WAMC/school list 4.0/527 ORM nontrad

[chib9]

PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE
Hi everyone, thank you so much in advance for your help/feedback! I'm finishing up one gap year and preparing to apply in this upcoming 2024 cycle. I know my stats make me competitive but I am worried about a lack of clinical experience (explained below). I'm interested in a career in academic medicine, overall vibe of application will be about being able to use research to care for specific people through health care access and innovation and elevate their stories. Thank you again!

1. cGPA: 4.0
2. MCAT: 527 (132, 131, 132, 132)
3. State of residence: IL
4. ORM, Asian female
5. non-Ivy T-25 undergrad
6. Clinical Experience

• Study coordinator (current job): >1000 hours by time of application and will continue doing this - this involves consenting participants, taking blood pressure, administering cognitive exams so I was going to list as clinical but only if that isn't disingenuous
• pediatric inpatient volunteer: will be starting this, hopefully 50 hours by application, 150 by matriculation

7. Research

• undergrad wet bio lab: 900 hours, poster in school undergrad conference, LOR from PI
• summer program: 300 hours, two posters at national conferences, submitted paper, LOR from PI
• senior thesis research: 250 hours, spent time talking with patients for this research, LOR from PI
• current job: submitting two abstracts to national conferences

8. Shadowing

• 90 hours neurology outpatient
• 30 hours ER

9. Non-clinical volunteering

• 250 hours teaching/mentoring kids in an underserved community

10. Leadership/other ECs:

• president of campus chapter of global health equity non-profit, now working for national non-profit: 800 hours
• private + volunteer MCAT and class tutor: 250 hours
• TA/review session leader for genetics and organic chemistry: 200 hours
• freshman orientation leader/peer group leader for freshman: 150 hours
• intern at various health equity nonprofits: 150 hours over the summer
• president/captain of club sport in college (not offered at varsity level and we traveled for competitions against other schools) that I continue to do, though less competitively: 2000 hours

School List:
Albert Einstein
Boston University
Brown
Colorado
Columbia
CWRU
Duke
Emory
Feinberg
George Washington
Georgetown
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Icahn Mt Sinai
Iowa
Mayo Clinic
Medical College of Wisconsin
Michigan
NYU
Ohio State
Penn
Pittsburgh
Pritzker
Rush
Jefferson
Stanford
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UIC
UMiami
UVA
Vanderbilt
VCU
WashU
Weill Cornell
Wisconsin
Yale
USC

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[Mr.Smile12]

Your non-clinical volunteering consists of tutoring disadvantaged students which is an extremely common activity that it won't set you apart (unless you did this as a school employee/substitute teacher, City Year, or TFA). Instead, you lack any service orientation activities that are independent of clinical or educational environments which will get you screened out at most medical schools. You need 150 hours to avoid getting eliminated consisting of any of these activities or similar: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. Your service should take you outside your comfort zone and beyond your home identities or communities to be humbly in service to those in distress, not a subject matter expert or "savior/teacher." Fundraising does not count.

Given your stats, 150 hours won't be enough to stay with the majority of applicants being considered at the top brand schools, so you need 250-300 hours completed by submission in these service orientation activities to be "average" among this group. You should also be aware of getting shot down due to yield protection. Rush and Loyola (which are two of your IS schools) want to see a commitment of several hundred to a thousand or so hours in this category.

As study coordinator, these are research subjects and not patients, correct? So this should fall under research. Thus you will likely have 150 hours of clinical patient-facing experience in the hospital, which will likely be light compared to your peers applying to brand-name medical schools. Otherwise you don't say anything about the subjects of your other research, so I don't have a sense that you are interested in research due to the lack of passion to discuss what you did unsolicited.

So what is your mission fit and passion for medicine founded in? I suppose it's health equity, but you don't have a lot of advocacy hours or a strong description of your impact in that vein, and the top brand schools want to know your impact beyond campus (which you list a lot of campus tutoring or mentoring).

There's no doubt you should be a very desirable applicant but without real details, I can't be convinced why I should invite you. The numbers are teasing me like an uncomfortably sexy Tiktok video generated by AI, so I don't know how you would fit with my community of learners.

 

[Faha]

As noted by Mr.Smile12 above you are lacking in clinical and non clinical volunteering hours. Your first priority should be to accumulate 150+ hours in that pediatric inpatient volunteer activity before you submit your application. In your school list remove Rush since they expect far more clinical and non clinical hours than you have. Also remove VCU and Medical College Wisconsin since they will "yield protect" with your stats. You could add these schools:
Hofstra
USF Morsani
Kaiser
Cincinnati

 

[chib9]

Your non-clinical volunteering consists of tutoring disadvantaged students which is an extremely common activity that it won't set you apart (unless you did this as a school employee/substitute teacher, City Year, or TFA). Instead, you lack any service orientation activities that are independent of clinical or educational environments which will get you screened out at most medical schools. You need 150 hours to avoid getting eliminated consisting of any of these activities or similar: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. Your service should take you outside your comfort zone and beyond your home identities or communities to be humbly in service to those in distress, not a subject matter expert or "savior/teacher." Fundraising does not count.

Given your stats, 150 hours won't be enough to stay with the majority of applicants being considered at the top brand schools, so you need 250-300 hours completed by submission in these service orientation activities to be "average" among this group. You should also be aware of getting shot down due to yield protection. Rush and Loyola (which are two of your IS schools) want to see a commitment of several hundred to a thousand or so hours in this category.

As study coordinator, these are research subjects and not patients, correct? So this should fall under research. Thus you will likely have 150 hours of clinical patient-facing experience in the hospital, which will likely be light compared to your peers applying to brand-name medical schools. Otherwise you don't say anything about the subjects of your other research, so I don't have a sense that you are interested in research due to the lack of passion to discuss what you did unsolicited.

So what is your mission fit and passion for medicine founded in? I suppose it's health equity, but you don't have a lot of advocacy hours or a strong description of your impact in that vein, and the top brand schools want to know your impact beyond campus (which you list a lot of campus tutoring or mentoring).

There's no doubt you should be a very desirable applicant but without real details, I can't be convinced why I should invite you. The numbers are teasing me like an uncomfortably sexy Tiktok video generated by AI, so I don't know how you would fit with my community of learners.

Thank you very much for your honesty, this is very much appreciated!

Sorry I didn't go into my research more, I wasn't sure about being concise and how much to share openly. My time in my undergrad wet bio lab taught me a lot about the research process, being analytical, and problem-solving but ultimately showed me that I had no interest in working in that field for my career. My senior thesis research involved being integrated into a patient support group for a disease one of my parents has, ultimately focusing on patient experience and identity. My true research passion however, I discovered over the summer program and have brought into my current work is looking at how neighborhood/social context impacts health, structural social determinants of health, that sort of thing. Ultimately I want to be able to look at how different health system initiatives can reduce this disparity. My narrative that I'm building so far involves hearing people's stories and experiences and becoming a clinician researcher to represent those stories in health care and work both on the level of the individual patient and systematically. Do you think if I can convey this that would add cohesion to my application?

As for the service part, I completely see what you are saying. I thought my involvement with the global health equity non-profit (lots of organizing, fundraising, grant-writing, global health project support) would count as service but I will look for more person to person service opportunities. Do you think if I can accumulate 100+ hours by submission with many more projected that would be reasonable?

Thank you again for your insights!

 

[chib9]

As noted by Mr.Smile12 above you are lacking in clinical and non clinical volunteering hours. Your first priority should be to accumulate 150+ hours in that pediatric inpatient volunteer activity before you submit your application. In your school list remove Rush since they expect far more clinical and non clinical hours than you have. Also remove VCU and Medical College Wisconsin since they will "yield protect" with your stats. You could add these schools:
Hofstra
USF Morsani
Kaiser
Cincinnati

Thank you for your insights! Do you think if I have a strong connection to Richmond/VCU it might be ok to leave it on my list? Two extended family members attended there for med school and I have lots of family in the area. Thank you again!

 

[Faha]

Thank you for your insights! Do you think if I have a strong connection to Richmond/VCU it might be ok to leave it on my list? Two extended family members attended there for med school and I have lots of family in the area. Thank you again!

Yes.