WAMC + School list help (cGPA +sGPA 3.9, MCAT 521), + Potential Red Flag

[Beluga75]

I made an old post here but I forgot my old account information, so I am reposting with updated information. Hopefully that's ok.

State/Country of Residence: Canada, but an American citizen so im OOS everywhere

Ties to other States/Regions: Born in Baltimore, raised in NYC and left for Canada before middle school.

Year in School: Finished my degree requirements in 2021, but I'm taking a single course this year so "technically" graduating 2022

Undergraduate Major(s)/Minor(s): Psychology

Cumulative GPA: 3.96

Science GPA: 3.92

MCAT Score(s): 521(130, 129, 130, 132) (Score from 2020, so this is my last year I can apply with it)

Research/Lab Experience:

• 100 hours of doing basic lab work analyzing MRI scans
• 400 hours clinical research under a neurologist (writing up literature reviews + research proposals along with some data analysis) + I might be able to become first author on a paper I'm working on, but im unsure if it will be done by May

Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer):

• 400 hours volunteering at local hospital
• 63 hours volunteering at local clinic (This position, only lasted 2 months) - I ended up leaving due to a toxic work environment, should I leave this out?

Physician Shadowing: 60 hours virtual shadowing multiple different specialties (Can get more done but not sure how helpful it would be, unfortunately no physical shadowing due to covid restrictions + legal issues in Canada). I can't shadow a normal doctor here due to privacy laws, while "observerships" within hospitals are closed to volunteers due to the pandemic.

Non-Clinical Volunteering:

• 100 hours volunteering as a neuroscience and basic psychology tutor for my university
• 400 (projected) hours as chat responder for an online emotional support line that offers service across the world - Also a leadership position here, as after my first year I became a supervisor and a coordinator that would assist and teach other volunteers

Employment History: 144 hours as a first and second year physics lab assistant

Hobbies: History enthusiast (avid reader of history and geopolitics since high school) - would be well over 3k hours so I am not sure what to put for time spent

Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N): N

Specialty of Interest (if applicable): Neuro/Psychiatry but very open to change

Red Flag:

• Completely screwed my first year due to a medical issue and had to repeat it when I transferred Unis. At the time I was advised to drop out and focus on my health, but I was scared of “wasting” a year and stayed (Something I very much regret). Long story short, I couldn’t finish my courses and ended up petitioning the Uni for extenuating circumstances which they accepted because I had two doctors write a letter on my behalf. One course ended up as a late withdrawal, one ended up being only credit given with no grade shown and 2 others ended up with an “estimated grade”. Differences are due to different department policy for each course.
• Because of this I lost my scholarship so I ended up transferring to a Uni near my home as I don't have a lot of money. My new university (understandably) didn’t accept estimated grades and credit only courses so I had to repeat first year.
• TLDR I had to repeat my first year of Uni due to medical issues and I'm not sure how adcoms will see this.

School list as of now:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Mayo
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Weill Cornell Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
University of Vermont College of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Boston University School of Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Duke University School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine Northwestern
New York Medical College
Albany Medical College
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Case Western
Ohio State
Cincinnati
U Michigan
Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
Emory University School of Medicine
Miami
U Virginia
USC Keck
Kaiser
NYU
Columbia
Dartmouth
Western Michigan
All other NY schools (Maybe?)

I am pretty much just anxious about how bad my first year was and how it may scare away most of the higher tier schools. But I am also concerned about yield protection from "lower-mid tier" schools(I was told sending letters of intent mentioning ties in the area could help in this regard?). So, I was considering applying to all NY schools as well since I practically grew up there and have lots of family there. I am not snobby at all about which school I go to, just want to get in this cycle.

This is my first application cycle since I skipped the last one due to poor research hours. But this is also the last year I can use my MCAT score. Any advice on areas to improve or my school list? Any type of insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you so much!

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[Faha]

You should receive several interviews from your list. Include all of your clinical experience hours.