3.84/512/NC. Reapply now or wait? Need help with school list!

[gasstationsushi]

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Hi all, I am now a potential reapplicant after coming out of the 2020-2021 cycle with one interview that ended as a rejection out of ten applications. I think the main things that hurt me were a late application and a poorly chosen school list, which I plan to be very on top of the next time I apply. Below is the WAMC template for what would go on my application if I were to reapply during the 2021-2022 cycle. I will be graduating from undergrad next month and don't have a job lined up yet, but I have a number of applications out in Clinical Research Coordinator, Lab Tech, and Medical Scribe positions and plan to keep applying until I land something. I would love some feedback about my application, what I can improve on, what I should do during my gap year or years, recommendations for my (incomplete) school list, etc. Thank you!

• White Female
• State/Country of Residence: NC
• Ties to other States/Regions: SC
• Year in School: Senior
• Undergraduate Major(s)/Minor(s): Genetics Major, Psychology and Music Performance Minors
• Graduate Degrees (if applicable): None
• Cumulative GPA: 3.84
• Science GPA: 3.75
• MCAT Score(s): 512 (126/129/130/127)
• Research Experience: About 150 hours of independent molecular genetics research on fruit flies that culminated in a final paper and a presentation to faculty as part of a required lab course for genetics majors. I also had a research internship with a physician at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital lined up where I would have been helping out with genome-wide association studies on autoimmune disorders, cancelled due to COVID.
• Publications/Abstracts/Posters (include how you were credited e.g. first author, second author, etc.): None
• Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer): About 1200 hours working as a part-time endoscopy scheduler and fax administrator at a large multi-specialty medical practice in my college city during the last year. 20 hours volunteering in the labor and delivery unit and NICU of a hospital in my city. 50 hours volunteering with COVID surveillance testing at my university during the past semester.
• Physician Shadowing: 40 hours shadowing the chief of cardiology and his colleagues at a hospital in my city. I was able to shadow in both the hospital and clinic and observed four surgeries from inside the OR.
• Non-Clinical Volunteering: About 100 hours volunteering as an organic chemistry teaching assistant.
• Other Extracurricular Activities: About 75 hours dedicated to Genetics Club, 400 hours dedicated to wind ensemble where I was principal trombone for the majority of my semesters, about 100 hours dedicated to basketball pep band and 1000 hours dedicated to marching band where I was a trombone section leader for three years.
• Other Employment History: Roughly 600 hours as a paid genetics teaching assistant where I instructed a weekly problem session and held weekly office hours for four semesters and one summer session. About 50 hours as a tutor for student athletes at my school in subjects like biology, genetics, and organic chemistry.
• Scholarships: A genetics scholarship dedicated to a senior studying genetics who "demonstrates leadership and future potential through participation in the Genetics Club, promising efforts in research, and outstanding academic performance", and the most prestigious music scholarship offered at my university awarded to a student who displays “exceptional leadership skills and a commitment to excellence through family, friends, academics, and music”.
• Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N): N
• Specialty of Interest (if applicable): Medical Genetics!
• Interest in Primary Care (Y/N): N
• Interest in Rural Health (Y/N): N
• Misc: My involvement in music is central to who I am as a person, so I have tried to highlight my musical experiences as something that makes me stand out and gives me a unique perspective in my secondary essays so that my schools can see this side of me too!
• Potential School List: UNC, Wake Forest, ECU, George Washington, Georgetown, SLU, Tufts, University of Tennessee, University of Washington

 

[Faha]

Which schools did you apply to ? Where was your interview ?

 

[candbgirl]

How have you significantly improved your application over the past year?

 

[gasstationsushi]

Which schools did you apply to ? Where was your interview ?

My school list for this past cycle was: UNC, ECU, Wake Forest, Duke, George Washington, Saint Louis, Georgetown, Emory, Baylor, and NYU (I know). The interview was with UNC.

 

[gasstationsushi]

How have you significantly improved your application over the past year?

Unfortunately not a tremendous amount I was able to do as a full-time student during COVID, but I added about 750 hours of work experience at my job as an endoscopy scheduler, 50 additional hours as an organic chemistry teaching assistant, and roughly 150 additional hours as a genetics teaching assistant. I was poorly informed last year and did not know that I should have projected these hours out to the start date of medical school, so they did not make it onto my application. I also started volunteering with COVID testing on campus as soon as they began surveillance testing, where I've accrued 50 hours so far and should be able to double that over the summer, so I can project out to 100 hours. If I have a job lined up by the time I submit my application, I will add that and project out as well to what I can only guess would be about 2000 hours, or one year of full-time work in whatever I end up in.

 

[candbgirl]

Unfortunately not a tremendous amount I was able to do as a full-time student during COVID, but I added about 750 hours of clinical work experience at Wake Internal Medicine, 50 additional hours as an organic chemistry teaching assistant, and roughly 150 additional hours as a genetics teaching assistant. I was poorly informed last year and did not know that I should have projected these hours out to the start date of medical school, so they did not make it onto my application. I also started volunteering with COVID testing on campus as soon as they began surveillance testing, where I've accrued 50 hours so far and should be able to double that over the summer, so I can project out to 100 hours. If I have a job lined up by the time I submit my application, I will add that and project out as well to what I can only guess would be about 2000 hours, or one year of full-time work in whatever I end up in.

Just a FYI, although you can project anything you want , many reviewers consider projections just that-projections. And as we all know life frequently intervenes and those projections don’t get done. So don’t count on projections moving the needle. It might be better to not mention those projected hours and use them later in the cycle in a very nice update letter once they are actually done.
Congrats on actually accomplishing all of those additional hours. That’s a nice addition to your application and you did them despite the Pandemic.
Good luck this cycle.

 

[Faha]

My school list for this past cycle was: UNC, ECU, Wake Forest, Duke, George Washington, Saint Louis, Georgetown, Emory, Baylor, and NYU (I know). The interview was with UNC.

Your school list was too small and Duke, Emory, Baylor and NYU were unrealistic. You should apply broadly to many more schools and include DO schools.
I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
UNC
East Carolina
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Seton Hall
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Creighton
TCU-UNT
Tulane
NOVA MD
For DO schools I suggest these:
CUSOM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
PCOM
ACOM
MU-COM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)

 

[beautymd22]

In addition to what is mentioned above regarding the school list, I noticed that u are lacking in clinical experience. You put endoscopy scheduler and fax admin?? Both of which sound are clerical work (i.e. talking in the phone with pts; insurances etc) but NOT DIRECT CLINICAL CARE. So in reality medical schools see that you have 1200 hours in a non-clinical job.

As far as the NICU and covid volunteering, Idk exactly what you were doing but lets assume it is clinical and that it adds up to 70 hours. I mean there is not much you can do as a volunteer in terms of taking care of a pt bc of liability.

Some examples of clinical experience you can explore before re-applying would be a medical assistant (certified or not certified), first responder/EMT, nursing assistant, phlebotomy, EKG tech, anesthesiology assistant, hospice care, even personal trainer. A medical scribe is good but not direct pt care experience so if you get that job, it would help you to do something additionally that involves providing medical care to patients

 

[beautymd22]

Also, shadowing in 2 additional fields to show you've seen more than cardiology. You can also deduct hours from your other experience to fill up ur shadowing (i.e. 20 hours as shadowing in ER if you get a job as an er scribe). Also, try shadowing a geneticist! Even pediatric gentics would be could bc then you would get to see 2 fields (peds and genetics)

 

[gasstationsushi]

Just a FYI, although you can project anything you want , many reviewers consider projections just that-projections. And as we all know life frequently intervenes and those projections don’t get done. So don’t count on projections moving the needle. It might be better to not mention those projected hours and use them later in the cycle in a very nice update letter once they are actually done.
Congrats on actually accomplishing all of those additional hours. That’s a nice addition to your application and you did them despite the Pandemic.
Good luck this cycle.

Thank you! I think I've been watching too many Medical School Headquarters Application Renovation videos lol, they tend to recommend projecting out hours. I'll be sure to only do so when I feel confident that they'll be accurate.

 

[gasstationsushi]

Your school list was too small and Duke, Emory, Baylor and NYU were unrealistic. You should apply broadly to many more schools and include DO schools.
I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
UNC
East Carolina
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Seton Hall
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Creighton
TCU-UNT
Tulane
NOVA MD
For DO schools I suggest these:
CUSOM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
PCOM
ACOM
MU-COM
VCOM (all schools except Monroe)

Part of me knew, but I still definitely learned that the hard way about my school list. I came into all of this last year with limited advising and it turned out to be a trial and error process. Thanks for this list! Any gaps you see in my application or could I be competitive at schools like these? I think timing is what got me the first time but I also want to make sure I'm not missing anything!

 

[Faha]

Your ECs are good enough for any of the schools I listed.

 

[Taskha]

Don't apply to UWashington. My school only have 10 OOS non MD/PhD matriculants. If your application is all about Rural Medicine or Underserved Medicine you may try.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I support your clinical experience description... I think it's okay to schedule procedures since you are working with patients and caregivers and providers.

What I'm not sure about is your community service. Am I missing this when I read your description? I'm talking about "stretching beyond your comfort zone" volunteer experience.

 

[Calizboosted76]

In addition to what is mentioned above regarding the school list, I noticed that u are lacking in clinical experience. You put endoscopy scheduler and fax admin?? Both of which sound are clerical work (i.e. talking in the phone with pts; insurances etc) but NOT DIRECT CLINICAL CARE. So in reality medical schools see that you have 1200 hours in a non-clinical job.

As far as the NICU and covid volunteering, Idk exactly what you were doing but lets assume it is clinical and that it adds up to 70 hours. I mean there is not much you can do as a volunteer in terms of taking care of a pt bc of liability.

Some examples of clinical experience you can explore before re-applying would be a medical assistant (certified or not certified), first responder/EMT, nursing assistant, phlebotomy, EKG tech, anesthesiology assistant, hospice care, even personal trainer. A medical scribe is good but not direct pt care experience so if you get that job, it would help you to do something additionally that involves providing medical care to patients

This is conditional. My current job as a scribe I have an abundance of direct patient contact that includes pt care and my job description and LORs reflect that. I would say if you can OP, become a part time scribe and feel the job out. If you are involved in direct patient care (as I am) then try and transition to full time to rack up those hours and solid LORs from physicians.

 

[gasstationsushi]

I support your clinical experience description... I think it's okay to schedule procedures since you are working with patients and caregivers and providers.

What I'm not sure about is your community service. Am I missing this when I read your description? I'm talking about "stretching beyond your comfort zone" volunteer experience.

I unfortunately don't have "outside my comfort zone" volunteer experience far beyond my college campus. It might be because I go to school in the Triangle, but I struggled to find opportunities close by that allowed me to serve more disadvantaged populations, even though I really wanted to! When I finally found a mobile clinic to volunteer with, nothing came of the opportunity because they only had two events all semester due to COVID that they only offered to volunteers with seniority.

I hope to work at or near a hospital during my gap year(s), during which I plan to volunteer at that hospital or in the area when I can, but given the application timeline those experiences would likely not make it onto my application if I apply this cycle. Would it hurt to lack "outside my comfort zone" volunteer hours at every school, or are some not so picky about this? Could I be strategic with my school list and be okay with what I have now?

 

[gasstationsushi]

This is conditional. My current job as a scribe I have an abundance of direct patient contact that includes pt care and my job description and LORs reflect that. I would say if you can OP, become a part time scribe and feel the job out. If you are involved in direct patient care (as I am) then try and transition to full time to rack up those hours and solid LORs from physicians.

I'm so glad to hear that your scribe position included direct patient contact. I would love to scribe but was worried that it might not actually allow much patient interaction. Thanks for this info!

 

[gasstationsushi]

Don't apply to UWashington. My school only have 10 OOS non MD/PhD matriculants. If your application is all about Rural Medicine or Underserved Medicine you may try.

Really? According to MSAR 128 of 270 matriculants were OOS students and only 7 of those 128 were MD/PhD. My cousin teaches at UW and I love the city so I'm really interested in applying, especially because I didn't apply there last cycle!

 

[chzsux]

Really? According to MSAR 128 of 270 matriculants were OOS students and only 7 of those 128 were MD/PhD. My cousin teaches at UW and I love the city so I'm really interested in applying, especially because I didn't apply there last cycle!

I believe that a large portion of those 128 matriculants is made up of students from states like Idaho and Alaska that have a deal with UW to consider their students as IS or guarantee a certain number of seats. Additionally, most of those matriculants likely are from the region or have strong connections (grew up in Washington but moved, their SO currently lives there, etc.)

 

[UWIdahoan]

At least 110 of these OOS students are from Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Somewhere in the 8-10 range is the true number of OOS students accepted each year. Everyone "loves Seattle" and has a cousin or a friend or a great uncle who lives there. If you don't meet their mission, those things don't matter and you will not get an interview.

People should apply if they really want to go there, but you should also be realistic and not get your hopes up. Other schools are likely a much better option.

 

[Faha]

Really? According to MSAR 128 of 270 matriculants were OOS students and only 7 of those 128 were MD/PhD. My cousin teaches at UW and I love the city so I'm really interested in applying, especially because I didn't apply there last cycle!

The state of Washington has a contract with the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming to accept applicants from those states since none of them have their own medical schools. Most of those 128 are from those 4 states. The acceptance rate for applicants from other states who are not MD/PhD applicants is less than 1%.

 

[MAGABLM]

Just saw your post here and wish you the best!

 

[gasstationsushi]

Just saw your post here and wish you the best!

Thank you so much! I think I'm going to wait one more year before I reapply to really improve my app and recover from this past cycle. Wish you the best as well!