Another Adcom, ask me (almost) anything

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New schools have their issues, but if you're a self-starter, then you'll be OK. I'd send my kids to either one.


@hushcom or @Goro piggy backing off of skywriter above, I recently received an interview invitation from Quinnipiac, however I already have an acceptance at Rosalind Franklin. Is it worth it to fly cross country and check out Quinnipiac or is Rosy the better school regardless? Not sure whether residencies find it more concerning to graduate from a school that has had a couple accreditation issues or one that is brand new. Thoughts? Thanks for your help!

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Does the kind of medical school (tier 1 vs tier 2) where I attend really matter in the long run (in terms of getting into a top residency program) ?

If you had a huge amount of data that nobody actually collects, you might be able to isolate how much the prestige factor actually influences such things, but I strongly suspect it would be very minor. If you are a strong student you can climb the name recognition ladder from any starting point.

One thing I believe premedical students have a difficult time conceptualizing is that there is no grand ranking of residency programs. At that level an ideal training program for one individual might be an awful one for someone else, and vice versa. That is not to say that some programs do not offer better learning and opportunities than others, but the residency ecosystem is far more vast and complex than anything that the US News can distill to a simple numeric rank.

skywriter91 said:
How are thank-you letters and updates perceived by the admissions committee? How much weight do they hold?

An update from a numerically strong candidate makes us feel good. Other than that I use them for kindling.
 
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@hushcom or @Goro piggy backing off of skywriter above, I recently received an interview invitation from Quinnipiac, however I already have an acceptance at Rosalind Franklin. Is it worth it to fly cross country and check out Quinnipiac or is Rosy the better school regardless? Not sure whether residencies find it more concerning to graduate from a school that has had a couple accreditation issues or one that is brand new. Thoughts? Thanks for your help!

"Problem" school versus new school... I am not sure what to tell you. Could you take the acceptance and never look back? Probably. Is it worth a plane ticket and hotel room to check out another option? Maybe. If it were me I would probably tough it out and go, but that's a choice you will have to make for yourself.
 
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Sorry, I have two questions if you have the time. I plan on applying this upcoming cycle. I would appreciate your insight too Goro since some are DO related.

1. I noticed that some schools (along with 2 IS DO schools that I'm looking at) require 2 semesters of English. I only had the chance to take 1 so far since I used AP credits for one, but I plan on taking the 2nd course in Spring 16.
Based on their websites, it should be okay with: "All required coursework must be completed prior to the start of classes. Candidates missing required coursework at the time of application may be permitted to proceed provisionally in the application process, provided they meet all other requirements." but I was wondering if you had any experience with this, would it hinder my chances? Like would they put me lower on the list in reviews because I didn't take it yet, or is it possible for them to accept me but say that it'll only be official if finish that course?

2. I also noticed Inorganic Chemistry is required. Some admissions just say Inorganic Chemistry, while others say Inorganic (General) Chemistry. I have General Chemistry, but not the other, so I'm kinda confused on what they're looking for. I can also take Inorganic in Spring 16 if needed.
 
hello!

I'm Asian, and while I understand that Asians are considered ORM, how are Vietnamese people regarded differently (if at all) at your institution? Do you know of schools that take the extra step to differentiate Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, etc. from Chinese, Indian, Korean, etc. applicants?

thanks in advance!
 
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Look for my post on "behind the curtain". Some schools will go through interviewees one by one. Typically people are scored; We use a 1-10 system (10 being best).
So i have always wondered how adcom meetings are structured. Do you go through applicants one by one discussing their strong and weak points? Does the dean lead the discussion and provide a summary? Do committee members provide a rating or is it more of a yes/no vote? Any light you guys can shed based on your own adcom experience would be appreciated
Thanks, found the post and much appreciate it!
 
Sorry, I have two questions if you have the time. I plan on applying this upcoming cycle. I would appreciate your insight too Goro since some are DO related.

1. I noticed that some schools (along with 2 IS DO schools that I'm looking at) require 2 semesters of English. I only had the chance to take 1 so far since I used AP credits for one, but I plan on taking the 2nd course in Spring 16.
Based on their websites, it should be okay with: "All required coursework must be completed prior to the start of classes. Candidates missing required coursework at the time of application may be permitted to proceed provisionally in the application process, provided they meet all other requirements." but I was wondering if you had any experience with this, would it hinder my chances? Like would they put me lower on the list in reviews because I didn't take it yet, or is it possible for them to accept me but say that it'll only be official if finish that course?

2. I also noticed Inorganic Chemistry is required. Some admissions just say Inorganic Chemistry, while others say Inorganic (General) Chemistry. I have General Chemistry, but not the other, so I'm kinda confused on what they're looking for. I can also take Inorganic in Spring 16 if needed.

1. At the adcom level nobody cares when you take it. The requirement exists for a reason, but we have the luxury of worrying about your fit for medicine and our school rather than the timing of 6 credits of comp/lit.

2. They mean general chemistry. Forcing everyone to take "real" inorganic chemistry (à la Housecroft and Sharpe) would be both pointless and bizarre.
 
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hello!

I'm Asian, and while I understand that Asians are considered ORM, how are Vietnamese people regarded differently (if at all) at your institution? Do you know of schools that take the extra step to differentiate Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, etc. from Chinese, Indian, Korean, etc. applicants?

thanks in advance!

Performing such a differentiation would not provide any benefit at my level, as we still have to look at each applicant as an individual. I have noted that many of our Vietnamese applicants are the children of people who immigrated under exceptionally difficult circumstances, and therefore have traversed a great academic and socioeconomic distance.
 
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I've been reading this entire thread. Thanks for all the info!

I have questions regarding clinical experiences. Mine consist of 100+ volunteering hours in a local hospital, ~25 hrs shadowing doctors of diff fields, working part-time in a clinic with direct patient care during HS and part of college, and I recently got my EMT certification (but I haven't put it to use yet because I'm currently studying for the 2015 MCAT). My questions are:

1) Should I even bother mentioning my cert if I don't put it to use before submitting my application?

2) I have 3.5 years of research experience, and am currently working during my gap year as a research assistant doing basic science (and no clinical research). I have an interview lined up for a medical assistant position that probably won't start until shortly after I submit my applications this summer, so I probably wouldn't even be able to mention it in AMCAS. With the clinical experience I already have, is it worth switching jobs to the medical side, or should I stay in my research assistant job for the possibility of getting published?
 
@hushcom @Goro thank you both for answering questions. how do you look at applicants who have transferred schools twice? Is this something that is very rare? I went from a small LAC to a bigger, better university (out of state). Then my family ran into some financial problems and I had to transfer to a local school and commute from home, because I chose not to take private loans out to remain at the last school.

Should I explain this on my application? I don't want it to raise red flags and have my app thrown out, but I don't want to force an explanation when it doesn't need one
 
I've been reading this entire thread. Thanks for all the info!

I have questions regarding clinical experiences. Mine consist of 100+ volunteering hours in a local hospital, ~25 hrs shadowing doctors of diff fields, working part-time in a clinic with direct patient care during HS and part of college, and I recently got my EMT certification (but I haven't put it to use yet because I'm currently studying for the 2015 MCAT). My questions are:

1) Should I even bother mentioning my cert if I don't put it to use before submitting my application?

2) I have 3.5 years of research experience, and am currently working during my gap year as a research assistant doing basic science (and no clinical research). I have an interview lined up for a medical assistant position that probably won't start until shortly after I submit my applications this summer, so I probably wouldn't even be able to mention it in AMCAS. With the clinical experience I already have, is it worth switching jobs to the medical side, or should I stay in my research assistant job for the possibility of getting published?

1. I would include the certification - you earned it, after all. If you obtain any EMT experience after applying it might come up during interviews.

2. It would not be worth switching just to get a sliver of medical assisting. A decent publication would have more long-term benefit.
 
Thanks for the quick reply!

It might help to mention that my clinical work w/ patient care in high school/college was actually in an optometrist's office, and not with an MD/OD. Does that matter as long as I was able to interact with patients? (getting their Hx, checking depth perception, pressures, etc)
 
@hushcom @Goro thank you both for answering questions. how do you look at applicants who have transferred schools twice? Is this something that is very rare? I went from a small LAC to a bigger, better university (out of state). Then my family ran into some financial problems and I had to transfer to a local school and commute from home, because I chose not to take private loans out to remain at the last school.

Should I explain this on my application? I don't want it to raise red flags and have my app thrown out, but I don't want to force an explanation when it doesn't need one

It's not rare. If there is no institutional action then I just assume the issue is either money or family problems, and sometimes it's both.
 
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1. At the adcom level nobody cares when you take it. The requirement exists for a reason, but we have the luxury of worrying about your fit for medicine and our school rather than the timing of 6 credits of comp/lit.

2. They mean general chemistry. Forcing everyone to take "real" inorganic chemistry (à la Housecroft and Sharpe) would be both pointless and bizarre.

Great, thanks hushcom! I really don't feel like taking real Inorganic Chemistry unless I need to.
 
Thanks for the quick reply!

It might help to mention that my clinical work w/ patient care in high school/college was actually in an optometrist's office, and not with an MD/OD. Does that matter as long as I was able to interact with patients? (getting their Hx, checking depth perception, pressures, etc)

It can help demonstrate that you enjoy interacting with patients, and outpatient practice shares similarities across different professions. But optometry is not medicine, so there is a limit to how much value you can extract from this experience.
 
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Why is research experience so important in the admissions process if so many physicians end up not doing any research?


Is wanting to become a private practice physician frowned upon during the admissions process?
 
Why is research experience so important in the admissions process if so many physicians end up not doing any research?

The importance of research varies a great deal from one school to the next. One way to look at it is that while most physicians do not perform substantive research, we all rely on research to inform our medical decisions and move the field forward. Having performed research might ostensibly make a student more apt at critically evaluating the literature.

Research also provides students the opportunity to show various positive traits (e.g. initiative, organization, resilience) outside the familiar and predictable format of taking classes and absorbing existing knowledge.

coolbeans151 said:
Is wanting to become a private practice physician frowned upon during the admissions process?

Some schools want to educate the next generation of leading biomedical researchers and academicians, others want to educate physicians who will go out and practice to meet the needs of our growing population. How the message is received will depend on the audience.
 
@hushcom or @Goro piggy backing off of skywriter above, I recently received an interview invitation from Quinnipiac, however I already have an acceptance at Rosalind Franklin. Is it worth it to fly cross country and check out Quinnipiac or is Rosy the better school regardless? Not sure whether residencies find it more concerning to graduate from a school that has had a couple accreditation issues or one that is brand new. Thoughts? Thanks for your help!

As a student at this school, I want to point out last year's match list. The school was on probation when all of these students matched:

http://www.rosalindfranklin.edu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=nJ5m94sw4tY=&portalid=0
 
Hi hushcom, my question is about extracurricular activities. I know that most applicants have abundant clinical experiences (shadowing, hospital volunteering, scribing, etc) and so I was thinking of ways to make myself stand out since i've already done a lot of the aforementioned activities.

I was wondering how the admissions committee would look upon interning at a Health IT company. I've been interning for the past 7 months at a company whose mission is to provide easy access of electronic medical records to patients via the use of mobile apps. During my internship, I have learned a lot about Blue Button data and the government's initiatives to further the digitization of health records. With the direction that medicine is heading, technology is becoming more and more important especially in regards to medical records and the ways in which they are made available to patients, which is why I felt that being knowledgeable about this topic would behoove my application. As an adcom member, how would you view this activity? Would you view it as positive since I'm taking an active interest in healthcare from a different perspective, or would you think that it isn't very relevant to medical school?
 
I am a practicing physician who serves on the admissions committee of an allopathic medical school in the United States. I am also not new to SDN, having seen the cast of characters evolve here over a number of years. Some recent threads in the pre-allo forum have compelled me to start this one. While I am not a longstanding and venerated member of the committee, perhaps someone will find my two cents useful and/or interesting.

So please, have at it.
How do medical schools view classes taken through the FAES graduate school at NIH? I would like to take classes here, but I am not sure if med schools view these classes similarly to community college/online. FAES is accredited and listed in the AMCAS instruction manual as a military institution.
 
Hi, so i'm currently a second year in college and I have some concerns. So my family owns a small restaurant business (I am a first generation American) and over the last couple years our restaurant has not been doing well so i've dedicated about 35-40 hours a week working shifts for our restaurant. I have tried to include as many medical related activities as I could, however, I could never find the heart to abandon my parents and let them take the burden alone so I could pursue my academic interests. With that said, obviously it wasn't anyone elses fault but my own. Truthfully i've been working for my parents since I was 13 and the pay I received had always been minimal (but i'd never complain for obvious reasons).

So my question is how this will really affect my med school application? I will try and squeeze in what I can in, but how would you view my lack of engagement with things regarding medicine?
 
I was a co-founder of an honors fraternity at my university. I was part of it for one year, where I held an e-board position but then decided to quit because a.) It wasn't going in the direction I wanted it to go, b.) The cost, and c.) The drama!! Members impeaching the president, members hating on the new president, etc... Is this experience worth noting in my application?

Another (kind of) similar experience with student body government: I was part of it for 2 years, realized it was corrupt (spending student funds on illegal things), and then decided to leave student body work to focus on leadership on an individual level (residential life). Again, worth noting in my application? These two things took up a significant amount of my time before I quit them, and even though they didn't help me directly, they definitely revealed to me a lot about my working style and my moral compass.
 
Hi hushcom, my question is about extracurricular activities. I know that most applicants have abundant clinical experiences (shadowing, hospital volunteering, scribing, etc) and so I was thinking of ways to make myself stand out since i've already done a lot of the aforementioned activities.

I was wondering how the admissions committee would look upon interning at a Health IT company. I've been interning for the past 7 months at a company whose mission is to provide easy access of electronic medical records to patients via the use of mobile apps. During my internship, I have learned a lot about Blue Button data and the government's initiatives to further the digitization of health records. With the direction that medicine is heading, technology is becoming more and more important especially in regards to medical records and the ways in which they are made available to patients, which is why I felt that being knowledgeable about this topic would behoove my application. As an adcom member, how would you view this activity? Would you view it as positive since I'm taking an active interest in healthcare from a different perspective, or would you think that it isn't very relevant to medical school?

I have interviewed a couple of people with some healthcare IT experience, and I see it as a positive, especially in this environment of increasing EMR use. You also get a glimpse of the regulator aspects of one portion of medical care, which can be eye opening.
 
How do medical schools view classes taken through the FAES graduate school at NIH? I would like to take classes here, but I am not sure if med schools view these classes similarly to community college/online. FAES is accredited and listed in the AMCAS instruction manual as a military institution.

I have not encountered the FAES before, but it looks to be an open-enrollment, non-degree granting institution, accredited by the state of Maryland and targeting adult learners. Unless I am missing something, I would judge it accordingly.
 
Hi, so i'm currently a second year in college and I have some concerns. So my family owns a small restaurant business (I am a first generation American) and over the last couple years our restaurant has not been doing well so i've dedicated about 35-40 hours a week working shifts for our restaurant. I have tried to include as many medical related activities as I could, however, I could never find the heart to abandon my parents and let them take the burden alone so I could pursue my academic interests. With that said, obviously it wasn't anyone elses fault but my own. Truthfully i've been working for my parents since I was 13 and the pay I received had always been minimal (but i'd never complain for obvious reasons).

So my question is how this will really affect my med school application? I will try and squeeze in what I can in, but how would you view my lack of engagement with things regarding medicine?

If you explain the situation in AMCAS, and there are multiple places to do so (personal statement, disadvantaged box, experiences), we will take the time commitment of working into account when looking at your ECs. You are not the only applicant with this story, and it can be mitigating.
 
I was a co-founder of an honors fraternity at my university. I was part of it for one year, where I held an e-board position but then decided to quit because a.) It wasn't going in the direction I wanted it to go, b.) The cost, and c.) The drama!! Members impeaching the president, members hating on the new president, etc... Is this experience worth noting in my application?

Another (kind of) similar experience with student body government: I was part of it for 2 years, realized it was corrupt (spending student funds on illegal things), and then decided to leave student body work to focus on leadership on an individual level (residential life). Again, worth noting in my application? These two things took up a significant amount of my time before I quit them, and even though they didn't help me directly, they definitely revealed to me a lot about my working style and my moral compass.

AMCAS has space for experiences, not limited to good ones. If you spent time, exerted effort, and learned things, then list them.
 
I have not encountered the FAES before, but it looks to be an open-enrollment, non-degree granting institution, accredited by the state of Maryland and targeting adult learners. Unless I am missing something, I would judge it accordingly.
So in your opinion it would look better to avoid classes here? Sorry just trying to get a concrete answer.
 
This question might be better suited to ask my school advisers, but here it goes. My school is asking for ~7 letters to be inputted into the committee letter, and they'll actively quote about 2 of them.

How do you guys view committee letters? Do you guys see them knowing that there are multiple letters in there? Or will it sometimes be mistakenly seen as only 1 letter during the initial screening process? Like instead of having a science letter, non-science letter, employer letter, etc on their own, they are all in one packet organized by my school.

Also, how would it look if I sent the individual letters in separately as well? My institution has some horror stories of committee letters not being done until September, so I don't want that to hurt my chances when I'll have most of the letters ready by June.
 
Iv heard around here that a mission trip is not really... looked at in a good way. (May not be the right way to put it) I'm an officer for such am organization that travels to a third world country with medicine that we had to raise the money for. I'm all about helping people who can't help themselves. I'm applying soon so is it worth it for me to be in such an organization?
 
Thank you for taking the time to be apart of the SDN community adcoms. I have a question about my impending medical school application. So the down and dirty of my story is I'm 24 and received my bachelor's as a physician assistant and now work at a top tier's hospital as a PA because I felt I would get more out of it than a premed/bio degree - I've always loved medicine. However, my uGPA is 3.51 and I have a D for Chem I Freshman year of college. I've gone up to Biochem II, not including my PA classes (4.0's my last 2 semesters). How do you think this would all be looked at by a committee? Oh! And I'm currently interviewing for post-bacc's as well! Thank you for your time!
 
Dear Hushcom,

I have been diligently working on my PS, and had some folks give me feedback. I tried not to make my PS all about me, but more about how others experiences shaped who I am, and who I want to be. Here is an excerpt of some advice I was given:

"Your PS started off great, then wavered as you made it more of a written version of a resume; you listed what you did, gave examples of duties, told what you learned, and related it to medicine.

2nd: you tie together art well with helping others. This isn’t directly relevant to medicine though.

What I really wanted was you to talk about how your passion for creating art, helping others, being part of a team, etc. has made you realize that you wanted to be a physician. In the last paragraph, you’re talking about a case you saw and the qualities good physicians have and you want to emulate (you even list them!). But this paragraph really isn’t about you until the last 2 sentences."

I'm really struggling with this whole thing being just about ME. Really tried to focus on what I did for others, but then my "passion" to be physician isn't coming through. I'm not really a passion person, so its feels wrong that I should create this persona. Guess I'm more of an introvert.

What do you think?? Thank you in advance for your opinion on PS.
 
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So in your opinion it would look better to avoid classes here? Sorry just trying to get a concrete answer.

Since I am not familiar with the program I cannot give you one. Sorry.
 
Hi Hushcom,

I have kind of a unique situation. I bombed it in high school, barely made it out alive (2.3GPA graduating). Went to CC for 1.5 years bombed 2nd semester of CC (2.5) but have had a strong upward trend since transferring. I've obtained a 4.0 since I left CC 3 years ago. My question is I have A's in all the prereqs but no rigor for good reason. I transferred from CC to Rutgers University had to apply to transfer back to California because I ran out of money. Transfering back to UCs has a unit cap (if you have above 90 units you are not eligible to transfer), so it forced me to take 12 credits until transferring back to a UC in California. Upon transferring I didn't have any classes really to take besides major courses so I've been only taking 13-15 units. It's taken me 5 years to graduate with a 3.45 at CC and 4.0 at two universities now. How do you predict this low unit load will effect me given the circumstances? Should I mention this somewhere on my app? 13-15 units so about 4-5 upper division biology and chem classes for the past 3 years

Additionally I have taken the MCAT 3 times going from 29 (12/5/12)->31 (11/7/13)->36 (12/11/13). Given my experience I had never taken a standardized test before. Should I also mention this somewhere as well?
 
What's your overal cGPA and sGPA?

You might have a decent chance at an MD school, especially because of your MCAT.
 
What's your overal cGPA and sGPA?

You might have a decent chance at an MD school, especially because of your MCAT.

Should end at a 3.76 cum and 3.83 sGPA. Granted I've been studying for the MCAT for the past year as well as juggling jobs and such. My units just haven't been so hot.
my most recent thread has a lot of my stats on it.
 
I think you have a solid shot at md if you craft a good story and also answer why medicine.

Given you gave solid ecs of course.
 
Dear Dr. @hushcom

I have a friend who got very low grades in college 3.1 cGPA and 2.0 sGPA, bio major. He went to master's program and was academically dismissed.

After getting fired from a job he went to a psychatrist and got diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety disorder. Since then he took the MCAT and got a 39, re-took and got a 43 (because of 3 year rule).

He is going to take courses now.

If he does well can he get into medical school (DO or MD)? What about the academic dismissal? He is thinking of Caribbean and doing well on USMLE.

Thank you so much for this.
 
If I may chime in, your friend will need to demonstrate that he can handle a medical school curriculum. This will mean 1-2 solid years of coursework. An SMP would be best because they're the backdoor into med schools.

OR, he could retake every F/D/C science course and utilize AACOMAS' grade replacement policy.

Then there's all the usual ECs that he'll need to do.

Just getting a 43 on MCAT will not erase the damage that his ADHD did to his GPA.

Dear Dr. @hushcom

I have a friend who got very low grades in college 3.1 cGPA and 2.0 sGPA, bio major. He went to master's program and was academically dismissed.

After getting fired from a job he went to a psychatrist and got diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety disorder. Since then he took the MCAT and got a 39, re-took and got a 43 (because of 3 year rule).

He is going to take courses now.

If he does well can he get into medical school (DO or MD)? What about the academic dismissal? He is thinking of Caribbean and doing well on USMLE.

Thank you so much for this.
 
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If I may chime in, your friend will need to demonstrate that he can handle a medical school curriculum. This will mean 1-2 solid years of coursework. An SMP would be best because they're the backdoor into med schools.

OR, he could retake every F/D/C science course and utilize AACOMAS' grade replacement policy.

Then there's all the usual ECs that he'll need to do.

Just getting a 43 on MCAT will not erase the damage that his ADHD did to his GPA.
Sounds fishy since according to MCAT statistics on AAMC 0.0 % of testers have gotten a 43+ as far back as 2005... Idk bout this year just saying
 
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Thanks again for everything, @hushcom and @Goro. I will be applying this cycle, and my app/ECs are pretty stellar but I am still lacking formal physician shadowing hours. I'm a non-trad with very limited time, but I think I can squeeze in~20hours to shadow before June. I will be applying to both DO and MD schools. If I were to only shadow a DO would it be looked at unfavorably by MD adcoms? Would trying to split my time between shadowing a DO and MD be worth it even it were only ~10 hours each?
 
No and yes, although more is always better. I think U WA wants 40 hrs of shadowing.
If I were to only shadow a DO would it be looked at unfavorably by MD adcoms? Would trying to split my time between shadowing a DO and MD be worth it even it were only ~10 hours each?[/QUOTE]
 
Sounds fishy since according to MCAT statistics on AAMC 0.0 % of testers have gotten a 43+ as far back as 2005... Idk bout this year just saying

If you look at the AAMC stats, lots of people got above 40. Look at those GPA vs MCAT graphs and some many get rejected with a 40+ MCAT and 3.8 GPA. A lot of 40+ get rejected with a 3.1 GPA so the chances are slim for him.
 
If I may chime in, your friend will need to demonstrate that he can handle a medical school curriculum. This will mean 1-2 solid years of coursework. An SMP would be best because they're the backdoor into med schools.

OR, he could retake every F/D/C science course and utilize AACOMAS' grade replacement policy.

Then there's all the usual ECs that he'll need to do.

Just getting a 43 on MCAT will not erase the damage that his ADHD did to his GPA.

Of course thank you very much Dr. Goro. That is what he plans to do, but we just want to make sure that the academic dismissal and numerous F's and D's and C's will not make it impossible. If it is impossible then I suppose Carreban is the only option.
 
I've seen applicants who have repeated entire UG degrees. No, it's not impossible. Carib should NOT be an option unless your friend wants to be unemployed and deeply in debt.

Oh ok thank you so much Dr. Goro. He shadowed, did research, volunteered, the problem is the grades. Thank you so much once again, as you are an attending I am sure your time is valuable!
 
Oh ok thank you so much Dr. Goro. He shadowed, did research, volunteered, the problem is the grades. Thank you so much once again, as you are an attending I am sure your time is valuable!

Not really a small problem to have...

GPA needs lots of repair.
 
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If you look at the AAMC stats, lots of people got above 40. Look at those GPA vs MCAT graphs and some many get rejected with a 40+ MCAT and 3.8 GPA. A lot of 40+ get rejected with a 3.1 GPA so the chances are slim for him.

Well he said 43 not 40+ and no ones gotten a 43 + in the past 10 years , not saying it's impossible just most likely untrue , could have gotten it this year
 
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This question might be better suited to ask my school advisers, but here it goes. My school is asking for ~7 letters to be inputted into the committee letter, and they'll actively quote about 2 of them.

How do you guys view committee letters? Do you guys see them knowing that there are multiple letters in there? Or will it sometimes be mistakenly seen as only 1 letter during the initial screening process? Like instead of having a science letter, non-science letter, employer letter, etc on their own, they are all in one packet organized by my school.

Also, how would it look if I sent the individual letters in separately as well? My institution has some horror stories of committee letters not being done until September, so I don't want that to hurt my chances when I'll have most of the letters ready by June.

I see a lot of committee letters, as most schools offer one and most applicants choose to use one. It can seem a bit dodgy for a traditional student to not use their committee, although there can be valid reasons to go it alone. When I download the committee letter it typically comes with all the other LORs together in a single file.

That said, some applications appear to have both the committee letter and the individual letters uploaded separately. That may stem from applicants who do what you are proposing. The only potential downside I see is if your application is judged negatively by a screener if it is evaluated before the committee letter arrives. That seems rather unlikely, though.
 
Iv heard around here that a mission trip is not really... looked at in a good way. (May not be the right way to put it) I'm an officer for such am organization that travels to a third world country with medicine that we had to raise the money for. I'm all about helping people who can't help themselves. I'm applying soon so is it worth it for me to be in such an organization?

I would not say that medical missions are an inherently bad idea, but some of them can be legitimately criticized. If you feel you are doing good in the world then keep doing it, just be prepared to answer questions about the organization's goals and practices.
 
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