WAMC/School List Check (3.96/522)

[molecularbio]

I want to double check my school list before I submit my primaries.

1. cGPA: 3.96/4.00, sGPA: 3.95/4.00
2. 522 (129, 131, 130, 132)
3. State: IN, strong ties to Chicago-area
4. ORM, female
5. Mid-tier State School known for STEM, Major(s): Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology; Genetics, Minors: Chemistry, Psychology
6. Clinical Volunteer: Hospice (250 hours, 200 anticipated)
7. Research: 1700 hours (multiple posters and presentations, no pubs at time of submission), Named-research fellowship
8. Shadowing: 50 hours (specialities: peds, ortho surg, sports med, addiction med)
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 25 hours at Homeless shelter and needle-exchange program (150 anticipated)
10. Leadership: premed club (300 hours, 150 anticipated), mentoring board (250 hours, 100 anticipated), Teaching: TA 250 hours (150 anticipated), MCAT tutor (50 hours, 1000 anticipated), other leadership, non-clinical work, hobbies
11. Multiple merit-based scholarships and grants, dean's list every semester
12. no gaps year, LOR: 1 bio prof, 1 research PI, 1 physics prof, prof I TA'd for (Dean of DEI), hospice volunteer coordinator, 1 history prof

School List (Alphabetical by Section):
Reach - Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Mayo, Northwestern, NYU, UPenn, UChicago, Vanderbilt

Target - Albert Einstein, Boston U, Brown, CWRU, Hofstra, Icahn, UMich, UPitt

Baseline - Georgetown, George Washington, IU, Rosalind Franklin, Rush, Thomas Jefferson, Tufts, Wisconsin

I may want to add some target schools and remove some reach, depending on how many secondaries I can pre-write.

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[Mr.Smile12]

If you are going to play in the application pools for brand-name schools, you already know you are light on clinical and community service hours. You need to push yourself to get over the 150 hour thresholds and get closer to getting over 250 hours of community service (homeless shelter especially). Keep adding hospice, but you may want to add more community clinic or hospital opportunities too. Without a sense of your purpose as a physician, your description comes off as checking the boxes, especially with the lower number of service hours completed. This profile doesn't declare any special "X" factor to make the top schools want to interview you. You should get attention, but what you aren't saying will dictate whether you will seal the deal to offers.

Keep your list down to 30 schools. You could probably do fewer if you figure out your purpose and mission fit. I have a suspicion that many of your Baseline schools will deny your application for yield protection. You definitely have insufficient community service orientation hours for Rush (and the Jesuits like Georgetown or Loyola).

 

[Faha]

Your low non clinical volunteering hours will limit your chances for interviews at top tier schools. Schools such as Rush and Georgetown are looking for applicants with many hundreds or thousands of hours of clinical and non clinical activities.I suggest these schools with your stats and ECs:
Indiana
Rosalind Franklin
Northwestern
Iowa
Illinois
Western Michigan
Washington University (in St. Louis-they like high MCAT applicants)
U Michigan
Ohio State
Cincinnati
Vanderbilt
USF Morsani
Duke
George Washington
Johns Hopkins
U Penn
Pittsburgh
Jefferson
Rochester
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Tufts
Brown
Boston University
Kaiser

 

[LunaOri]

Forget about the MCAT tutoring and focus on clinical and volunteer experiences if you want to boost your application.