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***This post is for applicants who've made mistakes in the past to see with improvements it's possible to receive an acceptance***
I'm an older non-trad student who is almost 30. I currently have multiple acceptances and I never thought I'd be in this position. I've shed many tears of happiness throughout the cycle. This post is about my story of persevering through setbacks.
If I took every piece of advice I read or was told on Reddit or SDN, I wouldn't be in the position I am in today. So I want to provide some advice and share my story to hopefully inspire some of you who may be in the position I was in to keep going. You can do it!
Back in 2019, I applied to medical school. I rushed to take the MCAT, so I could get into medical school before my 27th birthday. Looking back this sounds ridiculous, but honestly this is why I rushed my app. I felt old and that my dream of becoming a physician was disappearing in front of me (yes, I know dramatic). BIG MISTAKE.
I received a 502 MCAT score and 0 interviews. I also applied to a small number of schools, which was another mistake. A lot of the school's admissions offices were rude to me when I asked questions about my application, but one took the time to do a rejection review with me. To this day, I am grateful for that senior admissions advisor who took the time to do this because without her, I'm not sure I would have been as successful as I am today (more details on this later).
On the contrary,based on the advice I received off of Reddit, SDN and my post-bacc pre-health advisor I was told with a 3.5 cGPA (multiple Cs) and a 502 MCAT score I could never apply to a US MD school. Even with a re-take, a 502 is too big of a red flag and I felt it was impossible to achieve my goal of attending an MD school (based on the geographical locations my partner was willing to move for me to attend medical school and my career aspirations going to an MD school felt like the best fit for me). The advice and what I was reading online made me feel constrained and stupid for getting a "poor" score. Time and time again I was told "you're wasting money if you want to apply MD again" or "your score will never be competitive enough". It also didn't help that I didn't see any success stories either, causing my anxiety to only increase.
But I couldn't give up on my dream that easily, so I put all my faith in the one admissions advisor who gave me hope.
Here is the advice I was given:
1)Medical schools want to be confident that their students will succeed in a rigorous environment. Do not only tell schools this, but prove it. There's no single correct path. You can show them you will succeed in undergrad, grad school, doing a DIY post-bac, PhD, formal grade enhancement program, retaking the MCAT, etc.
2)Set realistic expectations by looking at MSAR and see what type of applicants are accepted at specific schools. Look at the range of MCAT and GPA scores students had. This will give you an indication if the school you're interested in is willing to accept a student with lower stats. Typically a 3.6+ and 510+ are what's considered competitive, but some schools have extremely high stats for applicants they accept (example is your top 5 - 2.0 schools).
3)Do activities you enjoy and that provide a holistic view of why you want to do medicine. It's quality over quantity. Don't do something to just check a box. Try to do things that can show what your ultimate vision is ( ex. Serving those who are marginalized)
4)Share personal details about yourself. Treat your personal statement as a story and vividly show the reader events in your life that allowed you to realize why you want to become a physician. Engage in story telling throughout your app! Not just the PS.
5)Be open about the difficulties you faced throughout life whether personal or professional if it explains poor grades, MCAT scores, or other negative things related on your app. Don't be afraid to select the disadvantaged status on your app and write a separate essay even if you are no longer disadvantaged.
6)Not everything has to be medically related. Do whatever volunteer activity you want to do! Do whatever job you want to do before medicine if you have to support yourself financially. Just be sure to share what unique skills you can bring to the table.
7)Adcoms like persistence and people who don't give up. If you show drastic improvements some red flags can be forgiven. They gave me specific outages on my app that I improved.
My improvements while continuing to work full-time in a non-medical related job in corporate America:
1)In 2019, I had been out of school for 5 years and my MCAT score was a 502. I was told these were both red flags and that I needed to prove I can still handle an academically rigorous environment. I took a year to study for my MCAT retake while taking 5 post-bacc classes. I received a 511 on my retake, brought up my cGPA to a 3.59 and sGPA to 3.62.
2)I rewrote my whole app and focused on story telling. I openly shared my families financial strain, the patriarchal environment I grew up in, poor public school education and losing my mom. I was open. The most open I've ever been about sharing my issues. It was difficult to do, but I truly think it provided me with the foundation I needed to talk about all the hurdles I faced and why they've allowed me to become a better person.
3)I made sure my app had a theme. I am extremely passionate about wanting to improve the health of my community and equality. I focused on doing more volunteer activities to reflect that passion (even non- medically related ones) such as baking goods for the homeless, mentoring a low income high school student, serving seniors meals, volunteering at a free clinic. I put 100% of my heart and free time into these activities. In total this added around 350 extra volunteer hours on my app.
4)In addition to my previous 300 scribe hours on my previous app, I also shadowed physicians for 60 hours in-person and for 100+ hours virtually. I also did Brainterns and found physicians to interview.
5)I found all new letter writers who knew the more recent version of me and could talk about my current strengths. This is important because you want your letter writers to be up to date. I made sure to have one talk about my soft skills, another to talk about my academic skills and another to talk about my analytical research skills. You want your recommendation letters to be all encompassing and it is completely okay to ask your letter writers to focus on specific topics.
6)Have lots of trusted individuals read your materials and provide input. Even trusted acquaintances to make sure your story is coming off as you intended and that your grammar and flow are perfect. If you attend a university often they have services where either students who excel in writing or professionals can review your work. Take advantage of these resources. If you also have money to spare there are tons of editing services out there you can take advantage of. The key is be honest with yourself and ask for help if you need it.
Please feel free to DM if you want more specifics. At one point I felt extremely lost and want to provide a helping hand now that I've gone through this.
*** IMPORTANT***
If you are relatively early on in your pre-med journey never rush the MCAT, seek help early so you don't get Cs and make sure you apply with a good school list ONLY when you feel your app is the best it can be. This will save a lot of money and time! But if you've made mistakes it is NOT the end and with enough time and effort you can still become a physician.
I'm an older non-trad student who is almost 30. I currently have multiple acceptances and I never thought I'd be in this position. I've shed many tears of happiness throughout the cycle. This post is about my story of persevering through setbacks.
If I took every piece of advice I read or was told on Reddit or SDN, I wouldn't be in the position I am in today. So I want to provide some advice and share my story to hopefully inspire some of you who may be in the position I was in to keep going. You can do it!
Back in 2019, I applied to medical school. I rushed to take the MCAT, so I could get into medical school before my 27th birthday. Looking back this sounds ridiculous, but honestly this is why I rushed my app. I felt old and that my dream of becoming a physician was disappearing in front of me (yes, I know dramatic). BIG MISTAKE.
I received a 502 MCAT score and 0 interviews. I also applied to a small number of schools, which was another mistake. A lot of the school's admissions offices were rude to me when I asked questions about my application, but one took the time to do a rejection review with me. To this day, I am grateful for that senior admissions advisor who took the time to do this because without her, I'm not sure I would have been as successful as I am today (more details on this later).
On the contrary,based on the advice I received off of Reddit, SDN and my post-bacc pre-health advisor I was told with a 3.5 cGPA (multiple Cs) and a 502 MCAT score I could never apply to a US MD school. Even with a re-take, a 502 is too big of a red flag and I felt it was impossible to achieve my goal of attending an MD school (based on the geographical locations my partner was willing to move for me to attend medical school and my career aspirations going to an MD school felt like the best fit for me). The advice and what I was reading online made me feel constrained and stupid for getting a "poor" score. Time and time again I was told "you're wasting money if you want to apply MD again" or "your score will never be competitive enough". It also didn't help that I didn't see any success stories either, causing my anxiety to only increase.
But I couldn't give up on my dream that easily, so I put all my faith in the one admissions advisor who gave me hope.
Here is the advice I was given:
1)Medical schools want to be confident that their students will succeed in a rigorous environment. Do not only tell schools this, but prove it. There's no single correct path. You can show them you will succeed in undergrad, grad school, doing a DIY post-bac, PhD, formal grade enhancement program, retaking the MCAT, etc.
2)Set realistic expectations by looking at MSAR and see what type of applicants are accepted at specific schools. Look at the range of MCAT and GPA scores students had. This will give you an indication if the school you're interested in is willing to accept a student with lower stats. Typically a 3.6+ and 510+ are what's considered competitive, but some schools have extremely high stats for applicants they accept (example is your top 5 - 2.0 schools).
3)Do activities you enjoy and that provide a holistic view of why you want to do medicine. It's quality over quantity. Don't do something to just check a box. Try to do things that can show what your ultimate vision is ( ex. Serving those who are marginalized)
4)Share personal details about yourself. Treat your personal statement as a story and vividly show the reader events in your life that allowed you to realize why you want to become a physician. Engage in story telling throughout your app! Not just the PS.
5)Be open about the difficulties you faced throughout life whether personal or professional if it explains poor grades, MCAT scores, or other negative things related on your app. Don't be afraid to select the disadvantaged status on your app and write a separate essay even if you are no longer disadvantaged.
6)Not everything has to be medically related. Do whatever volunteer activity you want to do! Do whatever job you want to do before medicine if you have to support yourself financially. Just be sure to share what unique skills you can bring to the table.
7)Adcoms like persistence and people who don't give up. If you show drastic improvements some red flags can be forgiven. They gave me specific outages on my app that I improved.
My improvements while continuing to work full-time in a non-medical related job in corporate America:
1)In 2019, I had been out of school for 5 years and my MCAT score was a 502. I was told these were both red flags and that I needed to prove I can still handle an academically rigorous environment. I took a year to study for my MCAT retake while taking 5 post-bacc classes. I received a 511 on my retake, brought up my cGPA to a 3.59 and sGPA to 3.62.
2)I rewrote my whole app and focused on story telling. I openly shared my families financial strain, the patriarchal environment I grew up in, poor public school education and losing my mom. I was open. The most open I've ever been about sharing my issues. It was difficult to do, but I truly think it provided me with the foundation I needed to talk about all the hurdles I faced and why they've allowed me to become a better person.
3)I made sure my app had a theme. I am extremely passionate about wanting to improve the health of my community and equality. I focused on doing more volunteer activities to reflect that passion (even non- medically related ones) such as baking goods for the homeless, mentoring a low income high school student, serving seniors meals, volunteering at a free clinic. I put 100% of my heart and free time into these activities. In total this added around 350 extra volunteer hours on my app.
4)In addition to my previous 300 scribe hours on my previous app, I also shadowed physicians for 60 hours in-person and for 100+ hours virtually. I also did Brainterns and found physicians to interview.
5)I found all new letter writers who knew the more recent version of me and could talk about my current strengths. This is important because you want your letter writers to be up to date. I made sure to have one talk about my soft skills, another to talk about my academic skills and another to talk about my analytical research skills. You want your recommendation letters to be all encompassing and it is completely okay to ask your letter writers to focus on specific topics.
6)Have lots of trusted individuals read your materials and provide input. Even trusted acquaintances to make sure your story is coming off as you intended and that your grammar and flow are perfect. If you attend a university often they have services where either students who excel in writing or professionals can review your work. Take advantage of these resources. If you also have money to spare there are tons of editing services out there you can take advantage of. The key is be honest with yourself and ask for help if you need it.
Please feel free to DM if you want more specifics. At one point I felt extremely lost and want to provide a helping hand now that I've gone through this.
*** IMPORTANT***
If you are relatively early on in your pre-med journey never rush the MCAT, seek help early so you don't get Cs and make sure you apply with a good school list ONLY when you feel your app is the best it can be. This will save a lot of money and time! But if you've made mistakes it is NOT the end and with enough time and effort you can still become a physician.
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