Advice to a rising college senior

[GCS-15]

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Hi all- long timer lurker, 1st time poster looking for some advice.

So I'm entering my senior year in college (California UC) and was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on experiences that I'm missing, or anything I should do to improve my changes of getting into an MD school. Any advice is appreciated!

Stats: 3.7cGPA, 3.65sGPA (very strong upward trend)
Going to take my mcat soon

Volunteer at a student run clinic ~ 400 hours
Shadowing surgeons ~ 100 hours
Clinical research at an ER ~ 200 hours
Did research for 1.5 years- no pubs
2 clubs
Internship at a nutrition research center
I'm expecting decent LORs
Played tennis for 3 years

Any advice on what I can do to improve my application senior year? Thanks!

 

[Kochanie]

 

[GodComplex]

Your good.

 

[NotYou20]

You're in good shape, assuming mcat goes well. Apply broadly and intelligently, because you don't want to go through the process more than once.

 

[Crayola227]

Hopefully you've got some other experience that's more interesting than med related extracurriculars or sport

Things outside of medicine
Things that have shown you have considered other careers
Hobbies
Travel
Foreign language
Music
Work with underserved

 

[GCS-15]

Thanks- I'll look into those things

 

[Crayola227]

I got the most questions interview day about volunteering I did with animals and hard physical labor jobs I'd had like waitressing and garbage collecting, which is why I suggest some things that pop out as being diverse from med ed type stuff

 

[Hospitalized]

I see a lack of patient contact experience. But, I'm heavily biased on premeds getting exposure to patients so they know who they will be dealing with come time to be a physician. Alas, medical school is not strictly for those involved in direct patient care.

 

[GCS-15]

The clinic that I volunteer at gives me a lot of exposure to the underserved community in my area and gives me the chance to interact directly with them (take vitals, health educate, etc) so I think that would be good to satisfy the direct patient contact area.

 

[ac62994]

All you can do is continue with what you're doing. You're definitely in good shape.

 

[efle]

@Gandy741 you know this guy?

 

[Gandyy]

@Gandy741 you know this guy?

lol what the hell.

Yo OP, we cant have the same avatar man.

lmao

OP do you know that this avatar isnt even the real medical staff?

 

[LizzyM]

I got the most questions interview day about volunteering I did with animals and hard physical labor jobs I'd had like waitressing and garbage collecting, which is why I suggest some things that pop out as being diverse from med ed type stuff

Don't confuse what you are asked about at interview with what is most important to the adcom. You may be asked about things that are unusual just because the interviewers find it too boring to ask about the things that almost everyone has on the application such as emergency department volunteering. Have something on the application that will set you apart and make an application reader think, "Cool. I'd like to meet this person."

 

[GCS-15]

lol what the hell.

Yo OP, we cant have the same avatar man.

lmao

OP do you know that this avatar isnt even the real medical staff?

lol nice avatar bro

 

[Gandyy]

lol nice avatar bro

lol o boy

 

[Crayola227]

Don't confuse what you are asked about at interview with what is most important to the adcom. You may be asked about things that are unusual just because the interviewers find it too boring to ask about the things that almost everyone has on the application such as emergency department volunteering. Have something on the application that will set you apart and make an application reader think, "Cool. I'd like to meet this person."

Well I should say the person interviewing me was on the adcom, and they said they found my jobs like garbage collecting to set me apart because they took it as a sign that I knew what hard work was and that I didn't have a sense that I was "too good" for any job
which they saw as a positive trait for a future physician

and also went on to mention that for interview invites there is a small group that meets and looks at apps for potential invite and found that while I had what are considered good medically oriented experience, they liked things that showed I had work ethic, considered other jobs, foreign language skills, travel, elbow grease, hobbies, animal activism, basically everything I advised the OP on

and another resident said "these are questions the adcom wanted me to ask you" and had my app in front of them marked up in pen that was not their handwriting

I'm biased, I got into medical school, and I had checked most of the boxes the OP had, but I took to heart the idea of things that set you apart and if you have an otherwise good traditional app it doesn't hurt to put some other stuff on there

and while it was partly strategy to appear well-rounded, some of it I think is because I am actually well-rounded in my interests

Moral of the story, is that it wouldn't hurt the OP to have some stuff on their app that sets them apart from other pre-meds, some non-trad stuff it they have enough trad stuff already