MD WAMC/School List (3.74c, 3.71s, 520) - lots of research, meh volunteering

[xeno7410]

Hey all! I'm a first-time applicant to medical school, and I stand to be the very first doctor in my family. It's been 2 years since I graduated college and I'm really hoping I won't have to stall my application for this cycle. While my stats alone shouldn't preclude me from putting at least a few T20s on my list, I understand that my lack of non-clinical hours might hamstring my application. I'm abroad right now, but I'm set to begin volunteering in the arts as soon as I return.

I'd rather not take any of those goofy ahh SJTs, but a recent marathon of John Wayne movies is making me want to add some TMDSAS schools to my list (and by extension, Casper to my list of things to do...)

----------Demographics and SES ------------

Ethnicity/Race: White (Ukrainian/American)

SES Disadvantaged Status: Nah. Paid my way through 5 years of undergrad through my side hustles (crypto, side biz, art comms, flipping stuff during college) and jobs. Likely won't graduate with any medical school debt either.

Family BG: My father fled to Florida from the former USSR when it was in it's deth-throes (was a high-ranking naval officer on a nuclear sub, even he is shocked that he slipped through the cracks) and has what we assume to be the equivalent of a master's in electrical/mechanical engineering from the naval academy. He currently works doing high-level "tech stuff" for the Department of Defense and gave me a hobbyistic love of computers from a very young age. My mother has a bachelor's in business but has worked as an art teacher for the better part of the last ~ 15 years (heavily influenced my love and appreciation of the arts).

----------The Good Bits ------------

1. cGPA and sGPA: 3.74 and 3.71 respectively. Biochemistry major (chem-heavy) and Biology minor.
2. MCAT aggregate + section scores: 520 (131/127/132/130)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US) OR, but with heavy CA ties
4. Undergraduate institution or category UC school
5. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. Scrub Technician in plastic surgery clinic ~500 hrs
   2. Volunteer in various positions at Kaiser Permanente - 300 hrs (most involved direct patient interaction pre-covid, last ~100 or so manning the welcome desk / running supplies in ER)
6. Research experience and productivity
   1. ~300 volunteer and ~2200 paid hrs over 3 years in Govt/Institutional joint neurodegenerative disease lab
      1. ~30% mouse surgery (mostly stereotactic survival ops, some weeks doing terminal perfusion/tissue collection nearing study-specific time points)
      2. ~50% basic biochem wet lab (golgi-cox, flow-cyt, HRR, IF, IP, PCR, etc.)
      3. ~20% managing and babysitting other premeds (maybe leadership experience??)
   2. 3 pubs + 1 oral presentation at a national conference (w/ 1st author abstract)
7. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. ~25 hrs Pediatrics
   2. ~25 hrs Vascular Surgery
   3. ~50 hrs Interventional Radiology/NIR
   4. ~50 hrs Plastic Surgery (cosmetic) -> eventually turned into paid clinical
8. Non-clinical volunteering: none... oopsies 🫠 Though I intend to begin with arts-related volunteering when I get back from Mexico. With my mother's help, I found an amazing group that helps immigrants tell their stories through the arts
9. Non-clinical work experience (largely from my gap years)
   1. Worked as a single-project (~4 months) consultant for a large financial advisor. Helped with sourcing and vetting material for a "science/biotech newsletter" sent to clients of the firm
   2. Currently working as a consultant (~1 yr to date) for a tech company in an ongoing series of projects that may/may not be related to AI and the sciences (signed an NDA which is quite restrictive)
10. Honors and awards
    1. idk, Dean's list most terms
    2. A gold star on an orgo midterm 🌟
11. Extracurriculars, hobbies, etc.
    1. Experience with several programming languages: JS, Py, C++, ...Blueprint if visual scripting counts
    2. Small side-business building and selling computers (been doing this since high school)
    3. Fine Arts: Bunch of physical works sitting around the house, commission pieces over the years (3D modeling assets and illustrative work)
    4. Traveling: took ~3 months of 1st gap year to travel all over Europe, and walked the Camino de Santiago with my mom. several trips to Latin America and back to Europe with friends/family

----------School List (in no particular order)------------
OHSU
JABSOM (went to high school in Hawaii)
Renaissance
Albert Einstein
UCSF
UCSD
Keck
Stanford
Brown Alpert
Emory
U.Mich
U.Pitt
Duke
Dartmouth
Icahn Mt. Sinai

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[Faha]

Your complete lack of non clinical volunteering may limit your chances for interviews at some schools. You could add these schools:
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
USF Morsani
Miami
U Virginia
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Jefferson
Hofstra
Rochester
Tufts
Boston University

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There's no doubt, you have quite a family history. It's hard for me to pin down "residency" possibilities without seeing your application and a personal timeline (which you don't need to do... in what state was the high school you graduated from?).

You should try to get involved in service orientation activities soon. You need 150 hours in the bank ideally before applying so your application is not screened out at most schools. Fortunately I'm guessing you are around many community orgs that involve food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. If it's important to you, look for curricula that involve medicine and the humanities/arts. You do need to be comfortable letting go of the AI stuff in your early days in medical school but be able to pick it up if there are collaboration, innovation, or entrepreneurship opportunities involving AI. There will be plenty of opportunities, but I'm not sure which projects in that space would interest you.

 

[xeno7410]

There's no doubt, you have quite a family history. It's hard for me to pin down "residency" possibilities without seeing your application and a personal timeline (which you don't need to do... in what state was the high school you graduated from?).

I lived in Hawaii for some time and finished middle + high school while there.

You should try to get involved in service orientation activities soon. You need 150 hours in the bank ideally before applying so your application is not screened out at most schools. Fortunately I'm guessing you are around many community orgs that involve food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. If it's important to you, look for curricula that involve medicine and the humanities/arts.

Yeah, there are MANY orgs near me which are involved in these areas. The reason I wanted to do something related to the arts was, in part, to help justify my heavier involvement with plastics. I wasn't certain how it would be received by ADCOMS, but with some additional context, it could be easier to include an "arts angle" for part the personal narrative.

I live at home, so it shouldn't be an issue for me to quickly rack up hours (especially with several such orgs less than a mile away and my workload being fairly light). If I hit the ground running when I get back, I could have 150 by the middle of July

You do need to be comfortable letting go of the AI stuff in your early days in medical school but be able to pick it up if there are collaboration, innovation, or entrepreneurship opportunities involving AI. There will be plenty of opportunities, but I'm not sure which projects in that space would interest you.

I have no issues with dropping it. Picked up this position because tech paid substantially better than anything else more closely related to medicine at my current level (the remote work is also a huge plus).

It may be self-serving, but I REALLY didn't want to enter medical school on loans (ESPECIALLY with interest rates in the double-digits on the high end).

 

[xeno7410]

Your complete lack of non clinical volunteering may limit your chances for interviews at some schools. You could add these schools:
Washington University (in St. Louis)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
USF Morsani
Miami
U Virginia
Cincinnati
Ohio State
Jefferson
Hofstra
Rochester
Tufts
Boston University

Added. What would be some viable reaches if I complete ~150 hrs of service-oriented work by the time I apply?

 

[Faha]

Added. What would be some viable reaches if I complete ~150 hrs of service-oriented work by the time I apply?

150 hours does not add any schools. It may prevent you from being screened out by some of the schools you already plan to apply to.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I lived in Hawaii for some time and finished middle + high school while there.

Ok. Making sure you can argue some connection.

Yeah, there are MANY orgs near me which are involved in these areas. The reason I wanted to do something related to the arts was, in part, to help justify my heavier involvement with plastics. I wasn't certain how it would be received by ADCOMS, but with some additional context, it could be easier to include an "arts angle" for part the personal narrative.

I understand. I just want to make sure as much of your activity is interactive. The challenge is clarifying how your activities alleviate other's distress in a manner consistent with the service orientation definition: meaningful contributions that meet community needs.

It may be self-serving, but I REALLY didn't want to enter medical school on loans (ESPECIALLY with interest rates in the double-digits on the high end).

Wouldn't we all. That's why you are looking at HPSP, right?

 

[xeno7410]

I understand. I just want to make sure as much of your activity is interactive. The challenge is clarifying how your activities alleviate other's distress in a manner consistent with the service orientation definition: meaningful contributions that meet community needs.

Got it, I have some family friends who run a shelter. They have access to several hotels near-ish to me which they use as both a temporary shelter and a classroom space for people to get back on their feet.

Wouldn't we all. That's why you are looking at HPSP, right?

No, for three main reasons.
(1) A lot of people seem to forget that the dissolution of the USSR was relatively recent history, and also that the families that would had been nationally united are now separated by fairly new dividing lines. We have relatives in both countries (and with sons of military age...); my Ukrainian relatives have since moved to France, and we haven't really heard from our Russian relatives (calls in just won't connect, no luck on WA or other messaging apps either). I wouldn't want to be involved in overseas fight-ready forces if the geopolitical situation sours further.

(2) I wouldn't need to. I may have understated the role of my "side-hustles" during college, but they (in addition to the just shy of 3k paid research/clinical hours) were able to pay for ~5 years of tuition + COL, and have given me around a year-and-a-half of the same for medical school.

(3) Reading the deluge of recruiter emails over a nice cup of coffee makes me feel wanted, and I'm concerned that they'll stop coming if I accept an offer.

 

[xeno7410]

I suppose the main question now is: should I, or should I not apply this cycle?

Scenario A: I blitz a large number of hours in time for an early-mid July app submission, and continue to work with the shelter at a reduced number of hours until matriculation whilst focusing on work for med school expenses.

Scenario B: I delay applying until late August - early September and take a slightly more relaxed pace for both.

Scenario C: I DON'T apply this cycle, and instead adopt a more leisurely pace for both work and volunteering, but sacrifice yet another year of time

I can see A coming across quite badly if the app is judged and tossed prior to a follow-up in secondaries.

B feels risky, I'm not sure if the ever-decreasing number of spots would work for or against me (though, it would give me cause to apply to more Ivies/non-rolling admissions schools)

I dread C the most... Living at home and everything graciously provided for is quite nice, but the sense of discontinuity in my education is becoming increasingly hard to bear. Maybe I'll cope-watch Failure to Launch on repeat to make myself feel better.

 

[polar_seltzer]

As someone that made the difficult choice two years ago to postpone my application by another year, I can attest that it was certainly worth the wait. I’d go with C. Best of luck however you choose.