WAMC + School List Help (3.55 GPA, 520 MCAT)

[mrlaker]

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Hello everyone. This is my first post on SDN, and I am applying this cycle. I am feeling worried about applying because of my grades and downward trend. Could you guys give me a realistic idea of whether or not it is feasible for me to apply given my record and what schools I should choose?

1. GPA: cGPA: 3.55 (Freshman 4.0 --> Sophomore 3.45 --> Senior 3.19) and sGPA: 3.6 (Freshman 4.0 --> Sophomore 3.73 --> Senior 3.12) (graduated in 3 years)
2. MCAT: First Attempt: 509 (129/127/26/127), Second Attempt: 520 (130/129/130/131)
3. Casper: 3rd Quartile; AAMC Preview: 5
4. State: Massachusetts Resident
5. Demographic: South Asian (Indian)
6. School: State School
7. Clinical Experience: Volunteered as in home health aid for complex care patient (100 hrs), working full time as a PCA in a top hospital PACU (700 hrs so far)
8. Research: Undergraduate research lab --> presented 1 poster (870 hours in 1 year), presented 2 other posters for classroom research experiences in undergrad, worked in MIT research lab post grad (3000 hours, no pubs)
9. Shadowing: 40 hours with 1 ENT surgeon, shadowing 48 more hours this summer and fall in urology/endocrinology/anesthesiology
10. Service: Was on dance marathon team for 2 years to raise money for children's hospital (180 hrs), acted as philanthropy chair for all of greek life for 1 year to raise 50k for various charities (150 hrs)
11. Overall extracurriculars:
    1. In undergrad: Undergrad research, Philanthropy chair position, dance marathon team, Sang in choir, TA'd gen chem, worked as camp counselor;
    2. In gap years (2 years): MIT Research, PACU PCA job, home health aid job, Sang in chamber choir, tutored stem subjects
    3. Hobbies: weightlifting, crochet
12. Awards: Undergraduate research scholarship
13. Red flags: received an incomplete failure in a non-science class in second year that I retook later for a B+

School list so far using admit.org and other research:

Mega reach:
Stanford
Yale
Harvard

Reach:
U Colorado
U Cincinnati
Hackensack Meridian
NYMC
Dartmouth (Geisel)
BU
UMass
Tufts
Jefferson (Kimmel)
Virginia Commonwealth
Western Michigan

Target:
Quinnipiac
Temple
Eastern Virginia
U Vermont
Albany Medical College
Medical College of Wisconsin
Oakland University
Wake Forest
Penn State
Rutgers (Robert Johnson)

Baseline:
Rosalind Franklin

 

[LunaOri]

Forget the mega reach schools. The rest of your list is realistic. Try to get some volunteering with an underserved population—dance marathon and sorority activities aren’t what we are looking for when we say “service”.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Take your extra year to work with underresourced populations in social service roles: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitaiton. You must have 150 hours before you submit your application or your file may be screened out, even with your top MCAT score. Fundraising doesn't do it. Peace Corps/Americorps would be ideal, though I'm guessing it's too late for you to do this.

 

[Faha]

When are you planning to apply ?