WAMC 521 MCAT 3.8 GPA (MD Schools)

[Eris1357]

1. cGPA: 3.8 sGPA: ~3.7
2. MCAT score: 521
3. State of residence: Florida
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Asian
5. Undergraduate institution or category: T10 College
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):
   • 2 local Florida hospitals (~150 hrs). Volunteered in ER (responding to patient demands, stocking supplies), OR (stocking supplies, transporting samples to lab), receptionist (sign in for patients and confirming appointments), and transport
   • VA hospital (~20, expected 40 hrs). Stocked supplies in rooms, lots of interaction with patients and interesting conversations.
7. Research experience and productivity
   • Worked in 4 labs (not published, will have 1 poster presentation T-T)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   • ~60 hours (50 hrs with an anesthesiologist, 10 with a pathologist. Really want to shadow an FM, still working on this)
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   • Dreamcatchers service club (~80 hrs), fulfilled wishes of hospice patients.
   • Chinese School Advisor (~80): Mentored Chinese immigrant family children, working with local Chinese language school to help with high school planning and applying for college
   • Food pantry (~20 hrs): Helped in stocking, packaging/portioning out food, and cleaning/organizing storage. Will try to attend distribution events
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    • President of martial arts club (~3 years), big achievement was making an environment more conducive to female participation
    • Gap year plan: Scribing and volunteering
    • Dreamcatchers House-cleaning Committee Chair: Led teams on cleaning events, specific committee formed due to demand
    • Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation club founder: Worked with school organization to create a student club that would act as a liaison and facilitate racial healing circles. Just formed in last year, so not sure if there is enough to talk in-depth about.
11. Relevant honors or awards
    • Writing Award: For undergraduate research in class
    • Research assistantship grant

School list:

University of Florida

USF Morsani College of Medicine

University of Miami Leonard Miller

University of Central Florida College of Medicine

Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University

Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine

Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Florida State University College of Medicine

Duke University School of Medicine

NYU Grossman Long Island

NYU Grossman School of Medicine

Tufts University School of Medicine

Harvard University

Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons*

Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania*

Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine

Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

Stanford

Loma Linda

Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Duke-NUS

Johns Hopkins University

Kaiser Permanente

Yale School of Medicine

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[Mr.Smile12]

What's your purpose as a physician? Are you trying to leave Florida?

I disregard activities with fewer than 20 hours except shadowing.

 

[Eris1357]

I want to go into family medicine. I'm not trying to leave Florida, staying in-state would be ideal but I'm not limiting myself to in-state schools.

 

[Alejandro]

Your numbers aren't bad-they're pretty solid. That said, I think its fine to have the reach schools you have, but I'd argue your extracurriculars aren't particularly standout'ish. Not to say you're not qualified to be an MD. Just realize that if you keep those reach schools, you'll have to have a banger of a secondary app, and odds are they'll come out all at the same time. So, do you decide to double your efforts to have an amazing secondary application while compromising the other schools too? Thus, in my shoes I'd pick a school or two less but it can totally be done-you just have to be comfortable with the fact when you get your secondaries where you'll place your priorities.

Personal story: Applied to 30, got a flux of secondaries and HMS was one of them. But, some of my more realistic schools also got back to me at the same time. For me, keeping the eyes on the prize, I let go of my HMS secondary to focus on the other secondaries instead.

 

[Eris1357]

Your numbers aren't bad-they're pretty solid. That said, I think its fine to have the reach schools you have, but I'd argue your extracurriculars aren't particularly standout'ish. Not to say you're not qualified to be an MD. Just realize that if you keep those reach schools, you'll have to have a banger of a secondary app, and odds are they'll come out all at the same time. So, do you decide to double your efforts to have an amazing secondary application while compromising the other schools too? Thus, in my shoes I'd pick a school or two less but it can totally be done-you just have to be comfortable with the fact when you get your secondaries where you'll place your priorities.

Personal story: Applied to 30, got a flux of secondaries and HMS was one of them. But, some of my more realistic schools also got back to me at the same time. For me, keeping the eyes on the prize, I let go of my HMS secondary to focus on the other secondaries instead.

Thank you for the recommendation, I agree with you completely that my ec's aren't standouts and pretty cookie cutter. With what you've told me, I'll probably swap out one of my reach schools for a mid tier school, prestige really isn't at the top of my list (especially since I want to do FM). I'm hoping my primary (talking about why medicine and my desire to combine Western & aspects of Eastern medicine) and secondaries will carry me through to net an interview at one of the T20s.

 

[Alejandro]

FYI-since you'll be applying to an allopathic school, if you put too much emphasis on eastern medicine (without being a practitioner already), you may get some deaf ears.

 

[Eris1357]

FYI-since you'll be applying to an allopathic school, if you put too much emphasis on eastern medicine (without being a practitioner already), you may get some deaf ears.

Definitely! I've talked with my prehealth advisor on this, and we've agreed that mentioning it is good enough but the main point should be Western medicine. I'm also leaning more towards the sense of what parts of eastern medicine I can take in and adopt into a western-centric care model

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Why not look at naturopathic medicine? Pharmacy, where you could be more expert at the subject of "holistic" medicines?

Some schools may be more accepting of considering alternate medicines, but you need to dig into the degree it is covered. 2015 paper

Complementary and alternative medicine in US medical schools

An analysis of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in US medical school curriculum was undertaken. Websites for 130 US medical schools were systematically analyzed for course listings and content. Half of the schools (50.8%) offered at least ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

On your ECs, one rule of thumb is your hours point to your passion. What you did does not match your stated goals or intentions. You say FM interests you but your activities don't quite tell/show me how you got there. Your only insight into the needs of families centers on your Chinese school and maybe hospice work. You just dabbled with food pantry work, so it sounds like checking the box. Working in a Chinese school is NOT cookie cutter. For others, your description of experiences sounds mundane.

Do you think that brand schools will teach FM with an openness towards complementary medicine better than other schools? What do you think of lifestyle medicine? Have you worked for cancer patients who take alternative medicine over traditional medicine, like in a patient housing space like Ronald McDonald House? Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children?

 

[Eris1357]

Why not look at naturopathic medicine? Pharmacy, where you could be more expert at the subject of "holistic" medicines?

Some schools may be more accepting of considering alternate medicines, but you need to dig into the degree it is covered. 2015 paper

Complementary and alternative medicine in US medical schools

An analysis of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in US medical school curriculum was undertaken. Websites for 130 US medical schools were systematically analyzed for course listings and content. Half of the schools (50.8%) offered at least ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

On your ECs, one rule of thumb is your hours point to your passion. What you did does not match your stated goals or intentions. You say FM interests you but your activities don't quite tell/show me how you got there. Your only insight into the needs of families centers on your Chinese school and maybe hospice work. You just dabbled with food pantry work, so it sounds like checking the box. Working in a Chinese school is NOT cookie cutter. For others, your description of experiences sounds mundane.

Do you think that brand schools will teach FM with an openness towards complementary medicine better than other schools? What do you think of lifestyle medicine? Have you worked for cancer patients who take alternative medicine over traditional medicine, like in a patient housing space like Ronald McDonald House? Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children?

Thank you very much for the insight. You've given me a lot to think about. I think the Dreamcatchers experience (which I didn't want to expand upon too much due to privacy) also allowed me to see different families and individuals who were struggling. One especially striking experience was when we went to clean the house of a veteran's widow, and seeing her son (who also joined the military) stricken with mental health problems and her being unable to move or clean things made me realize how unequipped our system is in a variety of ways.

Also, regarding the food pantry work, I recognize that it is a very short tenure and needs to be expanded upon. I actually started my volunteer work there after you gave me some advice on the need for community engagement (thank you again, by the way), and I will try to devote more hours to that.

Lastly, I think a big part of the mismatch was due to my original intentions and experience. I did not start college and pre-med thinking I wanted to do family medicine, but during these last 2 years, my family actually got an FM doc for the first time, and watching my parents' health improve through the management of their chronic conditions was inspiring and wonderful. A huge turning point was also when I came down with COVID and had very severe symptoms. I sincerely believe I would not be alive today if my parents did not think to contact our doctor (who gave me a stern talking-to about communication with her). I hope that writing about these experiences in my essays will prove that I am genuine in my desire to pursue family medicine.

I would like to bother you with another question: Do you think scribing in a community-oriented clinic would make up for my shortcomings? This will be during the gap year, but I hope that at least if I have to reapply, it will help me out a lot.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Scribing is clinical experience so how do you think this experience addresses your deficiency in nonclinical volunteering?

 

[Alejandro]

To go off of Mr.Smile12, WHY do you think nonclinical volunteering experience is important? Why do you think we would place an emphasis on this? I'm not asking for an answer, but it should be something that you should be thinking about. And even if you think its silly, I have confidence that something like this would be addressed in an interview, so do as you wish with that information.

 

[Eris1357]

Scribing is clinical experience so how do you think this experience addresses your deficiency in nonclinical volunteering?

I was hoping that would make my intention of becoming a FM physician clearer.

Regarding nonclinical volunteering, I think I will try to bump those food pantry hours to around 40, continue the Chinese School program, and look for more opportunities around home during my gap year. I've heard mixed things about updating schools though, do you think this would begin to address my inadequacies in non-clinical volunteering?

 

[Eris1357]

To go off of Mr.Smile12, WHY do you think nonclinical volunteering experience is important? Why do you think we would place an emphasis on this? I'm not asking for an answer, but it should be something that you should be thinking about. And even if you think its silly, I have confidence that something like this would be addressed in an interview, so do as you wish with that information.

My answer is that nonclinical volunteering allows aspiring physicians to develop a sense of empathy and understand people beyond the clinical setting. It is also important for broadening horizons and learning about the life and struggles of people coming from different walks of life. I've always done my best to make conversation with patients or people during nonclinical volunteering, so I have a lot of impactful stories that I've written down in a notebook (not sure if that helps or will have an opportunity to come out at some point).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I was hoping that would make my intention of becoming a FM physician clearer.

Regarding nonclinical volunteering, I think I will try to bump those food pantry hours to around 40, continue the Chinese School program, and look for more opportunities around home during my gap year. I've heard mixed things about updating schools though, do you think this would begin to address my inadequacies in non-clinical volunteering?

My suggestion is to get as many hours as possible before applying. If you had asked us back in January, it might be more feasible to get 80 total hours of food pantry (+60 hours) to equal the Dreamcatchers activity hours. Remember, I usually disregard activities with fewer than 50 hours unless it is shadowing. I also think that where you spend most of your hours reflects where your passions are.

If you have many compelling stories, you need to begin becoming comfortable writing and talking about them. You must pre-write your secondary essays.

Write Your Secondary Essays First - SDN

The Student Doctor Network provides free tools, resources, and advising services to help students become health professionals.

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[Eris1357]

I appreciate the clear metric that you have given me. It will be a bit difficult but I will reach out to my coordinator with the food pantry, I am sure that if I work weekends and a weekday consistently I can approach the 50 hour benchmark. Of course, while fulfilling a requirement I will also be making note of meaningful interactions and learning experiences such that it is not just checking a box. Also, thank you for sharing the secondary essay forum! I will focus on the "safer" Florida schools first and write the T10s later. Like you said, I should understand which schools match my goals best, and local state schools often have a greater emphasis on FM.