Hi all, long-time lurker who needs to come of the lurker closet for help. I got rejected from my last school yesterday and I officially need to reapp. I am feeling very lost and hopeless right now, and just need some advice/criticism on what I should be doing in the next few months to give myself a better chance this time around:
Complete most schools between September 1 - September10
sGPA/cGPA 3.68/3.67
MCAT: 35
ECs: ED volunteering (1 year), 100 hours shadowing 5 diff specialties, 3 months volunteering at an underserved clinic, 3 years full-time research (2 pubs, ~10-15 abstracts, 1 poster), part-time grocery store work (20-30 hours/week) throughout college. Misc hobbies.
6 LORs: 2 science professors and 1 non-science fro my college, 2 from research supervisors, 1 from a professor I got friendly with at work.
I also come from a from a low-income single-parent household, but I'm white so I don't think that will help me out. My college was also a bottom of the road unranked school since I did badly in high school, so take that for what you will. In any case, I will be applying as underprivileged this time around.
I applied broadly (25 schools in the northeast), and got 3 interviews at Case Western, CCLCM, and UMass but was waitlisted at Case and rejected from the other two post-interview... my interviews at Case/CCLCM were fine AFAIK, and my interviews at UMass (my top choice) were excellent.
I didn't really do any ECs in college since I wasn't thinking of medical school at that time, and I'm assuming that that is the major weakness of my app. I just recently started volunteering every other week for Habitat for Humanity, and I am applying right now for Big Brother Big Sister so I can have a 'leadership' EC. I am also thinking to sign up as a tutor somewhere if I can find an opening.
Anyone else have general advice for my app? I have also been working in the same lab for 3 years at this point, and I need to give serious consideration whether I should just continue working there for the next year (safest option), or whether I need to consider something else.
I am also wondering if I should consider applying MD/PhD this time around, especially to the schools that rejected me last cycle.
Complete most schools between September 1 - September10
sGPA/cGPA 3.68/3.67
MCAT: 35
ECs: ED volunteering (1 year), 100 hours shadowing 5 diff specialties, 3 months volunteering at an underserved clinic, 3 years full-time research (2 pubs, ~10-15 abstracts, 1 poster), part-time grocery store work (20-30 hours/week) throughout college. Misc hobbies.
6 LORs: 2 science professors and 1 non-science fro my college, 2 from research supervisors, 1 from a professor I got friendly with at work.
I also come from a from a low-income single-parent household, but I'm white so I don't think that will help me out. My college was also a bottom of the road unranked school since I did badly in high school, so take that for what you will. In any case, I will be applying as underprivileged this time around.
I applied broadly (25 schools in the northeast), and got 3 interviews at Case Western, CCLCM, and UMass but was waitlisted at Case and rejected from the other two post-interview... my interviews at Case/CCLCM were fine AFAIK, and my interviews at UMass (my top choice) were excellent.
I didn't really do any ECs in college since I wasn't thinking of medical school at that time, and I'm assuming that that is the major weakness of my app. I just recently started volunteering every other week for Habitat for Humanity, and I am applying right now for Big Brother Big Sister so I can have a 'leadership' EC. I am also thinking to sign up as a tutor somewhere if I can find an opening.
Anyone else have general advice for my app? I have also been working in the same lab for 3 years at this point, and I need to give serious consideration whether I should just continue working there for the next year (safest option), or whether I need to consider something else.
I am also wondering if I should consider applying MD/PhD this time around, especially to the schools that rejected me last cycle.
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