WAMC/School List Help VA ORM

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HuckleberryEven

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  1. Pre-Medical
Going to be graduating in the summer and applying in 2024. I've pretty much figured out my ECS at this point and have my stats in for the most part so why not do an app review? I'm primarily interested in infectious diseases and would like to do policy work in the future and that's a pretty big theme of my application. It's something that I figured out relatively later in college so most of my experience is very recent. I hate to say I have a dream school but it's probably going to have to be Georgetown or George Washington given their location and my interests.
Stats: 3.7+/3.6+, 515
Clinical Experience: Volunteer at a physical rehab clinic + hospice for past year (350 hours), scribing during my gap year and continuing my hospice volunteering so at the very least will have a total of 2300 hours. Got about 60 shadowing hours might do a bit more for fun and to explore different fields.
Volunteer Experience: 285 hours as a crisis volunteer, 120 hours with a food donation center, 600 hours with the Red Cross (non-client facing role though). I feel like this is a bit of a weakness and I planning on putting more hours at the food donation center during my gap years. Overall will probably have a total of `` ~1700-1800 hours.
Research Experience: Total of 1300 hours. Breakdown is below
  • 2020-2022 : Research at a classic biology lab (250 hours). Did wet-lab research, won a research fellowship grant award. Ultimately nothing came out of my time there because of COVID and I realized I just did not mesh with the lab/hate wet lab research.
  • 2022- Present:
    • Honors Thesis (350 hours): I don't think anything will probably come out of it by the time I apply. Advisor wants to publish with more data but I don't now how long that will take so not confident in saying that I would have a publication by the time I apply.
    • Political Psychology Research (280 hours): My own independent study that I am doing. Currently collecting data and professor wants to publish and want me to do conference presentations during my gap years. Highly confident it will work out before my application.
    • Army Research (220 hours): Another independent study reviewing Army's health policies and giving recommendations. Have to present to leadership and got the green-light to publish in of their "journals" (not really a journal more of a place to write an opinion piece and then they link your research work).
    • Independent Study (200 hours): Analyzing efficacy of health aid programs. Don't really have a concrete publication avenue set but it's most likely going to be in an undergraduate journal/low-impact journal. I'm also doing a white paper that can be published at my university's IR page.
Misc:
  • Did Student Assembly or was involved in Stud. Assembly-supporting positions since my sophomore year. I like to think we did some good stuff that I can write about.
  • Will be interning this summer with a fed agency. Involves health stuff but it's a pretty unique application of it that I think would be pretty interesting to an adcom (or not, I don't know).
  • Doing a policy competition soon, hopefully I win so I could include that here lol.
 

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I suggest these schools with your stats:
UVA
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Georgetown
George Washington
Wake Forest
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
Einstein
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Cincinnati
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Tulane
NOVA MD
USF Morsani
Miami
 
ID and policy? I wonder where that interest arose from? Of course there is more than just COVID to worry about so how much do you know about those illnesses? Why not go for public health or public policy first?

I also will wonder... have you considered HPSP, or talked with anyone in PHS? Where do you think you will best fit in? Any interest in USUHS?
 
ID and policy? I wonder where that interest arose from? Of course there is more than just COVID to worry about so how much do you know about those illnesses? Why not go for public health or public policy first?

I also will wonder... have you considered HPSP, or talked with anyone in PHS? Where do you think you will best fit in? Any interest in USUHS?
I've been interested in infectious diseases since at least middle school to be honest when I read The Hot Zone. That interest was supplanted by neuroscience and an interest in mental health in high school (hence why I became a neuroscience major and not a Public Health Major). I would say COVID was kind of the catalyst for me ultimately switching back to infectious diseases and policy (I'm doing an international relations/global policy program through my school right now in part because of the pandemic). In the policy world, I'm trying to gain experience as a biodefense generalist so I would be focused on a variety of diseases and not just COVID, or any specific disease, but my internship does focus on a very niche area for a premed.

USUHS is definitely one of the top ones on my mind, I forgot to list it! Definitely doing research with the army and my policy-related studies have given me a greater understanding of the role the military plays in the public health system and it is something I would want to contribute to in the future. Strongly considering HPSP, don't know anyone in PHS or DHA unfortunately.

As far as going for public health or public policy... to be perfectly candid I have been applying for jobs straight out of undergrad for positions like those and the thought of going for a masters or another tertiary degree hasn't been completely ruled out. I think it will come down to my experiences at the end of the internship this summer for me to decide whether or not I feel an MD would be helpful to have.
 
I suggest these schools with your stats:
UVA
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Georgetown
George Washington
Wake Forest
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
Einstein
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Cincinnati
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU
Tulane
NOVA MD
USF Morsani
Miami
Thanks! Are there any T20s that I could potentially include? Want to be a bit more aggressive with my school list and include some potentially holisitcs T20s.
 
ID and policy? I wonder where that interest arose from? Of course there is more than just COVID to worry about so how much do you know about those illnesses? Why not go for public health or public policy first?

I also will wonder... have you considered HPSP, or talked with anyone in PHS? Where do you think you will best fit in? Any interest in USUHS?
Would you say that there is anything I could improve on for my gap years? Thanks for the help!
 
I've been interested in infectious diseases since at least middle school to be honest when I read The Hot Zone.
The Hot Zone was truly a game changer for ID. Everyone I know who is into Public Health or ID was inspired by that book. Personally scared the hell out of me, lol.
 
I think it depends on your opportunities and priorities. Nothing glaring though keep doing community service.
Yeah definitely will do. A couple of my policy mentors have been strongly convincing me to apply to a couple of policy jobs which I have been doing. Suppose I do get one of those jobs, but I am still interested in pursuing an MD: should I drop the scribing job, do the policy job during my gap years and do clinical volunteering? I feel it would be nice to gain some experience in that field if I am going to eventually go into it but don't want to do it at the detriment to potentially having solid clinical hours.
 
The Hot Zone was truly a game changer for ID. Everyone I know who is into Public Health or ID was inspired by that book. Personally scared the hell out of me, lol.
I'm not going to lie I'm a super scaredy-cat (TWD and Last of Us still creeps me out) and that book did give me nightmares. I suppose that's kind of why I got into ID was because I didn't want it happening in real life lmao.
 
You can include any reaches that appeal to you.
Sorry for the late follow up but do you think I would be competitive at USUHS? Super interested in the school and in military medicine especially after my internship with the Army and I feel that I would be a great fit there.
 
Sorry for the late follow up but do you think I would be competitive at USUHS? Super interested in the school and in military medicine especially after my internship with the Army and I feel that I would be a great fit there.
Yes, you could receive an interview there.
 
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