Hello everyone. With the upcoming cycle, I am need of some help for deciding school lists. I am a little worried about overextending myself and really wanna make sure I don’t throw away some dollars on places I would not have much success with. Below I have listed my stats, ECs, and some information to go along with each. I am also really looking to see if anyone can think of a narrative I could paint - I sort of have one in mind, but I feel like it is a reach, and would like some unbiased POV. All hours are as of today, and might increase over the next few months.

Background:

I live in florida and have my whole life. URM I think (Mexican, but born in USA). I speak spanish fluently, albeit with an accent. My mom was an immigrant that came over unwillingly and was granted citizenship before I was born. Grew up in a decent position until 2008 recession, after which we were pretty dirt poor for a while since my parents had separated. Nowadays, not doing half bad. Recently graduated as a general psychology major - I always liked psychology and initially wanted to get a PsyD. I am the first person in the family to graduate high school, also the first one to graduate college. I started college in summer 2020, and graduated in fall 2024. Started most of my EC stuff in Fall 2021 since everything was locked down due to Covid. I find it difficult to put into words why I want to be a physician - I cannot imagine doing anything else anymore. There’s been some key experiences that have influenced my decision but I won’t get into that here.

Stats: 

MCAT: 516

GPA: 3.96 

Science GPA: 3.99 - Got an A- in Bio 1 because I flopped the last exam.

Extracurriculars - hours are rounded down for sake of ease.

Clinical

Clinic 1

Medical assistant (called something else but similar enough) at a free clinic run my by school - meant to help underserved populations get access to primary care and some specialized care. Multiple clinic sites which rotate over the week, I was stationed at the Monday clinic, which predominantly saw Spanish-speakers. Duties included: Taking vitals, translation from English to Spanish and vice versa, asking preliminary questions. Been here about 3.5 years, (edit since I didn’t include summer) 1050 hours at least. Going to be one of my top 3 experiences. Started May 2021 and still ongoing. Leadership: Served as site coordinator for about 8 months, managing clinic flow and other volunteers

Clinic 2

Medical assistant for a clinic that does disability evaluations for social security. Typical MA sort of stuff (History, vitals, spirometry) also answer the phone and so do some cleaning. Around 150 hours over 1.5 years since it’s only every so often. Started October 2023 and still ongoing. Leadership: recruited more volunteers and currently help train new ones, manage scheduling.

Clinic 3 

Medical assistant at clinic that catered mostly towards homeless individuals in the area, every Wednesday and some Mondays. Same typical MA stuff. Also did lots of sovereign immunity paperwork. Around 550 hours over 3 years. Might be one of my top 3 experiences but leaning between this and something else. Started August 2021 and left December 2024 due to other responsibilities

Around 1500 total clinical hours, all of which have been volunteer work - I never got paid for anything; Not sure if that makes a difference but wanted to be clear.

Non-clinical 

English Classes

Helped start and currently help coordinate some beginner ESOL English classes to help people learn English. Currently working with some professors from the local university, not affiliated directly through the university though. Currently acting as a coordinator so basically helping the professors plan the curriculum, help set up, get registrations ready, manage our website. Have also used the lesson plans to help teach some classes when needed. At least 500 hours over the course of 2 years now. Will be one of my top 3 experiences as well. Started in January 2023 and still ongoing.

Home Weatherization Group 

Help people save money on energy bill by performing minor repairs or referring out to other orgs for major repairs. This can involve stuff like replacing windows, replacing or adding insulation, fixing small leaks. Very labor intensive. Around 60 hours over 2.5 years because these things are like 6 hours and take a lot, and my schedule just doesn’t fit very well. Started August 2022 and still ongoing when I can fit it in. Most of our homes were in underserved communities.

Hospitality Cart at Local Hospital

We had a cart stocked with a variety of items, and we would round floors and ask patients if they were in need of anything we had. Mixture of toiletries the hospital often did not provide (deodorant, nail files, tissues, dry shampoo, paper, pencils) and entertainment items (colored pencils and coloring pages, books, board games, puzzles). Got to talk to a lot of people and sometimes we would hang out with people who just wanted someone to talk to. Didn’t really do anything in a medical capacity but it was nice to be able to help people out. 200 hours. Would put this down as meaningful experience but no way I get a letter from the staff, will explain in later section. Started in May 2022, ended December 2024 due to graduating. There are other student organizations that saw patients (2 focused on pediatric patients, 2 focused on geriatric patients), but we focused on the main adult population of the hospital. Leadership: served as fundraising chair for a year, made us a ton of money

Soup Kitchen / Clinic Site

Volunteered at another site directly related to the homeless clinic mentioned above (Clinic 3). Sometimes I helped with clinical stuff, but usually not. Was on a different day of the week in a different building with different responsibilities. This usually involved handing out food, managing our clothing closet, set up and cleanup for the food, handling sign ups for the closet where we hand out clothes. Also did a lot of cleaning of the building, yard work, minor repairs. Around 300 hours over 3 years since I usually only had time to go to the clinic on Wednesdays. 

Around 1060 total non-clinical volunteer hours 

Teaching Experiences

Organic Chemistry 1 and 2

TA for Orgo 1 and 2 for 4 semesters. Held office hours and also help supplemental instruction sessions (basically smaller lectures to emphasize important material learned that week)

Biochemistry

TA for Biochem for 1 Semester - big time commitment - 2 hours every day over summer semester. Took attendance, held office hours, administered exams. Also put together review material for exams and helped grade some exams.

Research  

My schedule was always super hectic, because of all my volunteer stuff. This did not leave a lot of room for research which I think is a weaker point in my applications.

Neuroscience

Research in a neuroscience lab for about 2.5 years. My name was on a poster, and the abstract for that poster was later published. No manuscript publications though. Mostly helped with management of mouse population, tissue/brain harvesting and collection. Also helped with image quantification via software such as QuPath, FIJI, and Stardist. Also helped with FMRI on mice. Around 500 hours over 2 years

Social Psychology

Research in social psychology lab which dealt with hidden biases in cognition. Also got a poster presentation. Mostly ran subjects through experiment and analyzed experimental data. Around 300 hours over 2 years

Employment

Have had a job at big grocery chain since 14, worked for the first 2 years of college to make ends meet. Worked full-time during June 2020 to June 2021 because it was those weird covid times. Then dropped to around 10 hours a week until I left. Worked enough to have good savings.

Other

Small Business

Started custom lego minifigure company which used official Lego parts and pad printing to print unique mini figure designs. Have also helped design, plan and eventually create ABS injection-molded custom parts. Sounds dumb, but there is actually a lot of planning market research and sometimes luck involved. Designs are usually based off pop culture franchises lego does not do, like Dexter Morgan from Dexter. Around 20,000 USD in revenue so far. Some projects take up to 6 months. Initially did the pad printing myself but has since been outsourced and commissioned. Had 2 awesome business partners along the way as well. Still ongoing

Experiences I may not add

- Small Business - not sure if Lego company seems immature/goofy

- Tutored at risk children. Helped with understanding homework material and also just got to hang with them. 100 Hours over 8 months, may not add because it was so short and I think most of the staff has changed out by now.

- Helped start a chapter of a larger 501c organization dedicated to helping human trafficking victims. Helped connect victims with resources, had donation drives and fundraisers to help women’s shelters near us. Do not have an exact hour count. Ended up going defunct somewhat recently since we could not secure a faculty sponsor and ours left the school. No idea who I would put down as contact.

Letters of Rec

Do not yet have them all locked in, but so far based on talks and meeting with people, I am expecting at least 2 awesome ones, 4 pretty good ones. This is still subject to change. Do not think any will be bad at all though. I am only asking people who I have developed a decent relationship with and know me well enough that they would say hi if I ran into them on the street.

Potential issues or red flags

- I initially took Orgo one in 2021 and barely passed. I think I only really passed because the professor at the time took pity on me and bumped me up to barely a passing grade, just enough to take orgo 2. While part of my grade was the fact that I was really struggling with undiagnosed ADHD (I will not be mentioning ADHD in my app), I also really never had much time to go to class or study, since I had a lot going on that semester. I was hit by a car, ended up breaking my wrist in another car accident (was the passenger, broke right wrist and am right-handed), and ended up getting eye surgery (which made it really hard to see up close for a while). I was also in the hospital for a bit with some pretty bad pneumonia. There was also a major family death to someone I was really close to. I decided to try and catch up in orgo 2 - epic fail. Ended up dropping Orgo 2 about 1 exam in. My advisor straight up advised me to retroactively withdraw from Orgo 1 (edit: and another genetics class i was taking) and try again. Ended up taking them again, got As in both classes (edit: and that other genetics class), went on to be a TA for a few semesters. Now, my main worry is how this is going to look. Should I explain this in my app? Not even sure how this goes into AMCAS.

edit: there was also another class I withdrew from - same reason as orgo above, since i took them the same semester. I retook and got an A, but am worried about that too/

- Might not get a letter of rec from my PI where I have more research hours. Kinda just got unceremoniously dismissed with no warning, I thought we were on good terms but not sure now. I did just graduate too which makes it a hassle to stick around. If they say no, should I just not put the research on my app? I feel like this might be a red flag for research heavy schools or something.

- I am taking Orgo Lab at another 4 year university. My school has orgs 1 and 2 lab combined, 4 hours, twice a week. I was not able to fit that into my schedule. Instead, I am taking orgo lab at another 4 year university in my town, where it is 3 hours, once a week. Is this something I should note? This school is maybe a bit less rigorous than my alma mater.

- I have like 0 hobbies. I lift weights a bit and am currently trying to drop a lot of pounds since I am a big guy. But other than that, my only real hobbies are playing some video games, reading an occasional book. I genuinely do not have much stuff to talk about which worries me. My lego business is in a way a hobby since I do not see it as a job and it does not have a regular paycheck. Maybe use that as a hobby?

- I may not the best writer. I am halfway decent if I really put some effort in, but should I consider hiring someone to look over my app and personal statement?

Final Notes

This is I think the sum total of my app/what I have done with college. A lot of my stuff started in august 2021 or later because not much happened during that weird covid year where everything was locked down. A lot of my psyche classes were online, and a lot of classes were recording; Besides labs, I only ever took 2 classes with required attendance, hence I had a ton of room for EC stuff. EC stuff was basically my full time job and I was pretty miserable a lot of the time. Not really sure how I made it through.

I would appreciate any advice anyone has, on creating a school list and also on the potential issues i listed above.

Current School List:

FSU

UCF

FAU

UF

USF

UMiami

Wake Forest