Any advice appreciated

[DrStephenStrange]

Posting on behalf of my sister reapplying this year. I’m so far removed from med school admission especially MD school, so that’s why I’m asking here.

She applied in 2021 focusing more on MD than DO with a Biochemistry degree from KU as a Missouri resident with a 4.0 GPA and MCAT 508 then 510 on retake (well balanced score). MCAT scores are from May 2021 not sure if that’s too old now. She got waitlisted at Temple, U Illinois, Loma Linda, ATSU-Kirksville, and KCU and never got off of them. When she contacted the schools about how to improve her app, they told her to get more clinical experience (volunteering and shadowing) and maybe some research experiences. She did in fact have some difficulties getting in person shadowing in the middle of the pandemic, and besides some virtual shadowing, she didn’t have much. She did have about 100-200 hrs of volunteering back then. So she took a year off to work on those; Managed to sneak herself into a good medical research program back at KU with a couple posters (got a strong letter from that and will possibly publish soon) and got more in person shadowing and volunteering. Application already submitted with one school in early June awaiting verification, and now just need to submit her list. Background Haitian immigrant/Black, English third language.

Current list:

HBCUs (Howard, Meharry, Morehouse)

Instate schools (Wash U, Mizzou, SLU)

Baylor
Eastern Virginia
Geisinger
Indiana U
KU
Loma Linda
Nova
Oakland U
Ohio state U
Penn state
U Vermont
U Arizona Tuscon
UCLA
U Cincinnati
U Colorado
U Illinois
U Iowa
U of Michigan
U of NC Chapel Hill
U of SC (Greenville)
U of South Dakota Sanford
U of Utah
U Virginia
U Wisconsin
USF Morsani
Temple U
Virginia commonwealth U
Wayne state
West Virginia
Western Michigan
Wright state

Also applying to more than 15 DO schools this time around. Does have a DO letter as well from shadowing experience.

Edit: Does have some connections to the state of Ohio through me being a resident here. And also Florida with family living there. Not sure if that matters.

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[wysdoc]

Remove Baylor because it uses the TMDSAS application now and she would have to fill out a second app platform.

Remove USC Greenville and U South Dakota as they are pretty much 100% in-state.

 

[chilly_md]

I am surprised Mizzou and KU didn’t interview her the 1st time around if she got interest from Temple, Illinois and Loma Linda.

Take off Geisinger, Arizona Tucson, Chapel Hill, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wright State since they take few OOS or out of region applicants.

Replace UCLA with the new Charles Drew program. Baylor being on TMDSAS and Michigan may not be worth the extra time since she plans on applying to 15 DO schools.

 

[Faha]

I suggest these schools with her stats:
HBCUs (Howard, Meharry, Morehouse, Charles Drew)
Your 2 Missouri state public schools
St. Louis
TCU
Creighton
Loyola
Medical College Wisconsin
Wayne State
Oakland Beaumont
Tulane
Miami
Emory
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Georgetown
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Einstein
New York Medical College
Vermont
Tufts
Boston University
Dartmouth
Brown
Arizona (Tucson)
Loma Linda
Kaiser

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What is her clinical experience (when she applied last year)? Getting interviews is great, so we cannot exclude interview skills. If English is a third language, it is possible that may be contributory.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

What is her clinical experience (when she applied last year)? Getting interviews is great, so we cannot exclude interview skills. If English is a third language, it is possible that may be contributory.

English is third language because Haiti speaks both Creole and French, but technically it’s her second language. And she came here at 9 years old (younger than me; I was 19), so she speaks English even better than I do as a resident lol. Not sure about interview skills though, but she did mock interviews at her school and she got pretty good feedback back then. She will be doing more mock interviews this time around as well.

In terms of clinical experience, it wasn’t much at all. I’d say less than 50 hours of virtual shadowing and that was about it. Her volunteering was through a medical supply outreach company which she is still doing currently (definitely 200-300 hours now).

 

[chilly_md]

English is third language because Haiti speaks both Creole and French, but technically it’s her second language. And she can here at 9 years old ( younger than me), so she probably speaks English even better than I do as residents. Not sure about interview skills though, but she did mock interviews at her school and she got pretty good feedback back then.

In terms of clinical experience, it wasn’t much at all. I’d say less than 50 hours of virtual shadowing and that was about it. Her volunteering was through a medical supply outreach company which she is still doing currently (definitely 200-300 hours now).

It was lack of patient-facing clinical experience and in-person shadowing that kept her out then

 

[wysdoc]

English is third language because Haiti speaks both Creole and French, but technically it’s her second language. And she came here at 9 years old (younger than me; I was 19), so she speaks English even better than I do as residents lol. Not sure about interview skills though, but she did mock interviews at her school and she got pretty good feedback back then. She will be doing more mock interviews this time around as well.

In terms of clinical experience, it wasn’t much at all. I’d say less than 50 hours of virtual shadowing and that was about it. Her volunteering was through a medical supply outreach company which she is still doing currently (definitely 200-300 hours now).

I think her activities in the past year will go a long way to make up for what was lacking the first time around. Good luck to her this year