WAMC/School List Help - ORM, 3.95 sGPA, 3.92 cGPA, 510 MCAT

[T714]

Hey everyone, I need some help with recommendations of which schools to apply to. I am looking for a review of my list + school additions please!

cGPA: 3.92, sGPA 3.95

MCAT: 510 127/125/128/130

Private undergrad

ORM (white male)

MN Resident

Target Specialty: orthopedic surgery

Before Reading Stats:

I will be spending my gap year in a Spanish speaking country as a stipend service volunteer. I don’t know the exact breakdown of hours but it will involve:

Non-clinical volunteering
Clinical volunteering - translation, helping out in clinics
Shadowing - will be observing doctors/scrub into surgeries for observation

Service/Leadership:
Leading groups of high schoolers, undergrad students, graduate students, and professional school students in various service projects (rural and urban, health focused and non health focused). Also helping groups of doctors that come to perform service in translation.

Projected total hours = ~2000 hours

Clinical

* Patient Sitter (Job) 1000+ hours

Research

* Research assistant 130 hours (1 year) in a bio lab
* Poster presentation - have my own project
* Will contribute to writing portions of the paper, submission goal is late summer but if published, likely won’t be back in time for application/updates

Organizations/Leadership:

* Student Senate - 3 years
* Fraternity - 3 years and was involved with 2 committees for planning and 1 semester as IFC representative
* Fraternity and Sorority Life Standards Board - 1 semester
* Welcome Week Group Leader - 120 hours

Honors and Awards:

* In the Honors Program at my school
* Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society
* Deans list every semester except abroad semester (they don’t count external classes towards this)

Shadowing

* Orthopedic Surgery 16 hours
*IM 6 hours
* Endocrinologist 3 hours
* Planning another ortho 8 hours
* Planning Derm 4 hours
* Planning FM 8 hours
* Planning EM 8 hours
* Planning Neuro 4 hours

Non-clinical volunteer

* Latino Center 12 hours - help with events

* Other Latino Center 16 hours - taught a citizenship class

Both involved speaking Spanish

Before Primary App Submission:
Will be getting more with the first Latino center (shoot for 2 hours a week until May and then ~10 hours a week for 2 weeks after graduation) before primary app is sent out

+ trying for +10 hours a week over the summer from June-August

+ service gap year

Employment:

* TA for into Bio lab and upper level 250 hrs
* Biomedical Engineering Intern for 1 summer in the Research and Development Department - 400 hours
* Tour Guide at my University 350 hours

Hobbies and Other

* Studied abroad for 1 semester in Spain
* Cooking - enjoy doing this in my free time and took a class
* Playing Hockey
* Speaking Spanish
* Music

LORs

* 1 science prof that is my Advisor, I took 2 classes with and I TA’d for
* 1 science prof I took 2 classes with and TA’d for
* 1 Spanish prof I took for 2 classes - probably my weakest letter
* 1 DO that I have shadowed several times
* 1 research PI but also took a class with her

+ committee letter from my school

School List:

Target:
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nebraska
TCU
Medical College of Wisconsin
Loyola
Creighton
SLU
George Washington
Rosalind Franklin
Rush

Reach/Slight Reach
Georgetown
Colorado
New York Medical College
Tufts
Miami
Wake Forest
Arizona-Tucson or Phoenix?
Seton Hall

How many schools should I apply to? Please let me know what I should add/remove from this list!

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[Mr.Smile12]

How did you make your list? The ones in your region make sense, but what is your mission fit?

 

[T714]

How did you make your list? The ones in your region make sense, but what is your mission fit?

The preliminary list that I made was more so focused on being within range of my stats + ECs or location. I’m early in the application process and am looking to make a starting list to narrow down from. Right now, my objective is to make a list of schools to start looking into. I also am trying to figure out a target number of schools to apply to.

As for mission fit, I’ve worked since the beginning of high school towards learning a second language with the intent of using it in my career. My end goal is to be a bilingual doctor that works closely with Spanish speaking populations in the US. Schools that have opportunities to work with these communities would be awesome to attend. Also an added bonus if they have some type of medical Spanish classes/training. I hope this helps!

 

[Faha]

Schools such as Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants that have many hundreds or thousands of hours of non clinical volunteering.
You should accumulate 150+ hours on non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
Minnesota
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Belmont
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
CCOM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
CUSOM
PCOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm not sure how you are reconciling Spanish fluency and orthopedic surgery. We need people all over health care with multilingual fluency, but I'm not sure how you are connecting it with your activities, which are more front-line and primary care oriented.

 

[T714]

Schools such as Rush and Loyola are looking for applicants that have many hundreds or thousands of hours of non clinical volunteering.
You should accumulate 150+ hours on non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application.
I suggest these schools with your stats:
Minnesota
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Belmont
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
CCOM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
CUSOM
PCOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY

Thank you so much for your advice! I will probably get up to around 60 hours of non-clinical volunteering at the Latino centers before I submit my application. In the summer, I’ll try to accumulate 100 more hours, which I will project on the application and update at the end of the summer.

One question I have about the application process is regarding my gap year. In my original post, talked about how I will be a Service Volunteer in a Spanish speaking country from August-July. While not all 2000 hours will be non clinical volunteering, I will be accumulating a large number of hours in this category through a non-clinical volunteering project. Also, part of the position involves leading service groups into rural communities in the country for up to 10 days (some of this will involve non-clinical service).

I have two questions regarding the service heavy schools:

1. Since I receive a monthly stipend (200 dollars) to live, is the service I do outside of the volunteer project not considered non-clinical volunteering under the AMCAS application? The official title of the position is Service Volunteer.

2. If the hours don’t technically count towards non-clinical volunteering, would schools like Rush and Loyola still view the extensive service in my gap year at the same level as a thousand plus hour applicant? I looked into their description of a good applicant and saw that they list service or volunteering as a “good” applicant in their eyes.


Please let me know your thoughts and I appreciate your response!

 

[Dr_Pediatrics]

What part of Minnesota are you from? North Dakota also gives preference to MN residents, especially those from Red River Valley counties, from rural communities, or with ties to the state.

 

[candbgirl]

The projected 2000 hours in a Spanish Speaking country won’t help you much and they certainly don’t replace service to unserved/underserved people here in the US. Are you applying before you earn those hours? When are you applying? What organization is sponsoring this program? You only have 28 nonclinical hours now. I’m sorry. Im just trying to figure out your application entries. Why aren’t you spending your gap year in a City Year program or another program that focuses on our residents. I know about the a language proficiency but you can develop those skills in lots of places right here in the US.

 

[Faha]

Projected hours have little value. If an applicant is already involved in an activity and accumulated 1,000 hours and plans to continue that activity after submitting their application, then the projected hours have some value. Some schools screen for non clinical volunteering at 150 hours (hours that have already occurred at the time the application is submitted).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

One question I have about the application process is regarding my gap year. In my original post, talked about how I will be a Service Volunteer in a Spanish speaking country from August-July.

How are you going to handle interviews should you get invitations? Virtual or on campus?

1. Since I receive a monthly stipend (200 dollars) to live, is the service I do outside of the volunteer project not considered non-clinical volunteering under the AMCAS application? The official title of the position is Service Volunteer.

I presume currency exchange works in your favor. You could be a paid volunteer or a contract employee.

Do you receive training before going abroad?

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