WAMC/School List Help

[premed1102]

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Hi! I would really appreciate some help with a school list. I’m currently taking my first of 2 gap years and will be applying in May.

I am a white female from New York.

Education
Graduated from an Ivy
cGPA & sGPA: 4.0
MCAT: 525 (131/130/132/132)

Clinical Experience
Volunteered as a scribe for an internist (120 hours)
Currently working as a CRA during my gap years (over 1500 hours by the time of application)

Research Experience
200 hours of psych research in undergrad
As a CRA, I am first author on an AAN abstract and an author on 3 other abstracts. I will be an author on a few papers but don’t think they will be published in time for applications.

Shadowing
~100 hours of shadowing including pediatrics, neurology, orthopedic surgery, and oncology

Non-clinical Volunteering
~150 hours volunteering at a blood donation center
I assist in checking donors in, restocking snacks and bringing them to donors, and watching donors for adverse reactions.

Other Extracurriculars
Habitat for Humanity- had a leadership position and volunteered on local builds throughout college, high school, and middle school
Pre-health fraternity- volunteered in the community, was on the DNI committee, had a leadership role in the Professional Fraternity Council
Was a TA for 2 STEM classes

School List Generated by Admit.org

Reach

1. Columbia
2. Weill Cornell
3. NYU
4. Harvard
5. UPenn
6. Duke
7. Stanford
8. UCSF
9. Yale

Mayo, WashU, Vanderbilt, Hopkins but not interested due to the school’s locations

Target

1. Mount Sinai
2. Northwestern
3. UPitt
4. UVA
5. UChicago
6. UCLA
7. UMich

Emory, USF, Case Western but not interested due to the school’s locations (no red states preferably)

Baseline

1. Rochester
2. Stony Brook
3. Hofstra
4. BU
5. Brown
6. Albert Einstein (I imagine this will be harder now due to free tuition)
7. USC
8. Thomas Jefferson
9. Tufts
10. NYMC

Cincinnati, Arizona, Iowa, Colorado but not interested

I am also interested in SUNY Downstate and GW but they weren’t recommended due to yield protection. I have always liked Georgetown but it said “no mission fit.” I also want to apply to both Rutgers schools but I heard there’s an in-state bias.

Please let me know your thoughts! Thank you in advance!

 

[Faha]

What does your CRA work involve ? Any patient interaction ? Your 150 hours of non clinical volunteering is adequate to avoid being screened out. However, at the top tier schools you are applying to you will be competing with applicants who have many hundreds or thousands of hours of non clinical volunteering.

 

[premed1102]

@Faha Thanks for your response! Yes, my CRA work involves a lot of patient interaction. I administer certain neurological testing to patients in a clinical trial. I also coordinate visits with patients. Other than that, I deal with the IRB and FDA, and I gather and analyze data from patient records.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Columbia
Cornell
NYMC
Rochester
Hackensack
Vermont
Harvard
Yale
Tufts
UMass
Brown
Boston University
Tufts
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
UPenn
U Virginia
Duke
Emory
Vanderbilt
Washington University (almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Northwestern
U Michigan
Case Western
Mayo
Stanford
USC Keck
UCSF

 

[premed1102]

@Faha Thank you so much!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Blood donation center work is nice, but still health-adjacent. How many hours in college did you do Habitat?

Faha points out that 150 hours of service orientation activities (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation) is needed to avoid getting screened out at most schools, but you should get much more if you are playing with brand name schools. Your metrics are stellar, so your hours and your purpose for medicine must be equally impressive; so far, I don't see it. You have some research experience, but you don't sound like you want to make it a significant part of your career. I don't see what communities you want to impact or champion from your descriptions. Basically it looks more like cannon fodder with not enough hours to keep the brand-name schools interested in you.