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[chilly_md]

-It was difficult for me to get more clinical hours because of COVID, but I think med schools probably recognize this.
-I've thought about sending update letters to the schools I applied to that haven't given me Rs yet, but I honestly don't have any updates. I'm still doing research and volunteering at the hospital, but I already mentioned that in a lot of my secondary applications, and I don't want to repeat that information if it would be seen as wasting the admissions offices' time.
Could it be valuable to still share this information in an update letter or should I wait until I have something more substantial to update them on?

No, they won’t. There are opportunities to gain more such as through clinical employment as a CNA, MA, scribe etc. Those updates likely won’t add anything, especially if you have already mentioned that information in secondaries.

What was your full school list this time around? It seems that was your major change, which is a good step, but what else did you spend your time with? You mentioned leadership and non-comical volunteering, but what were they in? Your main service opportunity seems to be Red Cross and you didn’t specifically mention how many hours were in that vs tutoring in your original post. That is an area that can hold you back besides the limited clinical experience.

A little over 200 hours of clinical experience is good, but you may not have had a convincing description of it in your personal statement or activities section. This is especially true if both your parents are physicians and readers do not see a clear reason for you to pursue medicine besides following in their footsteps. Projected hours don’t really count, so keep that in mind if you have to reapply.

 

[chilly_md]

Your list was too top heavy, there are definitely schools that you could have targeted that take out of state students. You will need DO schools if you are applying a third cycle. Are you a CA resident?

For my non-clinical volunteering, I actually combined everything into one work and activities section because I had already filled up 14 of the 15 slots. For this, I did a total of 72 hours of tutoring middle schoolers from an underserved area over the course of three spring semesters. I volunteered for about 200 hours at the red cross. I also volunteered at the food bank and a local men's shelter, but this was only about 50 or so hours. The total amount of hours I put in for this non-clinical volunteering slot was about 320 hours. Also, one of the two leadership positions i held during my senior year was in a club that was dedicated to volunteering and creating volunteering/advocacy/educational opportunities for students to participate in the community. I spent 103 hours in that role.

This was likely not the best move. What are your 14 other slots? It is likely you have some “fluff” activities like clubs that can be removed. I would suggest doing more work with the food bank/men’s shelter (aim for 200 or more hours)

This may have been something I didn't do enough of. In my personal statement, I had a good portion of my essay dedicated to talking about my shadowing experiences and what that taught me/why that ties into why i want to do medicine. For my secondary essays, if the questions talked about medicine specifically, I would use my clinical experiences. However, many of the prompts did not seem to be directly tied to clinical experiences (or maybe that's just the way I interpreted it), so I would talk about other experiences (extracurricular, personal, etc.)

Personal statement is why medicine and you should use clinical experiences for that. Relying on shadowing is not a good choice in my opinion since you are describing how you are passively watching what the doctor does. There is no interaction with patients.

 

[LindaAccepted]

A few suggestions:

1. In reviewing what you wrote above, it seems to me that you are more interested in research than in clinical medicine, at least that's where you've spent more time. Increase your clinical exposure and commitment. While the total (200+) is OK, adding 36 hours in a year isn't terribly impressive in terms of showing commitment to clinical practice.
2. You aimed too high. Apply to more programs where based on the numbers, you are highly competitive.
3. Take the CASPer at the appropriate time so that you can apply to programs where you are more competitive.
4. If you need to reapply, have your application evaluated and see what you can improve in terms of the presentation of your qualifications and interest in medicine. IOW, it's hard to comment on your experiences and essay without reading them.

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? Which schools did you apply to this cycle and where were your rejections ?