Another Adcom, ask me (almost) anything

[sephora89]

If I may chime in, what really makes me advocate for a candidate are:
Peace Corps
Military Service
Hospice work



Get new readers. Yours seem to think that MDs do not practice holistic medicine.

Perhaps a neurotic concern that I could use some insight to. In writing my personal statement I have really been building off of my experiences with patients, emphasizing the whole person aspect of treatment (for example, a holistic approach but not arguing for alternative or manipulative medicine by any means). I was told this comes off as implicitly "osteopathic" rather than "allopathic". I do not desire to attend as osteopathic school for a variety of reasons and do not have space in the personal statement to explain why.

Hi @Goro

If I may ask, why hospice work? How is it different than work in a nursing home or hospital?

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[RBC]

Question for @Goro or @hushcom - Does it look bad if we haven't done anything related to school or medicine within the last 18 months?

I finished a post-bacc in December of 2013, did well, and then just took some time off. I knew I wanted medicine, and I also knew what that entailed, and quite honestly, I wanted to take some time to myself and do things that I probably wouldn't have had time to do had I directly applied to medical school. I trained for marathons, taught myself how to program (even published an app), traveled, and went camping/backpacking.

I wouldn't take back any of what I've done in the past 18 months, as I felt it's what I needed to do to grow as a person...I just don't know if this is something that is going to look bad on an application.

 

[Goro]

It's actually similar to a nursing home, but in a hospital, not everyone is dying. Thus, anyone willing to be in a hospice is willing to get their hands dirty.. It's very different from stacking supplies in the ER supply pantry.

Hi @Goro

If I may ask, why hospice work? How is it different than work in a nursing home or hospital?

I think that your list, and your interview skills are what need improvement, not your GPA. Invest in MSAR Online and target schools whose median stats are closest to your own. And is you want to stay in CA, then focus only on Loma Linda, Western and Touro-CA.

Long story short: I've applied twice now as a CA resident with an average MCAT and high GPA. First round got me a UC interview to reject. Second round to two OOS interviews and one waitlist I'm still on. Assuming I don't get in this year and the majority of the other aspects of my application are well-rounded, would a post-bac program at a medical school to earn an MPH or MBS have much of a benefit? Or would it be better for me to take a few years off, continue working in research and slowly prepare to retake the MCAT?
Sorry for the vague details, I simply want to see if post-bacs provide much value if you already have a good GPA. Thanks so much!

 

[ChrisMack390]

Hi @hushcom, thanks for doing this!

If you saw a 3.44c / 3.22s on an application, what would your impression be? Lets say the MCAT was strong, and the person had a great transcript from a bio masters program. Many on SDN stay it will still get thrown out the window and my academic adviser was less than encouraging, but I've seen others claim to have been accepted to decent places with similar numbers...

Thanks!

 

[ejay19955]

Thank you so much for doing this! Question for both @Goro and @hushcom:

How important would you say it is I talk about the transformative nature of the 3 most meaningful experiences? I drafted them all, but when I re-read them today my most meaningful experience essay for research is more like just further elaboration of what I did. I do talk about how it relates to medicine and the career I want, but I didn't really talk about how it "transformed" or "affected" me, which the prompt suggests you "might" want to consider.

I tweaked it a little bit so I sound like I hadn't known I would like research this much before I started, but still 2/3 of the essay is simply about what I did. Would you say this is okay...? the 700 character description was too little to describe what I did.

Thank you in advance!

 

[notofimportance143]

Hi, thank you for answering all of these questions.

I was curious as to whether admissions committees could see retroactive withdrawals on an applicants academic record. I suffered through an eating disorder for seven years before finally seeking treatment my first semester of college. My eating disorder did not impair my ability to perform well as I had above a 4.0 in high school and excellent ACT scores, however the time commitment of my treatment was my main focus so I chose to postpone my studies. I now am in my sophomore year of college with a 4.0 and was wondering if I could keep the previous information to myself and not disclose it? Also, if it was disclosed would it hurt my chances of acceptance?

 

[Gandyy]

If I may chime in, what really makes me advocate for a candidate are:
Peace Corps
Military Service
Hospice work



Get new readers. Yours seem to think that MDs do not practice holistic medicine.

Perhaps a neurotic concern that I could use some insight to. In writing my personal statement I have really been building off of my experiences with patients, emphasizing the whole person aspect of treatment (for example, a holistic approach but not arguing for alternative or manipulative medicine by any means). I was told this comes off as implicitly "osteopathic" rather than "allopathic". I do not desire to attend as osteopathic school for a variety of reasons and do not have space in the personal statement to explain why.

Hospice work is also a lot more rewarding to the volunteer than people think. I volunteered at a hospice thinking that it would be the average volunteer position. I was totally wrong, it can get very real quickly.

But then again that was just my hospice experience.

 

[nRomaleos]

There are 15 slots in the experience section, and the goal is not to use all of them. After the top five I quickly scan the rest and move on. Listing so many that you would need to group them suggests that you are a dabbler and/or padding your application. Neither possibility is very appealing.

But when you say "Top Five," the first five experiences are listed in reverse chronological order.
Do you mean the three most meaningful (if there are three) and the next 2 are the longest hours?

When I look at my application PDF printed out, it is a bit annoying that my most meaningful are tucked 3-4 pages behind because I have been at them since freshman/sophomore year.

 

[FFH]

Thank you so much for doing this! Question for both @Goro and @hushcom:

How important would you say it is I talk about the transformative nature of the 3 most meaningful experiences? I drafted them all, but when I re-read them today my most meaningful experience essay for research is more like just further elaboration of what I did. I do talk about how it relates to medicine and the career I want, but I didn't really talk about how it "transformed" or "affected" me, which the prompt suggests you "might" want to consider.

I tweaked it a little bit so I sound like I hadn't known I would like research this much before I started, but still 2/3 of the essay is simply about what I did. Would you say this is okay...? the 700 character description was too little to describe what I did.

Thank you in advance!

So when you write about the experience try to think of encounters and moments and examples during which you had a clarity or a transformation of the way of thinking. Focus on the specific thing that change you either for the better or for the liking of the medical profession. Aim to fully convene one or two important lessons, personal growth or the formation of good attributes clearly in each activity.

Like writing any essays, purely descriptive words filled with technicality doesn't bring the reader closer to you. It's the examples and demonstrations speaking to your quality that are more eye catching. After all, adcom have seen most premed ECs and common activities being sufficiently described a gazillion times. It's not an efficient way to waste the valuable attention of the adcoms and limited characters to talk about the detailed tasks unless it's something unique or if you did something beyond what's normally expected of you.

 

[redlegfrog]

Hi all, I am currently a junior looking to apply in the summer of my senior year. I have recently been accepted for a summer RA (residential assistant) position, which will take up a fair amount of my time in the summer. I have about 250 hours of volunteering from high school and 21 hours at my local hospital and will continue to do about 3 hours a week over summer. I have will have been doing research for a year in two different research labs by the time I graduate as well. Are my college clinical volunteering hours too weak compared to other applicants or will the other ECs I have that take up most of my time be considered significant enough to make up for this? Also, how unique is the RA position as an EC in comparison to those of other applicants? Thanks!

 

[aMinorKey]

If you do well your SMP will be more than enough. Good luck.

Hi! I was accepted to the BU MAMS program for fall 2015. I was wondering if you found the program successful? I'm deciding between the BU program, and a MS in Nutrition at Columbia. If you can offer any insight into BU's smp I would be very grateful!

Thanks~

 

[aMinorKey]

I'm a little late to the thread, but maybe I can still get an answer.

I have the opposite problem from a lot of previous questions in the thread, in that I started ok (~3.5 in pre-reqs) but stumbled senior year in quantum physics and an electrical engineering class. I ended up with less than a 3.0 for my senior year, although my overall GPAs were still ~3.2. After a strong semester of biology post-bacc classes, I'm back to 3.3 cGPA/3.3 sGPA, along with a low-30s MCAT. I'm starting an SMP (Boston University MAMS) in the fall and plan on applying to med schools again in Summer 2015, but I'm concerned med schools will still judge me harshly for my senior year. Am I wasting time/money with grad work when I should be doing more undergrad? Or are the grad classes, which are done alongside med students, enough?

Hi! I was accepted to the BU MAMS program for fall 2015. I was wondering if you found the program successful? I'm deciding between the BU program, and a MS in Nutrition at Columbia. If you can offer any insight into BU's smp I would be very grateful!

Thanks~

 

[FormerPhysicist]

Hi! I was accepted to the BU MAMS program for fall 2015. I was wondering if you found the program successful? I'm deciding between the BU program, and a MS in Nutrition at Columbia. If you can offer any insight into BU's smp I would be very grateful!

Thanks~

I ended up being accepted to Temple's ACMS instead, so I can't say firsthand. It's worth noting that a large number of us in Temple's program intended on going to Boston before acceptance, which I think speaks to its excellent reputation, at least.

 

[Soccerchick10]

Hi and thank you for doing this!
Although I will be applying to dental school and not medical schools, I think my question is relevant. My undergrad Gpa was a 3.1 so I opted to do a specialized masters before I applied. However, I'm curious as to whether or not I have to disclose that I did an SMP to admissions if I don't do as well as I hope I will? Please advise.