WAMC/School List (522 MCAT, 3.991 GPA, MA resident)

[dodobird_1]

Hi everyone! Any advice on WAMC/which schools I should apply to based on the information below would be appreciated

Overall/science GPA: 3.9
MCAT: 522 (130, 131, 130, 131)


Clinical Experience: 2,160 hrs (anticipated: 2,080 hrs)


Research Experience: 3,340 hrs (anticipated 2,080 hrs)

Shadowing experience (approx. 140 hrs, anticipated another 30-40 hrs)

Non-clinical volunteering: (approx. 90 hrs)

Clinical Volunteering: 240 hrs (anticipated another 200 hrs)

LORs: should be strong (1 committee letter that includes 1 science prof, 1 nonsci prof, 1 PI, 1 shadower/MD), asking for another science prof one but unsure if I'll get it/need it

School List that I'm hoping to cut down to ~25:

• Harvard
• UMass Med
• Tufts
• BU
• Mt. Sinai
• NYU Grossman
• Columbia
• UCSF
• UCLA
• Stanford
• Perelman UPenn
• Duke
• Yale
• Wash U St. Louis and Seattle
• Cornell
• UPitt
• Mayo
• Vanderbilt
• Northwestern
• UMich
• UChicago
• Case Western
• Emory
• U Southern California
• UVM
• Brown
• UMiami
• Darmouth
• Georgetown
• George Washington Uni
• Kaiser Permanente
• Rochester
• Ohio State

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[Mr.Smile12]

• assistant dance teacher approx. 72 hrs

Could you explain how this is non-clinical volunteering? As you probably know, non-clinical volunteering is especially low.

 

[Faha]

Do not apply to U Washington in Seattle since they admit less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest ( Washington University in St. Louis is a good choice- the 2 schools have no connection with each other).
Remove Vermont and George Washington since they will "yield protect: with your stats.
Add Hofstra and Einstein.

 

[dodobird_1]

Could you explain how this is non-clinical volunteering? As you probably know, non-clinical volunteering is especially low.

I volunteered with a dance studio for a couple of hours every Saturday morning to assist with their 3-4 yr old ballet class and then with their end of the year recital

Yes, it's very low... I'm wondering if I get a long term opportunity for a few hours every Saturday if that'll make a difference for the anticipated hours?

 

[dodobird_1]

Do not apply to U Washington in Seattle since they admit less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest ( Washington University in St. Louis is a good choice- the 2 schools have no connection with each other).
Remove Vermont and George Washington since they will "yield protect: with your stats.
Add Hofstra and Einstein.

Thank you!! Does the rest of the list seem fine or is it too Top school heavy?

I'm worried that schools will yield protect due to stats, but that the top schools will reject due to low volunteering/experience

 

[Faha]

Thank you!! Does the rest of the list seem fine or is it too Top school heavy?

I'm worried that schools will yield protect due to stats, but that the top schools will reject due to low volunteering/experience

The other schools on your list will not "yield protect". Your list is not top heavy with your stats and only your non clinical volunteering hours are low.

 

[deleted1163682]

Great stats and hours, but overall extracurriculars are remarkably ordinary. I suggest you remove Harvard/Columbia/UCSF as you have no social advocacy. Also take off Stanford/NYU due to low research productivity and lack of entrepreneurship.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I volunteered with a dance studio for a couple of hours every Saturday morning to assist with their 3-4 yr old ballet class and then with their end of the year recital

Yes, it's very low... I'm wondering if I get a long term opportunity for a few hours every Saturday if that'll make a difference for the anticipated hours?

Okay... so the dance studio is more volunteering as in employment/teaching versus non clinical community service/service orientation activities.

You are at 20 hours completed on service orientation activities. You need at least 150 to avoid getting screened out at most schools regardless of your metrics.

 

[alwaysrunning]

Clinical Experience: 2,160 hrs (anticipated: 2,080 hrs)

Do you have 2,160 hrs completed and you are adding an additional 2,080, or do you only have 80 hrs completed?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Do you have 2,160 hrs completed and you are adding an additional 2,080, or do you only have 80 hrs completed?

Looking at the research experience and other examples, the "completed" seems to include anticipated hours. Across the board. OP: Please clean up the accounting... anticipated hours are not counted.

 

[dodobird_1]

Do you have 2,160 hrs completed and you are adding an additional 2,080, or do you only have 80 hrs completed?

Yes! I have 2,160 hours completed from last June to this June working full time at a clinical research lab and will have an additional 2,080+ hours over the next year with the same lab

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So 2000 hours is 1 year of full-time work. What activities are involved with your full-time jobs in research and clinical exposure during this application year?

Furthermore, the real weakness of your application is non-clinical volunteering, and you leave that bucket without a plan.

 

[dodobird_1]

Looking at the research experience and other examples, the "completed" seems to include anticipated hours. Across the board. OP: Please clean up the accounting... anticipated hours are not counted.

Thus: clinical experience is 80 hours. Research is 1100 (HS will not count). Clinical volunteering 40 hours.

Sorry for any confusion!

The clinical hours with my current position are 2,160 from the past year and I will have another year working at the lab so an additional 2,080+ hours in the anticipated. Without including the anticipated hours though, I have about 2k.

Clinical volunteering with the hospital was 200 hours at the previous location (done over previous summers) and 40 hours at the new location by the end of May, which is where I got the 240 hrs currently with an additional 200 hrs anticipated over the next year since it's a long-term position.

As for research, I had about 3,260 hours from undergraduate and the past year. Since this is also a long-term position, I have another 2k anticipated on top of that.

If it helps clear anything up, all the total hours are listed without including the anticipated hours as those would be additional, not current! They now have a new section to write about long term position and anticipated hours which is why I included them in the parentheses though.

Let me know if this makes more sense or if anything else needs to be cleared up!

 

[dodobird_1]

So 2000 hours is 1 year of full-time work. What activities are involved with your full-time jobs in research and clinical exposure during this application year?

Furthermore, the real weakness of your application is non-clinical volunteering, and you leave that bucket without a plan.

In this role I'm responsible for running MRIs (certified MRI scanner), blood draws (certified phlebotomist), taking vitals, conducting medical histories and neurology exams, working with DBS patients for EEG and LFP based recordings, hearing tests, and more. I also assist with procedures like the nasendoscopy, IV infusions, and diagnosis consensus.

Apart from that, I also complete data collection for speech recordings, behavioral testing and questionnaires, literature reviews + retrospective analyses, and I'm working with python and afni to process the fMRI data. We are in the process of writing up some of our findings for a few publications, but they likely won't be out until later this or next year so I can't include them yet.

I'm interviewing for non-clinical volunteering in my hometown (local food pantry and soup kitchen), but am still waiting to be approved and given a shift so it hasn't been secured yet. If I were to receive it, it would also be a long term position but only on Saturday mornings. This would only add 100 of the 150 hours you mentioned though

 

[dodobird_1]

Hi everyone! As a follow-up question, will virtual shadowing count towards shadowing hours during COVID?

Thanks for all the help and advice thus far!

 

[Faha]

Hi everyone! As a follow-up question, will virtual shadowing count towards shadowing hours during COVID?

Thanks for all the help and advice thus far!

Virtual shadowing has no value.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hi everyone! As a follow-up question, will virtual shadowing count towards shadowing hours during COVID?

Thanks for all the help and advice thus far!

We are no longer under a pandemic emergency. We'll give you credit for trying but in-person will still be expected.

 

[dodobird_1]

We are no longer under a pandemic emergency. We'll give you credit for trying but in-person will still be expected.

Thanks for letting me know!

I'll mention it in passing, but focus on in-person then