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[sorghum]

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Hello friends 🙂

I’m at the tail end of an unsuccessful application cycle. As a first-time applicant, I submitted most secondaries in October, received my first and only II in February, interviewed in March, and was waitlisted several weeks later. Now, I’m thinking about whether or not I should try again this coming cycle, or wait another year while I bolster my application. My application definitely has weaknesses, but I wonder how much the “dryness” of my application cycle can be attributed to them, vs. applying as late as I did. I will list my stats below:

• CA resident; ORM; FAP recipient
• 508 > 516 MCAT
• 3.92 GPA
• Non-clinical volunteering: 2,000+ hours. Provided counseling, other services to the medically underserved. Still volunteering here.
• Leadership: 500 hours. Free health clinic.
• Undergraduate research: 2,400 hours. Two posters and an honors thesis.
• Clinical volunteering: 250 hours. Radiology clinic.
• Shadowing: 4 hours. One specialty. Had to stop because of COVID.
• Teaching: 2,000 hours. Worked as a tutor at my school; held private appointments and drop-in sessions.
• Paid employment: Two years of full-time work. Basic science research. One abstract (third author). No publications, but should (hopefully) have two (both third author) high impact publications by the end of this year.
• Worked many miscellaneous jobs before starting college, throughout college, to support myself.
• Secondaries submitted to: Case Western, UCSF, BU, UCLA, Kaiser, UCSD, UC Irvine, USC, Rochester, Hofstra, Dartmouth, Albert Einstein, Tufts, Sidney Kimmel, SLU, UC Davis. I applied to more schools but couldn't get to every secondary. I prioritized in-state schools and schools with "easier" essays.

I started school late after working for a little bit. I took classes at a CC for three years, then transferred, and completed my degree after another two years. I’m nearing the end of my second gap year now. I know this shouldn’t matter, but part of me wanting to apply this year comes from anxiety about how old I’m getting/how old I’ll be after all of this. I worry though, about applying too soon and without fully addressing the weaknesses in my application. I wonder if my shadowing hours are a red flag? Living where I do, I’m not sure what I can do about that now. I’m passionate about health equity and am hoping to eventually work in a primary care setting. I think finding a job that’s more patient-facing could be helpful. If I decided to wait another year before applying, this is something I would try to do. Right now, I also worry about responding to secondaries that ask about what I've done to warrant reapplying. I’ve really only continued in my current commitments (work and volunteering), but am trying to look for other meaningful volunteer opportunities. Lots of thoughts. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation?

I’ve been going back and forth between options and haven’t been able to settle on a course of action. Thoughts and input would be so appreciated - thank you for reading through this!

 

[Faha]

As a CA resident you should have applied to many more OOS schools than you did. Also, your secondaries were submitted somewhat late. I suggest reapplying in June and submitting all your secondaries by July. I suggest including all these schools:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Hofstra
Einstein
Albany
New York Medical College
Rochester
Seton Hall
Jefferson
Drexel
Temple
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Miami
USF Morsani
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
St. Louis
Loyola
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Cincinnati
Kaiser
California University
UC Davis
UC Irvine