Building a strong medical school application AFTER undergrad

[FutureWristSurgeon]

Hi Everyone,

I'm writing this post to ask for advice on how to build up my application for MD schools. I went to Bowdoin College, studied Chemistry there, and developed an interest in hand/ wrist surgery after I had surgery on my wrist (junior year summer). I've also become interested in regenerative medicine as I've undergone 4 (and counting) platelet rich plasma injections in EACH of my hands (cartilage and ligament tears the surgeon missed), and knee (partially torn quad tendon).

I am now working at a genetics lab in an ivy league medical school as a technician and looking for ways to beef up/ build a strong application, with the goal of matriculating in 2018. I have contacted Bowdoin's pre-med advisor and he essentially told me to volunteer/ study for the mcat/ try to publish. I'm looking for any other bits of knowledge that anyone else is willing to give me/ what they would do if they were in my shoes, and really wanted to get into a med school that could give them a strong chance of placing into an orthopedic residency.

Undergrad stats: Cumulative GPA 3.46, science gpa ~3.5
Notes: upward trends in grades, deans list by senior year (3.8 gpa senior year), cum laude in chemistry
MCAT: currently studying for it using Princeton review, expecting around a 514 based on my practice test scores, will take in late 2016
ECS: Varsity lacrosse freshman year, competitive crossfit sophomore+ junior year, volunteering at local crossfit gym senior year

Research:
At Bowdoin: Littlefield research award (twice), 2 summers + entire senior year dedicated to the same organometallic chemistry project, honors thesis in chemistry, 0 publications (my molecules were REALLY hard to synthesize)

Current research: Genetics at Ivy league medical school , I have my own project (as a lab tech) and should be able to get on a couple of papers as a 2nd or 3rd author in a couple years.

Clinical and non clinical Volunteering:
Currently working towards 150 hours in a local emergency room (3 hrs a week for 1 year)
Looking into opportunities in a home near the hospital which provides housing to parents of children currently undergoing cancer treatments. Also considering spending some time at a local homeless shelter.

Coursework: I'm very chemistry heavy (~15 chemistry courses vs 3 biology courses). I plan on taking a few biology courses (genetics, immunology) at the school I'm working at, but need to wait 9 more months until they will reimburse me for classes.

Physician shadowing: None at the moment. I'm not sure how to go about this as I work 9am-5pm during the week and most Dr offices are closed on the weekends. By the time I apply to schools, I would like to have spent some time with an orthopedist, a podiatrist, a general practitioner, and an optometrist in order to show interest in a broad range of medicine.

If anyone could provide me with a list of schools which have strong orthopedic residency placements I would really appreciate it (this would give me a goal to aim toward). Any other advice/ suggestions on what kind of volunteer/shadowing experience to get would be great. Thanks for your time.

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[Ismet]

You have to be careful with shadowing non-physicians (podiatrist, optometrist) because while it can show that you did your research to see what different healthcare professions are out there, it may also come off as "this kid doesn't know what he wants to do." It's fine to shadow them, but how you write the description of these shadowing experiences will matter, because you don't want to come off as naive or uncommitted to medicine.

You can get into an orthopedic surgery residency from any school. It's just a matter of how hard you are willing to work on an individual level. And it would be good to have an orthopedic surgery department affiliated with your school so that you can have mentors in the field throughout med school.

Your GPA is below average for MD admissions, but it looks like you have a good upward trend. MCAT will be even more important, so study hard.

 

[FutureWristSurgeon]

Thank you for your reply and the information. So as far as shadowing goes, should I only pursue shadowing opportunities that involve MDs? (When I wrote the post I thought an optometrist was an MD, but now looking back I realized my mistake, I think I meant ophthalmologist ).

 

[Ismet]

Thank you for your reply and the information. So as far as shadowing goes, should I only pursue shadowing opportunities that involve MDs? (When I wrote the post I thought an optometrist was an MD, but now looking back I realized my mistake, I think I meant ophthalmologist ).

If you shadow a podiatrist and you make it known during your interviews that you are very interested in orthopedic surgery, you will be asked the question "so why not podiatry?" since podiatrists do surgery as well. You might be asked that question anyway, it's pretty common to be asked "why not X?"

Personally I don't think you have to limit yourself to just shadowing MD/DO, because I think it's beneficial to get an understanding of different aspects of healthcare. If you have limited time to shadow, then I'd go with surgical and primary care.

 

[thatwouldbeanarchy]

Physician shadowing: None at the moment. I'm not sure how to go about this as I work 9am-5pm during the week and most Dr offices are closed on the weekends.

What about shadowing in the ED? Or surgery? These might be easier to work into your schedule.

Looking into opportunities in a home near the hospital which provides housing to parents of children currently undergoing cancer treatments. Also considering spending some time at a local homeless shelter.

Both of these sound fine--I would just make sure to add something to your app that you're passionate about that shows your altruism.

 

[aymar]

Kind of unrelated to your question, but I've had several PRP injections as well! I felt the need to post because I've literally never heard of anyone else getting one. They fascinate me too!!

I also completely echo the suggestion about ER shadowing. I am a night volunteer in the ER and I see plenty of undergrads/premeds come into shadow on the later shifts.

 

[FutureWristSurgeon]

Thank you folks for the replies, I will look into shadowing the ER docs, I wasn't aware Drs let students shadow in the ER.

Kind of unrelated to your question, but I've had several PRP injections as well! I felt the need to post because I've literally never heard of anyone else getting one. They fascinate me too!!

I also completely echo the suggestion about ER shadowing. I am a night volunteer in the ER and I see plenty of undergrads/premeds come into shadow on the later shifts.

I'm curious what joint you had the PRP in, and what kind of results you got. I've had 3 shots of "bloody" PRP/ 1% lidocaine into each hand (which I regret) and 1 shot of Regenexx SCP into each hand. I'm a big fan of the Regenexx Doc I've been to, everything down to the numbing agents he uses (Ropivicaine, 0.125%) seems to be the most up to date with the literature I've read.

 

[aymar]

I'm curious what joint you had the PRP in, and what kind of results you got. I've had 3 shots of "bloody" PRP/ 1% lidocaine into each hand (which I regret) and 1 shot of Regenexx SCP into each hand. I'm a big fan of the Regenexx Doc I've been to, everything down to the numbing agents he uses (Ropivicaine, 0.125%) seems to be the most up to date with the literature I've read.

I've never heard of Regenexx, I'll have to look it up! I also had 3 of the the "bloody" PRPs. One for a torn hip flexor, one for a torn hamstring, and my final one for a torn peroneal tendon. I was also a college athlete, and was hurt A LOT unfortunately. One of our team doctors was very into PRPs and they were the topic of a lot of his research, so he had a bit of a bias towards using them. I was extremely happy with the first two, but the 3rd I really regret consenting to.

I had gotten a second opinion who told me I absolutely needed a surgical repair, but my team doctor was extremely confident about the PRP. Using my previous positive experiences as a guide, I decided to try the PRP. This is when I unfortunately learned the hard way that there is some margin of error with ultrasound guided injections. It turns out that I had multiple tears up and down the tendon, and my doctor only PRP-ed the worst one. After taking 3 months off post PRP, I was back and square one and had to have it surgically repaired after all.


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