7 months until re-application from failed last cycle (2020-21), how can I spend these last months to improve the most before June?

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GoPenguinsGo

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First off, I'm back h**s.

Some stats that are accurate at the time of me writing this (Nov 16, 2021) :

-Ohio Resident

-MCAT: 503 (2018), 516 (2020)

-GPA: 3.30 cPA, 3.35 sGPA (AMCAS). Please note this is before the addition of my DIY post-bacc hours.

-DIY Post Bacc GPA: 4.0 (14 credits by end of this semester) I would like to note I do not have lower than an A- in a BCPM lecture since 2018, so theres been some distance of time between myself and a lot of the grades that cumulated to a 3.3 and 3.35 above.

-Research: 1500 hours (1 Thesis produced in a Biochem/Immunology wet-lab). I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday!!!!!!

-Clinical experience: 250 hours at a local free-clinic for the underserved

-Non-Clinical Volunteering: 50 hours at local food pantry, 50 hours at the aformentioned clinic doing non-clinical things.

-Shadowing: 30 hours, various specialties about half primary care and half non primary care.


My plan:
-Work 20 hours per week with 2 days of 10 hour work days (I must financially support myself)
-Volunteer 8 hours per week at local hospice with patient care
-Take 6 more credits of upper division science in upcoming Spring semester. Then take a first-half Summer or Maymester 3 or 4 credit class
-Volunteer 4 hours per week at local food pantry
-Continue volunteering 4 hours per week at local clinic
-Shadow

Anyone have an opinion on how good of an idea this is in prep for upcoming app season?

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-Research: 1500 hours (1 Thesis produced in a Biochem/Immunology wet-lab). I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday!!!!!!

-Clinical experience: 250 hours at a local free-clinic for the underserved

-Non-Clinical Volunteering: 50 hours at local food pantry, 50 hours at the aformentioned clinic doing non-clinical things.

-Shadowing: 30 hours, various specialties about half primary care and half non primary care.


My plan:
-Work 20 hours per week with 2 days of 10 hour work days (I must financially support myself)
-Volunteer 8 hours per week at local hospice with patient care
-Take 6 more credits of upper division science in upcoming Spring semester. Then take a first-half Summer or Maymester 3 or 4 credit class
-Volunteer 4 hours per week at local food pantry
-Continue volunteering 4 hours per week at local clinic
-Shadow

Anyone have an opinion on how good of an idea this is in prep for upcoming app season?
I suggest:

Shadow up to 50 hrs; see if you can shadow a DO and get LOR from same.
Go with volunteering at hospice and you won't need the local clinic.
OR, pick which interests you more: the clinic or hospice. I have a high regard for hospice work.

Get the nonclinical volunteering to > 150 hrs; 200 hrs would be even better.

Was your thesis program an SMP? Or a true research thesis program?
I suggest the following schools:

Dartmouth
Pitt
Mayo
Mt Sinai
Keck (maybe)
Temple (maybe)
UCSF
EVMS
Hofstra
Emory
Jefferson
U VM
Miami
Drexel
Albany
Tufts
NYMC
TCU/UNT
Your state schools
Loyola
Rosy Franklin
Tulane
Wake
MCW
SLU
Creighton
Wayne State
Netter
NovaMD
NYU.LI
Any DO program. I can't recommend LMU, ARCOM, RVU, Nova, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class yet, if at all possible.
 
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I suggest:

Shadow up to 50 hrs; see if you can shadow a DO and get LOR from same.
Go with volunteering at hospice and you won't need the local clinic.

Why do you recommend volunteering at the hospice over volunteering at the local fee free clinic?
 
Members don't see this ad :)
First off, I'm back h**s.

Some stats that are accurate at the time of me writing this (Nov 16, 2021) :

-Ohio Resident

-MCAT: 503 (2018), 516 (2020)

-GPA: 3.30 cPA, 3.35 sGPA (AMCAS). Please note this is before the addition of my DIY post-bacc hours.

-DIY Post Bacc GPA: 4.0 (14 credits by end of this semester) I would like to note I do not have lower than an A- in a BCPM lecture since 2018, so theres been some distance of time between myself and a lot of the grades that cumulated to a 3.3 and 3.35 above.

-Research: 1500 hours (1 Thesis produced in a Biochem/Immunology wet-lab). I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday!!!!!!

-Clinical experience: 250 hours at a local free-clinic for the underserved

-Non-Clinical Volunteering: 50 hours at local food pantry, 50 hours at the aformentioned clinic doing non-clinical things.

-Shadowing: 30 hours, various specialties about half primary care and half non primary care.


My plan:
-Work 20 hours per week with 2 days of 10 hour work days (I must financially support myself)
-Volunteer 8 hours per week at local hospice with patient care
-Take 6 more credits of upper division science in upcoming Spring semester. Then take a first-half Summer or Maymester 3 or 4 credit class
-Volunteer 4 hours per week at local food pantry
-Continue volunteering 4 hours per week at local clinic
-Shadow

Anyone have an opinion on how good of an idea this is in prep for upcoming app season?
It looks like you did everything right, and seem poised to have a successful cycle. Your plan looks great.
 
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First off, I'm back h**s.

Some stats that are accurate at the time of me writing this (Nov 16, 2021) :

-Ohio Resident

-MCAT: 503 (2018), 516 (2020)

-GPA: 3.30 cPA, 3.35 sGPA (AMCAS). Please note this is before the addition of my DIY post-bacc hours.

-DIY Post Bacc GPA: 4.0 (14 credits by end of this semester) I would like to note I do not have lower than an A- in a BCPM lecture since 2018, so theres been some distance of time between myself and a lot of the grades that cumulated to a 3.3 and 3.35 above.

-Research: 1500 hours (1 Thesis produced in a Biochem/Immunology wet-lab). I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday!!!!!!

-Clinical experience: 250 hours at a local free-clinic for the underserved

-Non-Clinical Volunteering: 50 hours at local food pantry, 50 hours at the aformentioned clinic doing non-clinical things.

-Shadowing: 30 hours, various specialties about half primary care and half non primary care.


My plan:
-Work 20 hours per week with 2 days of 10 hour work days (I must financially support myself)
-Volunteer 8 hours per week at local hospice with patient care
-Take 6 more credits of upper division science in upcoming Spring semester. Then take a first-half Summer or Maymester 3 or 4 credit class
-Volunteer 4 hours per week at local food pantry
-Continue volunteering 4 hours per week at local clinic
-Shadow

Anyone have an opinion on how good of an idea this is in prep for upcoming app season?
Looks good. I'd include some DO programs as well as MD programs on your list of target schools. If you're going to apply DO, as @Goro suggests, also shadow a DO.
 
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First off, I'm back h**s.

Some stats that are accurate at the time of me writing this (Nov 16, 2021) :

-Ohio Resident

-MCAT: 503 (2018), 516 (2020)

-GPA: 3.30 cPA, 3.35 sGPA (AMCAS). Please note this is before the addition of my DIY post-bacc hours.

-DIY Post Bacc GPA: 4.0 (14 credits by end of this semester) I would like to note I do not have lower than an A- in a BCPM lecture since 2018, so theres been some distance of time between myself and a lot of the grades that cumulated to a 3.3 and 3.35 above.

-Research: 1500 hours (1 Thesis produced in a Biochem/Immunology wet-lab). I successfully defended my Masters Thesis yesterday!!!!!!

-Clinical experience: 250 hours at a local free-clinic for the underserved

-Non-Clinical Volunteering: 50 hours at local food pantry, 50 hours at the aformentioned clinic doing non-clinical things.

-Shadowing: 30 hours, various specialties about half primary care and half non primary care.


My plan:
-Work 20 hours per week with 2 days of 10 hour work days (I must financially support myself)
-Volunteer 8 hours per week at local hospice with patient care
-Take 6 more credits of upper division science in upcoming Spring semester. Then take a first-half Summer or Maymester 3 or 4 credit class
-Volunteer 4 hours per week at local food pantry
-Continue volunteering 4 hours per week at local clinic
-Shadow

Anyone have an opinion on how good of an idea this is in prep for upcoming app season?
I would for sure add OUHCOM to that list.
 
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I suggest:

Shadow up to 50 hrs; see if you can shadow a DO and get LOR from same.
Go with volunteering at hospice and you won't need the local clinic.
OR, pick which interests you more: the clinic or hospice. I have a high regard for hospice work.

Get the nonclinical volunteering to > 150 hrs; 200 hrs would be even better.

Was your thesis program an SMP? Or a true research thesis program?
I suggest the following schools:

Dartmouth
Pitt
Mayo
Mt Sinai
Keck (maybe)
Temple (maybe)
UCSF
EVMS
Hofstra
Emory
Jefferson
U VM
Miami
Drexel
Albany
Tufts
NYMC
TCU/UNT
Your state schools
Loyola
Rosy Franklin
Tulane
Wake
MCW
SLU
Creighton
Wayne State
Netter
NovaMD
NYU.LI
Any DO program. I can't recommend LMU, ARCOM, RVU, Nova, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class yet, if at all possible.
I appreciate the advice. The Masters is a true research Masters and I don't mention its GPA since (I remember I have a 3.81 sGPA for my graduate grades but that is neither here nor there) is not looked at seriously by some schools. The DIY Post Bacc GPA is all undergraduate upper-division Bio courses (Molecular Genetics, Histology, Immunology, etc) taken after I acquired my graduate grades and is a 4.0 as I mentioned.

I appreciate the school list and we will have to see how things finalize this coming June 1, 2022. I am not sure even with the projected (it's basically guaranteed at this point) stat increases for clinical/non-clinical hours I am competitive at schools like UCSF, Mt. Sinai, Keck, Pitt, or Dartmouth. I'd still wager places like UCincy and Ohio St (two of my state schools) will be reaches.
 
I suggest:

Shadow up to 50 hrs; see if you can shadow a DO and get LOR from same.
Go with volunteering at hospice and you won't need the local clinic.
OR, pick which interests you more: the clinic or hospice. I have a high regard for hospice work.

Get the nonclinical volunteering to > 150 hrs; 200 hrs would be even better.

Was your thesis program an SMP? Or a true research thesis program?
I suggest the following schools:

Dartmouth
Pitt
Mayo
Mt Sinai
Keck (maybe)
Temple (maybe)
UCSF
EVMS
Hofstra
Emory
Jefferson
U VM
Miami
Drexel
Albany
Tufts
NYMC
TCU/UNT
Your state schools
Loyola
Rosy Franklin
Tulane
Wake
MCW
SLU
Creighton
Wayne State
Netter
NovaMD
NYU.LI
Any DO program. I can't recommend LMU, ARCOM, RVU, Nova, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class yet, if at all possible.
Would you please knock off the Larry Nassar jive? Are you going to tell people to not apply at the University of Michigan because that institution employed a slew of sexual predators and conferred a doctorate on Theodore Kaczynski? No, my kid did not go to Michigan State.

The MSU DO school was conceived, built and maintained because the State of Michigan did not have enough primary care providers in 1965. In spite of its enormous size, the MSU DO school currently has admission criteria that are higher than most DO schools. The State of Michigan has 3% of the US Population but 5.2% of the residency slots leading to board certification in large part because the MSU DO school sponsored family practice residency programs all over the State of Michigan. I suspect that many of the graduates of your medical school trained as residents in Michigan.

 
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