All I am saying is that medschoolapps ‘stats are adequate enough to have someone at most adcoms at least look at his PS and activities.
For most schools, the PS and activities are useful as fodder during the interview and for consideration when your application goes before committee with final decision. Great ECs do not carry huge weight pre-interview. That portion is very much a numbers game.
Granted my GPA was a 3.8, a little higher than 3.3, the focus of my interviews was not on why i obtained 5 or 6 b's in my college career, nor was I ever asked why I didn't break 10 on the verbal. However, we did talk about how I figured out how to siphon 500cc of blood from a patient with a hemopneumo using a 14guage and a suction, or the time I triaged a t-boned school bus with a medic who freaked out and went back in the truck, and even how we put out a large brush fire with flame-******ant stretcher sheets and fire extinguishers when we could get the brush trucks onto the field.
These are great stories for the interview. But if you had a 3.3, odds are pretty good you might never have had the opportunity to tell them.
Pre-med experiences, including EMS tales like yours, are a lot of fun to talk about in interviews. But they don't carry as much weight as you might think in the initial screen. The fact is, how someone does on-scene at an MVA doesn't answer the essential pre-interview question med schools have when they look at your primary: "Will this person be able to handle the academic rigors of medical school?"
That question is answered by your undergrad GPA and your MCAT. Once you've answered that question by showing enough academic progress, then you will get invited in to interview and be able to regale folks with your tales. But ECs are no substitute for academics.
I'm speaking largely for allopathic schools. I didn't apply DO, but from folks I've talked to who did, they were much more open about life experiences compensating for less-than-stellar academics sometimes. This hasn't been my experience applying to or interviewing for medical school.
I'm not trying to toot my own horn, all I am saying is that the medical school selection process is subjective and if someone who can empathize with you looks at your app or interviews you, you just might get accepted.
The decision of who to admit is more subjective than most think. The decision of who to interview is less subjective than most hope.
Personally, I would rather have a physician who was a medic for a few years, put him/herself through college, and has some well rounded experiences, than one who did little more than study and obtained great stats.
You may change your tune. You'll find that the experiences you gain as a medic in EMS are great very early on but are quickly a distant memory in your clinical education. Totally agree about the importance of hard work/well-rounded-experience (or maturity, to put it simply), but the fact is that most med students have more of this than you'd think.
If you get into USUHS awesome, if not, there is no reason why you can't be just as good as a physician coming from an osteopathic school.
Abso-friggin-lutely. UHUHS is a great school if you are 100% sure you want the military as your career. But you can also do so via any US medical school.
At the end of the day, become a doctor. The distinction of any path you took to get there is quickly lost in the wash with a few years experience.
Best of luck to all still waiting....
