WAMC

[Jacob38383827]

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[Mr.Smile12]

The MCAT tutoring goes under "teaching/tutoring". Though you are a scholarship athlete, teaching swimming lessons won't fulfill "service orientation" since you are teaching from an area of expertise (like your MCAT). So your community service boils down to your hours at the food pantry... this deficiency is going to hold you back.

I do think your metrics justify your shot at WashU, but you need to keep a school list that is relatively regional (your brother being an undergrad doesn't help you). I don't get a sense of what makes you someone who I think would want to fly out and be part of a student body at a medical school outside your home region. Seriously, no Chicago schools (Pritzker, Northwestern)? If your parents are teaching faculty at the medical school (not sure about every clinical adjunct appointment), you'll probably have a good shot there, and other schools may be wary of picking up your application because of that.

So you need to network if you want to get out of Ames. It's not a bad medical school. If you want to be headed into the MD/PhD route, you'll need a bit more solid research though you're not that bad there.

Pardon the pitch: Becoming a Student Doctor is meant to help candidates stand out and gain a perspective on their purpose to work in healthcare for the next few decades.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sorry for the confusion, I graduated in May. As for volunteering at the food pantry, I’ve been doing it for a couple years, so I have 200 hours so far. I agree with you about me not wanting to travel too far from Iowa; Uiowa is my top choice. I never expected this high of an MCAT and I’m worried I may get yield-protected there. I’ll do some research on the Chicago med schools. As for research experience, I’m currently working full-time in my lab and should get in around a 1000 more hours before I apply.

If you are in-state, I would not worry about yield protection. If it were large volume schools like Georgetown or Tufts, yes.

 

[KaiBuzz]

Many schools love student-athletes so take your shot at all the private top 25 schools!

 

[alwaysrunning]

I would try very hard to network with Carver Med School.

 

[Faha]

You could add these schools to your application:
Stanford
UCSF
Duke
Case Western
Columbia
Cornell
Yale
Einstein
Hofstra
U Michigan
Northwestern

 

[Faha]

Sounds good. A lot of these are T20s, right? Would they be reaches?

Yes, many would be considered top 20. They are not reaches with your stats.

 

[a_distant_dream]

Your family connections might not directly impact the strength of your application, but it could convince schools you're willing to attend and will let you learn more about the respective institutions. My nonclinical volunteering was exclusively teaching students from underrepresented groups in my area of expertise (computer science, 1000 hrs) so I don't see any issues with your swimming lessons. Teaching swimming (and minimizing the risk of drowning) sounds quite impactful and rare. But I would suggest bumping up your food pantry hours if you're able. The clinical experience looks good and your research is quite impressive, though getting your first-author manuscript accepted might go slower than you expect.

 

[Psyched*Out]

Would you teaching a group how to swim also fall under leadership, or is that strictly teaching?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Would you teaching a group how to swim also fall under leadership, or is that strictly teaching?

Coaching, aka teaching classification IMO.