Late App... where to apply?

[EmLems11]

Stats: first 3 semester gpa: 3.42, transferred, Last 5 semesters: 3.956
-- Had a bad ochem professor freshman year plus upper level math classes that resulted in lower gpa. Retook two semesters plus lab of ochem: got AB, A, and AB in lab. All other science courses are A's, including biochem, genetics, and upper level neuro classes
-- non-trad: getting MPH degree currently, will be complete by summer 2011
-- fairly diverse class selection outside of the sciences
33Q MCAT (took in August, just recieved scores): 12P. 11V. 10B

Extracurriculars:
-Volunteer in ER and OR (1.5 years, approx 3 hrs per week) plus with Hospital Elderly Life Program (new program, approx 3 hrs per week)
-Manage a local marketing team
-member of intercollegiate competitive sport, plus president of club for one year
-involved in multiple rec sports
-tutored sciences at college level for 2 years plus TA'd chemistry for one semester
-2 honor societies plus other academic awards
-some research in neurophys. lab but no publications. will complete a capstone project for my masters and I plan to send an abstract as an amendment to my app
-figure skating and gymnastics instructor for children, plus a summer nanny (not sure if important but im interested in peds)
-community health intern (full-time) one summer doing public health research and work

I am a Wisconsin resident so I am for sure applying to UWisconsin and MCW. Where else am I competitive?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Catalystik]

Assuming you included all your grades, both original and retakes, and no graduate grades from the MPH, I come up with an undergrad GPA of 3.76. Is that close?

With a 3.76/33, your chances of an acceptance would have been 75% earlier in the cycle.

You don't mention physician shadowing? Most, not all, schools consider this to be important.

Other schools to research for potential application that have a good OOS matriculation rate:

Colorado, UConn, Georgetown, Miami, Iowa, Maryland, UMinn, Stony Brook, Wake, Cincinnati, Penn State,
Loma Linda, Loyola, RFU, UKentucky, Creighton, Albany, SUNY Downstate, Hofstra (new), Jefferson,
UIllinois, Wayne, Buffalo, Toledo, Drexel, Temple, Vermont, VCU, Virginia Tech Carilion (new),
GWU, FIU, Louisville, Tulane, NYMC, MUSC, SCarolina, EVMS.

You need not list more than one school when you submit to AMCAS to get the transcript verification started. So if you plan to proceed with an application this season, send it in, and research other schools at your leisure, adding them later. Start writing Secondary essys from prompts you'll find in the School Specific forum of Pre-Med Allo, so your turn-around time will be rapid when formally invited to send it in.

 

[EmLems11]

I believe that is an accurate GPA... I don't know the exact calculation by AMCAS but the gpas I provided do include the original plus retakes and no graduate grades.

I do not have any physician shadowing to date. The medical university where I live (University of Wisconsin) does not allow non-medical personnel to shadow due to H1N1 and other communicable diseases. I may be able to do some networking and find a private physician to shadow or shadow in my hometown (however, this has been difficult with a part-time job and full class load). If I do find a physician who allows me to shadow him, I will make send an addition to my application.

I have already submitted my application for verification and plan to add schools shortly. Thank you so much for the advice and recommendations.

 

[EmLems11]

Also, given the late application, how many schools is a reasonable number to apply to? Thanks in advance

 

[Catalystik]

There's no correct answer to this question. I'd suggest 15-20.

 

[UbuntuGM]

Also, given the late application, how many schools is a reasonable number to apply to? Thanks in advance

I'd suggest as many as you can afford to all the OOS schools with good OOS matriculation (over 25%)

 

[chil]

But isn't the purpose of shadowing a doctor to get a better feel for the medical profession? Wouldn't admissions be suspicious of shadowing experiences AFTER submitting your app? Wouldn't they see the shadowing experience as something you did simply to improve your app? (And I am asking this not to criticize, but to get answers to these Qs.)

 

[Catalystik]

But isn't the purpose of shadowing a doctor to get a better feel for the medical profession? Wouldn't admissions be suspicious of shadowing experiences AFTER submitting your app? Wouldn't they see the shadowing experience as something you did simply to improve your app? (And I am asking this not to criticize, but to get answers to these Qs.)

Belated shadowing isn't the ideal situation, but it's better than not doing it at all, and allows one to speak more knowledgeably about medical practice at interviews. If asked why it wasn't done sooner, the OP has a good answer.

 

[TropicalKitty]

Belated shadowing isn't the ideal situation, but it's better than not doing it at all, and allows one to speak more knowledgeably about medical practice at interviews. If asked why it wasn't done sooner, the OP has a good answer.

I'm not going to pretend to know as much as Catalystik, but I'm in a similar boat (I'm non-trad, been working full-time since I got out of grad school). It wasn't until just recently that I finally was able to find a place that I wanted to shadow a doctor AND had the ability (read: really nice supervisor who is letting me switch up when I work) to get to shadow. Not to mention, in the little time that I've spent there already, I'm glad I didn't just find some random place to just get some hours. I love where I went and it's really helping me see if it's what I want to do (which happens to be a big change from what I initially had wanted to do). My plan is to let them know my situation and hope they can understand why I wasn't able to do this earlier, but also understand how I was able to gain insight into the medical field without much prior physician shadowing.

So like Cat said, not ideal, but if you have a good reason, hopefully it won't be a big issue.