[WAMC/School List Help] CA ORM, 3.94 GPA, 519 MCAT

[Buttercup17]

Hello everyone! I am struggling to create a school list and would greatly appreciate some help. I recognize that my list is way too top-heavy.

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS

~3.94 for both

1. MCAT score(s) and breakdown

519 (129/131/129/130)

1. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)

California

1. Ethnicity and/or race

East Asian- Korean

1. Undergraduate institution or category

UC

1. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)

275 hours hospital volunteering
650 hours scribing
200 hours medical assistant

1. Research experience and productivity

350 hours, no pubs or posters

1. Shadowing experience and specialties represented

20 hours family medicine, 20 hours internal medicine, 10 hours ophthalmology, hopefully shadowing a cardiologist soon

1. Non-clinical volunteering

100 hours internship teaching science to kids at a local elementary school
300 hours Jumpstart Corps teaching kids how to read/preparing crafts and videos
240 hours as a learning assistant in biology and calculus for undergrads
250 hours tutoring program pairing students in the foster care system with undergrad tutoring and compiling resources for caregivers
50 hours mentoring a 4th grade student through an organization

1. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)

100 hours Volunteer Services Coordinator for Save the Children at my university
25 hours as the university representative for the mentoring program listed above
I also work a retail job and worked a job on campus, not sure if relevant

1. Relevant honors or awards

Regents Scholar

1. Anything else not listed you think might be important

So far, my school list is:
All CA schools except Stanford
Georgetown
Emory
Boston
Tufts
Michigan
Duke
Dartmouth
Cornell
Einstein
Mt Sinai
Rochester
Cincinnati
Drexel
Jefferson-Kimmel
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Brown
Yale
NYU
Columbia
Arizona Phoenix
Arizona Tucson
Colorado
Miami-Miller
USF-Morsani
Rush
Rosalind Franklin
Wake Forest

I appreciate any help!

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[chilly_md]

You can list non-clinical employment on your application. You have limited non-clinical volunteering that is not tutoring related. Being a learning assistant in college courses is not usually volunteering. Did you tutor foster youth in the one program, or were you handling administrative duties?

Apply to the following:

UCSF
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCD
UCR (only if you are from the IE or attended undergrad there)
CUSM
Emory
Boston
Tufts
Michigan
Dartmouth
Einstein
Mt Sinai
Rochester
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
WUSTL
Colorado
Miami-Miller
USF-Morsani
Western Michigan
Vermont
Hofstra
Iowa
SLU
UVA

 

[Mr.Smile12]

You definitely have a lot of tutoring, which is overrepresented among prehealth applicants. Do you have any other non-clinical community service activities that works with adult patients in underserved communities? You have a lot with children but most of the patients you'll work with in medical school will be adults at first.

 

[Buttercup17]

You can list non-clinical employment on your application. You have limited non-clinical volunteering that is not tutoring related. Being a learning assistant in college courses is not usually volunteering. Did you tutor foster youth in the one program, or were you handling administrative duties?

Apply to the following:

UCSF
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCD
UCR (only if you are from the IE or attended undergrad there)
CUSM
Emory
Boston
Tufts
Michigan
Dartmouth
Einstein
Mt Sinai
Rochester
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
WUSTL
Colorado
Miami-Miller
USF-Morsani
Western Michigan
Vermont
Hofstra
Iowa
SLU
UVA

Thank you for your reply! I am planning on starting to volunteer at a homeless shelter but didn’t list it because it hasn’t started. I will likely do this during my gap year while I apply. The tutoring program duties mainly consisted of me communicating with caregivers and seeing how our program could help them. I worked with them and students who wanted to tutor and paired them based on fit. So it isn’t actual tutoring and I guess that is more administrative.
Thank you for the school list help! I greatly appreciate it.

 

[Buttercup17]

You definitely have a lot of tutoring, which is overrepresented among prehealth applicants. Do you have any other non-clinical community service activities that works with adult patients in underserved communities? You have a lot with children but most of the patients you'll work with in medical school will be adults at first.

Thank you for your reply! I noticed that as well. I responded to the comment above, but I have some volunteering in a homeless shelter lined up for my gap year. I didn’t list it because I haven’t started it yet. Although, I’m sure that this is also overrepresented among applicants. I would gladly take any suggestions for other things I should look to apply to!
Thank you again for your help.

 

[chilly_md]

Thank you for your reply! I am planning on starting to volunteer at a homeless shelter but didn’t list it because it hasn’t started. I will likely do this during my gap year while I apply. The tutoring program duties mainly consisted of me communicating with caregivers and seeing how our program could help them. I worked with them and students who wanted to tutor and paired them based on fit. So it isn’t actual tutoring and I guess that is more administrative.
Thank you for the school list help! I greatly appreciate it.

That is good to get started at a homeless shelter. It is not a rare activity but you would be surprised to find that many applicants do not actually have experience there. Big Brothers Big Sisters is also something most people know, but few people participate in. You had some experience mentoring a 4th grader, so BBBS might be also worth looking into if you can commit to it.

 

[Prometheus2772]

What you list seems impressive. What do you estimate your odds of getting into one of the 20-ish schools on your initial list?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your reply! I noticed that as well. I responded to the comment above, but I have some volunteering in a homeless shelter lined up for my gap year. I didn’t list it because I haven’t started it yet. Although, I’m sure that this is also overrepresented among applicants. I would gladly take any suggestions for other things I should look to apply to!
Thank you again for your help.

Why do you believe that working in homeless shelters is that common among applicants?

 

[Buttercup17]

That is good to get started at a homeless shelter. It is not a rare activity but you would be surprised to find that many applicants do not actually have experience there. Big Brothers Big Sisters is also something most people know, but few people participate in. You had some experience mentoring a 4th grader, so BBBS might be also worth looking into if you can commit to it.

Thank you! I will look into these. I greatly appreciate it!

 

[Buttercup17]

What you list seems impressive. What do you estimate your odds of getting into one of the 20-ish schools on your initial list?

I don’t think my odds are very high, mainly due to the fact that I am an ORM from CA and my extracurriculars are pretty standard. I will definitely have to add some more schools.

 

[Buttercup17]

Why do you believe that working in homeless shelters is that common among applicants?

I believe so because there is such a high need in my area, and in most large cities, but I guess I just made an assumption without having anything to back it up.