Advice Needed-When to apply?

[anxiouspremed25]

Hi guys,
Finally decided to join after some time. I am currently in a tad bit of a rough spot with my finances as well as school is concerned.

I am a third year Bio major at UC Irvine. I currently have about a 3.45 GPA and a 3.2 Science GPA. I took a Math class at a CC for general education and got a C, that really hurt my GPA, I also had a couple C's from some Bio classes in my first two years. However, since last year, I have been doing consistently better and have been on the Dean's list for most quarters. Although my research has also given me a grade boost for a lot of quarters.

I'm set to take the April MCAT. However, I've just started preparing. I took a prep course last summer, but that didn't end very well. I also had some familial problems last quarter, so I had a smaller course load as a result and wasn't very productive in my preparation.

Looking at the level I am at in sciences and verbal right now, I am aiming for a 30-32 as a realistic goal given my abilities. I am also a tutor for organic chemistry and volunteer at a local hospital and at a clinic. I also was very involved in my household as I am the eldest child and I commute. My brother has a learning disability and I do a lot of homework with him and help him with school work (he is 8 years old).

I had high hopes of starting Medical school after graduation from College, but I encountered a few problems along my way. I am moderately involved in key club and AMSA in my school. However, nothing too significant.

I honestly am not aiming for any of the top-tier schools. I will be happy with any school in the United States. Both allopathic and osteopathic schools sound good to me as all I honestly want to be able to do is open up a free clinic one day and practice medicine to help the poor. I know it sounds totally cliche and made up, but that's the honest reason why I want to go into medicine. Knowing several close friends and family members who can't afford adequate healthcare, has really inspired me.

Do I have a shot with these stats? Also, my research was pretty much just volunteer work on my part as I was unable to get a publication.

Thanks for any advice!

P.S. Sorry if I sound a little pessimistic or sad in my post, I'm pretty frustrated right now.

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[bravofleet4]

Well at the free clinic I would recommend that you get involved in the special holiday events as I found that gave me a lot to talk about like Adopt a Family or collecting canned goods at the fair. Otherwise, you're mostly just pulling charts. Try to do vitals as soon as you can, because that's probably the closest you're going to get to patient contact at a clinic. At the hospital, are you like a trainer or a officer? Try to find leadership roles wherever you can.

Are you a tutor for the chem department, a private tutor, or working for the learning academic resource center? If it's the first or the third, then I would recommend tutoring for a course in which you took the it under the same professor. That way you could get a LOR which mentions your abilities as a student and as a tutor. It's also a nice excuse to get to know your professor better when you never got the chance. How long have you been doing it? If you can do it for more than a couple of semesters, then it would show you can stick to something for a while.

What kind of research are you doing? Do you think you're going to get published? Try not to get stuck in a lab where you're only doing grunt work. If you are, then I would ask your supervisor or PI if you can ever get assigned your own project do. It's a lot of work possibly, so if you're a junior, it's not something you can decide to do now. Keep in mind, you can only put down what you've accomplished, not what you plan to do on your med school application. Even if you didn't get published, hopefully you learned some techniques or procedures like gel electrophoresis or cloning. That in itself is something. If it was really grunt work like washing beakers or preparing simple solutions, then you're kind of in trouble.

How's the LOR's looking? Have you gotten good grades in some classes while also building good rapports with your professors? if you haven't, then I would recommend doing it as soon as possible, because these are essential.

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. Maybe though that gave you some life experience and helped convince you that medicine is for you. Perhaps you could talk about it in your personal statement which could also explain your poor performance during some quarters.

Your MCAT score is very important. A high MCAT as you know can make up for a lower than average GPA. It may just be a 4 hour test but it's the only thing that the adcom's have to compare all applicants by. If you don't do well, then you'll have to debate whether or not you should wait a year to improve your app or just take your chances.

overall, with the information you've given so far, your GPA is just eh and your EC's aren't particularly noteworthy as you've described them so far. What will clinch it is your MCAT and possible your LOR's. It's difficult to determine your chances right now. In the meantime, you should also consider what I've told you and work on those areas. There is a pre-med support group on campus, so perhaps you should go to them every now and then to ask for their opinion as well.

 

[medicalmatins]

...Pretty thorough reply above. But I know the answer to the title question: early! Apply as soon as AMCAS opens, or very shortly thereafter. Early is safe. Anyone posting in this thread (not perfectly comfortable with their stats) should apply as soon as physically possible.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I agree: ASAP

When schools receive thousands of applicants they start to group some of them together (i.e. there are tons of people with a 3.5 GPA, 31 on their MCAT, good clinical experience, and research). The only remaining factor to separate these people are by the date they submitted AMCAS (obviously its more detailed than this, but hopefully you get my point).

Think of it this way, would you like the only reason you didn't get into medical school to be because you didn't apply early enough.