WAMC/School List Help/3.86 GPA/522 MCAT

[washedupathlete]

Hi there!

I was hoping to get some advice about a school list for the upcoming cycle. Thank you in advance!

Here are my stats:

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS: 3.86 cGPA/3.79 sGPA -- Bioengineering Major
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 522 (130/129/131/132)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): VA
4. Ethnicity and/or race: White/ORM, Female
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Top tier small liberal arts school
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): 100 hours working in hospice care
7. Research experience and productivity:
   1. 500 hours working in Bioengineering research at my undergraduate institution (mostly computer-science/data analysis background) -- 1 publication and 2 presentations
   2. Taking a gap year working as a research assistant in rheumatology (so ~2000 projected hours)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. ~300 hours of shadowing experience through a summer shadowing program:
      Oncology, Radiology, Neurosurgery, Anesthesiology, Dermatology, Bariatric Surgery, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Cardiology, Hematology, and OB/GYN
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. 250 hours working at a shelter for domestic violence survivors
   2. 100 hours working at local campus kitchen
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. 2500 hours as a collegiate athlete, T10 for past 5 years, senior captain
    2. Diversity and inclusion liasion for team (~50 hours)
    3. TA for Physics
    4. TA for Electrical Circuits
    5. Employee for undergrad safe-ride transit system (300 hours)
11. Relevant honors or awards
    1. NCAA Academic All-American
    2. Engineering Departmental Award
    3. Dean's List
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

I feel like my greatest weakness in my applicant is clinical experience, which I hope to improve during my gap year. Unfortunately with the demands of my sport, I have limited free time to do greater clinical opportunities, and my undergrad institution is relatively rural, so options are limited.

I am hoping to apply to around 30 schools -- ideally I would like to apply to a few T20 schools on the east coast, but I know with my ECs I need to be realistic about a good range. Any advice is appreciated!

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[Faha]

You should accumulate another 100+ hours of clinical volunteering with patient contact before you apply. I suggest these schools with your stats:
UVA
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Carle Illinois
Duke
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Rochester
Columbia
Cornell
Jefferson
Tufts
U Michigan
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'll also encourage you to really consider not rushing your application until you get a solid amount of clinical exposure with patient contact and bona fide community service, expanding on what you have done with your shelter work and food distribution off-campus (after graduating). It could make the difference in making you attractive for "higher tier/brand" schools since you no longer will have to balance your athletic team commitments.

 

[washedupathlete]

I'll also encourage you to really consider not rushing your application until you get a solid amount of clinical exposure with patient contact and bona fide community service, expanding on what you have done with your shelter work and food distribution off-campus (after graduating). It could make the difference in making you attractive for "higher tier/brand" schools since you no longer will have to balance your athletic team commitments.

Do you think my hours as is are too low for me to be competitive this cycle?

 

[unbewilderedelephant]

Do you think my hours as is are too low for me to be competitive this cycle?

I personally think you’d be far more competitive for “higher-tier/T20” schools if you waited an extra year and got like a thousand more hours of clinical and a little more of nonclinical. That isn’t to say that I don’t think you’d get in next cycle, just that you’d have better chances at more desirable schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Do you think my hours as is are too low for me to be competitive this cycle?

Is there more that you think should be included? The 300 hours of shadowing through a summer program is definitely helpful, but is there more that came from it? The hospice care is helpful, but I am hoping that you would get more in that bucket (at least meet your 300 hours of shadowing, perhaps strive for 1000 total). What have you learned about the US healthcare system and what doctors do? Will removing the requirements of being a college athlete give you the time to finally immerse yourself to work in healthcare? That's the question I have. Being a high-GPA engineering major definitely works in your favor if you applied this cycle or next.

Agreeing with @unbewilderedelephant : you have more than threshold numbers, but I don't get a strong sense of quality of experience or mission fit from what you wrote. You probably could do pretty well at a lot of schools (especially those with strong biomedical engineering programs associated with them), but I am missing how you are going to seal the deal.

 

[washedupathlete]

Is there more that you think should be included? The 300 hours of shadowing through a summer program is definitely helpful, but is there more that came from it? The hospice care is helpful, but I am hoping that you would get more in that bucket (at least meet your 300 hours of shadowing, perhaps strive for 1000 total). What have you learned about the US healthcare system and what doctors do? Will removing the requirements of being a college athlete give you the time to finally immerse yourself to work in healthcare? That's the question I have. Being a high-GPA engineering major definitely works in your favor if you applied this cycle or next.

Agreeing with @unbewilderedelephant : you have more than threshold numbers, but I don't get a strong sense of quality of experience or mission fit from what you wrote. You probably could do pretty well at a lot of schools (especially those with strong biomedical engineering programs associated with them), but I am missing how you are going to seal the deal.

Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate your insight and understand what you are saying. I know my clinical experience is my most limiting factor — my upcoming job as an RA also has me working as a scribe in the clinic for 2/5 days with my attending, but I know I can only choose one category for this position on AMCAS.

For some more context, I also have two physician parents, but from my understanding this fact is more of a hinderance than a help for my application. I have a fair amount of insight about what physicians do and about the healthcare system, but I want to highlight my interests in medicine independent of my family, while still appreciating the immense amount of exposure they have afforded me.

 

[wysdoc]

I personally think you’d be far more competitive for “higher-tier/T20” schools if you waited an extra year and got like a thousand more hours of clinical and a little more of nonclinical. That isn’t to say that I don’t think you’d get in next cycle, just that you’d have better chances at more desirable schools.

A thousand more hours?
I don’t agree with this number, or waiting another yet to apply.

 

[chilly_md]

Thank you for your feedback. I really appreciate your insight and understand what you are saying. I know my clinical experience is my most limiting factor — my upcoming job as an RA also has me working as a scribe in the clinic for 2/5 days with my attending, but I know I can only choose one category for this position on AMCAS.

You are allowed to break it down and create 2 separate activity slots. Just allocate the hours accordingly.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

As FAHA said you don’t need more than 200 hours of clinical hours! Not sure why some push 1000 clinical hours. Yours is research heavy application so focus on the schools that value research (over service)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am rereading... I suggested you strive for higher number of hours, but in retrospect, 1000 is definitely much more than necessary.