WAMC/School List Help: 3.7 / 509 / ORM

[curryan7]

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Utah Resident, ORM (Asian), 26
- 2 gap years for an LDS mission
- Started college at 19
- didn't start pre-med focus until later in school

Strong ties to Michigan (lived there for 14 years), California (2 years), and Idaho (1 year).
Weak ties to Maryland, NJ, and NY (born in Maryland, visited those areas frequently when growing up due to family friends being there)


Bioinformatics, Computer Science minor
- pell grant recipient
- limited family help due to family being overseas and managing care for family member with terminal illness

cGPA: 3.71, sGPA: 3.5
- C in 2nd year Gen Chem and O chem 2
509 MCAT
- 91% percentile C/P to make up for chem grades
- lowest section was 125 CARS

Research: 890+ hours (1 pub, 3 posters, 1 capstone presentation) (2 internships at other universities)
Clinical work: 900+ hours (administering EKGs, educating patients on cardiac telemetry and stress tests, part of trauma/code response team, also the supervisor of department)
Non-Clinical Volunteer: ~400 hours
Leadership: ~160 hours
non-medical/clinical employment: 970 hours (Research lab, waiter/busser at restaurant)
Teaching: ~100 hours (TA, received TA recognition by department)
Shadowing: 25 hours (multiple specialties)
Hobbies:
- Cooking
- MCing Cultural Events
- Dance

Awards:
- Caregiver Excellence Award
- Undergraduate Research Grant/Scholarship

School list so far:

Reach:

• Ohio State
• University of Michigan
• Wake Forest
• Virginia Tech Carilion
• Creighton
• Western Michigan WMed
• Vermont

MD Target:

• University of Utah
• Michigan State CHM
• Rosalind Franklin
• CUSM
• Roseman
• Rush
• Loyola
• Temple
• Oakland Beaumont
• Toledo
• Wayne State
• Medical College of Wisconsin

DO Target:

• Michigan State COM
• Touro California
• WesternU COMP
• PCOM Philadelphia
• NYITCOM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

What did you do with 400 hours of non-clinical volunteering?

When did you graduate with your bachelor's degree? Highlight the activities during your gap years.

 

[curryan7]

Welcome to the forums.

What did you do with 400 hours of non-clinical volunteering?

When did you graduate with your bachelor's degree? Highlight the activities during your gap years.

Hi, thank you so much for the welcome!

I graduated this past April (2026), and have continued working at my hospital as a supervisor/tech.

In my application, it is implied that my volunteer opportunities were limited to my school for the majority of my undergrad due to my family's changing financial circumstances and the need to save up for a car to sustain a clinical job or pursue volunteer opportunities.

My LDS mission was a gap 2 years, but because many ADCOM do not consider an LDS mission as true volunteering (but more of a cultural expection in my church), I only included my most notable volunteering in my app which was creating and teaching an English curriculum for Koreans stuck in California during COVID. It is now the used curriculum by other LDS missionaries in Orange County.

During school, I co-founded, led, and performed in an annual school cultural event that gave Asian and Middle Eastern communities in Utah a platform to share their cultures. Beyond working with the school's administration and managing logistics, my main focus was mentor/work with these students whose communities were heavily underrepresented or misrepresented in Utah during a time that Asian-hate crimes and the Israel-Palestine conflict were headlines in the news. As the MC for the first three years, I created scripts and helped film/create visual media to support students' performances and help educate an unfamiliar audience at our event (~3000 people in attendance).

A good chunk of my volunteering is somewhat mixed in with my leadership, as most of the organizations I was involved in were student organizations I started where I mentored students who, like me, didn't have family in the US (though US citizens) and needed help finding Pre-Med opportunities in Utah, and also leadership in the Korean Student Association where I hosted and participated in events to educate other students in Korean culture.

 

[Faha]

A 50 9 MCAT is not competitive for some of the schools on your list. Also, some schools screen at 150 hours for non clinical volunteering. Your non clinical volunteering is not what some schools are looking for (such as food bank, homeless shelter). I suggest these schools with your stats:
Utah
Brigham Young (when it opens)
Roseman
TCU
Alice Walton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Belmont
Methodist
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
For DO schools I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
CUSOM
NYITCOM
PCOM
LECOM
Touro-NY

 

[curryan7]

A 50 9 MCAT is not competitive for some of the schools on your list. Also, some schools screen at 150 hours for non clinical volunteering. Your non clinical volunteering is not what some schools are looking for (such as food bank, homeless shelter). I suggest these schools with your stats:
Utah
Brigham Young (when it opens)
Roseman
TCU
Alice Walton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Belmont
Methodist
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
For DO schools I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
CUSOM
NYITCOM
PCOM
LECOM
Touro-NY

Oh wow, thank you so much for the feedback. Just for clarification, would ADCOM not consider me creating and teaching an English curriculum a typical non-clinical volunteer activity? I also realized that I forgot to mention in my initial post that I have strong ties to Michigan (lived there for 14 years), California (lived there for 2 years; albeit for and LDS mission), and weak ties to the MY, NJ, and NY area. I'm a little lost on how those past ties impact my school list, so if you have any thoughts on those, feel free to let me know!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Oh wow, thank you so much for the feedback. Just for clarification, would ADCOM not consider me creating and teaching an English curriculum a typical non-clinical volunteer activity? I also realized that I forgot to mention in my initial post that I have strong ties to Michigan (lived there for 14 years), California (lived there for 2 years; albeit for and LDS mission), and weak ties to the MY, NJ, and NY area. I'm a little lost on how those past ties impact my school list, so if you have any thoughts on those, feel free to let me know!

Creating a curriculum is an academic activity. How is your curriculum different from ESL curricula? We have plenty of applicants who teach English to non-English-speaking natives, and many like to create their own worksheets and activities.