I graduated last spring from a small liberal arts college with a major in biology, minors in chemistry and psychology. I got a full-time job as a disability claims adjudicator for Social Security, and thought I would take a year to just work on my application to reapply, then reapply to start in 2017. My cGPA is 3.75 and sGPA is 3.6. I got a 499 MCAT, which I took while still in pretty extensive training for this job, so I didn't have the greatest study habits in place. It was an improvement from my prior MCAT, though. I had taken this MCAT when I was working a 24/7 job at a camp and had absolutely no time to study. Although I told myself I was going to wait for next cycle, I did end up applying for this cycle to see what would happen, but things are not looking really promising right now considering my low MCAT and late application (I submitted my AMCAS and AACOMAS in late September).
I'm starting to look at my options for next year and in which ways would be most beneficial to improve my application.
1. Retake Organic Chemistry II this semester. During undergrad I got a C- in this class. All of my other grades are mostly A and A- with the occasional B, but I feel like this C- may have killed me. Now I work full time, and I would be taking this class in the evenings. I would only really have time for work and ochem, so not many other areas of my application would be added to until at least summer. I did take biochemistry this past semester while working, and managed to get a B, and I know some schools will replace ochem 2 with biochemistry. My employer would pay for this class, so the money aspect of this isn't a factor in my decision.
2. Focus on MCAT study to increase my score, as well as add on clinical experiences and volunteer experiences. I don't have the most clinical hours ever, in an actual doctor or hospital setting it's about 100 hours. I did work at a camp for kids with serious illnesses for a summer, which gave me a very different kind of clinical exposure, but it's hard to count that as real clinical hours. I don't have many clinical volunteer hours. I do have quite a bit of volunteer hours through my church, but when I've applied to volunteer places like clinics and hospitals this year, they've needed me to come in during the day to get things set up, and I'm just not able to take time off work to do that. If I went this route, I would really try to find something that would work more with my work schedule.
My current job isn't directly clinical, but I do spend most of the day interviewing people about their illnesses, reading medical records, and working with doctors to make a decision for social security disability claims. It is medical, but not direct patient care. I have my STNA, and considered getting some more direct patient care experience with a part time job, but I'm not positive I can work this out with my current work schedule. I don't want to change jobs, because I have decent pay and good benefits.
Either way I need to retake the MCAT, it's just deciding whether to focus on MCAT prep, or spend all of my time trying to get a better grade in ochem 2. I was just thinking I should take ochem 2 this semester on the off chance that I would get an interview/acceptance this year. I put on my application that I would be taking ochem 2 this semester. Am I getting my hopes too high here and should just give myself a year to work on my application and take ochem 2 in the summer or fall?
I'm starting to look at my options for next year and in which ways would be most beneficial to improve my application.
1. Retake Organic Chemistry II this semester. During undergrad I got a C- in this class. All of my other grades are mostly A and A- with the occasional B, but I feel like this C- may have killed me. Now I work full time, and I would be taking this class in the evenings. I would only really have time for work and ochem, so not many other areas of my application would be added to until at least summer. I did take biochemistry this past semester while working, and managed to get a B, and I know some schools will replace ochem 2 with biochemistry. My employer would pay for this class, so the money aspect of this isn't a factor in my decision.
2. Focus on MCAT study to increase my score, as well as add on clinical experiences and volunteer experiences. I don't have the most clinical hours ever, in an actual doctor or hospital setting it's about 100 hours. I did work at a camp for kids with serious illnesses for a summer, which gave me a very different kind of clinical exposure, but it's hard to count that as real clinical hours. I don't have many clinical volunteer hours. I do have quite a bit of volunteer hours through my church, but when I've applied to volunteer places like clinics and hospitals this year, they've needed me to come in during the day to get things set up, and I'm just not able to take time off work to do that. If I went this route, I would really try to find something that would work more with my work schedule.
My current job isn't directly clinical, but I do spend most of the day interviewing people about their illnesses, reading medical records, and working with doctors to make a decision for social security disability claims. It is medical, but not direct patient care. I have my STNA, and considered getting some more direct patient care experience with a part time job, but I'm not positive I can work this out with my current work schedule. I don't want to change jobs, because I have decent pay and good benefits.
Either way I need to retake the MCAT, it's just deciding whether to focus on MCAT prep, or spend all of my time trying to get a better grade in ochem 2. I was just thinking I should take ochem 2 this semester on the off chance that I would get an interview/acceptance this year. I put on my application that I would be taking ochem 2 this semester. Am I getting my hopes too high here and should just give myself a year to work on my application and take ochem 2 in the summer or fall?
