Sigh...My Chances?

[Chanieish]

Hi everyone. Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

I am a CA resident. My GPA is 3.73 with a BCPM of 3.75. I graduated from UC Berkeley with honors in Neurobiology. MCAT of 35.

My grades were sucky for t he first year and a half of my college career. (An even mix of A's and B's) Then I got acclimated and serious and since then all my grades have been A's and A+'s. There is a clear upward trend.

I grew up in the Philippines and came to the US for college. I was born in San Francisco though. Just left when I was like 1. Getting used to the foreign environment was difficult and was the primary cause of my mediocre grades.

I have had 3 semesters of lab experience, 1 sem of teaching in a bio lab. Summers of physician shadowing and volunteer in the the Philippines.

Currently I am working in the ER in a public hospital in the Philippines.

Sigh...my dream school is UCSF But I know chances are slim. After that Stanford (also slim).

I would prefer to stay in California though. One of the UC's or USC.

What are my chances for those schools? Or any of the big leagues on the east coast.

Can someone recommend some safeties?

Thanks again for reading!

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[Chanieish]

For my research. I completed and independent research study honors program.

I ended with a poster presentation and thesis.

Hope this info helps!

 

[Chanieish]

Also have 2 semesters of leadership in the largest student organization on campus.

Sorry I keep on forgetting to add stuff.

And if you need any other info, please let me know.

 

[Catalystik]

What is your experience with US patients, US clinical environments, and US physician shadowing? International experience is nice, but should not stand alone if you want to matriculate into a US medical school.

Any nonmedical, noncampus community service?

Any publications?

Have you acquired LORs from your undergrad science and nonscience profs, as well as your PI?

When did you plan to apply? Do you fulfill the criteria for California state residency?

 

[Chanieish]

I have no experience with US shadowing unfortunately.

Yes I have done community service in the Philippines.

No publications.

I have 5 LORs. 2 from Science, 2 from Humanities and 1 from a physician I shadowed in the Philippines.

Yes I fulfilled the criteria for CA residency.

I applied to all the UC's, Stanford, USC, NYU, Columbia, Michigan St are some.

Will having no experience in US medical schools severely damper my chances. Really worried.

 

[Catalystik]

Will having no experience in US medical schools severely damper my chances. Really worried.

I don't know that you need to be "really worried," especially for med schools that take internationals, but I do express a concern, as I've seen it said here on SDN over and over that you need familiarity with US medicine if you plan to go to school here. I can't say if this would be a universal truism, or generally true, or if an exception would be made in your rare situation of dual citizenship. Is there a chance that you'll be back in the US during the application season so you can amend this potential weakness? You could let adcomms know via an update letter.

Assuming your ECs are acceptable, you'd have about an ~85% chance of a successful application season if you applied broadly. As to whether you'd get into a California school, that of course is difficult for any Californian, but at least you have superb stats, putting you in a good position, though it's my general impression that they (and other research giants) prefer to see more research than you have. Hopefully, a California application expert will come along and give further perspectives on the clinical expectations issue.

Where else did you apply besides top research schools?