WAMC - 3.7 cumGPA, 3.93 science GPA, 522 MCAT

[witsend97]

Hello!
I posted this same post in Pittsburgh forum and someone told me to post here, hoping it may help:
I was wondering if anyone could help me out here. This is my third cycle applying and I’m asking if anyone knows what I’m doing wrong. I got 3 interviews my first cycle (didn’t get in anywhere), I think maybe 2 secondaries my second cycle (no interviews or acceptances), and this cycle I applied beginning of July but have not heard anything from anyone, not even secondaries. I know I’m not the best applicant but I really thought I was at least somewhat competitive and I’m just feeling really hopeless. My stats are:
Mcat: 522
Cum gpa: 3.7
Science gpa: 3.93
Shadowing/volunteering: 300+
Research: 3 years (including one at Penn)
For this year, I was able to add scribe and medical assisting to my resume and experiences as well.
For reference, I applied to 11 schools my first cycle (I know this was low but I didn’t have much knowledge on the ins and outs of med school applications), applied to 16 schools my second cycle, and 30 schools this cycle (and submitted my applications end of June and verified).
Sorry this was so long and don’t mean to add onto anyone else’s worries, just thought I’d try to get an outsiders perspective. Good luck to all!!!

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[holyequation]

“I know I’m not the best applicant” when you have literally stats for whatever school you want and better than 90% of people here.

What were your extracurriculars? Did u only have research?

I think the problem may be in your writing. Perhaps even interviewing skills?
I’m not sure what your personal statement, activities, secondaries looked like but the way you write is how you show who you are outside of numbers. Interviews serve to ensure you have a personality and you’re not simply just a robot.

Regardless is tough for me to tell without the details. Just my two cents

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Cycle 1: 3 interviews of 11, but were you waitlisted or rejected immediately post-interview?

Cycle 2: no interviews of 16, including the ones you interviewed at in Cycle 1? That's not a good sign.

So what changed between cycles including the current one (30 schools)? How have your prepared for interviews?

Follow the template. A breakdown of your activities would be nice but you aren't giving us a full idea of what your experiences are.

It would help knowing what schools you applied to and interviewed at.

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? What are the hours for your ECs ? Which schools have you applied to this cycle ?

 

[witsend97]

“I know I’m not the best applicant” when you have literally stats for whatever school you want and better than 90% of people here.

What were your extracurriculars? Did u only have research?

I think the problem may be in your writing. Perhaps even interviewing skills?
I’m not sure what your personal statement, activities, secondaries looked like but the way you write is how you show who you are outside of numbers. Interviews serve to ensure you have a personality and you’re not simply just a robot.

Regardless is tough for me to tell without the details. Just my two cents

For my first 2 cycles:
-extracurriculars: I have 3 years of research experience (2 years at Penn state and 1 year at UPenn)
-volunteering and shadowing at Penn state Hershey and at an ophthalmologist

3rd/current cycle:
-everything listed above
-also added scribing, medical assisting, started a basketball team in a local community, was a speaker at a convention, and just recently added an update for starting a new job as a technician at a hospital

Honestly maybe it is my writing skills and interviewing skills. I’ll definitely work on those. Thanks again so much for all your help!! Good luck to you as well!!

 

[witsend97]

Cycle 1: 3 interviews of 11, but were you waitlisted or rejected immediately post-interview?

Cycle 2: no interviews of 16, including the ones you interviewed at in Cycle 1? That's not a good sign.

So what changed between cycles including the current one (30 schools)? How have your prepared for interviews?

Follow the template. A breakdown of your activities would be nice but you aren't giving us a full idea of what your experiences are.

It would help knowing what schools you applied to and interviewed at.

Cycle 1: no waitlisted and immediate rejections; I got 1 official rejection and then didn’t hear back from the other 2

Cycle 2: nothing from anywhere; only two secondaries. I was talking to someone from admissions from a school I applied to. For sake of privacy, I’ll call the person “L” and the school “X”. I really wanted to go to school X and I thought I could get in but I hadn’t gotten my secondaries. L was pretty high up on the admissions team so I emailed them explaining the situation and even spoke on the phone with them. L looked at my application and was surprised I hadn’t received anything yet. They worked with me to get my secondaries and eventually I got them. L read over my secondaries and told me if I don’t get an interview in two weeks, to call them back and they’ll see what’s going on. Well two weeks came and went and I called but I never heard anything from them again. I called for about two months but they stopped answering all my calls and emails. I just don’t know what happened.

As for what changed between my last cycles and this one, I added many more community service hours and clinical experience. I was a medical scribe, medical assistant, started coaching a basketball team at a nearby community, and held a speech at a convention about sexual health. I’ve also worked with a lot of other premed students to see how my interviews could have gone wrong and I did mock interviews with my old boss.

Sorry, I didn’t know there was a template. I’m pretty new to posting on these threads. I’ll read the directions more carefully next time.

These are where I applied this cycle:
Kaiser Permaente
Georgetown
Uni. of Michigan
UConn
Emory
SKMC
Penn State
Tufts
UVA
Pitt
Temple
Ohio State
Chobanian Boston University
Brown University
Rutgers
Quinnipac
Hofstra
University of Cincinnati
Weill Cornell
University of Chicago (Prtizker)
Case Western Reserve
GW
John’s Hopkins
Albert Einstein SOM
Mount Sinai
Penn
Yale
Vanderbilt
University of Rochester

In my first cycle, I interviewed at Jefferson, temple, and Baylor.

Thank you again for all your help I really appreciate it.

 

[witsend97]

Where is your state of residence ? What are the hours for your ECs ? Which schools have you applied to this cycle ?

You can see the schools I applied to for this current cycle in the comment above!!!

I live in Pennsylvania! I have 3 years of research experience, scribing from June-august, medical assisting from April to now, and started an ophthalmology technician just recently and will be doing that for the year!

Thank you again for your help and questions. Really means a lot especially knowing everyone else is so busy.

 

[Faha]

Rutgers and UConn admit few non residents with no connection to the state. If you add more schools it will increase your chances for interviews and I suggest these:
Western Michigan
Northwestern
St. Louis
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
USF Morsani
Miami
Wake Forest
New York Medical College
Einstein
Vermont
Creighton
Commonwealth Gesiinger
Drexel
Has your AMCAS application been verified ? It is very unusual that you have not received any secondaries as schools send out secondaries to almost all applicants. If you have not received any secondaries in the next week contact AMCAS and find out if your application was sent to all your schools. If you have not received several interviews by early November apply to DO schools also and I suggest these:
PCOM
LECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
CUSOM
CCOM
AZCOM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
TUCOM-CA
WESTERN

 

[witsend97]

Rutgers and UConn admit few non residents with no connection to the state. If you add more schools it will increase your chances for interviews and I suggest these:
Western Michigan
Northwestern
St. Louis
Washington University (in St. Louis-almost a guaranteed interview with your stats)
USF Morsani
Miami
Wake Forest
New York Medical College
Einstein
Vermont
Creighton
Commonwealth Gesiinger
Drexel
Has your AMCAS application been verified ? It is very unusual that you have not received any secondaries as schools send out secondaries to almost all applicants. If you have not received any secondaries in the next week contact AMCAS and find out if your application was sent to all your schools. If you have not received several interviews by early November apply to DO schools also and I suggest these:
PCOM
LECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
CUSOM
CCOM
AZCOM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
TUCOM-CA
WESTERN

Ah okay I’ll definitely look into those schools!! Thank you so much!!!

As for the DO programs, I was looking into a few and this gave me the push to shoot my shot at those. Thanks again and best of luck to you for this cycle!! I hope you get into wherever you wanna go

 

[Plut0]

Hello!
I posted this same post in Pittsburgh forum and someone told me to post here, hoping it may help:
I was wondering if anyone could help me out here. This is my third cycle applying and I’m asking if anyone knows what I’m doing wrong. I got 3 interviews my first cycle (didn’t get in anywhere), I think maybe 2 secondaries my second cycle (no interviews or acceptances), and this cycle I applied beginning of July but have not heard anything from anyone, not even secondaries. I know I’m not the best applicant but I really thought I was at least somewhat competitive and I’m just feeling really hopeless. My stats are:

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Most schools don't screen for secondaries (i.e. they give secondaries to all applicants) and your stats will pass any screen anyways. Have you received a confirmation email from AMCAS that says you are verified for this cycle?

 

[witsend97]

Can you clarify what you mean by this? Most schools don't screen for secondaries (i.e. they give secondaries to all applicants) and your stats will pass any screen anyways. Have you received a confirmation email from AMCAS that says you are verified for this cycle?

Yeah I’ve called AMCAS and my schools and they said everything is verified and that they have all my information and to just wait but yeah, only received 2 secondaries last year and none this year

 

[mddo2022]

Yeah I’ve called AMCAS and my schools and they said everything is verified and that they have all my information and to just wait but yeah, only received 2 secondaries last year and none this year

Have you checked your spam folder? My stats were nowhere closer to yours. I received secondaries from almost every school I applied to.

 

[witsend97]

Have you checked your spam folder? My stats were nowhere closer to yours. I received secondaries from almost every school I applied to.

Yep, been checking everything

 

[mddo2022]

Yep, been checking everything

Oh no! I guess you're better off contacting each medical school and in the meantime pre-write the secondaries.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Cycle 1: no waitlisted and immediate rejections; I got 1 official rejection and then didn’t hear back from the other 2

Cycle 2: nothing from anywhere; only two secondaries. I was talking to someone from admissions from a school I applied to. For sake of privacy, I’ll call the person “L” and the school “X”. I really wanted to go to school X and I thought I could get in but I hadn’t gotten my secondaries. L was pretty high up on the admissions team so I emailed them explaining the situation and even spoke on the phone with them. L looked at my application and was surprised I hadn’t received anything yet. They worked with me to get my secondaries and eventually I got them. L read over my secondaries and told me if I don’t get an interview in two weeks, to call them back and they’ll see what’s going on. Well two weeks came and went and I called but I never heard anything from them again. I called for about two months but they stopped answering all my calls and emails. I just don’t know what happened.

As for what changed between my last cycles and this one, I added many more community service hours and clinical experience. I was a medical scribe, medical assistant, started coaching a basketball team at a nearby community, and held a speech at a convention about sexual health. I’ve also worked with a lot of other premed students to see how my interviews could have gone wrong and I did mock interviews with my old boss.

Sorry, I didn’t know there was a template. I’m pretty new to posting on these threads. I’ll read the directions more carefully next time.

These are where I applied this cycle:
Kaiser Permaente
Georgetown
Uni. of Michigan
UConn
Emory
SKMC
Penn State
Tufts
UVA
Pitt
Temple
Ohio State
Chobanian Boston University
Brown University
Rutgers
Quinnipac
Hofstra
University of Cincinnati
Weill Cornell
University of Chicago (Prtizker)
Case Western Reserve
GW
John’s Hopkins
Albert Einstein SOM
Mount Sinai
Penn
Yale
Vanderbilt
University of Rochester

In my first cycle, I interviewed at Jefferson, temple, and Baylor.

Thank you again for all your help I really appreciate it.

How many community service hours do you have? How are they distributed among your various activities? That seems to be the missing ingredient.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Yeah. Something is missing here. It could be something as simple as not checking the boxes for community service. Your second go-round netting two secondaries is not a good sign. Has something changed...IA, legal troubles, something like that? Make sure all your ducks are in a row, and good luck.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Coming back to the OP: so have you received more secondaries?

You at least received a couple. Otherwise I would go back to checking on your actual email address and make sure nothing's weird or wrong with it. It sounds silly, but if you haven't gotten any responses in junk mail, I'm not sure what would stop you from getting secondaries or invitations to go into school portals to complete them.

At this point, call up the schools' admissions offices. Make sure you get secondaries if you qualified to receive them (or didn't need to qualify). At the very least, they need to send you a link to pay for your secondary application.

 

[chilly_md]

Very few secondaries last year and none this year sounds like a problem with your e-mail like Mr.Smile12 suggested. They may get filtered into a separate folder as well besides the junk one. It would be worth running a search in your e-mail in all folders for "secondary" or some of the school names. I would have recommended creating a new e-mail before applying this cycle.

 

[witsend97]

How many community service hours do you have? How are they distributed among your various activities? That seems to be the missing ingredient.

I think I have a decent amount. I volunteered at a hospital and senior living home in high school and college, gave a talk on sexual health and consent at a local convention, and started a recreational basketball league at a religious center near my city. I thought I had good experiences but maybe not enough or not the specific type they want.

 

[witsend97]

Yeah. Something is missing here. It could be something as simple as not checking the boxes for community service. Your second go-round netting two secondaries is not a good sign. Has something changed...IA, legal troubles, something like that? Make sure all your ducks are in a row, and good luck.

I thought I got my identity stolen because I keep having issues with my bank but I called AMCAS and my schools with that concern and they said something like that wouldn’t affect me.

 

[witsend97]

Coming back to the OP: so have you received more secondaries?

You at least received a couple. Otherwise I would go back to checking on your actual email address and make sure nothing's weird or wrong with it. It sounds silly, but if you haven't gotten any responses in junk mail, I'm not sure what would stop you from getting secondaries or invitations to go into school portals to complete them.

At this point, call up the schools' admissions offices. Make sure you get secondaries if you qualified to receive them (or didn't need to qualify). At the very least, they need to send you a link to pay for your secondary application.

@chilly_md

Still nothing yet. Have checked all folders, been calling, everything that people have suggested.

Guess it’s just really bad luck. But appreciate everyone’s thoughts and insights a lot. Hope you guys all get in!!! Maybe someone can put it in a good word for me in their program haha.

 

[MyOdyssey]

I think I have a decent amount. I volunteered at a hospital and senior living home in high school and college, gave a talk on sexual health and consent at a local convention, and started a recreational basketball league at a religious center near my city. I thought I had good experiences but maybe not enough or not the specific type they want.

How many hours including only college & post-college activities did you disclose on your primary?

 

[witsend97]

How many hours including only college & post-college activities did you disclose on your primary?

About 800

 

[MyOdyssey]

800 should be more than enough assuming you're referring to NONclinical volunteering directed at the underserved.

Volunteering at the hospital or any kind of clinical setting would fall under clinical experience - not nonclinical volunteering.

Senior home volunteering gets treated as clinical by some adcoms and as nonclinical by others depending on the nature of it.

How many senior home volunteering hours do you have (starting in college)? What did you do there?

How many hours did you spend giving the talk? Not sure this counts as nonclinical volunteering.

The basketball league you started. Which demographic did it benefit? What demographic did you have to interact with to get it started?

It's still unclear to me how many NONclinical volunteering hours you have beginning in college.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It's very mysterious. You had enough for interviews the first time through. Then you got much less interest in the other cycles, and no repeats.

You may have changed your essays in cycle 2, but I don't expect that to work against you. Schools do not talk to each other (no collusion), so it's odd that things got worse.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Hmm. Maybe you were getting screened out because you didn't have enough nonclinical volunteering. However, unless the basketball league was in a comfortable suburb that sounds like it would "count". Maybe try Habitat for Humanity or something that is undoubtedly nonclinical. You only need 150-200 hours to check the box; on paper your application looks like pack fodder for top 20 schools and solid everywhere else. Something is going on with this radio silence and what you reported with the admissions committee sounds rather suspect.

You've said that your identity was stolen and you kept having issues with this...I wonder if something like this happened:

Let's say you're Mr. John Anderson. Upstanding citizen, honest guy, never been in trouble with the law. Then, your identity gets stolen by Criminal McCriminalface, who proceeds to commit a bunch of fraud and other crimes under your name. Cops eventually arrest this guy...but not before he somehow winds up in databases or in the news under your name. Or something like your name being flagged because of the fraudster that stole your identity. Something is up here and if you have all the boxes checked, the stats that you're saying you do, the hours and clinical experience that you say you do...you should have had more interviews than you now have.

I would honestly consult a lawyer and definitely get a new email address. I might even go as far as changing my name...something is very much not right here. There is something here that isn't being told, possibly because you genuinely don't know what is going on and you are being confused with some thieving criminal who committed fraud under your name.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I am less certain the issue is all about stolen identity. Your AAMC ID is sacred in meded, and there are stories of people seeing up multiple accounts with different AAMC IDs triggering a warning from the head office. You probably would know if someone else is impersonating you unless they also have this ID#, which is not commonly found in the usual databases that can be hacked into.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

I am less certain the issue is all about stolen identity. Your AAMC ID is sacred in meded, and there are stories of people seeing up multiple accounts with different AAMC IDs triggering a warning from the head office. You probably would know if someone else is impersonating you unless they also have this ID#, which is not commonly found in the usual databases that can be hacked into.

Fair enough - although the OP having fallen prey to a phishing attempt is certainly possible.

Something isn't right here. I wonder if a lawyer could help get to the bottom of it, assuming there's no skeletons in the OP's closet.

 

[ApplicantWishMeLuck]

Fell down an SDN rabbit hole and now I'm invested.

Did you end up getting secondaries this cycle?