MD WAMC School List Help Reapplicant (3.9/519) - ORM CA Resident

[firetruck19999]

Hello,

I would love some help with my school list this cycle! I applied last cycle and received interviews from WashU, Vanderbilt, Hofstra, and CUSM. I am still WL at all of them as of now. I’m reapplying this cycle and I’m not sure how to improve my school list. Overall, I think my writing was a weak point, especially secondaries, so I’ve been getting a lot of help and feeling more confident about it.

This was my application last year:

1. cGPA: 3.87 sGPA: 3.9
2. MCAT: 519, 128/129/130/132
3. State of residency: CA
4. Asian
5. undergrad: t20
6. Clinical jobs- ER scribe (350 hours)
Primary care MA(500 hours)
7. basic research - metabolism/diabetes (1200 hours, 1 poster+presentation, no pubs)
8. Shadowing: 100 hours in endocrinology, pediatrics, primary care, surgery
9. Non-Clinical Volunteering: sports coach for kids with disabilities (300 hours)
Day care for adults with disabilities (250 hours)
Homeless shelter/food bank (170 hours)
Crisis counselor (80 hours)
10. Other: DIII athlete, leadership in clubs over 4 years ie. culture club president
11. Hobbies: piano, weightlifting


New from this year
Derm clinic MA w/leadership roles (1200 hours)
More volunteering as sports coach for kids with disabilities w/leadership roles (+300 hours)
Homeless shelter/food bank (+90 hours)
Middle author publication under review
Shadowing with oncologist(+20 hours)

Last cycle school List
BU
CUSM
Case Western
Hofstra
Emory
Georgetown
Mt. Sinai
Kaiser
USC
Mayo
NYMC
Northwestern
Ohio State
UPenn
Sidney Kimmel
Tufts
USF Morsani
UCI
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UChicago
U of Miami Leonard
UPitt
U of Rochester
UVA
Vanderbilt
WashU
Cornell

My overall theme in my app this year focuses on disability work, managing chronic illness, and research. I would say my app doesn’t heavily emphasize the underserved in my mission so perhaps I should think twice about applying to those schools that especially look for that.

Thanks so much for your help!

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[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums, and good luck waiting for the offers.

My first impression is that you have had exposure to disability communities through your sports coaching. Of course, as a D3 athlete, I'm not sure that's stretching you far enough from your comfort zone. However, people with disabilities are often underserved and underappreciated. You have your adult day care and your hours with homeless shelters and food banks. I guess we'll just see how tough your competition is. Being on 4 waitlists means you might need a little more interview work, but you didn't connect as well with mission fit as you might have thought.

I am also unsure how your MA work connects with your purpose. Derm isn't my first though when talking about close work with patients with disabilities, but I can be corrected on that. ER certainly, but it's not as focused on disabled patients. I don't know if your peds or primary care shadowing featured disabled patients.

I'm also presuming you are referring to physical disabilities, perhaps some mental/learning disabilities, yes? Managing chronic illness... well, that to me can go to PM&R which I don't see here. Neurology also comes to mind. Other insights from physicians?

I know this feels like nitpicking, but it could take one minor thing to bump you from an offer. Now you have 4 WL's, so I don't think it's something so minor, but we'll see. I hope this is a moot point.