WAMC/ school list help please! (Reapplicant)

[goodbob]

PA resident / ORM / Reapplicant

Stats : 3.99 cGPA / 4.0 sGPA / 514 MCAT (129/124/131/130) / Biomedical eng. major at state university

ECs :

Clinical exp

100hrs volunteering at a dementia clinic for 1yr

250hrs volunteering at a hospital during COVID for 0.5 year

~600hrs working as an ophthalmic technician for 1 yr (will be 800hrs by the end of May & just started last year which will be the biggest change for my reapp)

Research

(no pub/poster)

400hrs microscopy lab for 2yrs

200hrs biology lab for 1yr

200hrs biology lab intern during summer in korea

Shadowing

20hrs family medicine

10hrs sports medicine

10hrs ophthalmology

Non-clinical volunteering

300hrs TA for biology class for 3 yrs

150hrs teaching Korean in a club for 2.5 yrs

250hrs translating braille books for 4 yrs

100hrs teaching math for 1yr

Leadership

VP in a teaching club for 1 yr

LORs

1 from my research lab PI (might gonna reuse from last year bc he never replies my email)

1 from Biology prof whom I worked as TA for

1 from prof who was my teaching club advisor

1 from english prof

1 from doctor from my current job as an ophthalmic technician

Changes since last app

new clinical exp as ophthalmic tech, some new shadowing, continuing my teaching & translating volunteer

Other

First gen American (Idk if I should mention this somewhere in my app)

weightlifting for 4.5 yrs (this has kept me stay sane but idk i have to mention this in secondary or somewhere else)


Schools lists so far (criteria: OOS friendly (40\~50%+), P/F, no stat *****, not rural, close to NYC or CA)

UCLA / UCSF / Boston university / Case western / University of Miami / Albert Einstein / UPitt / Cincinnati / Emory / Ohio State / Virginia commonwealth / Thomas Jefferson / Saint Louis / Temple / Drexel / Wayne state / Georgetown / Tufts / NYMC / Wake forest / Rush / Loyola / Tulane / George Washington / EVMS / Medical college of Wisconsin

** UCLA, UCSF, UPitt, and Albert Einstein are my dream schools so I just left them in my list


Are there any OOS friendly urban schools with true P/F that I missed? Or should I get rid of some schools? I want to be realistic since this is my reapp and I do not want to waste my time to write secondaries for schools that I will not be accepted..

Thanks in advance for all advices and suggestions!!

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[ClashRoyaleKing]

Non-clinical volunteering

300hrs TA for biology class for 3 yrs

150hrs teaching Korean in a club for 2.5 yrs

250hrs translating braille books for 4 yrs

100hrs teaching math for 1yr

You need to get some hours of true non-clinical volunteering, helping individuals who are less fortunate than yourself. While these experiences are “non-clinical,” they more fit under “teaching/tutoring” and for translating brail books that seems more like an EC. Consider getting some experience in a food closet/food bank, soup kitchen, homeless shelter, crisis work (in person, not crisis text line), etc. Do any of your other experiences gear towards helping those who are less fortunate than yourself? Your stats are great and keeps many doors open (maybe not T20s).

What was your school list for the previous cycle? Did you get any interviews? When were you complete?

Are there any OOS friendly urban schools with true P/F that I missed?

Is a school with true P/F something you need 100% at the school you attend? If you geared you list towards that, you would leave off many schools within your stat range that you could get accepted to.

Rush, Loyola, Tulane, George Washington, Georgetown, UCLA, UCSF, Wayne, Drexel, Temple, Boston, Virginia Commonwealth, and Saint Louis are more or less service heavy and your low non-clinical experience probably didn’t do you any favors there.

The other schools on your list are probably fine, minus Case Western (stats).

My advice to you would be: get some true non clinical volunteering and consider your school list, the values of the schools you are applying, and how your experiences match up. A lot of these schools expect a lot, if not several hundred (looking at Rush).

 

[chilly_md]

Where did you apply last time and did you receive any interviews? Penn State and Geisinger aren’t on your list, and you can’t be picky to exclude extra PA schools as options.

 

[goodbob]

You need to get some hours of true non-clinical volunteering, helping individuals who are less fortunate than yourself. While these experiences are “non-clinical,” they more fit under “teaching/tutoring” and for translating brail books that seems more like an EC. Consider getting some experience in a food closet/food bank, soup kitchen, homeless shelter, crisis work (in person, not crisis text line), etc. Do any of your other experiences gear towards helping those who are less fortunate than yourself? Your stats are great and keeps many doors open (maybe not T20s).

What was your school list for the previous cycle? Did you get any interviews? When were you complete?

Is a school with true P/F something you need 100% at the school you attend? If you geared you list towards that, you would leave off many schools within your stat range that you could get accepted to.

Rush, Loyola, Tulane, George Washington, Georgetown, UCLA, UCSF, Wayne, Drexel, Temple, Boston, Virginia Commonwealth, and Saint Louis are more or less service heavy and your low non-clinical experience probably didn’t do you any favors there.

The other schools on your list are probably fine, minus Case Western (stats).

My advice to you would be: get some true non clinical volunteering and consider your school list, the values of the schools you are applying, and how your experiences match up. A lot of these schools expect a lot, if not several hundred (looking at Rush).

Thanks for an advice!! I do have some "true" non-clinical exp but I did bunch of different volunteers at different locations for a short time, so I was not sure how to put all pieces of volunteer works into my activities section.

Here's my pieces of other non-clinical volunteers I didn’t mention:
100 hrs of COVID screening (controlling number of people in the building, explaining social distancing to visitors, and gathering contacts for tracking etc.) volunteer at government facilities (DMV, city hall, etc. the place I lived had a bad staff shortage)
100 hrs of volunteering at a youth center where I ran some programs for young adults and teenagers who need mental / recreational support
20 hrs of volunteering for fundraising for alzheimer’s pts
50 hrs of volunteering at a local farm
and I think..one of my tutoring exp can be non-clinical because I was teaching high school level math to students who did not have enough educational opportunities/access

Thanks to your advice, I will definitely find more opportunities to add some true non clinical exps, but do you think these look pretty decent?

+) My school list for last cycle was:

Albert Einstein / Emory / Geisinger / NYU Long Island / Ohio State / Penn State / Stony Brook / Thomas Jefferson / SUNY Downstate / Brown University / UA Phoenix / UCLA / UCF / Cincinnati / University of Colorado / University of Iowa / University of Maryland / Rochester / UPitt / Western Michigan / Rush / Loyola

And I got only one II

 

[goodbob]

Where did you apply last time and did you receive any interviews? Penn State and Geisinger aren’t on your list, and you can’t be picky to exclude extra PA schools as options.

Thanks for suggestion! I’d appreciate if you look at another reply; I just put my previous cycle’s school list.
And for PSU and geisinger, I know I shouldn’t be picky given my circumstances but one of my highest priorities for school list is location & I know how boring Hershey and Scranton will be for me (I lived nearby for 5+ yrs) so..I didn’t add them

 

[chilly_md]

Thanks for suggestion! I’d appreciate if you look at another reply; I just put my previous cycle’s school list.
And for PSU and geisinger, I know I shouldn’t be picky given my circumstances but one of my highest priorities for school list is location & I know how boring Hershey and Scranton will be for me (I lived nearby for 5+ yrs) so..I didn’t add them

Where was the interview at?

The other volunteering you listed does not move the needle. Maybe the youth center depending on the details. The fundraising isn't even worth including on your app. Try to immediately start helping at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, food bank etc and get 50 hours at least before submitting in June/July.

Many of the schools on your list were unrealistic and you will need to have a wider net without restrictions on location or P/F to ensure you won't have to apply a 3rd time.

I suggest:

Geisinger
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Albert Einstein
Rochester
Hofstra
NYMC
Albany
Dartmouth
Tufts
Hackensack
Vermont
George Washington
VCU
EVMS
Wake
Nova MD
Miami
UIC (high tuition FYI)
Carle (wants engineering students)
MCW
Saint Louis
Western Michigan
Colorado

 

[goodbob]

The other volunteering you listed does not move the needle. Maybe the youth center depending on the details. The fundraising isn't even worth including on your app. Try to immediately start helping at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, food bank etc and get 50 hours at least before submitting in June/July.

I will do! Thanks a lot for an objective advice. I highly appreciate it. I will try my best to make underserved students tutoring and youth center volunteer stand out as much as possible and start some new volunteers asap.
Also, thanks for the school list suggestion! I will take a look at all of them

 

[Mr.Smile12]

and I think..one of my tutoring exp can be non-clinical because I was teaching high school level math to students who did not have enough educational opportunities/access

Was this part of Teach for America or CityYear? Who set up this opportunity?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Non-clinical volunteering

300hrs TA for biology class for 3 yrs
150hrs teaching Korean in a club for 2.5 yrs
250hrs translating braille books for 4 yrs
100hrs teaching math for 1yr (additional hours for the high school math teaching or is this a duplicate?)

800 hours of teaching

100 hrs of COVID screening (controlling number of people in the building, explaining social distancing to visitors, and gathering contacts for tracking etc.) volunteer at government facilities (DMV, city hall, etc. the place I lived had a bad staff shortage)
100 hrs of volunteering at a youth center where I ran some programs for young adults and teenagers who need mental / recreational support
50 hrs of volunteering at a local farm (???)

Benefit of the doubt 250 hours of non-clinical volunteering, maybe 100 hours service orientation???

You need more hours to show you are comfortable serving others that doesn't require you to be a subject matter expert (like a tutor or teacher).

 

[goodbob]

Was this part of Teach for America or CityYear? Who set up this opportunity?

This was done thanks to my parents’ private connection with a local church where they recruit teachers who can teach different subjects to children at an orphanage.

 

[goodbob]

800 hours of teaching


Benefit of the doubt 250 hours of non-clinical volunteering, maybe 100 hours service orientation???

You need more hours to show you are comfortable serving others that doesn't require you to be a subject matter expert (like a tutor or teacher).

Thanks for an advice!! I just started a new volunteer at a shelter hoping to add some hours. How many additional hours will be “okay” before I submit my app in May 28th?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for an advice!! I just started a new volunteer at a shelter hoping to add some hours. How many additional hours will be “okay” before I submit my app in May 28th?

Get as much as you reasonably can. Then keep going.