u/Existing_Ad7163

So my stats I feel are best in the range of the service heavy schools (3.65 cGPA, 3.55 sGPA, and 516 MCAT), but I’m not sure whether my volunteering hours are there for what service schools like, specifically my work with underserved populations. I have 100 hours volunteering in a free clinic (with 200 projected) and 100 hours teaching local students about health literacy that I did during college. That’s the bulk of my work with the underserved. However I do have over 1000 hours (with 600 projected) as a volunteer firefighter in a very busy suburban department. I guess my main question is whether this is enough for the service heavy schools (Georgetown, Tulane, Rush, etc.) or do I need more hours in the clinic. How much weight will the firefighting hours carry since it’s not work directly with underserved populations? Thanks!

I’ve been reading a lot of examples of W/A entries online and I see some of them will end with a line or takeaway along the lines of “This has prepared me to _____ as a physician” or “I will bring these attributes to medicine and my patients…” Are these direct takeaways really necessary? I’ve included one for my EMT experience but for my non clinical stuff or TAing it feels cliche. Do adcoms prefer the direct reference or can I just end on a takeaway that shows what I learned/skills I developed without directly mentioning medicine? Like obviously the takeaways I have are all relevant to skills I will use in medical school and as a physician but I feel they hit the core competencies in a more subtle way. Also am I overthinking this? Is it really not this deep?

**Stats**

MCAT: 516

cGPA 3.65 sGPA 3.55

Undergrad: Ivy

ORM

New York Resident

**Extracurriculars:**

**Clinical (volunteering):**

EMT (lieutenant) \~ 1500 hours and continuing

Free health clinic for underserved and undocumented \~ 110 hours and continuing

**Non clinical volunteering:**

Firefighter \~ 1200 hours and continuing

Care management support to connect patients with health screenings \~ 60 hours and continuing

Middle School Science Camp volunteer \~ 120 hours over two summers and continuing

Health Education organization to teach local elementary school students about health topics outside of normal curriculum \~ 120 hours

Youth Recreation volunteer to help kids engage in physical activity and sports \~ 100 hours and continuing

Teaching/mentorship:

Teaching assistant for two different lab courses \~ 450 hours

Research:

Lab (Neuroscience) \~ 400 hrs and continuing but no pubs or anything

Work:

Caddy at golf course \~ 140 hours and continuing

Shadowing:

\~150 hrs (orthopedic surgery, gastroenterology, and plastic surgery)

School List:

1. NYMC

2. Albany medical college

3. Einstein 

4. SUNY upstate

5. SUNY downstate

6. Buffalo 

7. Cornell

8. Columbia

9. Hofstra

10. Stony Brook 

11. Loyola

12. Rosiland Franklin

13. SKMC

14. USC

15. Miami

16. Northwestern 

17. Rush 

18. Georgetown 

19. GW

20. Tufts

21. Wake Forest

22. Tulane

23. University of Vermont

24. Temple

25. Quinnipiac 

26. Drexel 

27. Geisinger

28. Icahn

29. Case Western 

30. Boston university 

31. University of Colorado 

32. Wayne State

33. University of Cincinnati

34. Medical college of Wisconsin

35. Rochester

36. Ohio state

37. Dartmouth 

38. Saint Louis

39. Eastern Virginia 

40. VCU

41. Western Michigan 

42. Penn state

43. Hackensack 

44. Oakland university

 

This is just an initial list I created and I definitely want to refine it and remove schools because I do not want to write secondaries for 44 schools. Would really appreciate some advice on schools to maybe remove or any one's that may be good to add. I know I have a few pretty big reaches on here but I figured I would give them a shot anyway because why not.