WAMC/School List Feedback: CO, 3.83/522

[finnfri]

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High everybody, I would greatly appreciate some feedback on my application, specifically my school lists. I graduated in 2024 and am now in my first of two years of grad school (non SMP but real, in-person science program). I am fairly confident that my application is strong as a whole, but I don't think I am super competitive for many of my top choices. I am willing to wait an extra year if it means attending somewhere that I at least believe I will be very happy, so I am not necessarily worried about including "safeties" in my list, at least during my first attempt. I am a little concerned that my experiences are relatively narrow, the ones that I have are pretty long duration/good experiences, but I am only filling out around 10 activity sections as it stands...

1. Undergrad: 3.83 cGPA, 3.70 sGPA, strong upward trend (3.9+ for last 3 semesters), graduated in 3 years without much credit before entering.
Grad: 4.0 in almost pure science courses (biology subdiscipline), likely still 4.0 at time of applying with 18 credits (i know grad gpa is not very helpful).

2. MCAT: first attempt 522 130/130/130/132

3. Colorado resident

4. White

5. Both undergrad and grad are public, r1 state schools. Grad school strong connected with top choice med school.

6. Clinical:
Cancer center phlebotomist - 700 hours, 9 months
The following two experiences are part of the same job, but I believe that they are different enough to split up, and I am confident I can write about each of them, will list first as clinical, second as non-clinical, open to feedback
Hospital phlebotomist - 2000 hours, 2.5 years, charge/senior position, project another 750
Clinical lab assistant - 800 hours, 2.5 years, charge/senior position, project another 350

No volunteer clinical

7. Research:
Toxicology lab - 700 hours, 1 year, project another 500, two mid author pubs, third in progress, multiple abstracts and low impact poster presentations
Planned/projected: ~1200 hours of thesis research in an emergency medicine/toxicology research lab, won't start until may of this year, open to leaving this off and just having it as a discussion point for secondaries/interviews (if I get them).

8. Shadowing:
12 hours pulm/icu
8 hours rheumatology
30 hours pathology
24 hours pediatrics
60 hours sports medicine/clinical research practice
will try to find surgical shadowing

9. Volunteering
350 hours, 2 years, project another 100 - youth suicide prevention fundraising and peer education group, strong impact with $ raised and # of community members reached
100 hours, 1 year, project another 50 - "active listener" for a crisis line

10. Extracurriculars
Bakery shift manager - 1000 hours, 1.5 years, unsure whether to list as paid employment or leadership, I do think I could write convincingly about the leadership role that I had
Competitive athlete - ~8000 hours, 13 years, non-collegiate, no great awards to show for

11. Awards
Pretty much none, could list deans list/academic honor societies but I was planning on not having any activity section for awards

12. Other info
5 strong rec letters. I would like to think that my personal statement/narrative is pretty convincing, and my story lines up with my research and my grad school work. Not classified as SES disadvantaged by AMCAS automatically but did receive Pell grants during undergrad, will not claim any sort of hardship or write disadvantaged essay otherwise.

Current school lists:
I qualify for fee waiver, so I get 20 for free, planning to apply to 25-30 when all is said and done. No particular order. Primarily chosen based on location, mission fit (research heavy), and WARS of 82-85.

Any advice on schools to add/remove would be appreciated. As I have said I know my list might be a bit inflated, but my top choice is very much in my target range and I am willing to spend the extra ~250 to apply to 5 moonshot reaches past my free 20. Additionally, I am not in the desperation phase, I would be more than happy to take another year in order to enhance my application.

Colorado
Case
Einstein
Albany
Miami
Tufts
Dartmouth
UVA
Vermont
Carle Illinois
UCSD
SLU (strong Missouri connections)
Quinnipiac
Hofstra
Boston U
USU
Northwestern
Pittsburg
Icahn
UCLA
UMich
Brown
Mayo
Yale
WashU
UCSF
Stanford

Considering the following state schools even though they are very unfriendly to OOS:
Utah
Arizona Phoenix
Washington
Kansas
Missouri Columbia

Thank you for the advice!

Edit to mention: I know it's silly, but the hotter/more humid the state, the less interested I would be.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

In general, I don't see any issues. However, one detail point: please isolate the hours for fundraising from your counseling work with youth suicide prevention. I'd like to know how many face-to-face hours you spent leveraging your crisis hotline skills.

I would throw out the extra five schools you are considering. Washington likes applicants strictly from the PacNW/WWAMI. Kansas greatly advantages those with significant Kansas connections. Carle: are you an engineer or trained in quantitative science?

Q&A with Carle Illinois College of Medicine: Developing Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Health Professionals | SDN

In a previous article, I discussed the advantages engineering-trained applicants bring to the health professions. For this article, we asked the

www.studentdoctor.net

Are you applying HPSP? (I noticed the USUHS listed.)

 

[finnfri]

In general, I don't see any issues. However, one detail point: please isolate the hours for fundraising from your counseling work with youth suicide prevention. I'd like to know how many face-to-face hours you spent leveraging your crisis hotline skills.

Thank you for the quick reply! Should I delineate within the same activity entry, just explaining in the description? It would be roughly 75 hours planning/conducting fundraising efforts, 100 hours of overall planning/meetings/training, and 175 hours of peer education such as giving presentations, information sessions, and staff trainings.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the quick reply! Should I delineate within the same activity entry, just explaining in the description? It would be roughly 75 hours planning/conducting fundraising efforts, 100 hours of overall planning/meetings/training, and 175 hours of peer education such as giving presentations, information sessions, and staff trainings.

If you have space, yes I would include this in the activities description. I'm unsure if the peer education could count to service orientation as opposed to leadership/teaching, but we'll just see if that's enough. I would be more comfortable if you had direct counseling experience in that organization.

 

[finnfri]

In general, I don't see any issues. However, one detail point: please isolate the hours for fundraising from your counseling work with youth suicide prevention. I'd like to know how many face-to-face hours you spent leveraging your crisis hotline skills.

I would throw out the extra five schools you are considering. Washington likes applicants strictly from the PacNW/WWAMI. Kansas greatly advantages those with significant Kansas connections. Carle: are you an engineer or trained in quantitative science?

Q&A with Carle Illinois College of Medicine: Developing Innovation and Entrepreneurship as Health Professionals | SDN

In a previous article, I discussed the advantages engineering-trained applicants bring to the health professions. For this article, we asked the

www.studentdoctor.net

Are you applying HPSP? (I noticed the USUHS listed.)

I replied to your comment too quickly and missed the second two points. I will get rid of the 5, I wouldn't consider any of them over my state school and clearly the difference in chance would be significant. For Carle, I am not an engineer but much of my current research is quant heavy, much of my interest in the school is their engineering focus, but I know I am not necessarily a great fit for it.

As for HPSP, I would most likely apply during my first year and just get 3 yeas of scholarship. The military medicine route is something that I am very interested in, and it would be a great financial opportunity, but I don't quite yet have the clarity that I would like to have to commit to HPSP right away. I know my chances at USUHS are lower without any sort of military background to begin with.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As for HPSP, I would most likely apply during my first year and just get 3 yeas of scholarship. The military medicine route is something that I am very interested in, and it would be a great financial opportunity, but I don't quite yet have the clarity that I would like to have to commit to HPSP right away. I know my chances at USUHS are lower without any sort of military background to begin with.

You don't need a prior military background to get accepted to USUHS, but you must understand the commitment for military medicine and culture, including the fact that sometimes choices are made for you because of the needs of the military. But I'll let the other posters comment about that, and we have various subforums on the topic.