MD Advice for next cycle and/or Encouragement

[purplescrubs9]

--deleted-- thank you for the feedback all!

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[TakotsuboOkazaki]

So...

You are probably already aware, but you GPA is on the low side for US MD schools. However, it is not so low that I would count you out.

The balanced MCAT is a plus.

It seems though, that most of your patient contact experience is coming in your gap year (70 hrs vs. 2000+ hrs). This could be off-putting to some adcoms that see it as a "rush & stuff" sort of thing. This is also subjective, because it varies person to person.

The good thing is that your numbers do not completely exclude you and you have well rounded, long term experiences.

The fact that you have received only 1 II at this point (given your application submission window) is concerning, but not terribly so. Focus on doing well on the one interview you have and hold out hope for more in the new year.

In the event that you need to enter another cycle, you have tons of research experience that you could use as a launching point for further academic work in potential, subsequent gap years.

 

[candbgirl]

Did you apply to any DO schools?
Where did you apply? Where have you been rejected?

Your GPAs are low for MD. Good MCAT. But you applied with 20 hours of shadowing and 50 hours of clinical experience. That wasn’t smart,especially with your stats. It’s like you were hell bent on applying this year despite the big holes in your application. That doesn’t show good judgement.

 

[Save a life]

You still might get an interview. There are plenty of people in my M1 class that got interviewed and accepted in January and later. Did you get rejected from your state school or still waiting to hear? Also, I hope you applied to mostly low-tier OOS friendly schools.

 

[candbgirl]

So you didn’t apply to DO even though there is one very close to you? I understand applying close to home (you really didn’t) but you might be planning for Med School if you had thrown in a few DO schools.

Did you use the MSAR to develop your list? You might still hear from some of the schools. But in case you don’t I hope you are improving your application. ADCOMS like to see significant application improvement for reapplicants.

You had one interview right? How did that go? Any idea when you might hear back!

 

[purplescrubs9]

**oops forgot the rest of that sentence: made me avoid DO programs at this time.

 

[candbgirl]

I think your MCAT is fine. Why do you want to retake? What if you score the same or lower? Were the ECs you have listed as Gap year included on your application? You seem to have everything well covered if they are. Applying to med school is a crap shoot. People with near perfect applications sometimes don’t get accepted.

Good luck on your interview. Let us know how it goes. As @Goro says “it’s 100% on you now”.

 

[Goro]

The biggest weakness I see in your app is that your clinical hours are extremely weak. My own student interviewers would eat you alive.

You also have a lot of out-of-state public schools for whom you were not a viable candidate.

Beggars can't be choosy and you really need to have DO schools on your list

Hello all - If anyone has some extra time and feels like humoring me, I would love for some suggestions on how to improve my application, as I am concerned I won’t be getting in this round. Granted I’m still waiting on 14 schools, but most of them don’t send out R’s until the end of the cycle from what I’ve gathered. (Encouragement or reassurance would also be greatly appreciated, if you think it might be warranted based on my app)

ORM, Secondaries complete mid July-mid August for 19 schools, Early Sept for 10.
GPA: 3.4-3.5
sGPA: 3.3-3.4
MCAT: 510-512 (well-rounded, all about the same score in each section)
UG Institution: Not an Ivy, but close (top 15)
UG major: Chemistry

UG EC’s:
-Physician shadowing (~20 hrs)
-Hospital volunteering (~50 hrs)
-President of a club (~30 hrs)
-Research - culminated in honors thesis (~700 hrs)
-Leadership experience (~155 hrs)
-Teaching/Tutoring (400+ hrs)
-Peer Leadership experience (~100 hrs)

Gap year EC’s:
-Private tutoring in STEM (400 hrs +)
-Scribing (2000 hrs +)
-Volunteering at a local food bank (250 hrs +)

LORs: 2 science (experienced letter writers from my understanding, and who I knew quite well), 2 from current activities/employment (both of which they sent me before sending in - they sent, I didn’t ask- and were very good).

I wish I could say there is some obvious red flag in my personal statement or something, but my pre-med advisor and friends all reviewed, edited and agreed it was strong, and I was confident it showed my story of why I want to go into medicine.

Primary: 29 Secondary: 28 Pre II R: 14 II: 1 A: 0

-I applied to schools all over and regardless of rank, going primarily by OOS acceptance rates and average MCAT and GPA to make sure I was above or within their ranges.