Following AACOMAS: cGPA 3.50, sGPA 3.31
B.S. in Molecular & Cellular Biology
I'm taking the MCAT in July. I plan to study for it for the next ~4 months using the schedule provided by Next Step Tutor.
Clinical volunteering experience: 1.5 years, ~150 hours as a Child Life volunteer at a cancer clinic
Shadowing: Minimum of 50 hours total by June: infectious disease, urology, primary care, surgery, radiology, ER, and plastic surgery (craniofacial anomalies), both DO and MD. I plan to find another physician to shadow from now until June, so maybe 60 hours total.
Research: 3 years between 2 labs, but unfortunately no publications or presentations.
-Baylor College of Medicine SMART program for one summer. Left early due to a family emergency (see below), so I missed out on my presentation.
Nonclinical volunteering:
-Global Public Health Brigades for one week in the summer. Not sure if I should count this in hours?
-1 year, 100 hours herpetology collection volunteer at a museum. This was related to one of my research positions.
-1 year, 60 hours volunteer tutoring at a library
-Not sure if this one can go here since I received credits for it, but I mentored a group of low-income high school students and helped them through the college admissions process. This was for 2 quarters twice a week, so around 100 hours total.
LORs: 2 from science profs (1 great, 1 good), 1 from Child Life supervisor (great), 1 from Baylor SMART PI (good) and planning on one from a DO.
Employment: I've worked at one of my research labs for a year and a half. I also tutor elementary kids in math, reading, and writing.
My grades obviously aren't stellar and it worries me, but there is an upward trend. My mother was very sick throughout my first two years of college and passed away during the summer of my sophomore year. I won't pretend that it was the sole cause of all of my academic woes, but it definitely made things difficult. I'm also worried that my non-clinical volunteering experience is weak.
I know that it is difficult to tell without my MCAT score, but I could really use some insight right now so that I can plan for the next few months. Should I just go for it and try this cycle or wait another year, gain more clinical and non-clinical volunteering experience, and have a better shot next cycle? I plan on applying mostly DO, maybe a few MD schools. Thanks so much in advance!
B.S. in Molecular & Cellular Biology
I'm taking the MCAT in July. I plan to study for it for the next ~4 months using the schedule provided by Next Step Tutor.
Clinical volunteering experience: 1.5 years, ~150 hours as a Child Life volunteer at a cancer clinic
Shadowing: Minimum of 50 hours total by June: infectious disease, urology, primary care, surgery, radiology, ER, and plastic surgery (craniofacial anomalies), both DO and MD. I plan to find another physician to shadow from now until June, so maybe 60 hours total.
Research: 3 years between 2 labs, but unfortunately no publications or presentations.
-Baylor College of Medicine SMART program for one summer. Left early due to a family emergency (see below), so I missed out on my presentation.
Nonclinical volunteering:
-Global Public Health Brigades for one week in the summer. Not sure if I should count this in hours?
-1 year, 100 hours herpetology collection volunteer at a museum. This was related to one of my research positions.
-1 year, 60 hours volunteer tutoring at a library
-Not sure if this one can go here since I received credits for it, but I mentored a group of low-income high school students and helped them through the college admissions process. This was for 2 quarters twice a week, so around 100 hours total.
LORs: 2 from science profs (1 great, 1 good), 1 from Child Life supervisor (great), 1 from Baylor SMART PI (good) and planning on one from a DO.
Employment: I've worked at one of my research labs for a year and a half. I also tutor elementary kids in math, reading, and writing.
My grades obviously aren't stellar and it worries me, but there is an upward trend. My mother was very sick throughout my first two years of college and passed away during the summer of my sophomore year. I won't pretend that it was the sole cause of all of my academic woes, but it definitely made things difficult. I'm also worried that my non-clinical volunteering experience is weak.
I know that it is difficult to tell without my MCAT score, but I could really use some insight right now so that I can plan for the next few months. Should I just go for it and try this cycle or wait another year, gain more clinical and non-clinical volunteering experience, and have a better shot next cycle? I plan on applying mostly DO, maybe a few MD schools. Thanks so much in advance!
