Any Advice Appreciated :-)

[dancer817]

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Hi, this is my first time posting, so I hope you guys will be able to help me out!

I went into the application process last summer a little blindly and applied to pretty top notch schools with a little less than average stats (3.7 Overall and 3.6 BCPM and 27N MCATs). And that is after taking the MCAT twice (first time I got a 26M). I am on Exec Staff of a volunteer program (three years), have College of Letters and Science Honors and possibly Departmental Honors at graduation. I did a one year Honors Thesis on Protein Expression research and worked as a supervisor at a dorm front desk for my first three years of school. I applied to 29 schools and had three interviews (UCONN, Loyola and Georgetown) and am now on three waitlists. I am in the bottom 1/3 of the list at UCONN and neither Georgetown or Loyola will let me know where I am on the list, so I am wondering if I should reapply June 1st or wait until later to reapply in case I don't get in. Does anyone know how likely it is for people to get in off the waitlists of these schools?

I applied to the Special Masters Programs at Georgetown and Finch and just found out I got in to both of those, so I am excited to be going somewhere next year, rather than trying to start looking for a job!

But, I need advice about when to reapply and whether to take the MCAT again?? Any advice would be appreciated!!!

Thanks!!!

 

[skypilot]

I wouldn't worry about reapplying June 1st but get everything ready to go for mid July. Shouldn't make any difference as everyone is on Summer vacations anyway.

 

[Dr.Wolkower]

unless you want to waste 2 years getting a masters degree apply to do schools and sackler

good luck

 

[dancer817]

Thanks for the advice! Both Masters Programs are only 1 year though!

 

[redstar18]

For Georgetown, I know that they will consider you highly if you send them a letter of intent. Not sure about the others.. but maybe try to find out what your chances are by contacting the director.

Getting a Masters is a good idea, but I think that your time would be better spent studying to retake the MCAT and getting more clinical and/or research experience. Getting honors and completing a thesis are great, but do you have any other clinical or research experiences?

If you're not opposed to taking a year off, I'd suggest taking the Aug 2004 or April 2005 and then applying next summer instead of this one. Having to retake the MCAT was my problem too, and I'm really glad I took this past year off because I had the April exam to fall back on if the August one didn't turn out. It's up to you of course

 

[FutureERDoc]

If you do reapply, you should also contact your schools and interviewers to find out what areas they feel you need improvement in. You didn't mention any clinical experiences, and that is greatly emphasize at many schools, so if you dont have any, now would be a good time to start. Also, wait till July to reapply. The 1 month isn't going to make that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, plus it wont take you much time since you did it already. Maybe start to think about your PS and what changes you can discuss that you have made since last year. Good luck...

 

[dancer817]

By clinical do you mean clinical research or volunteering. B/c I am a member of the Care Extender Internshipat UCLA which is a very interactive volunteer program, I have been thru departments like ER, L&D, OR, NICU and many more. Been doing that for two years and was chosen as a program staff too, then exec staff....so I guess what do you mean by clinical???

 

[redstar18]

Hey fellow Bruin,

Care Extender is a good program (I didn't know what you mean before when you said you were in a volunteering program for 3 yrs). By clinical, I meant hospital or health clinic setting, and you've got that.

The point of my other post (if seems to be lost) is that you should focus on improving any weaknesses in your first application, if you do have to reapply. To me, it seems like the MCAT, not grades or ec's. I second FutureERDoc's suggestions. Also, you may want to apply to more and/or a wider range of schools.