Am I too late for this cycle? Be brutally honest!

[DrewFromVA]

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To begin: I know I'm an idiot... With that out of the way I'll proceed.
Here's my situation: Took the April '04 MCAT and scored a 32O, and currently have ~3.8 from a relatively "crappy" state school (Old Dominion U.) Extra-curriculars are not spectacular. I was one of four students chosen to kick off a pilot program here as ER scribes. That program gave me many hours of direct clinical exposure(and at least on very strong LOR from the MD program director); otherwise my volunteer and other assorted typical pre-med stuff is probably mediocre at best compared to most other pre-meds. In summary: decent numbers from a lowly school, with (what I would describe as) just adequate extra-curricular stuff and LOR's. My problem is this: I cannot, it seems, write a personal statement. I'm talking about a period of about 5 months of writer's block. I've tried several times to write something worthwhile and failed miserably, and now I've all but given up. Normally I'm a decent writer (nothing special, but can normally get the job done), but I simply cannot write my PS to save my life. Long story short, I'm getting to the point where I feel like I should just give up this year, and just apply next year. Assuming I could write a worthwhile PS in the next week or so, am I too late to even bother applying? I know the deadlines haven't passed yet, but realistically I feel like I would almost be wasting my time applying now, even with a good PS. I'm asking you all because I'm so discouraged right now, I can't trust how I feel, so maybe someone out there can shed some light/give some guidance to this poor guy 🙂 Thanks so much for your time and sorry about the longish post...

 

[UseUrHeadFred]

You're not too late. A whole slew of applicants won't even have their application considered until after the August MCAT scores are released around the middle of next month. Thus, if you start soon, and get your LORs and secondaries out in an efficient manner, you'll be fine.

However, one thing to bear in mind: The personal statement is only a fraction of the amount of writing necessary in the application process. Virtually every school provides a secondary with between two and eight (or more!) other essays to write about extremely bland or esoteric topics. In other words, if you're gonna get it going, you'll want to put your writers cap on in an extreme fashion quite soon.

Look inward and make sure med school is really what you want to do. There's a chance that your brain is trying to send you a message. Don't underestimate how hard med school is - it's miserable even if you LOVE the material, let alone if you only view it as a means to an end...

You can do it!

 

[Uegis]

To quote Jlee, if your application is strong, it doesn't matter. Do you have good letters? Most schools interview until April/May, so you aren't too late. Just later than some. Go for it and work your ass off. It'll pay off.

 

[karmon]

To begin: I know I'm an idiot... With that out of the way I'll proceed.
Here's my situation: Took the April '04 MCAT and scored a 32O, and currently have ~3.8 from a relatively "crappy" state school (Old Dominion U.) Extra-curriculars are not spectacular. I was one of four students chosen to kick off a pilot program here as ER scribes. That program gave me many hours of direct clinical exposure(and at least on very strong LOR from the MD program director); otherwise my volunteer and other assorted typical pre-med stuff is probably mediocre at best compared to most other pre-meds. In summary: decent numbers from a lowly school, with (what I would describe as) just adequate extra-curricular stuff and LOR's. My problem is this: I cannot, it seems, write a personal statement. I'm talking about a period of about 5 months of writer's block. I've tried several times to write something worthwhile and failed miserably, and now I've all but given up. Normally I'm a decent writer (nothing special, but can normally get the job done), but I simply cannot write my PS to save my life. Long story short, I'm getting to the point where I feel like I should just give up this year, and just apply next year. Assuming I could write a worthwhile PS in the next week or so, am I too late to even bother applying? I know the deadlines haven't passed yet, but realistically I feel like I would almost be wasting my time applying now, even with a good PS. I'm asking you all because I'm so discouraged right now, I can't trust how I feel, so maybe someone out there can shed some light/give some guidance to this poor guy 🙂 Thanks so much for your time and sorry about the longish post...

not to try to scare you or anything, but there is a guy here now who is a third year med student at USC. been a member of SDN since like 2000 or something. really cool guy and all but he didn't get in med school his first year trying....why? his reason was that his personal statement wasn't good enough. if you want to know, he had like a gpa above 3.75 and 37 or 38 MCAT from UCLA i think. anyways he got in the second time around and SMOKED step 1 this past summer. but he stressed that you really have to show who you are in your personal statement. think about who you are as a person, reflect on that and use it as a starting point to start writing. plenty of people haven't turned in AMCAS yet as they are waiting for their MCAT results so you're not behind in that department...good luck

 

[Arb]

Secondary applications often ask the same thing.