Advice!

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Hi all,

So I'm just finishing up my internship for my exercise science and health degree and am moving due to accepting a scribe position at my uncle's practice in Georgia. Because I'm not a resident of GA, I will be establishing residency over the next year before applying in the 2018-2019 cycle. This means I will have roughly a year and half to work on my application and am wondering if anyone could give me some specific advice of what to work on. Here are my stats and ECs. MCAT is planned for May or June 2017.

-cGPA: 3.73 sGPA: 3.47

-Shadowing: 14o hours- 4 Pulmonologists, 1 cardiologist, 1 oncologist.

-Patient exposure: MA work in a pulmonary critical care practice for 2 summers; Helped start and currently volunteer at free medical clinic in my community (approx. 2 1/2 hours a week 2x a month due to lots of volunteers)

-Volunteer/Community service: Medical missions trip for 2 weeks as Lab tech and scribe for physicians; Serve at my church on Saturdays for 3 hours for approx. 3 years. Free medical clinic for the past 2 years off and on as MA.

-Leadership: Served as VP and President for club on campus. Also served as outreach coordinator for same club. Also a part of leadership development group with my church.

-Research Experience: Approximately 400 hours in DNA Nanotech lab. Co-2nd author on paper published in low impact journal

Appreciate any help!!
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Personally, I think you're on the road to success. Keep up the volunteering, it's great to have longitudinal projects so if you're moving away from your church back home, try and find a similar volunteer experience in GA. The only part of your application that is a little bit worrisome is your sGPA. If you could possibly take classes to help boost it, that would be good. If you can't, then a strong MCAT should help you out a lot. Study a lot for the MCAT and knock it out of the park! One other thing to think about is letters of recommendation. Keep the connections with professors you had in undergrad strong so that they can write you strong LORs.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your move and keep up the good work!
 
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@anonymoose1640 Thank you for the advice! I do plan on taking cell biology and one other upper div science course in fall 2017 and spring 2018 respectively. Based on my gpa calculations, 2 A's should bring that up to at least a 3.5. As for the LORs, I just recently emailed 2 of them asking if I kept them up to date with my activities, if they would still be willing to write me a strong LOR. Do you recommend any specific MCAT prep? I've done some research and TPR seems attractive with their amplifire software.
 
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Awesome! Sounds like you're headed in the right direction!

I can't really give any solid advice on MCAT prep, I didn't buy any books or take any formal classes, everything I used came from the library haha. There is an MCAT prep forum and some people on here have some really great advice to dish out. From what I've read, TPR seems like a good path to go. 2 important things: only take the MCAT when you're doing well on the practice exams and you feel confident and give yourself plenty of time (4-6 months) to study and review all the info so you don't get overwhelmed!

Good luck!
 
georgia_boy1 said:
So I'm just finishing up my internship for my exercise science and health degree and am moving due to accepting a scribe position at my uncle's practice in Georgia. Because I'm not a resident of GA, I will be establishing residency over the next year before applying in the 2018-2019 cycle. This means I will have roughly a year and half to work on my application and am wondering if anyone could give me some specific advice of what to work on. Here are my stats and ECs. MCAT is planned for May or June 2017.

-cGPA: 3.73 sGPA: 3.47

-Shadowing: 14o hours- 4 Pulmonologists, 1 cardiologist, 1 oncologist.

-Patient exposure: MA work in a pulmonary critical care practice for 2 summers; Helped start and currently volunteer at free medical clinic in my community (approx. 2 1/2 hours a week 2x a month due to lots of volunteers)

-Volunteer/Community service: Medical missions trip for 2 weeks as Lab tech and scribe for physicians; Serve at my church on Saturdays for 3 hours for approx. 3 years. Free medical clinic for the past 2 years off and on as MA.

-Leadership: Served as VP and President for club on campus. Also served as outreach coordinator for same club. Also a part of leadership development group with my church.

-Research Experience: Approximately 400 hours in DNA Nanotech lab. Co-2nd author on paper published in low impact journal

Appreciate any help!!
Click to expand...
Consider getting in some office-based primary care shadowing.

If you're aiming to get into a Georgia med school, read their mission statements/selection factors and tailor some ECs toward adding to your appeal via nonmedical community service (beyond service to your church). I recall at least one mentions aiding underserved populations/rural folks.

I agree with working on your BCPM GPA.

And be sure to have a solid paper trail of Georgia residency, like voters registration, drivers license, car registration, library card, state tax returns, utility bills, etc. MCG can be hard to convince.
 
@Catalystik Thank you for the advice! I will definitely get some primary care shadowing and get that sGPA up to a 3.5 at least. I noticed that MCG is more involved in research than Mercer so would you suggest I seek out some clinical research at a hospital to add on to the research experience I have now or is that enough research? You're exactly right though about the paperwork. Once I get down there, I'm going to contact MCG and find out every document I need for Georgia residency.
 
georgia_boy1 said:
@Catalystik Thank you for the advice! I will definitely get some primary care shadowing and get that sGPA up to a 3.5 at least. I noticed that MCG is more involved in research than Mercer so would you suggest I seek out some clinical research at a hospital to add on to the research experience I have now or is that enough research? You're exactly right though about the paperwork. Once I get down there, I'm going to contact MCG and find out every document I need for Georgia residency.
Click to expand...
How long did you engage in research to accumulate 400 hours?
 
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