MD & DO 3.6 GPA, ~3.6sGPA, 30 MCAT

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Uafl112

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also... :
Co-founded the Special Olympics organization at my university and hold the position of Vice President

Volunteered at Moffitt Cancer Hospital for over 100 hours

Volunteered for Project Downtown (a homeless advocacy organization) for over 1000 hours and was their web master

Did research for the Byrrd Alzheimer's Research Institute for a semester and will go back after the spring semester

Donation coordinator for the Water Peace benefit concert

Shadowed 3 different doctors...2 Neurologists and an oncologist

Train Jiu Jitsu as a sport hobby....will compete this semester

Member of Pre med AMSA

I plan to get some sort of certification and work in the hospital after spring semester

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I plan on applying to all the MD and DO schools in Florida as a resident. So thats...

MD:
USF
UF
UCF
FSU
FAU
FIU
UM

DO:
LECOM
NOVA
Any others...
 
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should I add more info? Am I missing anything?
 
Those are some good EC's and your schools should all be within reach except maybe UM. What reason do you have for applying there? Your stats are fairly average and state schools are already notoriously harder to get into for obvious reasons unless you have ties or a very specific reason for wanting to go there.
 
3.6 GPA, ~3.6sGPA, 30 MCAT
also... :
Co-founded the Special Olympics organization at my university and hold the position of Vice President

Volunteered at Moffitt Cancer Hospital for over 100 hours

Volunteered for Project Downtown (a homeless advocacy organization) for over 1000 hours and was their web master

Did research for the Byrrd Alzheimer's Research Institute for a semester and will go back after the spring semester

Donation coordinator for the Water Peace benefit concert

Shadowed 3 different doctors...2 Neurologists and an oncologist

Train Jiu Jitsu as a sport hobby....will compete this semester

Member of Pre med AMSA

I plan to get some sort of certification and work in the hospital after spring semester

All your stats are just below the averages for MD acceptees. Are you still in school and is there a reasonable chance your GPAs will rise before you apply? Are your MCAT subscores balanced?

Do you bring any language skill sets to the table, aside from English?

Any chance of adding a primary care doc to your shadowing list?

Did you work directly with Alzheimer's patients during the research gig?
 
-I do speak Urdu as a second language.
-I will be retaking a math class in the summer right before applying that will bring my GPA in the 3.7 range for DO. For MD, it will only raise be up about .02.
-If I look around, there might still be a chance to shadow a Primary Care Physician
-I did not get to work with any patients at the Alzheimer patients unfortunately. I am considering looking elsewhere for research.

Will these help my chances of getting into a school? MD or DO, it doesn't particularly matter to me
 
The research you mentioned is fine, but since you have no patient contact there, it would help to expand a bit on the 100 hours of active clinical experience in the cancer hospital somehow (as I'd view it to be on the light side). If you do indeed get some medical facility employment, that should do the trick, provided you aren't working in a chart room. Adding the primary care shadowing would be helpful in the eyes of many adcomms, even if only for 8 hours or so (perhaps a DO if you haven't followed one yet). I doubt Urdu will be as helpful as Spanish would have been, considering the primary population some of your med schools aim to serve.

But overall, I think that your application has good potential, assuming good patient contact at the cancer hospital with decent longevity (ie, at least a semester's worth, so far) and more to come, as well as balanced MCAT subscores, no legal issues, supportive LORs, and good interview skills.
 
Well at Moffitt, they only offered 1 four hour shift every week. I did it for two semesters, but also had to take some weeks off due to personal reasons. However, I worked in three different departments over the period of working. I was in the MRI department, Clinical Research department (only as a volunteer. Didnt get to work with a physician), and the blood draw department. All three departments fully immersed me in a pool of patients (especially blood draw). However, I do miss the hospital so I will be volunteering there more this semester. Hopefully, I will be able to accumulate at least another 100 hours before applying in june.

Also,this might be a very silly question t ask, but does shadowing a neurologist or orthopedist in the clinical setting (in which patients initially come to describe symptoms) count as primary care?
 
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Also, when I did research, my work entirely consisted of cutting mouse brains into thin slices and then staining them with the appropriate antibody. This allowed us to check if the particular protein we were looking for was being expressed. However, I never really got put on any specific project. Will this work against me when applying?

Also, I am considering retaking my MCAT. If I score a 32-33, will this significantly increase my chances? Is it worth attempting?
 
1) I do miss the hospital so I will be volunteering there more this semester. Hopefully, I will be able to accumulate at least another 100 hours before applying in june.

2) Also,this might be a very silly question t ask, but does shadowing a neurologist or orthopedist in the clinical setting (in which patients initially come to describe symptoms) count as primary care?
1) That sounds good, and will put you above the average hours listed.

2) Primary care refers to pediatrics, internal medicine, family med, (and OBGYN, and Psych, which are harder to get shadowing with). Neurologists and orthopods generally see patients who are referred by primary care providers, so they are secondary care providers.
 
3) Also, when I did research, my work entirely consisted of cutting mouse brains into thin slices and then staining them with the appropriate antibody. This allowed us to check if the particular protein we were looking for was being expressed. However, I never really got put on any specific project. Will this work against me when applying?

4) Also, I am considering retaking my MCAT. If I score a 32-33, will this significantly increase my chances? Is it worth attempting?
3) The selectable designation for AMCAS is "Research/Lab." You definitely were doing Lab Tech work. If you have an understanding of what you were doing and why, and how it fits into someone's project, it would qualify as Research Tech work. Maybe you'd want to talk to your supervisor, read some background papers, and get an idea of the larger picture (if there is one) so you could talk intelligently about the purpose of your work (hypothesis, methods (which you already know), data analysis, conclusion).

4) If you can raise it by three points, it's worth attempting a retake. A 30 is respectable, though, assuming balanced subscores. What are yours?
 
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