3.81 bpcm, 3.66 total, MCAT: ?, residence: IL?

Oh hi! 🙂

BPCM: 3.82 (including post-bacc)
Total undergrad+post-bacc: 3.76
Total grad: 3.23 meh

BS chemistry, math minor
MS organic chemistry (everyone's faaave subject!!!!11)
Post-bacc: After grad school.

LORs: one from my undergraduate research advisor, one from my graduate research advisor, one from my supervisor that I do HIV outreach with, and a committee letter from the post-bacc program


Older Stuff:

• Researchresearchresearch (01-08) - I've done a fair amount. Worked for 2 years at a small biotech company in an animal lab scraping poop from cages to dosing to running assays. Academic research has been in organic synthesis since 2003, with one project being more "biologically relevant." 2 co-author publications (1 as an undergrad and 1 as a grad student), 1 poster at a national conference, other poster presentations at smaller conferences.
• Mentor (summer 03-04) - Mentored two high school kids via a summer research program that targets kids who come from economically disadvantaged families. Taught them basic organic chemistry lab techniques/safety (it helps when your chemistry produces some neat-o colors), helped them present their summer research via an oral presentation. Also coordinated group activities with the other high school students doing research at my university (yeaaaah, LN2 ice cream!!!).
• Awards/fellowships - Two major research fellowships in undergrad and one as a graudate student. Dean's list and some other smaller awards here and there, but those aren't on my primary application.
• Teaching - taught general chemistry (2 semesters), organic chemistry (1 semesters). And by teaching I mean delivering pre-lab lectures, quizzes, exam review sessions, holding supplemental discussion classes.

Current/upcoming stuff:

• HIV tester/counselor (current) - 2-4 hr/week since Sept 2009. Left my laptop at a friend's house so I don't know the total # of hours offhand. This volunteer position turned into a paid one involves providing free HIV testing (oral swab), counseling, and safer sex education. We mostly focus on the Asian MSM population, but we encourage anyone and everyone to come get tested! 🙂
• ER volunteer (current) - 4 hr/week since Sept 2009. I think I'm at ~130 hours now. Patient transport, helped check in admitted patients, chat with doctors, and will be shadowing the same hospital in the fall.
• Shadowing (future) - Will be doing that in the fall through an internship at my school. Should I update that when my secondaries come through? Seems silly to put that in my primary application when I haven't done a damn thing.
• Teaching / faculty assistant (current/future) - Same story (organic/gen chem), different school, although I don't get as much freedom as far as developing my own lectures/handouts go. Will be TAing pathophysiology in the fall and hoping to GET more out of it as far as actual teaching is concerned.

Some Questions:

• State of residence: My parents still live in CA but do not claim me as a dependent. I moved to WI in '06 for graduate school and continued to teach after graduation. I moved to IL for a post-bacc program summer of '09, currently reside here, but have been rather reluctant about getting an IL driver license and did not start working in IL until the beginning of this year. I'm guessing that would either make me an IL resident even though I'm just here for school? Seems like most of my search results come up with answers for those who are still undergrads and are claimed by their parents.
• Tentative list: Is it too top heavy (even though it's hard to say without an MCAT score)? Schools to add/delete?
• CA schools: Should I even bother applying to CA schools if I'm not *technically* a resident (see first question)?
• Holes in my application: While it is what it is and I'm not freaking out about anything, some feedback on things to be prepared to defend/talk about/maybe add would be nice.

If you made it this far, thanks 🙂 😍

-c

Ooo damage control.

Well I (surprisingly) tanked on the verbal section royally and I don't think there are all that many schools that take students with that low of a VS. The other two sections were fine.

On one hand, I could rush things, study all summer, take later MCAT dates for this year, and try my hand to get things done by October, but that seems like a waste. I also want to think things through and try and come up with a smarter study plan so I can nail the MCAT once and for all. One huge advantage is that my fall schedule is pretty light compared to last spring and my spring 2011 schedule has nothing but TAing planned. Another plus is that come next year I'll have shadowing under my belt.

As far as state of residence goes, I'll still technically be considered a CA resident whether I apply this year or next year. The only time I was ever living in a state for non-academic purposes was spring 2009.

11P, 7V, 10B = 28O. Proof that you can practice all you want, but the only score that counts is the one on test day.

I was finished being a full-time student last spring and finished taking credits entirely in the fall. I take my driving test for an IL license next week (yeah I know I should've done it ages ago).

I don't even feel like updating the rest of what I've been up to, but whatever:

• Shadowing - general surgeon (40 hours - actually scrubbed in for 99% of those cases); urologist (40 hours - passively observed in the OR; actually participated in some of the exams in the clinic); family medicine resident (12 hours and counting still)
• Mentoring - there's a local high school science competition coming up and my involvement varies from giving feedback on presentations to encouraging students to pipette to actually doing parts of the experiment (one student was nervous, clumsy, and knocked over some buffer)
• Internship coordinator - I help set up shadowing opportunities for pre-health undergrads and post-baccs at this school, which involves a lot of paperwork, dealing with HR, and talking to health care professionals and students.
• Publications - Another pub is nice, but my involvement in the project didn't change at all, so whatevs The cover did look lovely with our molecule on it though

Still teaching, HIV testing, etc etc. Still looking for a third job. 🙁

I know that 7 is going to kill me. I don't have the MSAR on me anymore and my eyes are burning and my brain hurts so I'll look up the DO school stats another day.

What a disappointing update, but if you have any sage advice catalystik I'd appreciate it.

Thanks a lot Cat 🙂 Perhaps I'll have a happy ending like the UC Irvine girl, perhaps not.

The only guarantee you get is if you don't bother applying and I don't do that, so we'll see what happens in 2011. 🙂

Catalystik said:

CCOM is a great school with good clinical training sites. If you yearn to return to California, then their DO schools are reasonable targets.

Click to expand...

Hi Cat -

As far as DO goes, I'm looking at:

-CCOM
-PCOM 😍
-NYCOM
-Western

I'm still working my way down my wide net of potential schools to apply to and doing my research, so if you had anymore DO school suggestions I'd appreciate it.

And I guess add in clinical psych research to my resume even though it won't make up for a lower mcat score. 😛

Ok Cat, last post before I update this a year from now (with some hopefully good news):

Ok:
Albany Medical College
Rosalind Franklin University's Chicago Medical School
Creighton University
Drexel University
George Washington University
Hofstra Northshore* - new school, no stats
Medical College of Wisconsin
New York Medical College
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Rush Medical College
State University of New York Upstate Medical University
The University of Toledo College of Medicine
University of Louisville
University of Vermont College of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Wake Forest University
Wayne State University

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Western University of Health Sciences
New York College of Medicine
Midwestern University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Reach:
Boston University* - VR 9 bottom 10th
Jefferson Medical College* - VR 9 bottom 10th
Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine* - VR 9 bottom 10th
St. Louis University* - VR 9 bottom 10th
Temple University* - VR 9 bottom 10th
Tufts University* - VR 9 bottom 10th
USC Keck School of Medicine
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UCLA
University of Maryland School of Medicine* - VR 9 bottom 10th

Girl, you craycray:
Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine** - VR 9 bottom 10th; 30ish bottom 10th? Y U TELL ME NO MCAT CUTOFF? 😡
UCSF** - VR 9 bottom 10th; 30 bottom 10th



A couple of things:
-Despite the reaches, I think there's a decent enough mix of "ok" here. Thoughts?

-Even though I'm still within budget with this list (I know, life is rough eh), I could stand to trim the fat here. The CA schools I've added because I think it would break my mom's heart again if I didn't at the very least try to get back on the west coast even though I've already warned her how tough it is compared to graduate school. Northwestern was added because of my advisor. SIU's mission isn't in tune with my goals and I actually don't qualify for UIC due to their psych requirement. I'm really not feeling taking an extra psych class for one school at this point.

-So, if anyone knows of any schools that would automatically cut me off due to my mcat score so I can just not bother I'd appreciate it.