Advice on my App

[prp427]

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Hey guys,

So I am in the process of getting all of my requirements completed for my medical school application. I am quite anxious about my stats and I am not really sure where I stand compared to where I would like to go.

Background: I am a third year General Biology student at UCSD. Although I am general bio, I take human bio courses simply because they are more interesting and appealing so most of my science gpa is from that and chemistry. So far I have only had 3 quarters where my gpa dipped below 3.8 out of the 8 quarters I have been there. The first was a 3.0 in the first quarter of my freshman year, another was a 3.50 in my sophomore year, and a 3.54 during the summer. As such, my current GPA is a 3.67 and I am quite confident that I can clear a 3.73 for both my cGPA and sGPA by this July. As for the MCAT, I am taking it in April. I took my first AAMC FL and got a 514 so I think I can get atleast a 510 but hopefully, 510+ My ec's are what I am most anxious about. I was looking for a research lab since my sophomore year but didn't find a position till the end. By the time I'll apply, I will have about 500-800 research hours in a lab that is part of the UCSD School of Medicine and likely a minor publication in colon tumors in mice models. As for clinical hours, I have about 100 hours in a private pulmonology clinic and about 50-100 hours in at UCSD Jacobs Medical center Emergency department working as a research associate. I shadowed a little bit and will have around 20 hours shadowing a hospitalist, and about 40 shadowing a primary care phsyician at a private clinic. Lastly, I will be a treasurer for UCSD AMSA for the 2020-2021 school year and was the committee head for funding our annual health fair in an underserved community in San Diego that brings over mobile clinics and public health awareness professionals to speak and provide basic primary care to those who don't have access. I hope to get a decent LOR from 2 of my science profs, 1 kind ****ty tbh LOR from a non-science(due to lack of interaction with prof) and a very strong from my PI who is also an assistant professor at UCSD SOM if that makes a difference.

I would really like to get into the UCSD School of Medicine which is pretty much a top ranked program and super hard to get into. I know it is very unlikely but given how the USMLE step 1 is gonna pass/no pass the year I start, school prestige and resulting connections from higher end schools will likely lead to better opportunities post medical school. As such I am hoping to get into a T30 school but in the end, I will take absolutely anything.



I appreciate any criticisms and feedback on where I stand and what may or may not bring me down. Thanks for all the responses!

 

[Blueprint Med School]

With your GPA, you're going to be a competitive MD applicant, but for T20/T30, a 510 MCAT will not cut it. You'll want something like a 518+ to be competitive at those schools. Your extracurriculars are good but it doesn't look like you have any nonclinical volunteering hours, which isn't great.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Step 1 changes. It's still too early to determine what effect it will have on how much school prestige gets weighted, and it's likely that the only thing that will change will be that residencies will look at Step 2 CK now instead of Step 1 (in other words, school prestige weight probably will not change).

Get that 3.73 GPA, try and do as well as you can on the MCAT. With a 510+, you'll be competitive, but don't have your heart set on a T30 because while it's not outside the realm of possibility, focusing on a T30 is a great way to get disappointed (or in the case of students who only apply to T30 schools and don't get in any, it's a great way to get forced into reapplying when they didn't need to).

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[prp427]

That makes sense. There are many gaps in my app that I kinda noticed too late into the process and I don't want to take a gap year whatsoever. It does calm me though that I will atleast get in somewhere. My only hope is too end up having to choose a school in a desolate location as I was born and raised in california and such a lifestyle change would be very abrupt. As you say, I hope for a ~T30 admission but I'll go wherever I am accepted at the end of the day. Thanks for the constructive reply! 🙂

 

[candbgirl]

That makes sense. There are many gaps in my app that I kinda noticed too late into the process and I don't want to take a gap year whatsoever. It does calm me though that I will atleast get in somewhere. My only hope is too end up having to choose a school in a desolate location as I was born and raised in california and such a lifestyle change would be very abrupt. As you say, I hope for a ~T30 admission but I'll go wherever I am accepted at the end of the day. Thanks for the constructive reply! 🙂

@MedSchoolTutors didn’t say you will get in. He said you’d be competitive. You have gaps in your application that will cause issues. You have enough shadowing so stop with that. Your clinical experiences are okay, not great and certainly rather cookie cutter. @MedSchoolTutors mentioned your total lack of nonclinical volunteering and you completely ignored it. You do need at least 150+ hours of service to the unserved/underserved in your community. Medicine is a service profession so you have to show your altruism to the ADVOMS.
Now for some facts: each cycle only around 40 percent of all applicants are accepted. Of that 40% around 20 percent receive 2 or more acceptances and the other 20% receive one acceptance. This means around 60 percent of applicants are rejected. This includes applicants that have stellar applications. You only want to apply one time with the best possible application. I assume you are planning to apply in a June. What if your MCAT isn’t where you want it. Will you apply anyway? You might have to take a gap year, even if you don’t want to. You might have to choose between taking a gap year and applying with holes in your application. Be smart and take your time. Don’t rush the process. And being from Cali isn’t a benefit in the application process. Every year hundreds of applicants from Cali end up out of state at wonderful private schools. So don’t be so closed minded.

 

[prp427]

@MedSchoolTutors didn’t say you will get in. He said you’d be competitive. You have gaps in your application that will cause issues. You have enough shadowing so stop with that. Your clinical experiences are okay, not great and certainly rather cookie cutter. @MedSchoolTutors mentioned your total lack of nonclinical volunteering and you completely ignored it. You do need at least 150+ hours of service to the unserved/underserved in your community. Medicine is a service profession so you have to show your altruism to the ADVOMS.
Now for some facts: each cycle only around 40 percent of all applicants are accepted. Of that 40% around 20 percent receive 2 or more acceptances and the other 20% receive one acceptance. This means around 60 percent of applicants are rejected. This includes applicants that have stellar applications. You only want to apply one time with the best possible application. I assume you are planning to apply in a June. What if your MCAT isn’t where you want it. Will you apply anyway? You might have to take a gap year, even if you don’t want to. You might have to choose between taking a gap year and applying with holes in your application. Be smart and take your time. Don’t rush the process. And being from Cali isn’t a benefit in the application process. Every year hundreds of applicants from Cali end up out of state at wonderful private schools. So don’t be so closed minded.

@MedSchoolTutors didn’t say you will get in. He said you’d be competitive. You have gaps in your application that will cause issues. You have enough shadowing so stop with that. Your clinical experiences are okay, not great and certainly rather cookie cutter. @MedSchoolTutors mentioned your total lack of nonclinical volunteering and you completely ignored it. You do need at least 150+ hours of service to the unserved/underserved in your community. Medicine is a service profession so you have to show your altruism to the ADVOMS.
Now for some facts: each cycle only around 40 percent of all applicants are accepted. Of that 40% around 20 percent receive 2 or more acceptances and the other 20% receive one acceptance. This means around 60 percent of applicants are rejected. This includes applicants that have stellar applications. You only want to apply one time with the best possible application. I assume you are planning to apply in a June. What if your MCAT isn’t where you want it. Will you apply anyway? You might have to take a gap year, even if you don’t want to. You might have to choose between taking a gap year and applying with holes in your application. Be smart and take your time. Don’t rush the process. And being from Cali isn’t a benefit in the application process. Every year hundreds of applicants from Cali end up out of state at wonderful private schools. So don’t be so closed minded.

Sorry about that. I didn't mean to come off overconfident. As for non clinical volunteering among other things, I realize the lack of it. The non clinical volunteering I do is mainly through my school club AMSA. It mainly involves volunteering in downtown sandiego on the weekends where we run food and supply drives to collect and distribute them to the large homeless population. The other piece of volunteering is volunteering at a hospice center which involves cooking and spending time with the terminally ill patients from the nearby hospital. In total, that would be around 50-100 hours. Other than that, I do not have much. Do you think this necessitates a gap year or is it still logical to apply regardless. In the end, an acceptance for a medical school is still miles better to know acceptances and at the end of the day, I would still take it in a heartbeat. Its simply preferences but nothing is ever set in stone because most of the time, nothing goes the way that is originally anticipated. Thanks for the feedback!! 🙂

P.S.: Would you count fundraising for a health fair in an underserved community in SD to be non clinical volunteering? It would involve both the multiweek process of procuring the funding, setting up the event, and also running it.

 

[candbgirl]

I don’t know about the fund raising but you do seem to have a little bit of face to face interaction with those less fortunate than yourself in the community. The thing is to get off campus and out if your comfort zone and help people in the community that can use your help.
Nobody can tell you what to do as far as applying. Only you know when your application shows you in the best possible light. When your application screams I want to be a doctor and I want to go to your school so pick me, that’s the time to submit your application. Understand it takes a long time to complete your AMCAS application . So plan for that too.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

I think you should go ahead and apply, but that also depends on how much you have your heart set on a T30 school and your eventual MCAT score.

 

[prp427]

I don’t know about the fund raising but you do seem to have a little bit of face to face interaction with those less fortunate than yourself in the community. The thing is to get off campus and out if your comfort zone and help people in the community that can use your help.
Nobody can tell you what to do as far as applying. Only you know when your application shows you in the best possible light. When your application screams I want to be a doctor and I want to go to your school so pick me, that’s the time to submit your application. Understand it takes a long time to complete your AMCAS application . So plan for that too.

I think you should go ahead and apply, but that also depends on how much you have your heart set on a T30 school and your eventual MCAT score.

For your rankings, do you use US News or another source because I end up finding differing results of what is T20 and T50?