WAMC/School List Help: 3.98 GPA, 521 MCAT

[AniKar8]

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Hey everyone, this is my first time posting here, so please let me know if this is not the correct place to ask this. I’ve built a school list that I think is okay, but I’d like some advice on it. I am also wondering if I should apply this cycle or wait until next year (will explain below*).

Undergrad/Profile:
CA resident
ORM - Asian male
T50 public school in CA
Stats:
- cGPA: 3.987
- sGPA: 4.0
- MCAT: 521 (130/128/132/131)
Clinical Experience:
- 100 hours volunteering at a local hospital
- No paid clinical experience*
Research/Lab:
- 600 hours working in a lab. No publications yet, but I should be 9th or 10th author (or around there) on a paper published by the end of this year. Will continue working in this lab at least until September 2023, so I should reach ~850 hours by then.
Shadowing:
- 51 hours (plastic surgery)
Non-Clinical Volunteering:
- None**
Other ECs:
- 420 hours being an IA/TA for three undergrad courses (all biology courses)
- 400 hours being an SI Leader (basically a tutoring service provided by the school. It is similar to being a IA/TA, and I tutored for 4 total undergraduate chem and bio courses)
- 360 hours being Orientation Intern (I planned and designed the New Student Orientation Program for one-sixth of my school’s incoming class.)
- 130 hours being an Orientation Leader (Involved in aiding students’ transition to my university, led small group-based discussions and gave tours, that sort of thing. After being an Orientation Leader, I applied to be the Orientation Intern.)
- 180 hours being on my fraternity’s executive board (I was involved in two different positions - one being a sort of secretary role where I took minutes and sent reminders about upcoming events, meetings, etc. and the second where I was involved in teaching new members about the values of our fraternity and what we represent by holding weekly new member education sessions.)
- 170 hours being on my biology organization’s board (I held three different positions - one was planning academic and social events for the club, the second was a treasurer role, and the third was a position on a sub-committee of the biology org that planned and designed an undergraduate biology seminar course at my university)
- A note: none of these will continue accumulating hours, because I graduated.
Honors and Awards:
- Provost Honors (award given to those with >3.5 GPA)
- Graduated summa cum laude
- Outstanding Senior(s) of the Year (They give seven of these awards out, but still a cool thing imo.)
Miscellaneous:
- I really like (both watching and playing) sports, especially soccer. So, sports are a hobby of mine. This is sort of relevant to the non-clinical volunteering mentioned below.
- Leadership is (clearly) my strongest attribute. I am likely going to include leadership and what I have learned from my various experiences in my personal statement.

*My main concern with regard to applying this cycle or not is my lack of clinical experience. I am hoping to secure a medical assistant job in the next two weeks so I can put some paid clinical hours on my AMCAS app, but that is not a guarantee. If I were to get the job, I’d likely be able to ~40 hours on my app before submitting. But, I would have a projected 960 hours (until June 2023).

**I’m also sort of unsure about applying/the strength of my app because I don’t have any non-clinical volunteering. I may be able to start volunteering as an assistant soccer coach at a school that serves underprivileged students, but that is also not a guarantee, and would likely only be able to put ~20 hours down on the app before submitting. I would have a projected 200 hours (until June 2023).

SCHOOL LIST:

I’m looking to apply to 20-25 schools. My main considerations are, in this order: 1) staying in California, 2) cost, and 3) urban campus. Ideally, I would go to a school in CA, midwest (IL/WI/MI), or east coast. I would appreciate any advice on schools I should add/get rid of (based on stats, OOS-friendliness, etc). Thank you in advance for your help and advice!

Kaiser
UCSF
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
UCLA
Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford
Harvard
UChicago
Columbia
Yale
John’s Hopkins
UPenn
UMich
University of Virginia (UVA)
NYU Grossman
Northwestern
Mt. Sinai
Vanderbilt
Case Western
THE Ohio State University
University of Wisconsin
Virginia Commonwealth University
West Virginia
Western Michigan
Medical College of Wisconsin

 

[theoceanman]

Having no nonclinical volunteering will get you screened out at many places, including most of the medical schools on your list. Projected hours do not mean much since anyone can project any amount of hours, therefore I believe unless you're able to accumulate 150 hours of community service from now to early June, it would be best recommended to take a gap year and improve that shortcoming on your application. I would aim for 300+ hours total at least during the gap year, if not more.

By not having 150 hours of clinical volunteering, you will also be at risk of being screened out at medical schools. Sure, some medical schools may consider your 100 hours fine, but the schools that you could aim for with your stats require much more. I would also aim to get 300+ hours during the gap year.

 

[chilly_md]

Projected hours do not count. Your low clinical experience and no community service means your chances of receiving an interview invite from a school are very low. Wait a year to gain the 900 hours with the job. You should realistically be able to gain 250 or more hours at a local food bank, homeless shelter, soup kitchen since it is a part-time job.

 

[Faha]

With no non clinical volunteering and only 100 hours of clinical volunteering you are not competitive for most of the schools on your list. Other applicants at top 30 schools will have hundreds or thousands of clinical and non clinical hours and with the same stats as you. You would be better off to apply a year from now after you have those hours as a medical assistant. You also should accumulate 200+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc.

 

[AniKar8]

Having no nonclinical volunteering will get you screened out at many places, including most of the medical schools on your list. Projected hours do not mean much since anyone can project any amount of hours, therefore I believe unless you're able to accumulate 150 hours of community service from now to early June, it would be best recommended to take a gap year and improve that shortcoming on your application. I would aim for 300+ hours total at least during the gap year, if not more.

By not having 150 hours of clinical volunteering, you will also be at risk of being screened out at medical schools. Sure, some medical schools may consider your 100 hours fine, but the schools that you could aim for with your stats require much more. I would also aim to get 300+ hours during the gap year.

That makes sense! Two follow-up questions (and hopefully chilly and Faha can also provide their expertise): 1) would the assistant soccer coaching experience mentioned in my post count as serving an underserved population? or would it be better to volunteer at a food bank, homeless shelter, etc? and 2) since I will be working as an MA (or maybe a scribe), do I still have to get at least 150 clinical volunteering hours? or is 150 hours the threshold in terms of clincal hours in general (both volunteer + paid)?

Thank you all so much for your input! This is extremely helpful for me in terms of making a decision as to whether to apply this cycle or the next.

 

[chilly_md]

That makes sense! Two follow-up questions (and hopefully chilly and Faha can also provide their expertise): 1) would the assistant soccer coaching experience mentioned in my post count as serving an underserved population? or would it be better to volunteer at a food bank, homeless shelter, etc? and 2) since I will be working as an MA (or maybe a scribe), do I still have to get at least 150 clinical volunteering hours? or is 150 hours the threshold in terms of clincal hours in general (both volunteer + paid)?

Thank you all so much for your input! This is extremely helpful for me in terms of making a decision as to whether to apply this cycle or the next.

1) No, I wouldn't count the soccer coaching experience, it is too much of a stretch.
2) Working in either of those paid positions is fine. You don't need separate clinical volunteering. CA residents cannot rely on their state schools, so you will need to obtain significant hours from the job.