u/Nervous-Tadpole-1270

Just want to make sure i'm not taking this too late, thank you!

Hi! I'm hoping to apply to ~35 schools this cycle. I applied last cycle and was WL at 4 schools (Stanford, Einstein, UCSD, UC Davis). I got feedback and I think my PS held me back A LOT. In a meeting with an adcom, she said that none of the 4 screeners knew why I wanted to go into medicine. My PS for this cycle is much better (having a lot of people look it over too) and I also have more non-clinical volunteering (another weakness pointed out to me).

About me:

• Residence: CA and ORM (Asian)
• sGPA/cGPA/MCAT: 3.97/3.985/518
• Major/minor: Human bio major + stats minor
• Shadowing: 100 ish hours (2 specialties, working on getting a third one soon!)
• Clinical paid: 1k hours as an MA at a private IVF clinic (almost 3 years)
• Clinical volunteering:
  • quarter long internship at cardiac rehabilitation dept in hospital (50 hours)
  • health screening volunteer (100 hours, more projected)
    • We also connect people to social services here and it is a very diff population of people i have worked with in the past
    • I also supervise the students who are community health workers and mentor them so kinda a leadership position too!
• Non-clinical volunteering:
  • volunteering at my home city's senior kitchen, university food pantry, and community food pantry (400 hours)
  • teach meditation in Spanish (since freshman yr of HS, ~700 hours)
  • volunteer with unhoused population (~200 hours)
  • using NIH funding, I created an initiative with my lab to teach educationally under-served HS students about statistics. i helped them create a research project and mentored them through making a research poster (300 hours)
  • member of a community service non-profit geared towards supporting senior in my home city, i'm a part of community outreach and have been finding community partners to support us; we havent really launched yet, so im helping with pre-launch set up (100ish hours)
• Leadership:
  • Student Alumni Association Executive Committee Director (700 hours, mentorship organization, over 4 years)
  • learning assistant for physiology class (200 hours)
• Research: 1000+ hours, 2 pubs (1 more in review, 1 sent out soon), 4 posters (1 for a national conference)
  • Worked with a grad student on public health research focused on womens' health and adolescent suicide (1 publication) (~200 hours)
  • currently work in a heart failure lab at the med school, co-lead a project (800 ish hours)
    • working on the manuscript, first author (hoping to send it out later this week or next week!)
  • joined an imaging lab, 1 pub under review (100 ish hours)
• Awards: selective corporate scholarship for all 4 years of undergrad, got a graduating senior award for independent research
• Other/hobbies: I love art: classical indian dancer, flautist, origami (1000+ hours)

I applied to a TON of places last time (50ish). I def wanna be more conservative and strategic with where I apply this time. I will definitely apply to UCs, but where else do you guys recommend? TYSM!! <3

I used NIH grant money to create a program for educationally underserved high school students in which I taught them elementary statistics and mentored them in creating an independent research project. They went on to make a research poster which they presented at their school. Many students at that high school don't ever get to taking statistics. Many of them are also low SES, so the grant money went into giving them stipends through the program.

While I understand there was a teaching element to it, I just wanted to know if med schools would consider this service or non-clinical volunteering. ty!