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[citylightsdrumoctave]

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[Goro]

1) Ace all courses from now on
2) Get shadowing experience in
3) Get clinical exposure (paid or volunteer)

Med schools aren't going anywhere. Forget about this notion you have about sticking to some artificial schedule. You apply when you have the best possible app.

 

[candbgirl]

I don’t think you will be ready to take the MCATin Spring 2023. I doubt you’ll have the prereqs completed by then. You have to work on your grades and doing well on the MCAT. Your ECs can wait a bit. I don’t think you’ll have a complete and competitive application to apply in 2023. And that’s fine. You only want to apply one and with the best, most competitive application possible. When you have your final GPAs and your MCAT, come back and people will help you develop a list.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Too many factors to tell right now. If you kill your MCAT and get your grades up, you likely won't need a post-bacc. However, if you were to graduate with a 504 and get under, say, a 510 on your MCAT, then a post-bacc might be a good idea.

Considering you need more time to get some extracurriculars done, you likely won't be able to adhere to the schedule you've formed.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[LindaAccepted]

How am I doing? What should I improve on?

I am currently a junior who switched to premed at the beginning of this school year. I have 3.4 cGPA and a very low (<3.0) sGPA but I still have 12 science courses (including this semester’s) to complete, which I plan to use to bring up my sGPA.

I am taking the in Spring 2023.

I have ~150 non-clinical volunteering hours but was recently accepted as a crisis hotline operator.

I have 0 clinical volunteering hours but will start volunteering at a clinic this month. I am also waiting to hear back from a medical scribe position.

I have 0 research experience and am unsure how/when to get any at my college.

I have <100 hours of physician shadowing

I am URM.

I plan to apply in the 2023 cycle to matriculate in August 2024 but feel that I am so behind. Is this enough time to complete my checklist and be able to matriculate by August 2024?

Give yourself a break. Slow down. Focus more on your end goal (becoming a doctor and from your handle I'm guessing that ultimately you want to be a psychiatrist) and give your "schedule" a back seat. If you have to, lighten your course load so that you can ace your classes and eventually the MCAT AND get in more clinical experience. Research is a real nice to have, but not in the same category as clinical. If you ace the remaining classes and do well on the MCAT, you may not need the post-bac or SMP. Time will tell. And, time could also give you the means to avoid a post-bac or SMP.

As Dr. Barry Rothman, former director of post-bac programs at SF State likes to say, "Frequently, the fastest way to medical school is slowly."

 

[LizzyM]

If you want to do research, there are summer research programs that are seeking URM participants.
See: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)

Start by shadowing physicians to get a better feel for whether you even want that as a career given the difficulties of the journey and the destination (which seems to be less desirable every year as physicians lose autonomy and come up against preauthorization and insurance companies, and employment in a company vs being a private practitioner running a small business, etc).

Don't take the MCAT until you are scoring above your target in practice tests. Don't apply until you have the best application you can manage. Do it right; do it once.