pack/cannon fodder; it seems deliberately vague as if to hide their real deficiencies as applicants. (Volunteer music teacher... it won't hurt to name the instrument/s, for example.) If the WAMC profile seems more bland than an AI-generated profile, there's a problem in the way the OP may be presenting their own activities if it is the natural way they think about them.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Poor OP hasn't posted anything in weeks.

The description about 700 hours of leadership as a non-clinical volunteering opportunity... we are missing a lot of detail. To me, there is a potential for double-dipping a leadership experience as non-clinical volunteering. I agree that the main point is how the OP actually stretches beyond their comfort zone and is comfortable with uncomfortable people and situations.

I understand that most posters are trying to avoid getting doxxed, but that means we have to make assumptions on extremely limited descriptions. That leads to assumptions and falling into implicit biases, which are often completely wrong. Pack fodder comes with some measure of involvement and impact, and just saying one leads an organization for 700 hours means nothing to me. In short, I'm not as impressed with the OP's description of activities resembling pack/cannon fodder; it seems deliberately vague as if to hide their real deficiencies as applicants. (Volunteer music teacher... it won't hurt to name the instrument/s, for example.) If the WAMC profile seems more bland than an AI-generated profile, there's a problem in the way the OP may be presenting their own activities if it is the natural way they think about them.

And, there's this:

"Spent significant time (2 years) before undergrad volunteering in an international setting (nonclinical), learned spanish."

Rule of thumb: everything after high school graduation/turning 18 is significant. This looks like thousands of hours of volunteering in an international setting; as long as it wasn't missionary work (arduous, but you're proselytizing; doesn't count) this means quite a bit. Being conversational in Spanish can't hurt, either.

This looks like understated or bland pack fodder, maybe towards the strong end of pack fodder for top-20 schools. I hope it's deliberately understated, not papering over deficiencies in the application. Be more vivid and descriptive on the application, talk about what you did, and you're in a solid place for top 20s and you should get several interviews.

Pack fodder checks the boxes and is like every other applicant. For top 20s, that is 300 hours of real nonclinical volunteering with at least some contact with clients.

Good luck.