WAMC/School List Help: ORM (520/3.91)

[eggplant05]

- cGPA: 3.91
- MCAT: 520 (130/128/131/131)
- State: CA
- Race/Ethnicity: Asian (F, 22 years old)
- Undergraduate institution: UC Berkeley

Clinical Experience:

• UCSF crisis hotline: 2 years, total 500+ hours
• Neurophysiologist (2 year gap year): paid full time job, total 3000+ hours
• Scribing: 1 year, total 150+ hours, unpaid

Research:

• Internship at Stanford (public health research): 3 months, summer full time position, total 500+ hours
  • Publication, co-author
• Research lab at Berkeley: 2 years, molecular biology research, total 250+ hours, unpaid

Shadowing:

• Various physicians (not including full time gap year position), 150+ hours total

Volunteering:

• Teaching english in foreign country: 3 months, part time, non-clinical volunteering, total 150+ hours
• Covid response team: 1 year, clinical volunteering, total 200+ hours

Extracurriculars:

• Summer full time job at tech company (supply chain management), total 500+ hours
• Pre-medical fraternity leadership position, 2 years, total 400+ hours
• Tutoring: 1 year in organic chemistry and biology, total 200+ hours

Would appreciate any recommendations and advice! I am currently considering these schools:
- Columbia
- Cornell
- Stanford
- Yale
- Icahn (Mount Sinai)
- UCSF
- Pittsburg
- Boston University
- Brown
- UCLA
- UCSD
- UCI
- UC Davis
- Keck (USC)
- University of Rochester
- Michigan
- Tufts
- Jefferson
- Dartmouth
- Albert Einstein
- Quinnipiac
- Penn State
- Temple
- Northwestern Feinberg

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[Mr.Smile12]

Volunteering:

• Teaching english in foreign country: 3 months, part time, non-clinical volunteering, total 150+ hours
• Covid response team: 1 year, clinical volunteering, total 200+ hours

Your community service experience is light and subpar compared to other applicants that you believe you can hang with (according to your list). You probably have some with your public health internship, so I would like to know other opportunities you took that go beyond that activity.

Service orientation is still very important, and it is best seen among applicants who work in food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax assistance (not teaching/tutoring), transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You need to be in a role where you are comfortable being uncomfortable and working in a role assisting those in distress (not as a subject matter expert or a fundraiser).

Have you done any networking, especially with AMSA or APAMSA chapters at the schools you are targetting?

 

[Faha]

You could add these schools to your application:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Duke
U Virginia
USF Morsani
Hofstra
NYU
Harvard
Case Western

 

[HappyRabbit]

You are competitive for all schools - here are all the schools you can select from. Choose schools you want to attend and build a list of 25-30 schools.

Reach
Stanford University School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Duke University School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
Mayo Clinic School of Medicine
University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine

Target
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
University of Arizona--Phoenix
Boston University School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
University of Michigan Medical School
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Baseline
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
Kaiser Permanente (Tyson)
California University of Science and Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Western Michigan University
Nova Southeastern University (Patel)
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (Chicago)
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Quinnipiac University
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
Seton Hall - Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
New York Medical College
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Neurophysiologist (2 year gap year): paid full time job,

Also, can you explain what you did? Obviously this is employment, but are you involved with research projects? What techniques?

One of the questions I will have is how you see yourself as a physician since you have public health and research experiences. I am worried a little about your clinical exposure. 150 hours of scribing and 150 hours of shadowing... I know I don't have much more to go on here with what you actually did and lessons you learned from this experience.

 

[eggplant05]

Your community service experience is light and subpar compared to other applicants that you believe you can hang with (according to your list). You probably have some with your public health internship, so I would like to know other opportunities you took that go beyond that activity.

Service orientation is still very important, and it is best seen among applicants who work in food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax assistance (not teaching/tutoring), transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You need to be in a role where you are comfortable being uncomfortable and working in a role assisting those in distress (not as a subject matter expert or a fundraiser).

Have you done any networking, especially with AMSA or APAMSA chapters at the schools you are targetting?

Thank you for your recommendation! I will definitely look more into opportunities around my area. In my previous experiences we also performed outreach for underserved patients and other minority populations to help them better engage in their care, especially during the COVID-19 years where most healthcare was performed over telehealth avenues. I have not done any networking with AMSA or APAMSA, I will definitely look to start that, thank you for your advice!

 

[eggplant05]

You could add these schools to your application:
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
Vanderbilt
Duke
U Virginia
USF Morsani
Hofstra
NYU
Harvard
Case Western

Thank you for your recommendation!

 

[eggplant05]

You are competitive for all schools - here are all the schools you can select from. Choose schools you want to attend and build a list of 25-30 schools.

Reach
Stanford University School of Medicine
University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Duke University School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Weill Cornell Medicine
Yale School of Medicine
Mayo Clinic School of Medicine
University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences The Pritzker School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine

Target
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine
Northwestern University The Feinberg School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
University of Arizona--Phoenix
Boston University School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
University of Michigan Medical School
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Baseline
University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
Kaiser Permanente (Tyson)
California University of Science and Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Western Michigan University
Nova Southeastern University (Patel)
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science (Chicago)
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Quinnipiac University
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
Seton Hall - Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
University of Maryland School of Medicine
New York Medical College
Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
Wake Forest School of Medicine of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine

Thank you for your recommendation! I will definitely do more research into the schools you mentioned.

 

[eggplant05]

Also, can you explain what you did? Obviously this is employment, but are you involved with research projects? What techniques?

One of the questions I will have is how you see yourself as a physician since you have public health and research experiences. I am worried a little about your clinical exposure. 150 hours of scribing and 150 hours of shadowing... I know I don't have much more to go on here with what you actually did and lessons you learned from this experience.

Absolutely, I am a certified surgical neurophysiologist. We offer intra-operative neurophysiological monitoring services at multiple hospitals in California, and support several surgical specialties including neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, interventional radiology, cardiothoracic surgery, and vascular surgery. Our main objective is to help predict/identify new neurologic impairments and any changes to the nervous system and the surrounding blood supply/tissues. We utilize EMG recordings, somatosensory/motor evoked potentials, pedicle screw stimulation, direct nerve root stimulation, and EEG recordings to provide feedback to surgeons throughout the surgery. This is a purely clinical and patient facing full-time employment that I am pursuing in my 2 gap years. I hope this explanation helps!