WAMC/School List: 513MCAT, 3.9GPA, T5 School, URM

[meat874]

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
   1. cGPA: 3.904
   2. sGPA: 3.894
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown. Include all (non-voided) attempts.
   1. 513(128/127/129/129)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   1. NJ or NY (need help deciding)
4. Ethnicity and/or race
   1. 24 M -- African American
5. Undergraduate institution or category
   1. Ivy League (T5) (2023.5 grad)
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. 1200H+ (3600 projected) patient facing clinical research during gap years (will complete 2.5 total gap years before med schools if all goes well).
   2. 400H clinical volunteer in African nation during a semester leave from school.
   3. 1600H patient facing clinical research during gap years
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. 800H Undergrad genetics research
   2. #1 and #2 from above
   3. 2 pubs, 10+ submitted manuscripts, 10 poster presentations, 20 podium abstract presentations
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. 120H -- grand rounds, rounds, resident education conferences (through my clinical research jobs) in pulm ICU, cardiology ICU, SICU, TICU, + surgerical shadowing
   2. 72H -- safety net clinic, family medicine physician shadowing
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 70 (200+ projected) -- volunteering with URM high school students from Title 1 schools to provide pathways and guidelines into medical field
   2. 200+ -- volunteering URM NYC HS students to teach naloxone administration and build community health leaders
   3. 120H -- volunteer mentor for 3 summer hs students interested in medicine. gave informative talks and let them shadow me throughout my day and patient facing interactions
   4. 700H+ Tutor -- tutored URM middle school kids and then tutored highschool and college students independently
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. D3 varsity collegiate athlete (1 yr prior to transfer to Ivy ) --> succumbed to injuries and continued playing club and coaching
    2. 200H+ Undergraduate science journal editor
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Best abstract nomination international conference
    2. 2x Undergraduate research fellowships for summer research
    3. 2x academic prizes: 1 for highest GPA in first semester freshman year, and other for "character and conduct" across first year of undergrad.
    4. Do i need to mention deans lists + Cum Laude? or Will this be apparent from grades + transcript?
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

Advisors have been pretty frank about applications largest withdrawing factor is a relatively low MCAT as compared to rest of application. I really need help cutting down the school list and gauging where to apply. i think i can commit to completing secondaries for maybe 40 schools (really trying to cast a wide net and hope for a miracle here)? (any insight on obvious bad choices or suggestions for missing schools? hoping to stay in Northeast btw, but obviously understand may not have the luxury of choice at the end of the day.Thanks in advance to all

Here is my current school list (n=55) broken up into buckets based on MCAT score by my relevant residential status:

Below 10% MCAT: NYU, Upenn, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Harvard, UNC, Mount Sinai, Yale, UVA, Case Western, Boston U, Columbia

Above 10% MCAT: UChicago, Stanford, UCSF, Duke, NYMC, UMich, Brown, Hackensack, StonyBrook, Cornell, UCSD, Hofstra, UPitt

Above 25% MCAT: Emory, Tufts, Dartmouth, Einstein, USC Keck, UConn, NYU LI, Georgetown, UCLA, UMD, Cooper, Thomas Jefferson, RWJ, NJMS, Suny Downstate, UMass Chan, George Washington

Above 50% MCAT: VCU, Temple, Drexel, Quinnipiac, Albany, Penn St, Wayne State, Wake Forrest, Virginia Tech, Wisco, UC Davis, Suny Upstate

Above 75% MCAT: Albany, Penn St

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[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

I'm not sure where you are getting your advice, but your MCAT is not your most significant barrier. I think you should reduce your list and add the HBCU schools (Howard, Meharry, Morehouse, Charles Drew UCLA).

Are your advisors part of a mentoring non-profit dedicated to helping aspiring Black (male) physicians? Have you been involved with MAPS/SNMA?

Your non-clinical community service is very heavy on education settings. Teaching/tutoring/mentoring is on just about every prehealth applicant's profile, so it doesn't help you stand out. Furthermore, it demonstrates academic competency and is well within most premeds' comfort zones.

You need more service orientation activities and show you can be comfortable in uncomfortable settings: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You should have 150 hours before submitting your application to avoid getting screened out at most schools. For recognizable brand-name schools, I suggest 200-250 hours to keep up with your peers, though I can be persuaded if some of your future work in Tier 1 schools could require more than a simple college student's investment in tutoring students (more like an employee or contracted substitute teacher). Regardless, I'm missing service to other marginalized communities that are not apparent in your description.

What is your background? Since you are waffling between state residency of NJ and NY, can you tell me your state of birth? Where did you graduate high school?

 

[meat874]

Welcome to the forums.

I'm not sure where you are getting your advice, but your MCAT is not your most significant barrier. I think you should reduce your list and add the HBCU schools (Howard, Meharry, Morehouse, Charles Drew UCLA).

Are your advisors part of a mentoring non-profit dedicated to helping aspiring Black (male) physicians? Have you been involved with MAPS/SNMA?

Your non-clinical community service is very heavy on education settings. Teaching/tutoring/mentoring is on just about every prehealth applicant's profile, so it doesn't help you stand out. Furthermore, it demonstrates academic competency and is well within most premeds' comfort zones.

You need more service orientation activities and show you can be comfortable in uncomfortable settings: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You should have 150 hours before submitting your application to avoid getting screened out at most schools. For recognizable brand-name schools, I suggest 200-250 hours to keep up with your peers, though I can be persuaded if some of your future work in Tier 1 schools could require more than a simple college student's investment in tutoring students (more like an employee or contracted substitute teacher). Regardless, I'm missing service to other marginalized communities that are not apparent in your description.

What is your background? Since you are waffling between state residency of NJ and NY, can you tell me your state of birth? Where did you graduate high school?

Thanks for the warm welcome to the forum and all of you insight! Any suggestions on reducing the school current list? Any particular schools looking out of place? My advisors have been my schools pre med advisors, I haven't been working with any specific non-for profit. Would you recommend any? Never really occured to me until you just mentioned it now, is it too late in the game?

I have 400H from the semester I spent abroad (#2 under clinical experience) that are direct service related patient-facing hours where I aided in patient transport, feeding, and hygiene in a small clinic that serves the marginalized community where my family is from. Is this not sufficient/ will this not cover this type of service because it is abroad? I was hoping to submit my application as early as possible (with 2-3 days of AMCAS opening in end of May), I am honestly not entirely sure if theres enough time to add addition volunteering. Any advice?

Born and raised in NJ through high school. I went to school in NY and I current live and work in NY (most of my activities work/activities sections) are based in NY as they are from college period to more recently.

Thanks again for any advice, really appreciate it!

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Boston University
Tufts
Dartmouth
Brown
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Georgetown
George Washington
Duke
Miami
Emory
Tulane
Northwestern
Case Western
Cincinnati
All 4 SUNYs (if you apply as a NY resident)
The 3 NJ state public schools (if you apply as a NJ resident)
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse