WAMC/School List: 515 -> 520, 3.94/3.90

[juleppedMint]

Hello! I hope that you are all well. I am posting for my younger brother for the 2024-2025 medical school admissions cycle. He strongly prefers schools located in the Northeastern region of the USA and is also interested in knowing whether you all recommend that he take a gap year before applying. Thank you so much in advance! @Faha @Goro @candbgirl

MCAT exam score: 515 (131/125/129/130) in August 2023, 520 (131/129/128/132) in January 2024
Cumulative GPA: 3.90
Science GPA: 3.94
State of residence: Connecticut
Ethnicity: ORM, East Asian male
Undergraduate institution: T5 Ivy League university
Undergraduate major: Applied mathematics
Year in school: Rising senior
Shadowing experience and specialties represented:

• Hematology-oncology – 100 hours over 1 month
• Total: 100 hours

Clinical experience, volunteer or paid:

• Patient transport volunteer – 300 hours over 3 years
• Free clinic volunteer – 250 hours over 3 years
• Total: 550 hours

Non-clinical volunteering experience:

• Planning on completing at least 100 hours during the spring semester

Research experience and productivity:

• Neuroscience lab since high school – 2,100 hours over 5 years (part-time over the summer and during breaks)
  • 1 2nd-author publication
  • 1 2nd-author manuscript under review
  • 1 2nd-author manuscript in preparation
  • 2 presentations
• Public health research assistant – 50 hours over 1 year
• Total: 2,150 hours

Non-clinical experience:

• Cellist at college symphony orchestra – 600 hours over 3 years
• Club volleyball team player – 200 hours over 2 years
• Total: 800 hours

Tentative school list:
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
Yale University School of Medicine
Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Weill Cornell

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[Mr.Smile12]

Why no NYU Grossman (whichever NYU med school is offering free tuition)? I don't think there is enough on community service/service orientation (100 hours in nondescript activity?) that gives you a shot at Einstein, and they will likely be more picky with their mission focus.

If region is important, open up the list:
Vermont
Dartmouth
NYMC
Rochester
Geisinger
UMass
Rutgers both
Tufts
Boston University
Temple
Penn
Rowan MD

You have so many brand schools that your lack of community service/orientation could be a liability. You need to be on par with your experiences. That said, your in-state Connecticut should be your best shot and should not yield protect against you unless something else is up with the application (such as the lack of non-clinical community service orientation experiences).

TLDR: Take the gap.

 

[Faha]

With his minimal non clinical volunteering hours his chances for interviews will be limited at top tier schools.
I suggest these schools with his stats:
UConn
Quinnipiac
Vermont
Tufts
Albany
New York Medical College
Hofstra
Mount Sinai
Rochester
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
USF Morsani
Miami
Duke
TCU
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Cincinnati
Kaiser

 

[AJS59]

As others will point out the non-clinical experience (not yet accomplished) will prove limiting; while 100 hours is "okay" he could definitely make his application much stronger with more hours than that. Remember that anything listed as "projected" hours will not count as strongly on an application.

Personally, I applied with low hours and I got in to 1 school — but I would not recommend anyone else do this. At the end of the day, it is up to him about whether he wants to invest time and effort now just for the possibility of needing to re-apply again anyways.

On the whole otherwise the application looks great...if he does end up taking a gap year, I would recommend some shadowing of a PCP just to show some diversity of experience.

Also a list of 6 schools, 2 of which are hyper-competitive (Yale, Weill) and 1 which probably is about to become much more competitive (Einstein) is not a recipe for success. I'd recommend following what Mr. Smile and Faha listed and apply broadly, with a list of at least 15, ideally closer to 20.

Best of luck!