3.88c/s GPA, 39 MCAT CA resident looking for help with school list!

[NotWayneBrady]

Hey everyone, I have a bit of a tricky situation.

-3.88c/s GPA in Biological Sciences

-39 MCAT

-Clinical Care Extender Volunteer internship since last August, will have 200+ hours by the time I apply.

-Only shadowed 1 doctor so far, about 4-5 hours through three surgical procedures.
(Edit: I also shadowed an internal medicine MD at my volunteer site for ~2hrs.)

-15 months volunteer undergrad research experience in a lab studying renal disease.
-> I received a $750 research grant from my school, had to present findings in poster format at a research colloquium.
-> Also received a full-time paid 3 month summer research fellowship to continue my work after graduation.

-Currently work full-time at a managed care office, working closely with health plans and case management staff.

-Minimal leadership experience aside from leading informal study groups in college, currently working on getting into leadership team at the CCE internship.

-Extra curricular activities are mostly fun stuff like cycling and repairing bicycles, as well as learning Spanish/Korean (although I am not fluent in either).

I'm currently working on putting together a school list, and would love any other options people can help me with. The catch is, I never took a full year of college math or English (took 2 quarters each) thanks to good AP credit and poor foresight so that prevents me from applying to a number of schools.

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[WedgeDawg]

I'm also at a quarter system school and also only took 2 quarters of math and English. You're perfectly fine. For your school list, just start at Harvard and just work your way down.

 

[NotWayneBrady]

I'm also at a quarter system school and also only took 2 quarters of math and English. You're perfectly fine. For your school list, just start at Harvard and just work your way down.

What rank listing do you work off of? (Also, thank you for the vote of confidence. I've been low-key freaking out about my lack of shadowing/leadership now that I'm starting to think about my personal statement)

 

[Storph]

What rank listing do you work off of? (Also, thank you for the vote of confidence. I've been low-key freaking out about my lack of shadowing/leadership now that I'm starting to think about my personal statement)

If I were you, I would try to get more clinical experience prior to applying. Your grades and MCAT are fine, but schools will ask you about your lack of clinical experience, and I feel it may be difficult for you to explain. Volunteer in the ER at your local hospital or something like that.

 

[WedgeDawg]

What rank listing do you work off of? (Also, thank you for the vote of confidence. I've been low-key freaking out about my lack of shadowing/leadership now that I'm starting to think about my personal statement)

I used us news and the MSAR to come up with my school list. Basically went down the us news list and wrote down every school I might possibly be interested in and then used the msar to collect data on them. I think I started with like 35 schools and then narrowed down to 24.

 

[WedgeDawg]

If I were you, I would try to get more clinical experience prior to applying. Your grades and MCAT are fine, but schools will ask you about your lack of clinical experience, and I feel it may be difficult for you to explain. Volunteer in the ER at your local hospital or something like that.

200 hours of clinical experience is plenty (I had less), but I would try and do some more shadowing if possible. See if you can find a doc who will let you shadow once a week for the next couple of months. Shadowing provides great writing material too!

 

[NotWayneBrady]

If I were you, I would try to get more clinical experience prior to applying. Your grades and MCAT are fine, but schools will ask you about your lack of clinical experience, and I feel it may be difficult for you to explain. Volunteer in the ER at your local hospital or something like that.

Clinical Care extenders volunteer in hospitals ambulating/cleaning/feeding patients and helping nursing staff. I'm currently in an ER there trying to work my way up to OR. Is 200+ hours still lacking tremendously?

I also did 100 hours of just basic volunteer stuff at another hospital I forgot to mention, albeit with little direct patient interaction.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Clinical Care extenders volunteer in hospitals ambulating/cleaning/feeding patients and helping nursing staff. I'm currently in an ER there trying to work my way up to OR. Is 200+ hours still lacking tremendously?

I also did 100 hours of just basic volunteer stuff at another hospital I forgot to mention, albeit with little direct patient interaction.

200 is fine

 

[hellanutella]

Clinical Care extenders volunteer in hospitals ambulating/cleaning/feeding patients and helping nursing staff. I'm currently in an ER there trying to work my way up to OR. Is 200+ hours still lacking tremendously?

I also did 100 hours of just basic volunteer stuff at another hospital I forgot to mention, albeit with little direct patient interaction.

I think you'll be peachy keen with that! As always, if a) the experience impacted your decision to pursue medicine in some way and b) you have the space, include those extra 100 hours. I applied with 350 CCE hours, had similar stats, and was also a CA resident. Things turned out 'aight.

Good luck! IMHO the PS drafting process wasn't the most fun, but you've got plenty of time.

As for the course limitations, check out the schools with competency-based requirements:

Here's my list of schools that have done the same:
East Tennessee State, The Medical University of South Carolina ( In Charleston not Columbia), USC, University of Virginia, Stanford, Tulane, UCSD, U of Cincinnati, SIU, Rush, Einstein, U of Chicago, NYU, U Conn, Hofstra...

As a you are a high-stat CA resident, I'd recommend USC, UVA, Stanford, UCSD, NYU, U Chicago, Tulane, and Einstein.

 

[Goro]

Once you get some more volunteer work in (to show off your altruism), aim high, you'll be golden.

Start with Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Baylor, Wash U and your state school(s).

 

[Doug Underhill]

The good news is that the top schools don't really have course requirements for the most part. Your lack of English is irrelevant for Harvard, Yale, or Stanford, and a whole bunch of others too.