WAMC Current Trad Applicant 513/3.79

[finessinoganesson]

Hello SDN community! I am a trad, no gap year applicant in the current (2023-2024) cycle who is not having much luck so far. I submitted secondaries to 33 MD schools, and as of today have received no IIs, 5 rejections, and radio silence from the rest. With Thanksgiving looming, I find myself considering my current position and am looking for feedback such that I can begin to prepare for the possibility of a reapplication cycle. I know Thanksgiving is not a hard and fast deadline and that lots can occur over the next couple months, however, I do think it's a good idea to devise a backup plan. As such, here's a little bit about me & my app:

Stats:

• GPA: cGPA: 3.79. sGPA: 3.72
• MCAT: 513 (128/128/127/130)
• State of Residency: California
• Ethnicity/Race: ORM (White female, 1 parent is an immigrant from a Middle Eastern country)
• Undergrad: Higher-ranked UC school, current senior
• Clinical Experience: At the time of applying, 1500 hours (30 hours/week for approx a year) paid clinical work as a patient care tech (PCT)
• Research: ~120 hours in an aquatic biology lab. No pubs/posters
• Shadowing: 60 hours across 3 diff specialties (family med, cardiology, anesthesiology)
• Non-clinical volunteering: 100 hours teaching kids enrolled in after-school programs how to cook healthy and nutritious meals, 50 hours food bank
• Other Extracurriculars: 30 hours on a DEI committee for my undergrad's bio department, 400 hours in various leadership positions in an organization dedicated to addressing reproductive health inequities on campus/in the community and remedying them (over 3.5 years now), 75 hours as a general chemistry lab TA, 440 hours paid employment as a barista, avid SCUBA diver (I think I listed ~100 hours for this hobby)
• Personal statement: Talked about experiences being the child of an immigrant parent, navigating being this parent's medical power of attorney when they had a life-threatening illness and how this experience has pivoted to an interest in patient advocacy and health equity
• LORs: Strong one from the science professor I TAed for, strong one from my clinical supervisor, and probably a more generic one from another one of my science profs.
• CASPer/PREview: 4Q CASPER & 8 on PREview if it's relevant

The following are schools I submitted secondaries to (complete mid-July through mid-August):

• University of Michigan
• Kaiser Permanente
• Sidney Kimmel Medical College (Thomas Jefferson)
• New York Medical College
• Rosalind Franklin
• Cornell
• Icahn Mt Sinai
• Georgetown (R)
• UC Davis (I grew up in this area)
• University of Rochester
• Hofstra Zucker SOM
• Netter SOM @ Quinnipiac
• Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson (parents previously lived/worked in this area)
• Albany Medical College
• George Washington (Hold --> R)
• Dartmouth Geisel
• Harvard
• Lewis Katz @ Temple
• Yale
• UC Irvine (R)
• Loyola Stritch
• Rush
• Geisinger Commonwealth
• Boston University (R)
• Drexel
• UCLA
• UCSD
• Hackensack Meridian
• Tufts
• University of Colorado
• Stanford (R)
• USC Keck
• UCSF

There are a few in here that I knew were unrealistic (HMS, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, UCSF, etc.) but figured I'd shoot my shot anyway.

Anyway, I guess I'm looking for advice for what schools to add/remove in the event of a reapp. I am also currently trying to identify weaknesses. I genuinely believe my writing for my primary was good, though potentially could improve the writing for my secondaries. Should I need to reapply, I am also deliberating whether or not I should try again immediately in the 2024-2025 cycle or delay to 2025-2026. One improvement I think I can make is upping my nonclinical volunteer hours. I'd also like to try and improve my research hours before a reapp, and since I'm still in undergrad, could potentially become involved with a new lab and garner more hours over the next couple months. Alternatively, I could delay and find a position as a clinical research associate over a gap year. My only concern with hypothetically reapplying in 2025-2026 is that I believe my MCAT (taken in September 2022) would be expired for a lot of schools. I don't love the idea of retaking it but obviously will if it'll help/if need be.

Anyway, I am curious to hear others' thoughts. Thank you to everyone taking the time to look this over and give me their two cents. I appreciate it!

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[Faha]

Your only weakness is your non clinical volunteering hours. Add another 100+ hours in the food bank. You have many reaches on your list for an applicant with a MCAT of 513, as well as schools that expect many more hours of non clinical volunteering than you have (Rush, Loyola). If you end up reapplying in June 2024 I suggest these schools:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
TCU
Creighton
St. Louis
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Kaiser
California University
Belmont (new school)
Any new schools that open for 2025 (American University in CA, Roseman, Alice Walton, Methodist University)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

how this experience has pivoted to an interest in patient advocacy and health equity

Could you show me which experiences you have that support this statement? Apparently you have 400 hours in women's health advocacy. Did you raise this example in your PS? It sounds like you focused on your advocacy for your family in your summary.

Your R's seem to be related to mission mismatch. Not enough community service hours or breadth for Georgetown, BU, or GW. Stanford was an unreasonable reach.

I agree nonclinical volunteering doesn't show much service orientation to others unlike yourself that doesn't involve health. Add to your 50-minute hours of food bank with another 100 hours minimum to avoid getting screened out... more to be on par with most desired applicants.