Advice/ feedback for international student reapplicant

[artisticfoodie]

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Hi everyone and thanks so much to everyone giving advice on this thread.

I applied this cycle mostly MD/PhD with three MD only applications and am currently on 3 interviews which all turned to waitlists - Yale, Vanderbilt, Emory (all MD/PhD). I submitted 22 primary applications in early June and received all secondaries. I struggled with balancing other commitments especially as I had not had time to pre-write all secondaries due to retaking my MCAT before applying. Therefore I submitted only 15 secondaries and some were submitted more than 2 weeks after receiving them (up to a month or so later). Being an international student on OPT (graduated high school and university in the U.S.), I have limited time so i have to consider that as well. I applied for stem-opt 24 month extension which will expire mid 2026. During the past year, I have been working as a research associate on a first author project which should be submitted this year, I have also been volunteering with the red cross and other local organizations (~80-100 additional volunteer hours). I will be starting clinical volunteering this summer/fall but do not have any additional hours from during the cycle as opportunities were hard to come by for non-student volunteers.

On my application last cycle I had:
- Clinical volunteering as an emergency department patient ambassador - 80 hours
- Non-clinical volunteering (climate action delegate and shelter food service volunteering) - 350 hours
- Research ( 3 summer internships, undergraduate research assistant position from freshman year till graduation, and post-grad research associate position completed and anticipated hours) : 5282 hours
- One second author publication in Molecular cell that was not published when I submitted primaries but I mentioned this on secondaries
- Leadership (Senior Resident Assistant + Executive board member of community service org in college): 1560 hours
- Shadowing (3 physicians): 82 hours
- Three oral presentations (one national conference, one regional, one statewide symposium) - including one presentation award
- Three poster presentations at national and school-wide conferences - including one poster award
- Paid student employment - 1280 hours
- Extracurriculars (Honors association vice president and other honors association positions) - 108 hours
- Awards - Department wide award, 7 Distinction Awards (School wide), and Graduation award
- Hobbies: Graphic art and painting (used in several community service projects and food drives)

* I did not include oral and poster presentations from summer internships but had two oral presentations and two posters from that


Also, I had a 512 MCAT, 4th quartile casper, and a 4.0 cGPA. I have heard from MD/PhD committee members that some programs do not weigh MCAT so harshly but am considering retaking again. I am trying to decide whether to:
1) reapply this cycle (it is late already so not much time to retake MCAT if even possible) and work on submitting early with strong essays and better preparation for interviews
OR
2) Finish up my project in coming months and pursue work in a clinical professional setting as a CNA or medical assistant, while studying to retake MCAT and then reapplying in 2025. If I do this, I may apply to more on MD-only programs with hopes to do an extensive research fellowship instead or pursue PhD separately

Also, would it be okay for me to call the programs that I interviewed with to ask for feedback/ what to improve on my application even though I am still on the waitlists?

 

[Sunrizon]

Hi everyone and thanks so much to everyone giving advice on this thread.

I applied this cycle mostly MD/PhD with three MD only applications and am currently on 3 interviews which all turned to waitlists - Yale, Vanderbilt, Emory (all MD/PhD). I submitted 22 primary applications in early June and received all secondaries. I struggled with balancing other commitments especially as I had not had time to pre-write all secondaries due to retaking my MCAT before applying. Therefore I submitted only 15 secondaries and some were submitted more than 2 weeks after receiving them (up to a month or so later). Being an international student on OPT (graduated high school and university in the U.S.), I have limited time so i have to consider that as well. I applied for stem-opt 24 month extension which will expire mid 2026. During the past year, I have been working as a research associate on a first author project which should be submitted this year, I have also been volunteering with the red cross and other local organizations (~80-100 additional volunteer hours). I will be starting clinical volunteering this summer/fall but do not have any additional hours from during the cycle as opportunities were hard to come by for non-student volunteers.

On my application last cycle I had:
- Clinical volunteering as an emergency department patient ambassador - 80 hours
- Non-clinical volunteering (climate action delegate and shelter food service volunteering) - 350 hours
- Research ( 3 summer internships, undergraduate research assistant position from freshman year till graduation, and post-grad research associate position completed and anticipated hours) : 5282 hours
- One second author publication in Molecular cell that was not published when I submitted primaries but I mentioned this on secondaries
- Leadership (Senior Resident Assistant + Executive board member of community service org in college): 1560 hours
- Shadowing (3 physicians): 82 hours
- Three oral presentations (one national conference, one regional, one statewide symposium) - including one presentation award
- Three poster presentations at national and school-wide conferences - including one poster award
- Paid student employment - 1280 hours
- Extracurriculars (Honors association vice president and other honors association positions) - 108 hours
- Awards - Department wide award, 7 Distinction Awards (School wide), and Graduation award
- Hobbies: Graphic art and painting (used in several community service projects and food drives)

* I did not include oral and poster presentations from summer internships but had two oral presentations and two posters from that


Also, I had a 512 MCAT, 4th quartile casper, and a 4.0 cGPA. I have heard from MD/PhD committee members that some programs do not weigh MCAT so harshly but am considering retaking again. I am trying to decide whether to:
1) reapply this cycle (it is late already so not much time to retake MCAT if even possible) and work on submitting early with strong essays and better preparation for interviews
OR
2) Finish up my project in coming months and pursue work in a clinical professional setting as a CNA or medical assistant, while studying to retake MCAT and then reapplying in 2025. If I do this, I may apply to more on MD-only programs with hopes to do an extensive research fellowship instead or pursue PhD separately

Also, would it be okay for me to call the programs that I interviewed with to ask for feedback/ what to improve on my application even though I am still on the waitlists?

I would reccommend sending letters of intent to ALL OF THEM rn

 

[artisticfoodie]

Thanks

I would reccommend sending letters of intent to ALL OF THEM rn

Thanks for the feedback. I sent one letter of intent and letters of interest to the others last month. I have heard it is not recommended to send multiple letters of intent so I was a bit wary. Have you heard of this working for others?

 

[Sunrizon]

Thanks

Thanks for the feedback. I sent one letter of intent and letters of interest to the others last month. I have heard it is not recommended to send multiple letters of intent so I was a bit wary. Have you heard of this working for others?

Yeah it is a bit bad but honestly, out of desparation, I would... especially if the one I really want has not responded

 

[Sunrizon]

Also, I feel your app is fine as is, but a higher MCAT would surely help. No potential red flags or anything and great research productivity. The only crux is being international and I feel you. Apply to more MD only programs, you can transfer into MSTP for some of them. Did you apply to SKMC MD/Ph.D.?

 

[artisticfoodie]

Thanks again! About the letters of intent, since it’s not been long since I sent letters/interest and have not added many new activities besides continuing current ones since my last update, should I just repeat previous updates and comments?

Yeah my worry is if my MCAT would hold me back for another year and if I stand more to gain by waiting and reapplying next year or applying with the same score since there is not much time to retake for this current cycle.

I did apply to SKMC but didn’t submit my secondary unfortunately. However, it is still on my list and I am committed to completing my app for it the second go round. Do you think my lower clinical hours compared to most MD only applicants will hurt? Last cycle I applied to NYU and CWRU MD only but didn’t get an interview invite

 

[Sunrizon]

Thanks again! About the letters of intent, since it’s not been long since I sent letters/interest and have not added many new activities besides continuing current ones since my last update, should I just repeat previous updates and comments?

Yeah my worry is if my MCAT would hold me back for another year and if I stand more to gain by waiting and reapplying next year or applying with the same score since there is not much time to retake for this current cycle.

I did apply to SKMC but didn’t submit my secondary unfortunately. However, it is still on my list and I am committed to completing my app for it the second go round. Do you think my lower clinical hours compared to most MD only applicants will hurt? Last cycle I applied to NYU and CWRU MD only but didn’t get an interview invite

Tryy increase your clinical hours atleast to 150... that may hold you back on MD applications. Try to add something new to the LOIs. You can talk about how you are still continuing yoour current activities and finesse it a bit.