Advice for next steps as non-trad (likely) reapplicant

[akawewe]

Hey everyone. So this cycle isn’t going well and I’m looking at my options for the coming year. I’m relatively non-traditional (graduated in 2020 with a bio degree, 3.83 GPA/518 MCAT), did a random job for two years during COVID because I didn't know what I wanted to do, and now have 2 years of full-time clinical research experience (I follow doctors around all day and interact with patients frequently and perform blood draws so I split this about 25% clinical and 75% research hours) and volunteer experience (mainly with individuals with special needs. That being said, would it be worthwhile for me to do a graduate program to renew coursework or get a new purely clinical job for the coming year and then reapply? I feel like doing a program would be beneficial to show I can still hang academically and to get new LORs from professors and overall application guidance and more shadowing experience (shadowing where I live is a struggle and a half). I could really benefit from help with application prep as well, because I thought I wrote well this cycle but with 2 IIs and no As I’m thinking there was a writing issue as well as lack of pure clinical experience and outdated coursework. I don’t know where to start. I don’t see reapplying this upcoming cycle as giving a better outcome than I am having now seeing as I’ve stayed in the same job (long story) and only added a non-clinical volunteer position in a free clinic (about 35 hours so far) and took two classes. I feel so lost so any advice would be appreciated!

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Doubt the coursework is your issue. Get a FT clinical job and shadow, get a new letter in the coming months and I think you'd be good. Frankly also prob a school list issue.

 

[Approach]

A few questions: What was your random COVID job and school list? Why would more shadowing benefit you, considering your clinical job includes significant patient interaction? Your coursework doesn't seem outdated, and your GPA isn't low enough to require the graduate program you’re referencing.

What I'm not seeing are your ECs besides the volunteering, what were those?

 

[akawewe]

Random COVID job was medical device manufacturing, so difficult to write and talk about because it was kind of just a detour because I could not work in a clinical position at the time (I'm immunocompromised).

I wasn't sure how much my clinical exposure at work counts versus shadowing and if that might be part of the issue (I'm grasping at straws).

School list was very thoroughly researched and varied. I can add it here but I genuinely spent so long on it I do not think it was my issue. I applied to over 30 schools, MD and a few DO.

As for ECs, I have a lot of non-medicine related paid experience because again, I decided on medicine later (summer camps, ministry internship). Then I have experience as a biology lab TA for a year., lots of honors at school which required volunteer work and mentorship, and a dance club.
Volunteering: camp counselor for children with the disease I suffer from, committee member for event for individuals with special needs (about 150 hours). I have since started that non-clinical volunteering position at a free clinic and wrote about it in update letters.

My app theme was therefore very difficult because my main "why" is my experience as a patient, which is obviously not reflected in my activities because it is something I was dealing with in college (college was about surviving for me, both physically with my illness and financially because my family was in a rough spot). Medicine just never seemed in the cards for me until I started this job that I am in now and actually got the experience and guidance/encouragement I needed to see medicine as something someone from my background (no one in medicine in my family, low-income, very poor high school) can do.

 

[akawewe]

School list if that makes a difference, PA resident:

Baseline

1. Drexel
2. Temple
3. Penn State
4. Rosalind Franklin
5. George Washington
6. Virginia Commonwealth
7. Saint Louis University
8. New York Medical College
9. Quinnipiac
10. Toledo

Target

1. Pitt
2. Geisinger
3. Sidney Kimmel
4. Georgetown
5. University of Colorado
6. University of Cincinnati
7. Albert Einstein
8. Ohio State
9. Brown
10. University of Michigan
11. Dartmouth

Reach

1. Stanford
2. Case Western
3. Boston University
4. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
5. University of Rochester
6. University of Chicago
7. Northwestern

DO Schools:
1. PCOM
2. MSUCOM
3. LECOM (just applied here as last resort, doing my interview tomorrow)
4. DMUCOM (just applied here because they emailed me again, not expecting anything here I know it's late in the cycle)

West Coast (applied here because my partner wants to move out here, submitted these last and knew I had like no chance here.

1. USC (Keck)
2. UCSF -reach stats (GPA)
3. Kaiser Permanente
4. University of Arizona-Phoenix
5. UCLA
6. UC San Diego

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Your school list seems okay to me at a quick glance. Where'd you get interviews? You should seek out feedback on your app, some of the listed schools do feedback sessions going into March-May from what I recall.

If you didn't get any or only a few interviews, it was probably your writing. Frankly you've got the stuff needed imo except maybe a little low on clinical which a gap year job will remedy.

I was almost in your shoes last year, got my one and only II in mid Feb and got accepted in mid May. You still have a shred of hope, but def plan on a re-app.

 

[akawewe]

Your school list seems okay to me at a quick glance. Where'd you get interviews? You should seek out feedback on your app, some of the listed schools do feedback sessions going into March-May from what I recall.

If you didn't get any or only a few interviews, it was probably your writing. Frankly you've got the stuff needed imo except maybe a little low on clinical which a gap year job will remedy.

I was almost in your shoes last year, got my one and only II in mid Feb and got accepted in mid May. You still have a shred of hope, but def plan on a re-app.

Got an II at Pitt (I work there...rejected post II) and one at Geisinger (post-II hold). Other than that just LECOM who interviews tons of applicants. I had many people review my PS (even one of the docs who wrote a letter), giving approval. Could my secondaries hold that much weight? I poured my heart into all of the writing so thinking of it being the issue is so difficult because I do not know how I could approach it differently 🙁

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Got an II at Pitt (I work there...rejected post II) and one at Geisinger (post-II hold). Other than that just LECOM who interviews tons of applicants. I had many people review my PS (even one of the docs who wrote a letter), giving approval. Could my secondaries hold that much weight? I poured my heart into all of the writing so thinking of it being the issue is so difficult because I do not know how I could approach it differently 🙁

If you want, feel free to DM me a Google drive link with everything. I'm not an expert but sometimes boomer docs who aren't directly involved in the admissions process give awful advice.

 

[akawewe]

If you want, feel free to DM me a Google drive link with everything. I'm not an expert but sometimes boomer docs who aren't directly involved in the admissions process give awful advice.

Lol she is younger (40's) and was an interviewer for the med school previously but she is super nice so might have just been her kindness. I will DM you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Good luck on your interview.

I don't see a WAMC profile, but with your metrics and assuming early submission, I think something is not resonating with your activities for MD schools. Be grateful for the interview you did get. A PS rewrite may be necessary.

 

[akawewe]

Good luck on your interview.

I don't see a WAMC profile, but with your metrics and assuming early submission, I think something is not resonating with your activities for MD schools. Be grateful for the interview you did get. A PS rewrite may be necessary.

Thanks for the input! Yeah I'm thinking they look at my activities and may think they are all over the place, which is something I cannot change now. I shared what I got out of the ones unrelated to medicine (wanting to work with children or individuals with disabilities, build connections, etc.), which is all that I could do. So much of my "why medicine" comes from my experience as a patient which was happening alongside these activities, which made it tricky. I'm just in such a weird spot haha.