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Scholarship Access: Becoming a Student Doctor course
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I thought you were accepted.
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How often to classmates become roommates?
Incoming student looking into housing. I was wondering how often classmates can become roommates. I think it'd be cool to be able to split rent with someone. Also, do any of you pay rent out of pocket or you used loans to cover it? I don't have much saved up tbh just something to be spending...
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Sounds like your application was good enough to get 2 interviews. You can still add to your activities this year as you reapply
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Frankly, I think you should skip a cycle. What got you interviewed and waitlisted this year might not be good enough next year if you don't seem to be doing anything medically related or that helps those in need in your community. If you want to be a doctor, why aren't you engaging in any of the activities that would be indicative of your interest in medicine, scientific research or helping people?
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I think that you got some courtesy interviews because you were an IS applicant.
But I honestly was insanely busy and kind of lazy during last year's cycle
So you were self-sabotaging.
What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!
Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanistic side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.
Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??
We're also not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.
I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.
Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.
Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimer’s or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.
But I honestly was insanely busy and kind of lazy during last year's cycle
So you were self-sabotaging.
What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!
Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanistic side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.
Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??
We're also not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.
I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.
Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.
Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimer’s or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.
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Kind of in a similar situation over here. Got only 1 interview to my state school after applying to ~20 schools (had a poorly selected list).
Personally, I will only be reapplying to my state school since it is my dream school. I would love to attend it if I get accepted to it this coming cycle.
However, I am planning to buff up my application more this coming 'gap' year. I will be retaking the MCAT, getting a new job more related to medicine, get more non-clinical volunteering since my hours are relatively low, and get a new and different clinical volunteering since the majority of my clinical experience is in a hospice, and I would like to have another perspective in healthcare other than palliative care.
tldr: Essentially I am preparing myself for the 2024-2025 application cycle (and so take 2 gap years), while also applying this year only to my instate school since it is my number 1 choice.
Personally, I will only be reapplying to my state school since it is my dream school. I would love to attend it if I get accepted to it this coming cycle.
However, I am planning to buff up my application more this coming 'gap' year. I will be retaking the MCAT, getting a new job more related to medicine, get more non-clinical volunteering since my hours are relatively low, and get a new and different clinical volunteering since the majority of my clinical experience is in a hospice, and I would like to have another perspective in healthcare other than palliative care.
tldr: Essentially I am preparing myself for the 2024-2025 application cycle (and so take 2 gap years), while also applying this year only to my instate school since it is my number 1 choice.
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Your words:
I didn't do anything clinical-related just worked in a non-relevant field and lived adult life tbh
Your stats are competitive, and apparently you have the ECs, so work on interview skills, and apply when you have the best possible app with a strategic list.
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Your MCAT is suboptimal but not a deal breaker for the schools that chose to interview you. You didn't climb the staircase to a level that would get you admitted but a better GPA and/or MCAT might have helped by placing you on a higher stair for starters.
The fact that you didn't continue anything that could enhance your application during your application year is clearly a serious error on your part. @gonnif makes this point again and again and again. You should be continually improving your application until you have an offer. You are not ready to reapply and should seriously soul-search as to whether this will ever be the right path for you and what you might be willing to do to make it happen. Take at least a year and don't apply until 2024 or later. Meanwhile, give some thought to alternate careers that will use the skillset you have and build on your strengths in case you end up being one of the large proportion of pre-meds who go pro in something other than medicine.
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While I empathize with how taxing a long work week can be in terms of trying to add EC's on top of it, adcoms are undoubtedly going to have questions about why you're reapplying when you haven't made any improvements to your application. Regardless of how passionately you may want to pursue a career in medicine, it's going to be hard to convince them of that when you've spent the past year working in a non-relevant field and haven't made any effort to add any sort of clinical-related EC's in your free time. While difficult to stomach, you would benefit from a gap year in order to make concrete improvements to your application and demonstrate that you're truly committed to a career in medicine. Then again, you could apply again with your application unchanged and just hope your state schools who deemed you qualified enough for a WL this year accept you next cycle. It's your call at the end of the day. Good luck to you regardless of what you choose to do.
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I tend to agree with others, if anything your application is weaker today than it was a year ago because all of your activities are a year older. That doesn't make you a bad person or a potential bad doctor, but compared to someone with equivalent stats and equivalent hours, the applicant with more recent hours is going to beat you.
There is ALMOST no chance that the schools that you got WL'd at this year will accept you next year with no improvements to your application, though as you IS schools you're probably obliged to apply again--again, your app is weaker than a year ago, but maybe you can MacGyver together a killer personal statement and you luck into an interviewer who really likes you and you barely make it over the finish line this time. You could apply to a longer list of schools, but usually in state schools are going to be your best shot and you're going to run into a tough sell for most schools missions when, again... your ECs are somewhat old. At that point you are likely then looking at DO schools, and if you're willing to make that jump I suspect you could get in. Just be really sure that you're OK with that path and that you're not going to be that guy who comes back next year saying they got a DO acceptance but wonder if they should reapply.
There is ALMOST no chance that the schools that you got WL'd at this year will accept you next year with no improvements to your application, though as you IS schools you're probably obliged to apply again--again, your app is weaker than a year ago, but maybe you can MacGyver together a killer personal statement and you luck into an interviewer who really likes you and you barely make it over the finish line this time. You could apply to a longer list of schools, but usually in state schools are going to be your best shot and you're going to run into a tough sell for most schools missions when, again... your ECs are somewhat old. At that point you are likely then looking at DO schools, and if you're willing to make that jump I suspect you could get in. Just be really sure that you're OK with that path and that you're not going to be that guy who comes back next year saying they got a DO acceptance but wonder if they should reapply.
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OP, I see your snarky reacts to some of the responses you've been given, and to be honest, I do empathize a little with how I suspect you are feeling. This process can demand a lot and definitely feels like what admissions asks these days can encroach on one's ability to simply "live their life" or what have you.
But the fact of the matter is you're not competing within some arbitrary boundary of "fair". You're competing against other candidates who (at least in the MD field) have both better stats and more robust and longitudinal experiences to sell to adcoms. The posters here are trying to give it to you straight.
But as far as MD goes your chances of success are very low with application you have now. Your stats are already well below the average for an admitted MD student and an unproductive gap year is not helping your case.
But the fact of the matter is you're not competing within some arbitrary boundary of "fair". You're competing against other candidates who (at least in the MD field) have both better stats and more robust and longitudinal experiences to sell to adcoms. The posters here are trying to give it to you straight.
Realistically this is basically your option, OP. If you apply broadly to DO schools there is a very good chance you get in somewhere. You have relatively decent stats compared to the averages, and I could definitely see that carrying you especially since you do have patient facing clinical experience in the past.
But as far as MD goes your chances of success are very low with application you have now. Your stats are already well below the average for an admitted MD student and an unproductive gap year is not helping your case.
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