WAMC/School list feedback - (3.8, 519), low volunteering high research

[premed272727]

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Looking for some hard hitting feedback on my school list, and some realistic "what are my odds" at these schools. Even if it's a 1% chance I'll take it.

• Virginia resident, ORM Asian, >200k family income.
• T5 public , T25 overall undergraduate. No gap year.
• GPA: 3.81 (BCPM 3.8x, AO 3.7x)
• 519 MCAT (130, 130, 128, 131)
• Submitted primary July 15, anticipating having most if not all secondaries in before labor day am prewriting hella.

Clinical Employment

• 514 - 2 different emergency room scribing jobs, talked about extensively in my personal statement

Clinical volunteering

• 52 + (60) - Scribing position at a local free clinic. super gratifying, but wish I had more hours there.

Research: hours + (projected)

• 560 + (40), Home institution cancer wet lab, 1 first author poster from wet lab (wrapping this up since my grad student is graduating)
• 500, Reu adjacent summer internship at T100 public med school. 1 oral presentation.
• 300 + (120), Another reu program in progress, at an T20 school with strong name recognition. Future: 2 oral presentations (one at a "national" conference, and 1 first author poster
• (320 projected) - Wet Lab i'm joining in the fall that I included on my primary app because it continues an academic interest I talk a lot about elsewhere on my app. Noted on app that I will do my senior thesis here.

total of 2 posters, 3 oral presentations (all first author). Nothing super high impact. No pubs, but I did mention that I was finalizing and submitting a project at my home lab this fall.

Physician shadowing

• 300 + (40) Extensive shadowing over like 15 specialties, 200 from high school, 100 from college. continuing to get hours here at my summer program then also when I'm back home. Strong LOR from a surgeon I've spent 50+ hours with.

Non-clinical volunteering

• 150 + (75) - Chemistry org on campus, academic advising/research/professional mentorship of 12+ undergrads over 2 years, and multiple science experiment demonstrations for local public school students.

Leadership

• 120 + (20) - Position in same chemistry org, founded a few initiatives on campus related to mentorship/advising with goal of lowering barriers to access in STEM, as well as fostered relationships with local public schools for those experiments

Employment history

• 110 + (165) Chemistry TA, 2 different classes with same professor. Continuing those 2 next year, and also for another chem class with different professor next year.
• 750 + (150) Local motel - since high school continuing through college. I work there over breaks, super flexible.

Immediate family members in medicine? Yes

Specialty of interest: heme/onc, though not explicitly stated on my app, but from my research they could probably tell.

Interest in rural health? Maybe, but probably no

Because I have decent stats and my app is has lots of research, I'm struggling with school list. I essentially have 42 top research institutions on my list rather than include safer options. I'm comfortable applying to roughly this number of schools though. Any feedback is welcome.

School List:

UVA
VCU
Virginia Tech
EVMS
MUSC (have a tie)
NYU (have a tie)
WVU (have a tie)
Stony Brook
NYMC
Wake Forest
UMiami
GW SOM
Sidney Kimmel TJ
Drexel
Temple (was born in a temple hospital, but years before they acquired it lol - Tie?? kinda??)
U Cincinnati
USF Morsani
Emory
Tufts
Boston U
Einstein
Mt Sinai
Suny downstate
Loyola
weill/cornell
Northwestern feinberg
Umichigan
Case western +CCLM
UCLA
Upenn
University of Illinois
Duke SOM
University of Rochester (might be cutting idk)
Columbia SOM
Upitt
Hofstra
Harvard (no shot but my parents insisted. Thanks indian parents.)
wash U
vanderbilt
hopkins
brown
Ohio State
(42, i think)

Talk to me chat...

 

[surelycalm]

Non-clinical volunteering

• 150 + (75) - Chemistry org on campus, academic advising/research/professional mentorship of 12+ undergrads over 2 years, and multiple science experiment demonstrations for local public school students.

That's more academic and not the kind of non-clinical volunteering they are looking for. You should be working with the underserved. Things like working at a food shelter, soup kitchen or Habitat for Humanity.

Any tutoring or advising of underserved counts more for leadership than underserved volunteering.

Try to get at least 150 hours.


Now as far as your odds. With your GPA, MCAT and clinical, you do have a reasonable chance, but be aware that there are some schools that will screen for non-clinical underserved volunteering.

Do you have strong ties to NY? Stony Brook and Suny Downstate (and any of the other suny school) take 75% of their class from in-state. Even the out of state that they take often have close ties or grew up originally in NY. Your chances aren't 0 (like some other states) , but it will be low yield.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Adding: your listed non-clinical volunteering show your academic competency (and stacking campus leadership), not your service orientation focused on community service. You should have 150 hours minimum of food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation; as it stands, your application is at risk of getting screened out at most schools where you don't have a strong mission fit. Higher-metrics applicants should get 250 hours minimum, as you will compete against high-metrics applicants with more than this.