0 interviews this cycle- advice?

[loneyellow]

Hi sdn! I’m a long-time lurker and i’ve never asked for advice on this forum before, but we’re pretty far into this application cycle and I have zero interviews and 1 rejection, so I’m assuming I have to gear up to reapply. Which sucks, but it is what it is.

I really want to go to med school. I’m fascinated by human physiology and want to know absolutely everything about the human body and how to fix it. So, if I’m applying again, I want to make sure I get in.

My stats:
ORM/Asian, SES disadvantaged (I’m first gen), FL resident, graduated 2022, neurobiology major.
MCAT 514 - 127/128/131/128
GPA: none
Research: 1000 ish hours, including a baccalaureate thesis featuring my own original research.
Teaching: TA for intro psychology, taught other students how to use neuroimaging in their own research. Helped run a psych club. 600 hrs?
Clinical volunteer: 100 hrs at a hospice
Other volunteer: 200 hrs unpaid internship assisting with dementia/caregiver support groups. Not sure if this counts as volunteering really.
LORS: 1 from my supervisor at assisted living job, committee letter from my college with letters from 2 profs attached. One is from a neurobio prof who I did research with, the other is from my medical ethics prof, and I had a great working relationship with the pre-med advisor so I’m pretty sure these were good.
ECs: Worked as a cashier for about a year during college. Was an art director for a local chess club for a year and a half, did flyers and went to some tournaments. Also did rowing in college non-competitively. I’m learning Mandarin Chinese and taking martial arts now.
Clinical work: During college I worked as an ED scribe, got about 250 hours. After graduation, I worked in assisted living for people with neuropsychiatric disorders (TBI, degenerative disease/dementia, severe developmental disability) and it was great until I got extremely burned out from having literal **** thrown at me and quit after about a year, giving me about 1500 hrs of direct patient contact experience. Now I’ve gone back to my old scribing gig which is under new management with better pay, and I work in urgent care as well as the ED- 500 hrs so far?
CASPER: 25th% lol. I just felt so uncomfortable from all the stiff, awkward video prompts that I had trouble producing coherent responses and failed. I was constantly de-escalating crises while working in neuropsychiatric care so I’m pretty sure that I’m an empathetic person with social skills, but whatever.


About the GPA: My undergrad had a weird hippie grading system where we got narrative evaluations for each course, but no letter grades. Our transcripts come with an attached letter about how passing a course is actually difficult and is meant to be equivalent to getting an A or B in a traditional system, which I do feel to be true.

I kind of suspect my writing is what killed my application. I was stupid, and I wrote about my illness/injury for my personal statement. Basically I had to get ortho hardware in my leg and it got infected, but no one noticed for over a year and I was running constant fevers, sleeping like 14 hours a day, limping terribly, etc. until my mom, an RN, forced me to go back to a specialist and I was rushed in for emergency surgery. The good part of my essay was about how this made me understand how scary it is to be sick and in the hospital. But it was mostly about how my first surgeon was a total d*ck to me and told me I just had arthritis after MONTHS of follow up appts, and how the second surgeon + infectious disease dr who got the screws out of me were amazing and provided an example of the kind of dr I wanted to be. I’ve since read that blaming a physician for ANYTHING is an app killer… but I also wrote a bit about being nonbinary/genderqueer in my essays where they asked about diversity and hardship. It is 2024, though, so I doubt anyone cared about that. In prompts where I was asked about any lapses in performance I also wrote about being septic/homeless/the pandemic which I now realize may have made me come off as weak.

So… what gives? Is it my lack of volunteering? The lack of a GPA? ****-talking that surgeon? Bad luck? My re-app plan so far: I’m considering taking a couple classes at a local college to get an actual GPA under my belt, as well as taking a Chinese language proficiency exam so I can prove I actually have some command over the language. But I would love some input from SDN because I’m not sure what went wrong.

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[Stoasty]

I'm not an adcom or anything so take what I say with a grain of salt but from browsing SDN I don't think speaking ill of a medical professional helped your personal statement like you said, it comes off not only as insulting a doctor but also spiteful.

I'm sure it would help if you posted a list of which schools you applied to.

 

[pablo213]

In prompts where I was asked about any lapses in performance I also wrote about being septic/homeless/the pandemic which I now realize may have made me come off as weak.

This doesn't sound weak to me.

I'm not an adcom or anything so take what I say with a grain of salt but from browsing SDN I don't think speaking ill of a medical professional helped your personal statement like you said, it comes off not only as insulting a doctor but also spiteful.

I'm sure it would help if you posted a list of which schools you applied to.

I agree with stoasty as well with regard to your personal statement. Not sure how the GPA system impacted your app.

 

[loneyellow]

I'm not an adcom or anything so take what I say with a grain of salt but from browsing SDN I don't think speaking ill of a medical professional helped your personal statement like you said, it comes off not only as insulting a doctor but also spiteful.

I'm sure it would help if you posted a list of which schools you applied to.

You are probably right- I was pretty spiteful about this for a while because I could have lost my leg and was so sick that I was totally miserable and angry for a year. Like, went toxic from all the IV antibiotics levels of sick. I tried to avoid speaking too poorly of him in my PS but I think those feelings still came through. I suppose I just wanted to blame somebody for what happened but I realize now it wasn't necessarily the surgeon's fault that no one saw what was going on- I even saw an NP and she didn't figure it out either, lol, just told me to keep taking Tylenol.

My school list was all MD, will apply DO next time. I do have ties to VA as my extended family lives there.
FAU
USF
UF
FIU
FSU
UCF
Nova MD
Mt Sinai
Oregon
VCU (only school that's sent an actual R so far)
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
Albany
Einstein
Emory
Tulane

 

[chilly_md]

Is it my lack of volunteering? The lack of a GPA? ****-talking that surgeon?

1 and 3. 2 is hard to say but I know of only a few schools that completely do not provide letter grades. I believe at least one more prominent school did this in the past so it wasn't as rare back then, but it certainly is now.

Of your list, Sinai, Oregon (OHSU) and Emory were likely donations. All med schools expect service to those less fortunate, but particularly Tulane. VCU accepts plenty of OOS students but having extended family is not a substantial tie for VTech. All-in-all you applied to about a dozen schools where you might have been competitive at.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

GPA: none

I don't want to sound snarky, but how did AMCAS notate your academic record and coursework? I am aware of a few college that do narrative grades, but you should check with schools closest to you about this before applying. I presume your prehealth advisor team wrote about the grading policy, so I also think they would have a track record of which schools they have had the most success with admissions offers. Did your advisors vet your list?

Your volunteering and clinical hours seem to be low, but it could also be the presentation of your activities not following the wamc template.

Your lack for service orientation community service is remarkably lethal to your application, unless you have forgotten to list something here.

You have a lot of in-state schools for Florida, so the fact they are all silent tells me you haven't really shown a desirable profile as a future physician at their programs. Is there anything compelling about your background that made you choose to attend your college?

I really want to go to med school. I’m fascinated by human physiology and want to know absolutely everything about the human body and how to fix it. So, if I’m applying again, I want to make sure I get in.

My reaction: Go get a PhD in physiology. Collaborate with some medical device engineers and print organs on a 3D printer.

I'm stuck with this question after reading your post: why should I want you to be my physician (or my parents' or children's)? I have no sense that you are as compassionate as you claim you are. Sure ascribing blame to others isn't professional, but I don't get any warm fuzziness going through the post. Maybe it's the frustration, but I'm curious what you wrote in your secondaries and W/A. I think whatever vibe you give off, it's in other aspects of your writing. And maybe in your LORs.

 

[loneyellow]

Mr. Smile, I really appreciate this reply. You brought up a lot of good points, so thank you for getting back to me!

I don't want to sound snarky, but how did AMCAS notate your academic record and coursework? I am aware of a few college that do narrative grades, but you should check with schools closest to you about this before applying. I presume your prehealth advisor team wrote about the grading policy, so I also think they would have a track record of which schools they have had the most success with admissions offers. Did your advisors vet your list?

Honestly my advisors didn't give me much guidance other than writing me a committee letter. All they told me was that most of the state universities are familiar with our grading system and that it wouldn't be a problem, and supposedly they talk to adcoms all the time who all say it's fine. They didn't really even vet my PS or school list until after I submitted everything. I don't have anyone in my family I can ask about this stuff either, and I didn't get along with most of the other premeds at my college, so this was all me. No wonder it turned out to be a mess.

AMCAS just notated everything as an honors course with 4 credit hours, and the grade was blank. Uh... now that I'm looking again I'm seeing an X on everything under the 'AMCAS use' column. Don't know what that means but it... doesn't seem good? Can anyone tell me what that means? Was my transcript literally blank??

Is there anything compelling about your background that made you choose to attend your college?

The fact that they offered a neurobiology major and lots of research opportunities. It's also a very gay school. Did wonders for my self esteem to be able to dress the way I wanted and not have people treat me like I was less than dirt. Even if it turns out that they screwed me over with the GPA thing, I don't regret going. I wrote a bit about this in secondaries, and how I want to provide compassionate care for people like me, who are often scared to visit ERs and physician offices due to how we are treated. I mean, there are places where I'm scared to even use a bathroom. It's not easy.

Your volunteering and clinical hours seem to be low, but it could also be the presentation of your activities not following the wamc template.

Your lack for service orientation community service is remarkably lethal to your application, unless you have forgotten to list something here.

Sorry if I messed up the template, I'm new to posting here. My volunteering hours are definitely garbage. I've had to work to eat/pay bills but I know lots of other people have this same problem, so it's not an excuse. I'm going to continue working on this. I don't see how 2k clinical hours is low? I've been working full time in healthcare for 2 years now, unless being a psych tech doesn't count. And if doesn't count I'm screwed because then all I have is scribing. I will add that I did a lot of ADL stuff.

What appeals to me specifically about medicine as opposed to 3D printing organs (lol) is the human interaction. I'm sure I'm not coming off great right now because this entire process has been so frustrating and esoteric for me, but I really do enjoy talking to people and I'm often the first person my friends go to advice or a listening ear. I was REALLY good at my old job, and I've honestly considered going back to it. Patients and families loved me. The appeal was that I felt that I could make a huge difference to someone just by being there and being patient with them, and it was the only reason I stayed for so long despite getting beat up, threatened, and screamed at- not just by patients but sometimes my coworkers, too. I was honored to be able to take care of them and show them good days after how some of them had been treated in the past. Medicine is tough, and I know I can handle tough stuff. I really like being 'in the trenches' with people, so to speak. It's pretty hard to rattle me. I love the intensity and fast-paced environment of hospitals, and I can see myself working in the ED or ICU easily.

 

[Faha]

You could benefit from a one year DIY post bacc at a local college where you take one year of undergraduate level science courses (that you have not taken previously). Then you would have one year of hopefully a 3.7 + sGPA. When you reapply I suggest these schools:
U Florida
Florida State
Central Florida
Miami
USF Morsani
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
NOVA MD
TCU
Creighton
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Belmont
Hackensack
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Any new schools that open (American University, Methodist, Roseman, Alice Walton)
For DO schools I suggest these:
NOVA
LECOM-Bradenton
ACOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)
PCOM (all schools)
Touro-NY
NYITCOM
DMU-COM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
CCOM
AZCOM
TUNCOM

 

[Med Ed]

IMHO your MCAT mitigates concerns about your preparedness from undergrad. But I agree with @Faha that acing some post-bacc courses would fully put that to rest.

Agree that your volunteering is weak, which will basically get you screened out at schools were you might otherwise be a good fit.

It's fine to use the experience with your ortho surgery in your PS, but you need to recognize that post-op infections (including chronic ones) are a fact of life. Rewrite it solely from the standpoint of getting it properly diagnosed/treated and how that affected/inspired you. Being a physician is a perpetually humbling experience, and things often only look clear and obvious in retrospect.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I was REALLY good at my old job, and I've honestly considered going back to it. Patients and families loved me. The appeal was that I felt that I could make a huge difference to someone just by being there and being patient with them, and it was the only reason I stayed for so long despite getting beat up, threatened, and screamed at- not just by patients but sometimes my coworkers, too. I was honored to be able to take care of them and show them good days after how some of them had been treated in the past.

How is this documented or described in a LOR/committee letter? How did you write this as a MME?

You have a lot of options for OIE. What did you choose?

If you identify as LGBTQ+, are you involved in any activities supporting or advocating for this community? Have you connected with the MSPA (Medical Student Pride Alliance)?

 

[loneyellow]

How is this documented or described in a LOR/committee letter? How did you write this as a MME?

You have a lot of options for OIE. What did you choose?

If you identify as LGBTQ+, are you involved in any activities supporting or advocating for this community? Have you connected with the MSPA (Medical Student Pride Alliance)?

I was able to read the LOR from my supervisor and she spoke very highly of my interactions with patients and described me as being in the top 2% of her staff, which means a lot! I think the committee LOR also brought up my commitment to serving patients since we talked about it a lot during my interview with them.
I did do an MME essay for my neuropsych job. I wrote mostly about the needs of this population and how they're often poorly served and misunderstood, and how rewarding it was to work with them.

For OIE I talked about the general experience of being a queer brown girl growing up in the Deep South and how it has led me to empathize with other misunderstood people, who are often the most medically underserved.

And no, I don't do any gay volunteering. I tried to help out with a queer youth group once when I was 19 and they told me no because I was literally the target audience so I didn't try again after that. I actually just submitted an application to volunteer with LGBT youth in my area to rectify this.
I do ~support~ younger queers I know who struggle with food insecurity and family issues, and give them pantry staples/treat them to dinner/buy them gas when I can, and I informally mentor my friend's gay teenage kids, but I can't really put that on the MSAR so who cares, I guess. And thanks for the heads up about MSPA, I hadn't heard about it until now.