Reapplying Next Cycle - What to add to my ECs?

[karnasty]

Hi all. I applied to about 15 MD schools last cycle and didn't get any interviews. At that time, this is what I had on my application:

-3.6 cumulative GPA, 3.7 science
-36 MCAT
-1.5 years of clinical research with an interventional cardiologist, no publications
-4 years on the track and field team at my university
-About a month of ER scribing
-Teacher's assistant in an upper division bio class for a quarter
-Worked at Round Table Pizza for a year

These were my letters of recommendation at the time:

-Track & field head coach
-Professor I TA'd for
-My research PI (M.D.)
-My lead scribe (kind of a silly idea in retrospect)

So basically I attributed my lack of success to weak ECs / no volunteering, a late application, and only having one LOR from a professor, which severely limited the number of schools I was able to apply to. Because of how lacking I was in ECs, I decided to take a gap year before applying again, and try to boost this.

Since that application, this is what I've added:

-In total 1.5 years of ER scribing, the last 6 months of which I was promoted to a trainer position
-2.5 months and counting of a full-time position as a scribe/MA at a pain management doctor's (D.O.) office
-A year of volunteer tutoring for a disadvantaged middle school student (about 50 hours total)
-15 months and counting of hospice volunteering (right now about 240 hours, should be about 320 hours when I apply)
-A publication as a first author for a clinical image study I did with one of the ER docs I worked with
-8 hours of shadowing an interventional radiologist

As far as letters go:

-Another LOR from a science professor (now I have 2 and can apply to way more schools, but I still don't have a non-science letter)
-2 letters from ER docs I became really close with
-Possibly a letter from my hospice volunteer coordinator (haven't decided if I'm going to ask yet)

I was just wondering what advice you guys have as far as adding more to my resume before applying next June. Right now it's hard to add much as I'm working full-time and volunteering on Sundays, but I still think I can add a little more before then.

I am planning on getting more shadowing experience, but do you think I should try to add more non-clinical volunteering or research as well (I would only realistically be able to do one or the other)? Any other advice? I'm probably going to apply to some DO schools too. Oh, and I'm a resident of California.

Thank you so, so much. I really appreciate it.

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[sameharu1991]

Hmm. How did you determine what MD schools to apply to? Were they top heavy/more CA schools by any chance? It seems to me that you have pretty good stats and EC's. I'm surprised that you didn't get any interviews.

I think you have a lot on your ECs/LOR already - maybe the focus needs to be on applying to schools more broadly. If you are applying to DO schools, make sure to strongly communicate what DO is and how DO program interests you in your personal statement.

 

[karnasty]

Well because I only had one LOR from a professor, that was pretty much the deciding factor in which schools I could apply to. Which meant that, yes, most schools were top heavy/CA. Although there were some low tier schools in there as well. Getting only one professor letter was a huge mistake. Now that I have another science prof letter, I can and will apply more broadly, and I think I might as well try to get a non-science prof letter too, so I can go even broader. Even though the letter wouldn't be of the best quality.

Thanks for the help. I'll probably just keep my schedule the same and start spending a little bit of time each day on my personal statement and pre-writing secondaries. And maybe sprinkle in the occasional shadowing to keep my motivation up. Oh man I miss school.

 

[sameharu1991]

Well because I only had one LOR from a professor, that was pretty much the deciding factor in which schools I could apply to. Which meant that, yes, most schools were top heavy/CA. Although there were some low tier schools in there as well. Getting only one professor letter was a huge mistake. Now that I have another science prof letter, I can and will apply more broadly, and I think I might as well try to get a non-science prof letter too, so I can go even broader. Even though the letter wouldn't be of the best quality.

Thanks for the help. I'll probably just keep my schedule the same and start spending a little bit of time each day on my personal statement and pre-writing secondaries. And maybe sprinkle in the occasional shadowing to keep my motivation up. Oh man I miss school.

Ah I see. I didn't realize that point about having one letter.

Good luck preparing for the next cycle!

 

[gyngyn]

Be sure to apply to at least a handful of schools where you are not a re-applicant.

 

[karnasty]

Be sure to apply to at least a handful of schools where you are not a re-applicant.

Will do, thanks.

 

[MedicalChick]

Hi all. I applied to about 15 MD schools last cycle and didn't get any interviews. At that time, this is what I had on my application:

-3.6 cumulative GPA, 3.7 science
-36 MCAT
-1.5 years of clinical research with an interventional cardiologist, no publications
-4 years on the track and field team at my university
-About a month of ER scribing
-Teacher's assistant in an upper division bio class for a quarter
-Worked at Round Table Pizza for a year

These were my letters of recommendation at the time:

-Track & field head coach
-Professor I TA'd for
-My research PI (M.D.)
-My lead scribe (kind of a silly idea in retrospect)

So basically I attributed my lack of success to weak ECs / no volunteering, a late application, and only having one LOR from a professor, which severely limited the number of schools I was able to apply to. Because of how lacking I was in ECs, I decided to take a gap year before applying again, and try to boost this.

Since that application, this is what I've added:

-In total 1.5 years of ER scribing, the last 6 months of which I was promoted to a trainer position
-2.5 months and counting of a full-time position as a scribe/MA at a pain management doctor's (D.O.) office
-A year of volunteer tutoring for a disadvantaged middle school student (about 50 hours total)
-15 months and counting of hospice volunteering (right now about 240 hours, should be about 320 hours when I apply)
-A publication as a first author for a clinical image study I did with one of the ER docs I worked with
-8 hours of shadowing an interventional radiologist

As far as letters go:

-Another LOR from a science professor (now I have 2 and can apply to way more schools, but I still don't have a non-science letter)
-2 letters from ER docs I became really close with
-Possibly a letter from my hospice volunteer coordinator (haven't decided if I'm going to ask yet)

I was just wondering what advice you guys have as far as adding more to my resume before applying next June. Right now it's hard to add much as I'm working full-time and volunteering on Sundays, but I still think I can add a little more before then.

I am planning on getting more shadowing experience, but do you think I should try to add more non-clinical volunteering or research as well (I would only realistically be able to do one or the other)? Any other advice? I'm probably going to apply to some DO schools too. Oh, and I'm a resident of California.

Thank you so, so much. I really appreciate it.

Your stats are decent, but keep in mind that it depends on the medical school and your interview. You should probably volunteer more at a hospital rather than just one day. A mistake you did was not applying to DO schools and saving yourself the time to reapply again this cycle. The biggest reason I believe you didn't get any acceptances would be because you are from California.

 

[karnasty]

Your stats are decent, but keep in mind that it depends on the medical school and your interview. You should probably volunteer more at a hospital rather than just one day. A mistake you did was not applying to DO schools and saving yourself the time to reapply again this cycle. The biggest reason I believe you didn't get any acceptances would be because you are from California.

Thanks. Yeah I think I will apply to DO schools this cycle. The doctor I'm working with now is a DO, so he'll be a good resource for those applications.