WAMC/School list advice: 515, 4.0

[glycogensynthesis123]

Wondering what my chances are at the schools I have listed below. I am a senior graduating this spring, and I will be applying in the 2024-2025 cycle in my gap year (I have been debating taking 1 or 2 years after graduation and I am recently learning towards 1)...

1. cGPA: 4.0 sGPA: 4.0
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 515 (C/P: 130, CARS: 125, B/B:129, P/S: 131)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): Massachusetts
4. Ethnicity and/or race: White
5. Undergraduate institution or category:
   1. UMass Amherst - Dual degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Spanish
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   1. ~300 hours CNA in nursing home
   2. ~700 hours scribing at pediatrician's office
   3. ~50-100 hours Hospice volunteer
7. Research experience and productivity:
   1. ~400 hours Research assistant position in nursing department (“Factors influencing disparities in quality of life among people of color affected by cancer”).
   2. ~350 hours of honors thesis research project ("Promoting Heritage Language Maintenance for Children with and without Disabilities")
   3. ~550 hours of honors independent study research projects in Spanish department (projects relate to translation & language access)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: see above, scribing
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   1. 50-75 hours of informal conversation partner (meeting weekly with an international student to help with their conversational English and help them navigate living in the U.S.)
   2. 50-100 hours of community Spanish volunteering (preparing & doing activities with children in Spanish)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. ~700 hours of Introductory Biology TA
    2. ~500 hours of General Biochemistry TA
    3. ~200 hours of "High School Connections Assistant" job, working with Spanish professor to design a new course for high schoolers about language access
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. Dean's list, all semesters
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    1. I am bilingual in English and Spanish
    2. I do have an incident on my disciplinary record, freshman year I was caught in a room breaking the university's 1-guest-only rule during COVID and there was alcohol found in the room. But no further offenses.

My school list (which I still need to narrow down). I am open to any suggestions of schools I should add or remove:

UMass Med (this is my top school, BU and tufts are my next top schools), BU, Tufts, Howard, Albany, Temple, Drexel, George Washington, Loyola Chicago, Penn State, UVM, Rosalind Franklin, Geisinger Commonwealth SOM, Quinnipiac, Georgetown, UCLA, NYU (long island), Thomas Jefferson, Dartmouth, Albert Einstein, New York Medical College, UCSF, Brown, URochester, Icahn SOM at Mount Sinai, UPitt

Other question I have...

Will my 125 on CARS detract largely from my competitiveness as an applicant?

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[Faha]

Howard mainly admits applicants from the African American community. Geisinger admits few applicants who are not from that region. UCLA and UCSF also admits few non residents with no connection to the state.
You could add these schools to your list:
Hofstra
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
TCU
Creighton
St. Louis
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Non-clinical volunteering:

1. 50-75 hours of informal conversation partner (meeting weekly with an international student to help with their conversational English and help them navigate living in the U.S.)
2. 50-100 hours of community Spanish volunteering (preparing & doing activities with children in Spanish)

I appreciate the effort you have taken with helping others with their English skills, but do you have other examples where you show your service orientation through non-clinical community service? Food distribution, shelter work, job/tax preparation, transportation services, housing rehabilitation?

 

[Angler]

Your total (non-clinical volunteering) hours are also a bit low. Maybe not enough to be screened out, but buff this before you apply, as well as addressing @Mr.Smile12 issue above.

You probably already know this, but don't double dip your scribing hours and shadowing hours. That's cheating.

The 125 CARS is ok. I think some schools screen if any one of the four scores is less than a certain amount (like 123), but this should be fine (it's average). I wouldn't even think about a retake.

We really need Spanish proficiency in doctors in the USA now. I don't know if there are schools which actively look for this (when I was hiring full time primary care docs, this was a huge factor), but it might be worth leveraging. However, I suspect that geographically, your target location is not where this is a prime issue.

 

[LunaOri]

With the exception of your lack of non-clinical volunteering, everything looks great! You definitely don’t need more than one gap year.

 

[cupcake311]

Rosalind and Temple are huge on community service/volunteering and also low yield so I would apply there if you plan on significantly increasing your volunteering hours! I have similar stats to you with an unbalanced CARS score and am currently in the cycle w/1 gap year. So far been pleasantly surprised, I do think the CARS score does do a lot of harm when it comes to the T10s/20s/30s because I think I would've possibly gotten those interviews otherwise but who knows... and there's still time in the cycle.

 

[glycogensynthesis123]

I appreciate the effort you have taken with helping others with their English skills, but do you have other examples where you show your service orientation through non-clinical community service? Food distribution, shelter work, job/tax preparation, transportation services, housing rehabilitation?

Thanks for the feedback! I am planning on working on this when I go home for winter break, but I am struggling to find non-clinical community service opportunities near me. Do you think virtual community service is viewed with the same value? Such as working for some sort of crisis or sexual assault hotline? And in general, how many hours should I aim for in order to be competitive?

 

[candbgirl]

Thanks for the feedback! I am planning on working on this when I go home for winter break, but I am struggling to find non-clinical community service opportunities near me. Do you think virtual community service is viewed with the same value? Such as working for some sort of crisis or sexual assault hotline? And in general, how many hours should I aim for in order to be competitive?

You need to find something that gets you off campus and way outside of your comfort zone. There are lots of people that need help. There are migrants, and homeless and people with food insecurities. If you can’t find face to face opportunities you just aren’t looking or you really don’t want to interact with people very unlike yourself. Medicine is a service profession. You have to be able to prove that you can deal with people at their very worst. Your Spanish skills will be a bonus but sitting and talking to people (your descriptors of non-clinical volunteering) is very much in your comfort zone.
Several of your possible schools focus heavily on service. And one focuses on AA applicants. So spend some time on developing your list.