WAMC/too late to change school list? 3.95 cGPA, 521 MCAT, ORM, mid-late august submissions, waiting on IIs

[nz356]

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[Faha]

Rush expects far more non clinical volunteering hours than you have. You could add these schools:
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
UMass
Colorado

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I agree your non-clinical experience needs more traditional community service orientation, such as food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You should have 150 hours in such activities when you submit your application to avoid getting screened out at most schools. More prestigious schools will see applicants with higher numbers of hours (so we recommend 200-250 hours), and one report (posted in another post) suggests that the average (FWIW) number of community service hours seen in the matriculant group is around 700-800 (consider with some skepticism).

It is early yet, and there is always a chance a school with an aligned mission fit will find you and extend an II. We only predict based on experience and past history.

 

[nz356]

I agree your non-clinical experience needs more traditional community service orientation, such as food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You should have 150 hours in such activities when you submit your application to avoid getting screened out at most schools. More prestigious schools will see applicants with higher numbers of hours (so we recommend 200-250 hours), and one report (posted in another post) suggests that the average (FWIW) number of community service hours seen in the matriculant group is around 700-800 (consider with some skepticism).

It is early yet, and there is always a chance a school with an aligned mission fit will find you and extend an II. We only predict based on experience and past history.

Thank you for the response! A lot of my experience teaching first aid involved working with underserved populations, and though it's not mentioned in my primary explicitly I wrote in my PS and secondaries about the insights I gained from helping these individuals better navigate their health.

Would this be sufficient to avoid getting screened out, or does it not really count as community service? Also when you say screened out, do you mean that schools could screen out before even reading my PS?

Finally, would participating in these activities on my gap year and sending update letters to schools that included this be helpful at all?

Thank you!

 

[nz356]

Rush expects far more non clinical volunteering hours than you have. You could add these schools:
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
UMass
Colorado

Thank you for the recommendations! How many of these would you recommend adding? As it stands, is my school list unbalanced?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for the response! A lot of my experience teaching first aid involved working with underserved populations, and though it's not mentioned in my primary explicitly I wrote in my PS and secondaries about the insights I gained from helping these individuals better navigate their health.

Would this be sufficient to avoid getting screened out, or does it not really count as community service? Also when you say screened out, do you mean that schools could screen out before even reading my PS?

Finally, would participating in these activities on my gap year and sending update letters to schools that included this be helpful at all?

Thank you!

Working with underserved populations is a "plus factor," but it cannot substitute for a competency.

Finding Your Greatest Common Factors with Successful Students | SDN

The Greatest Common Factor (GCF) between two numbers is the largest positive integer that can divide both numbers evenly (without remainders). Prime

www.studentdoctor.net

Individual programs have screening rubrics that establish the criteria for getting screened out. The process is different at every program as some will read PS's. However, the presence and use of chatbots may de-emphasize the weight of PS's as just a search for mission fit and plus factors. I can't generalize for everyone.

Update letters don't help you with screening. What you submit is what generally counts. Otherwise, everyone's applications would be subject to multiple readings and the process would be as fast as a traffic jam in Los Angeles during an earthquake or a forest fire at rush hour (i.e., 24/7).

 

[nz356]

Working with underserved populations is a "plus factor," but it cannot substitute for a competency.

Finding Your Greatest Common Factors with Successful Students | SDN

The Greatest Common Factor (GCF) between two numbers is the largest positive integer that can divide both numbers evenly (without remainders). Prime

www.studentdoctor.net

Individual programs have screening rubrics that establish the criteria for getting screened out. The process is different at every program as some will read PS's. However, the presence and use of chatbots may de-emphasize the weight of PS's as just a search for mission fit and plus factors. I can't generalize for everyone.

Update letters don't help you with screening. What you submit is what generally counts. Otherwise, everyone's applications would be subject to multiple readings and the process would be as fast as a traffic jam in Los Angeles during an earthquake or a forest fire at rush hour (i.e., 24/7).

Thank you! So as it stands, would you say my application's non-clinical volunteering (i.e. the arts and crafts at a nursing home and teaching first aid in the community activities) do not count as satisfying community service competencies at most schools? Or is it that they are less than ideal?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you! So as it stands, would you say my application's non-clinical volunteering (i.e. the arts and crafts at a nursing home and teaching first aid in the community activities) do not count as satisfying community service competencies at most schools? Or is it that they are less than ideal?

Yes, IMO.

 

[nz356]

Yes, IMO.

Thanks for the input. Wish I had known about this before investing thousands of dollars into applying this cycle...my school's advising never mentioned that this was an issue. Do any others reading this thread agree that this is likely a screen-out factor given my application and the schools I've applied to?

 

[Faha]

Thank you for the recommendations! How many of these would you recommend adding? As it stands, is my school list unbalanced?

Add all of them. Your school is not unbalanced but your non clinical hours are low for top tier schools.

 

[nz356]

If I'm preparing in case I need to reapply next cycle, is there anything you would recommend pursuing to optimize my application other than getting more non-clinical hours? And how many of those hours would you recommend to be competitive at top schools given the rest of my app? Want to make the most out of the next 8 months to be as competitive as possible if I need to reapply

 

[LizzyM]

More non-clinical hours this year.

LizzyM prediction: you will have at least 3 interviews scheduled before Thanksgiving and you will have at least one offer by Valentine's Day. Come back and let me know if I'm right.

 

[nz356]

More non-clinical hours this year.

LizzyM prediction: you will have at least 3 interviews scheduled before Thanksgiving and you will have at least one offer by Valentine's Day. Come back and let me know if I'm right.

Thank you for weighing in! And regarding the prediction, I hope you're right -- I'll come back and update in a few months!!

 

[nz356]

@LizzyM @Mr.Smile12 @Faha

Thank you for your opinions/input earlier this cycle -- here are my preliminary Cycle results!

Interviews: JHU, Duke, WashingtonU Stl, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, UVA, Mount Sinai
Acceptances: JHU, Duke, Vanderbilt, UVA
WL/CR: Northwestern, WashingtonU Stl, Mount Sinai

For any future applicants reading this, after submitting throughout august most of my interviews were in Oct/Nov/Dec — I was also not asked about non-clinical volunteering hours in my interviews (while I did do more of this on my gap year, I don't think I actually updated schools about it). n=1 though!

Re LizzieM prediction of 3 interviews before thanksgiving and at least 1 offer by valentines day -- I did end up having 3 interviews completed before Thanksgiving, and my first A in December (2 by Valentines day!), so pretty spot on!

Thank you again!

 

[LizzyM]

I love being right! Congratulations!

 

[nz356]

I love being right! Congratulations!

Thank you again!!