advice please!! re-applicant 3.42 GPA 506 MCAT

[greaterwing]

Hi all,

Just found out I will need to reapply next cycle. Not sure what I should do. Any feedback would help.

Oregon resident.
Received an II from a UC and OHSU, but eventually did not get in.

MD Shadowing- 60 hours
Clinical Volunteer (direct patient care)- 500 hours
Paid work-400
Research- 600, received a UC grant for a research project, presented a poster, also was a leader of multiple projects
Division I athletics- 6000, state finalists + many athlete-scholar awards

I would like to know if I should:

Option: 1. Reapply and include my work experiences from this year. Working in the clinic at a major university hospital. I also took some classes at the local cc so my GPA will be a 3.42.

Option 2: Wait a year then reapply. Take more classes to boost GPA, realistically, it would probably go up to a 3.50. I'm working full time so I would be difficult to take more than 2 classes per quarter.

My question is, is it worth it to wait a whole year just to get .1 higher GPA?

Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

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[Faha]

If you apply to at least 12 DO schools this June you should receive multiple interviews. You are competitive for any DO school. For MD consider schools such as:
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Drexel
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton
any new schools that open in 2017 (Roseman, Henricopolis, etc.)

 

[italiancowgirl]

Retaking your mcat and boosting it could help you be competitive at ohsu but it is ultimately much more interview based. If you didn't get in at ohsu, it is likely you fell a bit flat on interview. Agree with the previous post about MD schools and DO. Don't know if the GPA change would be enough to make a difference. It might be worth it to take time and build your app while waiting for feedback. Ohsu feedback would probably come back late for this year's app cycle, but they generally do a good job at telling you how to improve. Good luck!

 

[greaterwing]

If you apply to at least 12 DO schools this June you should receive multiple interviews. You are competitive for any DO school. For MD consider schools such as:
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Drexel
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton
any new schools that open in 2017 (Roseman, Henricopolis, etc.)

Thank you. I applied to these schools last cycle and was pre-II rejected, not sure if I should re-apply to these even though I will make changes to my application (including more work experience, a little higher GPA, more leadership experience).
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Drexel
Oakland Beaumont
Rosalind Franklin

I will also look into schools that open in 2017. Thanks!!

 

[greaterwing]

Retaking your mcat and boosting it could help you be competitive at ohsu but it is ultimately much more interview based. If you didn't get in at ohsu, it is likely you fell a bit flat on interview. Agree with the previous post about MD schools and DO. Don't know if the GPA change would be enough to make a difference. It might be worth it to take time and build your app while waiting for feedback. Ohsu feedback would probably come back late for this year's app cycle, but they generally do a good job at telling you how to improve. Good luck!

Thanks so much for you reply! What advice do you have in preparing for the MMI's at OHSU?

 

[italiancowgirl]

Everyone does it a bit different. Life experiences where you are interacting with lots of people are valuable. I actually think that my work as a server really helped me here. I got less nervous walking into every new room not knowing what to expect. After you have been hugged, spit up on, and yelled at while trying to take a food order you stop sweating the "little" stuff.
I also loved the UW Ethics in Medicine page (https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/toc.html). I would bring these topics with any friends or family who would put up with me. I would discuss the ones I was less familiar with with people, and I would practice different examples both in my head and out loud.
I know there are sometimes undergrad pre-med clubs or advisors who can help set up practice sessions, and sometimes pre-meds even just help each other to practice.
Looking back I actually think shadowing also really helped me. I was asked often to go in and introduce myself first and then the doctor would walk in right after me. Even just that simple act of walking in and shaking hands, introducing myself and affirming that I could join that visit can be uncomfortable at times. The more you can habituate yourself to walking into a million random encounters and not knowing what you will presented with, the better you will do in medicine. In a lot of ways that is the world you will live in.
I actually really liked the MMI format for that reason and also because I think it is more forgiving to one awkward interaction because you have more chances to do well. Every time you open the door it really is an entirely new moment and the biggest mistake I have seen is when someone makes a mistake in one room and then lets that moment affect every single interaction after that. You have to get good at brushing off the weird moments and resetting to your best. (Your next patient doesn't know or care if your last patient thought you were insensitive or delightful. Each person needs you to be the best you in that moment.)

Sorry if that was rambly, does that help?

 

[greaterwing]

Everyone does it a bit different. Life experiences where you are interacting with lots of people are valuable. I actually think that my work as a server really helped me here. I got less nervous walking into every new room not knowing what to expect. After you have been hugged, spit up on, and yelled at while trying to take a food order you stop sweating the "little" stuff.
I also loved the UW Ethics in Medicine page (https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/toc.html). I would bring these topics with any friends or family who would put up with me. I would discuss the ones I was less familiar with with people, and I would practice different examples both in my head and out loud.
I know there are sometimes undergrad pre-med clubs or advisors who can help set up practice sessions, and sometimes pre-meds even just help each other to practice.
Looking back I actually think shadowing also really helped me. I was asked often to go in and introduce myself first and then the doctor would walk in right after me. Even just that simple act of walking in and shaking hands, introducing myself and affirming that I could join that visit can be uncomfortable at times. The more you can habituate yourself to walking into a million random encounters and not knowing what you will presented with, the better you will do in medicine. In a lot of ways that is the world you will live in.
I actually really liked the MMI format for that reason and also because I think it is more forgiving to one awkward interaction because you have more chances to do well. Every time you open the door it really is an entirely new moment and the biggest mistake I have seen is when someone makes a mistake in one room and then lets that moment affect every single interaction after that. You have to get good at brushing off the weird moments and resetting to your best. (Your next patient doesn't know or care if your last patient thought you were insensitive or delightful. Each person needs you to be the best you in that moment.)

Sorry if that was rambly, does that help?

It does. Thank you for your help!

 

[greaterwing]

For a reapplicant personal statement, from some people, I was told not to mention you are a reapplicant, whereas others have said to talk about the changes in your application. I am a bit confused on how to go about re-writing my personal statement as my answer to "Why Medicine?" is the same...

 

[italiancowgirl]

Change your approach, and/or your style. The story is the same, the way you tell it may change. What you emphasize, how you show who you are should be different or you aren't pushing yourself hard enough. What questions have you asked yourself since you got that rejection? What have you done to KNOW that you still want it, and to make sure this time you can be a great student and future doctor? If you haven't done any soul searching and questioned this whole experience than take the time to do that. You should demand a solid answer about why medicine, why you, why now. You will need that resolve later.