WAMC/School List Help MD 2026 CA ORM(Vietnamese Male) 3.95 cGPA/3.85 sGPA Traditional Applicant from UCLA

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nnguy1

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Traditional Applicant from UCLA. Have Ties to inland empire. I talked in my application about rural medicine. Very risk adverse, just want to get in lol. Looking to apply to around 40 schools. Also Catholic and have been going to catholic elementary and highschool (affect when applying to catholic schools?)

Clinical Experience:

328 Paid MA Hours Rural Clinical Primary Care Physician

202 Hours Volunteer Hospice + 140 hours projected senior year

NonClinical -

205 hours Crisis Hotline Volunteer + 120 projected

Learning Assistant, Kind of like TA. Maybe not counted as nonclinical volunteering? - 360 hours

Volunteer local middle school teaching underpriviledged 25 hours

Research

300 hours Unpaid internship at Large Psychiatry Based Company.

160 hours Undergrad Research Assistant at UCLA, 300+ Hours projected during senior year

Shadowing -

24 hrs PCP 24 hrs Anesthesiologist 8 hrs Dermatologist 8 hrs GI 8 hrs Cardiologist. Total 72 hours

Leadership

Philanthropy chair for Fraternity - 150 hours + 35 projected

President of Biotech club - 100 hours + 45 hours projected

Other extracurrciulars -

Amazon Seller - 100 hours

Sports (joined different club sport each year - 180 hours

DJ - 65 hours over 4 years
School List: Any Help is greatly appreciated. Is list too top heavy or not enough? Thanks

UCSF Target
Stanford Reach
UCLATarget
UCSDTarget
USCTarget
UC DAVIS?Target
UC IRVINETarget
UC Riverside Safety
California Northstate Target
California Univseity of Science Target
Loma LindaTarget
Kaiser Target
Universtiy of Colorado (oos friendly)
University of Arizona Phoneix (oos friendly​
Univeristy of Arizona (oos friendly
Drexel
Penn State
Rosalind Frankling
TCU (Christian)
Albany Medical College
Nova Southeaster
Sidney Kimmel Medical College
Temple
University of Miami
Florida International Unviersity (Harder oos)
Dartmouth
Tufts
UCF
University of Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Brown
Wake Forest (Baptist)
New York Medical College (Catholic)
University of Illinois
Wayne State
Western Virginia Unvieristy
UMASS (rural)
Western Michigan
Tulane
Georgetown (Jesuit)
RUSH
Saint Louis Unviersty (Jesuit)
Virginia Commonwealth
Quinnipac
Emory
Creighton (Jesuit
Albert Einstein (Jewish)
Loyola Chicago
 
Welcome to the forums.

What is your MCAT score?

First, your non-clinical volunteering does not demonstrate service orientation. It's tutoring/teaching or crisis hotline which is not face-to-face. You need 150+ hours of food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation or you could get screened out. If you want to attend Stanford-level schools, you should have 250+ hours to keep up with other applicants.

Second, none of your non-clinical volunteering activities seem to involve rural communities. Maybe it does with teaching, but your MA employment is the only evidence of your interest in rural health. You have shadowed specialties that don't put you in a position to address the fundamental needs of the rural community. So, how are you walking your talk since I don't see how it all links to your activities list?
 
Welcome to the forums.

What is your MCAT score?

First, your non-clinical volunteering does not demonstrate service orientation. It's tutoring/teaching or crisis hotline which is not face-to-face. You need 150+ hours of food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation or you could get screened out. If you want to attend Stanford-level schools, you should have 250+ hours to keep up with other applicants.

Second, none of your non-clinical volunteering activities seem to involve rural communities. Maybe it does with teaching, but your MA employment is the only evidence of your interest in rural health. You have shadowed specialties that don't put you in a position to address the fundamental needs of the rural community. So, how are you walking your talk since I don't see how it all links to your activities list?
I apologize I dont know why my mcat got cut out. I have a 515. I talked about in my MA most meaningful essay how I setup a service where I applied to Patient assistance programs for patients on my own time. Should I have put this separately and listed as non-clinical? I already submitted my primary 🙁. Obviously Stanford is a huge reach for me, is it a donation to apply? The shadowing also was all rural clinics except the anesthesiology. Also the hospice volunteering was also in a rural community, and I did many things that the hospice patients couldnt do becuase they lived in a rural community (drive far to get groceries, drived them places). Would this emphasize rural? A lot of the reason for that was because there was no public transportation and everything was very far apart. I read somewhere that youll get screened out if you have 0 nonclinical volunteering right? Does crisis hotline not count as nonclinical? Thanks for the response.
 
Rush and Loyola expect far more non clinical volunteering hours than you have and West Virginia admits few applicants with no connections to the state or region, so skip the secondaries for those schools. You could add these schools:
Oakland Beaumont
Eastern Virginia
Roseman
Belmont
Alice Walton
 
I apologize I dont know why my mcat got cut out. I have a 515. I talked about in my MA most meaningful essay how I setup a service where I applied to Patient assistance programs for patients on my own time. Should I have put this separately and listed as non-clinical? I already submitted my primary 🙁. Obviously Stanford is a huge reach for me, is it a donation to apply? The shadowing also was all rural clinics except the anesthesiology. Also the hospice volunteering was also in a rural community, and I did many things that the hospice patients couldnt do becuase they lived in a rural community (drive far to get groceries, drived them places). Would this emphasize rural? A lot of the reason for that was because there was no public transportation and everything was very far apart. I read somewhere that youll get screened out if you have 0 nonclinical volunteering right? Does crisis hotline not count as nonclinical? Thanks for the response.
Being immersed in Catholic education, I would have expected much more true service orientation activities (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation). Patient assistance programs are great clinical-adjacent activities.

How much did you emphasize that your shadowing took place in rural settings? How do you incorporate this in your personal statement or other essays? How about your own lived experiences or coursework?

Hopefully you read this before applying
 
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