WAMC - Is it worth a shot this year?

[heppiphleb]

Trying this again as a reapplicant from last year. Really just want to know my chances as a candidate this year before thinking about schools.

• cGPA: 3.79, sGPA: 3.71
• 3 MCATs:
  • 503 (127/124/127/125)
  • 509 (127/123/ 127/125)
  • 512 (129/126/128/129)
• Colorado resident, Asian American (first-gen Cambodian American), graduated from CU Boulder in 2021
• 5770 hours clinical experience, volunteer and non-volunteer (3770 hrs last year)
  • health fair volunteering
  • family caregiving - translation, prescription management, attending dr appts/procedures, etc
  • phlebotomy at Labcorp
• 65 hours in research
• 128 hours shadowing (106 hrs last year)
  • 77 hours online/virtual
  • 51 hours in-person (prev 29)
• 102 hours miscellaneous non-clinical volunteering (0 hrs last year)
  • retirement home
  • clothing donation center
  • food bank
• Other things:
  • certified phlebotomy tech
  • TA for human anatomy in college (1 sem)
  • spoke on a panel for a conference on mindfulness and mental health in college students
  • was in a competitive and respected scholars group in college
  • Dean's list, graduated w distinction

full school list still tbd, but for now:

CU Anschutz (home)
UMass Chan
Boston University
Penn State
Tufts
Michigan
Rochester
UVA
Miami

Thanks for your time.

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[Faha]

What is the nature of your hours for "family caregiving" ? Is that for your own family ?

 

[heppiphleb]

What is the nature of your hours for "family caregiving" ? Is that for your own family ?

Yes, the family caregiving is for my own family. Primarily for my grandmother who speaks limited English, but occasionally for my own parents. It makes up about 2/3 of those "clinical hours."

 

[Faha]

Virtual shadowing has no value but your 51 hours of in person shadowing is adequate. Caring for a family member is not clinical volunteering for medical school admissions but your other hours are more than adequate. You should accumulate another 50+ hours of non clinical volunteering before you submit your application since some schools screen at 150 hours. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Colorado
TCU
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Belmont
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Hackensack
Albany
New York Medical College
Tufts
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Alice Walton (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
AZCOM
TUNCOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
DMU-COM
CCOM
MU-COM
Noorda-COM
ACOM
WCU-COM
CUSOM
WVSOM
PCOM (all schools)
LECOM (all schools)
Touro-NY
NYITCOM

 

[Serendipitykitcat]

Yes, the family caregiving is for my own family. Primarily for my grandmother who speaks limited English, but occasionally for my own parents. It makes up about 2/3 of those "clinical hours."

Like Faha pointed out, it is better not to include your own family caregiving in the clinical experiences even if it involved a clinical aspect for a sick family member. Still one third of 5770 hours is pretty impressive. You can certainly include the caregiving for your family in the "other impactful experience" section, since it is clear you had to dedicate a lot of time and energy to help your family out, and that might have impacted your ability to pursue other clinical activities. That way you get to highlight that aspect without running the risk of the adcom thinking you are trying to inflate your clinical numbers. Best of luck on your application!