Any Advice Appreciated for reapplying MD

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Currently sitting with 2 waitlist spots after receiving only 2 interviews this past cycle. It is time to seriously prepare myself for reapplying. This past cycle, I very late getting my app in and verified, not until verified until the beginning of October, and getting my secondaries out by the end of October and beginning of November. Looking back, my EC's were also not up to par now that I have learned a lot more about the application process and what ADCOMs look for in an applicant.

Luckily, I have stayed involved in activities since applying which should hopefully allow me to at least get my ECs up to the average range. Here are my stats and EC's that I will be reapplying with this upcoming cycle. Bolded are what was not on last application and I have put an * next to those that are potential most meaningful.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on anything I can do to either list my EC's differently or anything that I could do to make myself more competitive. I know I only have two more months, and applying June 1 will help a lot, but I want to give myself the best possible chance and getting accepted the second time around.

Stats:
34R (11,11,12), 3.8 cGPA, 3.75 sGPA

EC's:
- *Genetics Student Instructor (Course Offered Fall Semester 2 years - over 10 hrs/wk)

-Division III College Baseball (First Semester of Freshman year - over 40 hrs/wk)

-*Medical Mission Trip to Haiti (2 weeks - over 80 hrs/wk)

-*Shadowing Orthopaedic Surgeon (over 100 hrs)

-Shadowing Internist and Family Med (over 40 hrs)

-Volunteering as an Medical Assistant at Free Clinics (Since December and am still now, but at time of submission will be over 150 hrs and about 6 hrs/wk)

-Academic Honors / Awards
President's Scholarship Freshman year (only given to 10 students)
Deans/President's list every semester
Phi Kappa Phi
Graduated Magna Cum Laude (Biology)

-Athletic Awards/Recognition
Teen Natural bodybuilding State Title
1st place Teen and Men's Novice Divisons during another competition in a different organization as my teen title
Teen Amateur of the week on a well known bodybuilding website

-Hobbies/Interest
Playing Guitar (Self Taught 3.5 years)
Intramurals (Every sport every semester of college)
Supplementation and Nutrition (Sponsored Supplement Reviewer for known supplement company)

-Pre-medical Club Student Panel (Helped create and am on it, meet 1x/month for 2-3 hours and keep in contact with younger pre-meds to mentor through the process)

-Employment
Paid Internship helping develop an Internal Communication Website for Chic-Fa-la (40 hrs/wk over winter break)
Parking Coordinator for Athletic Events at a local high school (5 hrs/wk during fall semester)

Don't want to completely give away my identity on here so I tried to be as vague as possible with the natural bodybuilding stuff b/c it would make it really easy to find me.

As you can tell, I didn't really have a lot on this year's application. That is due to trying to rush getting the primary done and ignorance on my part.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions on what I could list differently or do to strengthen my application. Also, I am starting to try to get a list of schools to apply so please post if you have any suggestions, especially with schools that take a lot of OOS.

Here is the list of schools I have so far:
MCG
Emory
Mercer
Virginia Common Wealth
Louisville
Tennessee
Drexel
Georgetown
Loyola
Wake
UNC



Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry for the novel !

Originally Posted by PwrBldr

Thanks in advance for your help, and sorry for the novel !

Good luck getting in off those waitlists!!!

For the coming cycle, you look like you're in pretty good shape (pun intended). Definitely apply very early (first day).

Presuming you have good LOR, you should be alright.
Where did you apply last cycle, and where were your interviews?

Thanks!! I think my LORs are pretty good. I have a committee letter that the professor that I student instruct for headed, two from the physicians I shadowed, and should be getting at least one more from the volunteer gig I have been doing.

I applied to like 22 schools, tried to apply everywhere once I realized how late I was getting my application in. I applied to pretty much any school you can think of on in the south / east coast and tried to finish the secondaries for the ones I thought were the best fit for me (11-12 of em). Interviewed at MCG and Wake.

Definitely have to apply widely and as early as possible.

I know who you are!

For real though have you considered the LOR?

Originally Posted by Missions740

I know who you are!

For real though have you considered the LOR?

Yeah I have, just don't think they would be bad. I know my physician ones aren't and you remember the head of the committee letter talking to us after he finished it. He was excited and acted like it was good.

Also I was told there were no red flags on my application when I called schools asking how I could improve. Wouldn't a bad lor be considered a red flag?
Sent from my DROIDX using SDN Mobile

Originally Posted by PwrBldr

Yeah I have, just don't think they would be bad. I know my physician ones aren't and you remember the head of the committee letter talking to us after he finished it. He was excited and acted like it was good.

Also I was told there were no red flags on my application when I called schools asking how I could improve. Wouldn't a bad lor be considered a red flag?
Sent from my DROIDX using SDN Mobile

A) you're assuming you have the bad LOR (though you appear to have good reason to believe that).

B) you assuming that the school would be open about telling you about a bad LOR. Since the LOR is confidential I could see the school not wanting to make any acknowledgement to the student if that were the case. And would difficult to say you have a red flag and not explain why.

C) Assuming you are reapplying, get some new/update LOR and obviously remove the problem one.

D) to paraphrase the political machine's motto on election day, apply early and often. I would considering widening your net of school's to a dozen or more to increase your chances.

You have a good app and it just may be the timing worked against you

Originally Posted by gonnif

A) you're assuming you have the bad LOR (though you appear to have good reason to believe that).

B) you assuming that the school would be open about telling you about a bad LOR. Since the LOR is confidential I could see the school not wanting to make any acknowledgement to the student if that were the case. And would difficult to say you have a red flag and not explain why.

C) Assuming you are reapplying, get some new/update LOR and obviously remove the problem one.

D) to paraphrase the political machine's motto on election day, apply early and often. I would considering widening your net of school's to a dozen or more to increase your chances.

You have a good app and it just may be the timing worked against you

Thanks, you have good points. I will definitely get on the ball with getting some new and updated LORs to be on the safe side.

I also went through the MSAR last night and came up with about 25 or so schools that take a large portion of their class OOS and fit with my stats.

Looking back at my previous application, my EC's really were sub-par and applying late didn't help the matters. I am definitely getting my app in June 1 and applying all over the place.

I really appreciate ya'lls help

Originally Posted by PwrBldr

Thanks, you have good points. I will definitely get on the ball with getting some new and updated LORs to be on the safe side.

I also went through the MSAR last night and came up with about 25 or so schools that take a large portion of their class OOS and fit with my stats.

Looking back at my previous application, my EC's really were sub-par and applying late didn't help the matters. I am definitely getting my app in June 1 and applying all over the place.

I really appreciate ya'lls help

The other thing I often see for see with students with good stats who dont get in are applications that aren't written well. I do not mean poor english, bad grammar, etc but rather engage the reader. An application, both PS and EC, should be concise, coherent, and compelling narratives showing a strong pattern of motivation, achievement, and commitment. These as well as all the pieces of your application should support the pattern/theme that you layout in your narrative.

My point to this not only should your EC's be good but should be written well. Review EC and PS and have others review it. It should be interesting, no exciting reading showing why you are motivated and committed to medicine.

What's the good word?

Nothing to add except that the late app was 90% of the problem, and I've heard nothing but horror stories about MCG interviews.

Thanks guys. I actually ended up writing a first draft of my PS last night while trying to write a paper for a criminology class lol. Looking back, I don't think my first one did a great job portraying who I am and exactly why I want to go into medicine. I think this one is a lot better though and will try to get a lot more people to read over it for me. Hopefully that will show ADCOMs that I have a better understanding of why I want to get into medicine and the experiences that helped solidify that decision.

I have already been looking into how to effectively write the EC descriptions and will get on that here pretty soon. Any advice on whether to actually describe the activity or do more of a narrative form with what you learned? I know there are conflicting schools of thought on it.

Thanks again!

Trying to come up with a school list. How does this look so far? Went through and found average MCAT and GPA for each. Tried to pick schools that seemed to accept a decent amount of their class from OOS and had averages close to or below my stats. But any suggestions of any schools to add or to take off would be appreciated.

MCG
Wake
Baylor
Tennessee
Drexel
Penn State
UNC
Illinois
Boston
Loyola
NYMC
Michigan State
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College of Wisconsin
Einstein
Eastern Virginia
UConn
West Virginia
Rochester
Virginia Tech
Albany
Vermont
Virginia Common Wealth

Just got an II from Tennessee!! Definitely wasn't expecting that this late but am super pumped. It is next Wed. Wish me luck!

Good luck!
Have the PS readers go over your PS, that was my first though besides the late app.

Originally Posted by PwrBldr

Just got an II from Tennessee!! Definitely wasn't expecting that this late but am super pumped. It is next Wed. Wish me luck!

Nice!

Originally Posted by SBB2016

Good luck!
Have the PS readers go over your PS, that was my first though besides the late app.

Originally Posted by lalalaaaaaa

Nice!

Thanks guys, just got back late last night from it. I feel like the interviews went really well. Tennessee doesn't take a ton of OOS, but I have a good feeling about it. Memphis is a great town and I liked everything about the medical school. Hopefully I'll be able to relax here within the next few weeks. They are supposed to be voting on my group either this Friday or next!