WAMC/school list help! ORM, sGPA 3.79 MCAT 521

[s101325]

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Hello! I'm trying to get some insight into if there's any issues in my application and where other places to apply might be 🙂
Stats:

• cGPA: 3.88 | sGPA: 3.79. Somewhat upward with 4.0 in junior year
• MCAT: 1/15, 1 attempt. 521 (130/130/129/132)

Demographics:

• TX resident. Born and raised CA.
• Asian, female.
• Trad applicant, currently a junior
• Undergrad: T150 state school.
  • Major: Bio. Minors: Public Health, Poli Sci

Clinical experience:

• about 550 hrs as a volunteer medical assistant at a free clinic, working with uninsured populations, some leadership via training others.
• Also a volunteer EMT with campus EMS, about 500 hours. Trained others, have 1 of the top 10 leadership positions in an agency of about 100 people.
• No paid clinical.
• Total clinical hours around 1100.

Research:

• 300 hours in an ochem lab, did a poster at a university symposium and won an award (not super hard to get).
• 850 hours in a translational cancer lab, 2 mid author publications, 1 small poster w/ award and 1 national conference poster presentation.
• 350 hours in a public health lab (data analysis/reviews), 1 small poster w/ award and 1 national conference poster. working on 2 mid to high authorship pubs (currently manuscripts).
• Leading some research in my EMS org right now, but won’t be published by time of app.

Shadowing:

• 60 hours in peds,
• about 40 hours spread through other specialties (mostly internal, some endocrine, GI, cardiology).
• Will shadow some more this summer and write as projected hours

Nonclinical:

• About 110 hours working with intellectually disabled children.
• TA’d for an EMT course, 70 hrs.
• I plan on volunteering with veterans this summer and writing it as a continuing activity.

Other ECs:

• various clubs/orgs with leadership positions.
• Won a school competition and competed internationally. Now running the school comp and have reached 500-ish people. In another org, worked to have narcan dispensers installed on campus.
• Elected to a leadership position to plan events for my program (1200 people).
• Doing a public health internship (480 hrs) through a competitive fellowship program.
• Wrote a thesis-type thing on health economics (maternal mortality) as an independent study.

Other:

• Would like to do MD/MPH
• No national awards, did girl scout gold award and got national merit in high school though lol

Questions:

• A little worried about my sGPA and lower nonclinicals!
• LORs: committee letter with the following:
  1. dean of my honors college (have worked w him on a few things),
  2. my PI from the lab i have the most hours in,
  3. a professor i did a health econ independent study with),
  4. manager from free clinic
  5. director of my campus EMS agency
• The clinic manager is experienced but is not a doctor and the EMS director is a paramedic, I have no MD LoR currently – is that something I should be concerned about?
• The EMS director LoR is also something where you basically write your own LoR - should i forgo that for one from another PI or a professor who i wouldn’t know very personally?

Current school list:

• TX MDs (Southwestern, Long, Dell, McGovern, UTMB, A&M, TCU Burnett, BCOM, TTHSC)
• UC Davis (due to CA ties, but a lil worried since I’m not a legal resident anymore)
• UCSD
• UCLA Geffen
• Emory (some connection through online summer program and the competition i competed in/now advise for)
• Georgetown (my public health internship)
• U Colorado
• Icahn Mt Sinai
• Columbia Vagelos

Looking for recs on what target schools would be good, fitting my public health narrative ! Thank you!!

 

[morak]

I'll leave the list-making and finer analysis to the pros, but I just wanted to note that you should plan for 2 recs from professors you've taken classes with, ideally 1 in the sciences and 1 non-science. For Harvard and a few other schools, that requirement is 2 recs from science class professors and 1 from a non-science prof. Also, you should generally plan to provide letters from all PIs you've done substantial work with, so I would plan to submit letters from all 3 labs in your case (this isn't a hard necessity afaik, but it might be recommended - check with your undergrad's premed advisor/committee).

 

[s101325]

I'll leave the list-making and finer analysis to the pros, but I just wanted to note that you should plan for 2 recs from professors you've taken classes with, ideally 1 in the sciences and 1 non-science. For Harvard and a few other schools, that requirement is 2 recs from science class professors and 1 from a non-science prof. Also, you should generally plan to provide letters from all PIs you've done substantial work with, so I would plan to submit letters from all 3 labs in your case (this isn't a hard necessity afaik, but it might be recommended - check with your undergrad's premed advisor/committee).

Thank you! I took a bio class with the dean, would that work? And i took an actual class with the independent study professor as well. is there any consolidated way to see the LoR requirements for each school without googling each of them?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you! I took a bio class with the dean, would that work? And i took an actual class with the independent study professor as well. is there any consolidated way to see the LoR requirements for each school without googling each of them?

Officially from AAMC/AMCAS, this is all the help you get: https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/7026/download

Remember: trust, but verify. You should still do the work to confirm. You never know when a committee updates their preferences, or if their MSAR entry is wrong.

 

[s101325]

Officially from AAMC/AMCAS, this is all the help you get: https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/7026/download

Remember: trust, but verify. You should still do the work to confirm. You never know when a committee updates their preferences, or if their MSAR entry is wrong.

thank you! how does it work with a committee letter if some schools want 1 science prof and some want 2? would i have to assemble a packet that meets all the requirements for each school (kinda hard since my school mostly just does the 5 letters)?

also would you say there are any gaps in my application that i should be aware of or places i should/should not apply to? tysm 🙂

 

[Mr.Smile12]

thank you! how does it work with a committee letter if some schools want 1 science prof and some want 2? would i have to assemble a packet that meets all the requirements for each school (kinda hard since my school mostly just does the 5 letters)?

Eight Questions About the Pre-Health “Committee Letter” | Student Doctor Network | SDN

What is the committee letter and is it important? The most commonly asked questions about the committee letter for pre-meds and pre-dents.

www.studentdoctor.net

The usual treatment is that ANY institutional committee evaluation satisfies all adcom requirements regardless of the composition of letters included. (Think of it as a wildcard or "Jedi mind trick" (pick your pop culture reference... there's probably a better one).)