WAMC/School list advice please (4.0 GPA, 524 MCAT)

[ShadyLightbulb]

Honestly just want others' thoughts on this since my app will look a bit all over the place.

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS

• 4.0 cGPA and sGPA

2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown

• 524 (132 CP, 129 CARS, 131 BB, 132 PS)

3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)

• CA

4. Ethnicity and/or race

• ORM

5. Undergraduate institution or category

• Small private school in Southern CA, nothing special

6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)

• 1800 paid clinical hours (scribe/medical assistant at a psychiatry clinic)
• 50 volunteer hours (local hospital + pop up clinics)

7. Research experience and productivity

• 400 hours across 3 summers, no pubs (1 summer was virtual d/t COVID)

8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• 50 hours (orthopedic surgery, dermatology, psychiatry)

9. Non-clinical volunteering

• Taekwondo instructor (200 hours)
• Church youth group leader (60 hours)
• Church worship leader (60 hours)
• Various other volunteer opportunities (food pantry, homeless ministries, Operation Christmas Child) (50 hours)

10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)

• Dormitory RA (400 hours)
• Undergrad Speech and debate (400 hours)
• MCAT Tutor (200 hours)
• SAT and High school STEM tutor (100 hours)

11. Relevant honors or awards

• "Rising Alumni Award" 2022
• Summa Cum Laude
• Gold medals for a few debate tournaments

12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

• Volunteer hours are pretty low because a loss in the family caused me to have to work a lot out of undergrad to provide

My current list is as follows:
Reach

• Duke
• Yale
• NYU Grossman
• Harvard
• Cornell
• Columbia
• Vanderbilt
• Northwestern
• Johns Hopkins
• Perelman SOM (Pen Med)
• Icahn
• Stanford

State

• UCI
• UCSD
• Keck USC
• UCLA
• UCR
• UCSF
• Kaiser

OOS

• Creighton AZ
• USF Health Morsani COM
• U of Miami SOM
• Albert Einstein
• U Colorado
• Hofstra
• Rochester NY
• Boston U
• Carle Illinois
• Dartmouth

For this list I just used my LizzyM and OOS matriculants from MSAR for OOS schools lol. Main concern is low volunteering hours for underserved communities and research hours, I wish I could have done more but as mentioned above I haven't had much time to do so after undergrad.

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[Faha]

Remove Creighton since they will "yield protect" with your stats. Also remove Carle unless you have an engineering background.
You could add these schools:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
U Virginia
Cincinnati
U Michigan
Case Western

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Honestly just want others' thoughts on this since my app will look a bit all over the place.

What do you think is your unifying theme or mission fit that will pull all of this together? Showing your profile as a seemingly random walk through various experiences is not helping, which I presume you know that. But I also don't see anything that really helps you stand out to me as someone I would want to pick for an interview. Your non-clinical community service is really lacking; you need at least 150 hours to avoid getting screened out, and 250 if you want to be on par with most other applicants (again, but not necessarily stand out). The only hours that apply here would be your "random" service orientation activities (food pantry, homeless ministries, Operation Christmas Child); the rest don't show your interaction alleviating others' distress.

If something with your family caused you to not prioritize your non-clinical community service, take the extra year to address that and other deficiencies.

 

[ShadyLightbulb]

Remove Creighton since they will "yield protect" with your stats. Also remove Carle unless you have an engineering background.
You could add these schools:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
U Virginia
Cincinnati
U Michigan
Case Western

Thanks for the advice! Didn't know that Carle is an engineering school

What do you think is your unifying theme or mission fit that will pull all of this together? Showing your profile as a seemingly random walk through various experiences is not helping, which I presume you know that. But I also don't see anything that really helps you stand out to me as someone I would want to pick for an interview. Your non-clinical community service is really lacking; you need at least 150 hours to avoid getting screened out, and 250 if you want to be on par with most other applicants (again, but not necessarily stand out). The only hours that apply here would be your "random" service orientation activities (food pantry, homeless ministries, Operation Christmas Child); the rest don't show your interaction alleviating others' distress.

If something with your family caused you to not prioritize your non-clinical community service, take the extra year to address that and other deficiencies.

Thank you for your honest input!

My mission fit/statement is I want to create empathy-driven environments for patients that will enable them to pursue a holistic sense of wellbeing (physical, emotional, mental). I've had experience with pretty much all of these different areas (physical with martial arts and homeless shelters, emotional with church, and mental with my experience working at a psychiatric clinic). While maybe a little more philosophical and less medicine-focused, my overall life goal is to show love to others, and to me medicine is a fantastic way of doing that by fostering holistic wellbeing and guiding others to good health.

What do you think about volunteering at a mental health help line (e.g. NAMI)? Also would that count as non-clinical or would it be too clinically-oriented?

 

[TheOverthinkingPremed]

What do you think is your unifying theme or mission fit that will pull all of this together? Showing your profile as a seemingly random walk through various experiences is not helping, which I presume you know that. But I also don't see anything that really helps you stand out to me as someone I would want to pick for an interview. Your non-clinical community service is really lacking; you need at least 150 hours to avoid getting screened out, and 250 if you want to be on par with most other applicants (again, but not necessarily stand out). The only hours that apply here would be your "random" service orientation activities (food pantry, homeless ministries, Operation Christmas Child); the rest don't show your interaction alleviating others' distress.

If something with your family caused you to not prioritize your non-clinical community service, take the extra year to address that and other deficiencies.

Hey Mr.Smile,

Is this 150/250 hrs+ per nonclinical volunteering activity?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hey Mr.Smile,

Is this 150/250 hrs+ per nonclinical volunteering activity?

Total hours before submitting that you document in Work/Activities.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I want to create empathy-driven environments for patients that will enable them to pursue a holistic sense of wellbeing. I've had experience with pretty much all of these different areas (physical with martial arts and homeless shelters, emotional with church, and mental with my experience working at a psychiatric clinic). While maybe a little more philosophical and less medicine-focused, my overall life goal is to show love to others, and to me medicine is a fantastic way of doing that by fostering holistic wellbeing and guiding others to good health.

I will let the professionals comment on whether this mission is realistic. Unfortunately it doesn't align with the general mission of schools who seek train you to be a healthcare provider.

Furthermore, you can also realize your goals as a therapist or a naturopath. I get the tenets of Lifestyle Medicine, but not every school is going to embrace this philosophy, and medical education isn't conducive to this. I'm a fan of the Gezundheit Institute, which is probably where you have allies in philosophy, but getting there is going to be more difficult. Just my thoughts as an educator.

On the personal goal, I think we all strive to be loving, caring people. The challenge will be managing this with your professional self. Have you worked in hospice or senior living? How do you cope with suffering and loss (dementia, family, finances) that degrades progressively? That's where many people live and your philosophy as written will ring hollow.

 

[ShadyLightbulb]

I will let the professionals comment on whether this mission is realistic. Unfortunately it doesn't align with the general mission of schools who seek train you to be a healthcare provider.

Furthermore, you can also realize your goals as a therapist or a naturopath. I get the tenets of Lifestyle Medicine, but not every school is going to embrace this philosophy, and medical education isn't conducive to this. I'm a fan of the Gezundheit Institute, which is probably where you have allies in philosophy, but getting there is going to be more difficult. Just my thoughts as an educator.

I do hear you about being a therapist as an alternative route to achieve the same goal (and I did consider clinical psychology or a PsyD route for a long time before landing on medicine) but I realized that I am also someone who wants the most/best of what we know from science to inform my service, which I think comes from the evidence-based aspects of medicine. Never heard of the Gezundheit Institute, I can definitely take a look, although I don't have any formal philosophy background nor did I necessarily want that to guide the way I approach healthcare either, it's just my personal views rather than rigorous, academic philosophy (if that's what Gezundheit is about) and I didn't know of a better way to explain it.

I think that my mission statement is unorthodox but maybe I was guided by the notion that, since it is unorthodox, it would be a strength rather than a disadvantage. But just to clarify, your opinion is that it WOULD be a disadvantage given that most schools aren't looking to foster those kinds of values in their students?

On the personal goal, I think we all strive to be loving, caring people. The challenge will be managing this with your professional self. Have you worked in hospice or senior living? How do you cope with suffering and loss (dementia, family, finances) that degrades progressively? That's where many people live and your philosophy as written will ring hollow.

I definitely hear you on this as well. Thank you for the suggestion, I think working in hospice/senior living would align a lot with how I'd approach medicine.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I found the website.

Home

The Gesundheit Institute is a 501(c)3 non-profit healthcare organization, whose mission is to reframe and reclaim the concept of ‘hospital’.

www.patchadams.org

 

[lacrossegirl420]

IMO you have a strong application overall, I’d say very competitive for T20’s and then T10 schools it could go either way (not a shoe in but you’re competitive)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I think that my mission statement is unorthodox but maybe I was guided by the notion that, since it is unorthodox, it would be a strength rather than a disadvantage. But just to clarify, your opinion is that it WOULD be a disadvantage given that most schools aren't looking to foster those kinds of values in their students?

Mission fit is extremely important. How you describe your mission fit is very idealistic, and I have difficulty thinking of schools that fit. Most schools know this idealism gets beaten down in medical education, and there are studies on this.



What are your short term goals to get you to your mission (to create empathy-driven environments)? Specific activities? Resources you need? Mentors who inspire you that are doing what you want to do?

Also, the other health professions have to work in an evidence-based way too. It's not just the doctor.

Service oriented schools would go for the mission you have, but you must have more community service activities like the food pantry work. If you are religious, schools like Loma Linda, Rush, or the Catholics are probably on your wishlist. Ideally you would have done at least 1 year in Peace Corps, Americorps, or military/missionary service before applying. (In which case at least 150 per activity might be your minimum. You need almost 1000 hours for Rush and Loyola, it seems. They definitely resonate with "empathetic doctors" at times.)

And you would have a strong focus on one of America's disenfranchised communities: incarcerated (and former), homeless, disabled, and the historically marginalized. Maybe later in time you could be involved as an Arnold Gold fellow for humanism. Or write an essay that reveals outstanding self-reflection skills expressing compassion and empathy.

I'm not saying schools won't want you, but how we often measure fit, we want to see how the school can get you to meet those goals. If they don't think they can help you, you get denied or rejected. If they aren't sure, you get ghosted.

Simply put your lack of service orientation volunteering hours and experience doesn't support your mission. There are no accomplishments that others affirm you are that compassionate person you say you are or want to be. You must have more to give more credibility to what you say is your cause to be a physician. As it stands, your stats warrant shooting high, but your activities will put you on the lower steps on the II priority ladder; there are too many strong applicants with your metrics with more accomplishments that point to their vision.

Looking at your list:
Carle is a mismatch. Read their mission. Are you an engineering or quantitative science major?

Creighton Arizona: explain? Not Nebraska?

Einstein?

No WashU?

 

[ShadyLightbulb]

Mission fit is extremely important. How you describe your mission fit is very idealistic, and I have difficulty thinking of schools that fit. Most schools know this idealism gets beaten down in medical education, and there are studies on this.



What are your short term goals to get you to your mission (to creaymte empathy-driven environments)? Specific activities? Resources you need? Mentors who inspire you that are doing what you want to do?

Also, the other health professions have to work in an evidence-based way too. It's not just the doctor.

Service oriented schools would go for the mission you have, but you must have more community service activities like the food pantry work. If you are religious, schools like Loma Linda, Rush, or the Catholics are probably on your wishlist. Ideally you would have done at least 1 year in Peace Corps, Americorps, or military/missionary service before applying. (In which case at least 150 per activity might be your minimum. You need almost 1000 hours for Rush and Loyola, it seems. They definitely resonate with "empathetic doctors" at times.)

And you would have a strong focus on one of America's disenfranchised communities: incarcerated (and former), homeless, disabled, and the historically marginalized. Maybe later in time you could be involved as an Arnold Gold fellow for humanism. Or write an essay that reveals outstanding self-reflection skills expressing compassion and empathy.

I'm not saying schools won't want you, but how we often measure fit, we want to see how the school can get you to meet those goals. If they don't think they can help you, you get denied or rejected. If they aren't sure, you get ghosted.

Simply put your lack of service orientation volunteering hours and experience doesn't support your mission. There are no accomplishments that others affirm you are that compassionate person you say you are or want to be. You must have more to give more credibility to what you say is your cause to be a physician. As it stands, your stats warrant shooting high, but your activities will put you on the lower steps on the II priority ladder; there are too many strong applicants with your metrics with more accomplishments that point to their vision.

Looking at your list:
Carle is a mismatch. Read their mission. Are you an engineering or quantitative science major?

Creighton Arizona: explain? Not Nebraska?

Einstein?

No WashU?

Is it alright if I continue this with you over PM?