WMAC/School List - 520 MCAT, 3.93 GPA

[hmmmperhaps]

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Hello! Hoping to apply this upcoming cycle, and any advice (even to delay a cycle) would be appreciated! Thank you all in advance 😀

Also would appreciate not quoting this/helping me keep this more private if possible

1. cGPA and sGPA
   • cGPA: 3.93 by time of graduation
   • sGPA: 3.88 by time of graduation
2. MCAT: 520 (132/128/131/129)
3. Northern California resident, US citizen
4. ORM (?), South East Asian
5. T20 in the Midwest, known for a bump?, currently a 4th year graduating this sem
6. Clinical Experience
   • Ortho medical assistant, paid: ~550 hours
   • Hospital volunteering: ~150 hours
7. Research experience and productivity
   • Summer research experience: ~400 hours, wet lab
   • Clinical research assistant, unpaid: ~150 hours
   • Clinical research assistant, paid: ~150 hours
   • No publications or posters 🙁, will likely not receive LORs/likely won't ask
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   • Ortho surgery: ~10 hours
   • EM: ~25 hours
   • PEM: ~15 hours
   • IM: ~10 hours
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   • Working in health clinic in underserved community: ~100 hours
   • Working with immigrant and refugees: ~10 hours
10. Other extracurricular activities
    • Cultural club, held exec position for 3 years: ~250 hours?
    • Peer mentor for other first-gen low income students at my college, paid: ~300 hours
    • Summer internship at biomedical engineering company, paid: ~350 hours?
    • Projected hours during gap year, working as a scribe
11. Relevant honors or awards
    • N/A (don't think they're worth listing)
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important
    • First-generation college student, low-SES (with FAP from AAMC)
    • 4 LORs: 2 science professors, 1 humanities, 1 MD

Current school list:

• Albert Einstein
• Boston University
• Charles R. Drew (might not apply)
• Columbia University
• George Washington University
• Harvard (might not apply b/c of the letter requirement)
• Icahn SOM
• Johns Hopkins
• Kaiser Permanente
• Keck USC
• Northwestern
• NYU Grossman SOM
• Brown University
• Stanford University
• Tufts University (saw the QuestBridge announcement and curious if they have a preference for previous QB students)
• UC Davis
• UC Irvine
• UCSF
• UCLA
• UCSD
• UChicago
• UMich
• University of Rochester
• Vanderbilt (might not apply due to location)
• WUSTL
• Cornell
• Yale (might not apply due to thesis and rumors about taking 5 years to graduate)
• Rosalind Franklin
• Jacobs SOM
• Hofstra
• Drexel
• UPenn/Perelman

Curious if my low non-clinical volunteering hours is passable, since I worked with FGLI students because I needed money? That is one of the main reasons pushing me to take another gap year and apply next cycle instead of this upcoming cycle.

Also was thinking about applying DO as well, but not sure if it would be a good decision given that I am low-SES and I've heard they are really expensive.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Curious if my low non-clinical volunteering hours is passable, since I worked with FGLI students because I needed money? That is one of the main reasons pushing me to take another gap year and apply next cycle instead of this upcoming cycle.

You need 150 hours of food distribution, shelter volunteer work, job and tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation to avoid getting screened out at most schools. Furthermore, if you are going for brand name schools with your high metrics, you should have 250 when submitting to stay on pace with other applicants in this pool.

Population served is a different criteria, but noting we want to see service to marginalized groups outside your community.

I usually ignore non-shadowing activities with fewer than 50 hours.

 

[Faha]

You should accumulate 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc, before you submit your application. Otherwise, you could be screened out at some schools. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Tufts
Boston University
UMass
Vermont
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
New York Medical College
UPenn
Pittsburgh
Jefferson
Johns Hopkins
George Washington
U Virginia
Duke
USF Morsani
Emory
Washington University
Northwestern
U Michigan
Cincinnati
Colorado
Arizona (Phoenix)
The UCs (except Riverside)
Stanford
Kaiser
USC Keck

 

[Mr. Macrophage]

If you’re worried about the 5 years with Yale, you might consider dropping Penn (over half of students take 5 years) and Stanford (almost no one graduates in 4 years. Average is over 5)