MD -

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Your non-clinical volunteering shows no service orientation. Tutoring is an academic activity that is all too common among prehealth applicants, and your work with social awareness programs is also more informative than service-focused to those individuals who are in need. I don't see much stretching outside one's comfort zone (or being comfortable in uncomfortable situations or people).

You must have at least 150 hours by submission to avoid getting screened out at most schools: food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation.
 
You have plenty of clinical experience. Agree that you need to get more service in areas like those suggested by Mr. Smile. You may get another interview offer over the next month or two, particularly from one of the FL schools, but it is best to begin starting a new activity now in case you must reapply. The school list you had was appropriate. You can reuse that and add the following to bring it up to around 30:

Temple
Dartmouth
Hackensack
Rochester
Creighton
Saint Louis
Oakland
Wayne State
EVMS
 
Do you guys believe there is a chance of me getting any more IIs at this point? Or not really. I know that's a really hard to answer question but I'm honestly just panicking at this point.
 
I was just wondering WAMC of more IIs now? I am getting really worried to be honest, as I haven't heard much from the programs I've applied to. Here is the WAMC template and the school list too. I would appreciate any advice, whether it's general, on school lists, or plans to strengthen my app for a gap year. Should I take a gap year, I'd probably go back home to live with my family and get a full time job as an ED tech (as I'm doing now, but at a different hospital) but what else can I, or should I, add? There's a research institution about 30 minutes from my hometown, and I'm willing to make the commute. There's also some volunteer opportunities, both clinical/non-clinical.
  1. cGPA/sGPA: 3.86/3.83
  2. MCAT: 515 (C/P: 130, CARS: 127, B/B: 129, P/S: 129)
  3. U.S. Resident, FL
  4. ORM Asian
  5. T10 Public University
  6. Clinical experience: about 2000 hours spread across being a (paid) ER tech, volunteer EMT team lead, and a (paid) ICU patient care tech
  7. Research experience: 300 hours spread across two labs. No significant accomplishments here
  8. Shadowing experience: 50 hours across various specialties
  9. Non-clinical volunteering: Around 200, 100 of which was from teaching elementary/middle school kids STEM topics, another 100 from campus safety stuff such as social awareness programs surrounding opioid usage.
  10. Other extracurricular activities: Significant leadership experiences in being a lead EMT for an EMS organization, being a lead TA (in charge of grading, hosting office hours, and holding review sessions for the students before exams)
  11. None really but I received a service award from my EMS org which commended me for the amount of work I put in as a responder.
  12. Complete from 8/7-8/31. Got one II from FIU on 10/16. Two pre-II Rs as well but nothing else
School list:

- VCU
- Wake Forest
- Quinnipiac
- Thomas Jefferson/Sidney Kimmel
- Penn State
- UF
- UCF
- FSU
- FAU
- FIU (II)
- UMiami
- GW (pre-II R)
- Georgetown (pre-II R)
- WMed
- Tufts
- Albany
- UVermont
- NYMC
- Albert Einstein
- UColorado
- Drexel
- MCW
- Rosalind Franklin
I agree with @Mr.Smile12 regarding your non-clinical experience being on the light side, at least as described above.

If you don't get any more interviews or an acceptance, then also look very critically at how you presented yourself via your application. Did you just list responsibilities and tasks, or did you actually reflect on what you contributed and what you gained from your experiences. That reflection makes all the difference in applications. Did you show alignment with the programs' mission and approach to med ed?

I am preparing to interview the associate dean of admissions at UWSOM and recently came across some excellent advice from UW for reapplicants. Take a look even though UW isn't on your list and I'm not recommending you apply there.
 
Last edited:
Do you guys believe there is a chance of me getting any more IIs at this point? Or not really. I know that's a really hard to answer question but I'm honestly just panicking at this point.
As @chilly_md wrote, it's really hard to say, and the likelihood of getting one on some level is irrelevant. Do what you can do now to improve your qualifications so that if invited to interview (or waitlisted with or without an interview) you can talk about the great things you've been doing since you applied. Don't wait until you've received the last rejection to start working towards reapplication. Start now. Today. Look into volunteer opportunities with the disadvantaged -- working with the homeless, building shelters, distributing food, etc. and then start doing it. Finally, journal (take notes) about your clinical and non-clinical experiences so that you have reflections and salient details to include in your essays.

And again, get someone to review your AMCAS and perhaps secondaries so that you will know if you made mistakes in presentation. You don't want to make those same mistakes again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom