PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE THIS MESSAGE
Hello everyone,
I am a current applicant for the 2024 cycle who has not received any acceptances (yet–maybe, hopefully 
). I am currently on 3 WLs and on hold at a 4th school. Without an acceptance and the next application cycle happening soon, I need to seriously think about reapplying. I’m hoping to get some feedback to help me improve my application.
When I applied, I had my premed advisor look over my application and he checked off my personal statement, activities, and school list. Now I’m questioning whether or not his opinion on my application was one I should have taken as fact.
I had a couple of people look over my application earlier this year when I realized there was a chance I would not get any acceptances, and I was told that it is very research heavy. To be honest, I didn’t realize that before, but now I see how it might be an issue. I also didn’t know about the importance of school mission until after applying so I applied to a few too many service-oriented schools (which pretty much all auto rejected me...real quick).
I received interviews from the following schools this cycle:
UCSF -> WL
USC -> WL
CUSM -> Hold
Pitt -> WL
I received good feedback from my UCSF and Pitt interviewers (told me they liked me/would score me well/wanted to see me next year, etc.). CUSM was asynchronous, Casper-type interview. USC seemed to go well but didn't get any direct feedback from interviewers (I was also deathly sick during this interview, so that was fun).
Here are my application details:
Stats and Test Scores:
- sGPA: 3.98
- cGPA; 3.97
- MCAT: 518 (130/128/129/131)
- Preview: 9
- Casper: 4th Q
Demographics:
- Residency: CA
- Ethnicity/Race: ORM
- Undergrad: Top UC
Activities:
Clinical Experience; Total Hours: 486 hours
- COPE Health Scholars (hospital volunteering but actually get patient interaction); 286 hours
- Most meaningful
- Also shadowed an internal medicine physician (30 hours) and watched an orthopedic surgery (5 hours) during this experience.
- Virtual Medical Scribe: 200 hours
- During COVID
- Lab Assistant at Neuroscience Lab: 2,000 hours projected
- Started this position in June right after submitting my application
- Translational research
- Full-time
- Will be on two publications (one second author, one further down the author list, publication dates unknown)
- Neurosurgery research: 50 hours + 50 projected
- Remote
- Neuroscience clinical research: 500 hours + 200 projected
- Project lead
- Meta-analysis/systematic review type research.
- 1 poster presentation at a school symposium.
- Clinical/climate change/public health type research: 400 hours + 200 projected (letter of recommendation)
- 1 poster presentation and won 3rd place award at national conference (1st author)
- 1 publication in a mid-tier journal (3rd author). Publication in October so I sent updates to schools that allowed it/that I had not received a decision from yet
- Currently editing a manuscript that will be submitted to a higher-tier journal
- Undergraduate Lab: 120 hours
- During COVID. Taught you the basics of research
- Neurosurgery shadowing: 100 hours (letter of recommendation)
:
- Part of a club that ships medical supplies overseas: 100 hours
(I know this is absolutely lame–I did so much volunteering during high school and it sucks I can’t add it here)
Other:
- Head of Research and Education Committee (neurodegenerative disease related club): 150 hours
- Made infographics about neurodegenerative diseases
- Pre Med Honor Society Networking Officer: 500 hours
- Most meaningful
- Spoke to a lot of physicians through this and learned a lot about the medical field
- Hobbies: 10,000 hours (since I was 8 years old)
- Most meaningful
- Cooking -- have a social media channel where I post videos and photos of food I make (dedicate a lot of time to this)
- Working out/running
- Music (I've played instruments basically my whole life)
: None (I was on the Dean’s Honors List and received Highest Distinction at graduation but didn’t include these on my application—should I?)
School List: (I know it’s super top-heavy now...)
University of Michigan
Kaiser Permanente
Mount Sinai
Georgetown
NYU
Chicago Med
Columbia
Virginia
UPenn
Pittsburg
Mayo Clinic
Harvard
Yale
UCI
Case Western
Northwestern
Brown
UCLA
Johns Hopkins
KU (lived in Kansas for 15 years & was born here)
UCSD
Cornell
USC
UCSF
Emory
Stanford
Vanderbilt
Duke
California University of Science and Medicine
UC Davis - didn’t receive a secondary
Boston - didn’t realize they required Casper when I submitted primary. After CUSM required us to take Casper and paid for it I just sent it in and completed my secondary, so this was a late app.
Submitted all of my applications in July and August and attempted a two-week turnaround time. Most I was able to do within a week while others (like Duke, for example) took a little longer.
So, my question is, do you think that if I apply more strategically this coming cycle that I can have better results? How can I change my school list to better fit my application? What other changes should I make to my application and how do I approach making them better?
I am leaving my research position at the end of this month and thinking of doing something more community service oriented during this next gap year, like maybe AmeriCorps or something similar. What would you suggest?
Also, in case any one is suggesting taking an additional gap year--I would have to retake the MCAT (took it in summer 2022) which I do not want to go through if I do not need to!!
I appreciate any insight you can give me! Thank you so much for taking the time to look through my post and give me feedback.
