WAMC/School List Help, MD Resident (526 MCAT, 3.603 cGPA, 3.523 sGPA)

[cranialnerve6]

1. GPAs
Undergraduate cGPA: 3.603
Undergraduate sGPA: 3.523
Masters: 4.00

• Undergraduate GPA Note: Significant Upward Trend (from between 1.9 - 2.7 first four semesters to 4.0 until graduation, 150+ credits of 4.0); failed 3 classes, and W from 1. Lots of Cs for the first two years. Repeated 2 pre-med courses because of C-
• As you will see below, my first two years as an undergraduate were very unbalanced for the sake of a better term. I was heavily focused on conducting research and often neglected my classes to do research. Though, I did eventually figure out how to balance everything, my GPA was simply too low for too long to bring up drastically despite 5 semesters of straight As.

2. MCAT
MCAT: 526 (132, 131, 132, 131)

3. State of Residence
MD Resident

4. Ethnicity/Race
White/Caucasian

5. Institutions
Undergraduate: University of Maryland, College Park

• Triple Degree (Graduated in 4.5 Years)
  • BS, Bioengineering + Minor, Computer Engineering
  • BS, Biochemistry
  • BS, Neuroscience

Graduate: University of Miami

• MS, Neural Engineering

6. Clinical Experience

• Neurosurgery Volunteer at 2 Hospitals ~ 1,000 hours
• Pediatric Emergency Department Volunteer at 1 Hospital ~1,000 hours

7. Research experience and productivity

• Published 27 papers primarily focused on translational projects and systematic reviews in neurosurgery (1st author for a majority of the projects)
• Helped write 4 NIH grants with the guidance of my PI
• Mentored 15 underclassmen by teaching them lab techniques and helped them expand their ideas on research to run their own projects
• Presented at numerous conferences & organized a conference for several undergraduate institutions to present undergraduate research together

8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• Neurosurgery Observer (OR and clinic) at 3 Hospitals for a total of ~2,000 hours

9. Non-clinical volunteering

• Neurosurgery Observer (OR and clinic) at 3 Hospitals for a total of ~2,000 hours
• Founded student organization to organize field trips to hospitals for middle school and high school students
• guest speaker at high school on topics related to biomedical engineering and how to get involved in research in college

10. Other extracurricular activities

• President & Editor-in-Chief of an undergrad research journal
• Founder & President of a neuroscience journal club
• University ambassador for an international premed conference (3 years)
• Founder & CEO of non-profit that pairs patients with pen pals
• Founder & CEO of non-profit that mentors high schoolers interested in pre-med
• Athlete for Club Boxing (3 years) and Club Soccer (2 years)

11. Relevant honors or awards

• Undergraduate honors college citation & honors thesis (completed & published with a group of 7, second author)
• 3 Undergraduate research awards
• Several awards at neurosurgical research conferences, undergraduate symposiums/research days
• Neuroscience Honor Society - Nu Rho Psi
• bioethics competition finalist
• medical ethics essay competition winner

12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

• Took two gap years to 1) stay an additional semester to complete three degrees and 2) to complete masters
• applying both md and md-phd, though I will be rationalizing why I'm applying to MD-only schools as well by using MD-only physician-scientists as an example since they have played a major role in my development as a researcher and how I can visualize myself conducting high-quality research as an MD

School List
- Stanford
- Brown
- Northwestern
- Duke
- Boston University
- University of Southern California
- Emory
- Maryland
- Georgetown
- Dartmouth
- Albert Einstein
- Case Western
- GWU
- Indiana University
- PennState
- OHSU
- SLU
- UCLA
- Rush University

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Faha]

OHSU admit few non residents with no connection to the state. You could add these schools:
U Virginia
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Carle Illinois
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Rochester
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Kaiser

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Post your WAMC also in the Research Scientists forum for the MD/PHD analysis.

I see a lot of neurobiology, which should be a given with your master's degree. I need more evidence of primary care exposure.

I definitely need more service orientation competencies. Where is this in your description?

 

[lacrossegirl420]

That’s an interesting school list, any reason those schools in particular?

 

[cranialnerve6]

OHSU admit few non residents with no connection to the state. You could add these schools:
U Virginia
Vanderbilt
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Carle Illinois
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Rochester
Mount Sinai
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Kaiser

Thank you, definitely will consider these schools as well!

 

[cranialnerve6]

Post your WAMC also in the Research Scientists forum for the MD/PHD analysis.

I see a lot of neurobiology, which should be a given with your master's degree. I need more evidence of primary care exposure.

I definitely need more service orientation competencies. Where is this in your description?

Thank you for pointing this out, I do realize it too in hindsight; would you be able to offer some examples of involvements that demonstrate service competencies that you have found to be memorable or unique that would balance out a research heavy MD application?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for pointing this out, I do realize it too in hindsight; would you be able to offer some examples of involvements that demonstrate service competencies that you have found to be memorable or unique that would balance out a research heavy MD application?

Recommended categories include food distribution, shelter work, job placement services, transportation services (not patient transport), or housing rehabilitation.

 

[cranialnerve6]

That’s an interesting school list, any reason those schools in particular?

Indeed! This school list was mostly based on my chats with the surgeons, residents, sub-Is I have shadowed. I picked some of the ones that I was most excited about after hearing their experiences. I also used MSAR to determine if the schools would be a good fit.