WAMC/School List Help (IL resident, URM, 3.75/517)

[osiria]

Hello! I am preparing to apply for the 2024-2025 cycle (MD) and I would like to get a sense of my chances at various medical schools, how to refine my list, and advice to help my chances. I am a May 2024 graduate with a B.S. in bioengineering. I feel as though the weak points in my application are my hours. I have always been interested in medicine, but I entered my undergraduate planning on being an engineer. I decided to switch paths my junior year and pursue medical school, but that left a relatively short window for me to gain clinical/volunteer hours. I would like to think that my MCAT, GPA, and experience with engineering and computer science applications to medicine gives me a unique applicant profile. UIUC's engineering school is also relatively prestigious so I hope that looks good on an application as well.

Here are my stats/experiences:

1. 3.75 GPA
2. MCAT: 517 (128 chem/phys, 128 CARS, 129 bio, 132 Psych/Soc) (only attempt)
3. Illinois resident, US citizen
4. African-American male (second generation immigrant, Nigeria/Zimbabwe)
5. Recent (May 2024) graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (major: bioengineering, focus: computational and systems biology)
6. Clinical Experience: 340 hours as a CNA in a nursing home, 50 hours volunteering at a hospital at school (over 1-year span)
7. Research Experience: 213 hours (and counting) working on biomedical imaging through UIUC college of engineering, 1 publication through the Journal of Medical Imaging
8. No shadowing experience
9. Little to no non-clinical volunteering (since high school, i don't know if I should include high school volunteering)
10. Other extracurricular activities: Vice President of club basketball organization on campus, recruitment executive for another student organization, member of a medical training student organization, 700+ hours as head of security at a restaurant + bar.
11. Dean's List 6/8 semesters of my undergrad
12. 3 LOR's (1 from a nurse at the nursing home I worked at, 2 from bioengineering professors at UIUC 1 of which I do research under)
13. I plan to work as a CNA (hopefully in a hospital) this summer and then work in the field of medical engineering starting in the fall for the duration of my gap year. I have spoken with advisors and admissions committees to ask if working in engineering is seen as a negative as compared to gathering more clinical experience and they have all been adamant in saying that that is a great way to spend time because it harbors a diverse set of experiences and skills.

Lastly, my list of schools at the moment is as follows (I would like to add more "safety" schools. I understand that no schools are "safe" but with my low number of hours, I would like to add schools that I have a decent chance of getting into and are not overly selective):

1. Carle Illinois College of Medicine
2. UCLA
3. Michigan
4. University of Illinois at Chicago
5. Loyola (Chicago)
6. Indiana
7. Iowa
8. NYU
9. Northwestern
10. Miami (FL)
11. Columbia
12. Boston University
13. LSU
14. UC Davis
15. Western Michigan
16. Wisconsin
17. Minnesota

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[Faha]

Is your family from North Africa or sub Saharan Africa ?

 

[osiria]

Is your family from North Africa or sub Saharan Africa ?

Sub saharan. Nigeria and Zimbabwe to be specific!

 

[Faha]

Your lack of clinical volunteering and shadowing may limit your chances for interviews. Loyola expect many hundreds of hours of non clinical volunteering. UC Davis only admits 2 or 3 non residents yearly. In the next month, before you submit your application, try and accumulate 40 hours of physician shadowing and also as many hours as possible in non clinical volunteering (homeless shelter, food bank, etc)
I suggest these schools with your stats and current ECs:
Carle Illinois
U Illinois
Rosalind Franklin
Northwestern
U Michigan
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Indiana
Iowa
Minnesota
Mayo
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Case Western
Cincinnati
Miami
Emory
Duke
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
Rochester
New York Medical College
Boston University
Tufts
Harvard
Brown
Dartmouth

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You absolutely need shadowing, and pick primary care and specialties that are more patient-facing than radiology or anesthesiology. Keep adding to your CNA/nursing home experience, and expand your community service activities outside of a clinical environment. Roles typically involve food distiribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation.

Connect with SNMA and any mentoring organizations that support aspiring Black physicians, especially Black men.

Once you get these hours and mentoring support, your application will draw a lot of attention (you might get some attention but you need the hours to seal the deal).