Any advice here?

[phrygian]

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I am seeking advice from anyone who might be able to give me some pointers about how to strengthen my application for the reapplication process for the 2011 class.

I am a non-traditional student with a 3.5 GPA, 3.67 science GPA, 31N MCAT, and about nine years of experience in the medical field. I did about 6 years as a Navy Corpsman were I worked as a combat medic, O.R. tech, daily sick call (I examined and treated patients in a role similar to a PA, and even ran the patient care department), and now I am a Nurse Manager in a Family Practice office for about 3 years. I applied to ten schools, and did not get a single interview, and honestly, I am completely dumbfounded about that. My personal statement included a lot about my “path” to becoming a physician so my past was clearly stated. The only thing I was missing was volunteer work, which was almost impossible to do while doing full time undergrad, working 30 hours a week, and the daily needs of being married, etc…

I was just searching for some answers out there since I have read forums where people with fewer qualifications/scores were getting interviews and acceptance. One more thing, I had all my applications in by 9/05 so I was far from a late applicant.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!

 

[FloridaRL]

I am seeking advice from anyone who might be able to give me some pointers about how to strengthen my application for the reapplication process for the 2011 class.

I am a non-traditional student with a 3.5 GPA, 3.67 science GPA, 31N MCAT, and about nine years of experience in the medical field. I did about 6 years as a Navy Corpsman were I worked as a combat medic, O.R. tech, daily sick call (I examined and treated patients in a role similar to a PA, and even ran the patient care department), and now I am a Nurse Manager in a Family Practice office for about 3 years. I applied to ten schools, and did not get a single interview, and honestly, I am completely dumbfounded about that. My personal statement included a lot about my “path” to becoming a physician so my past was clearly stated. The only thing I was missing was volunteer work, which was almost impossible to do while doing full time undergrad, working 30 hours a week, and the daily needs of being married, etc…

I was just searching for some answers out there since I have read forums where people with fewer qualifications/scores were getting interviews and acceptance. One more thing, I had all my applications in by 9/05 so I was far from a late applicant.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!

I feel your pain! I'm also a non-traditional applicant, my bachelor's was from 14 years ago (and MCAT=31 too). I did apply last year to 5 schools but managed to get some interviews though, but was not accepted (only got as far as the alternate list). I reapplied this year to 22 schools and finally got some acceptances. So there's still hope.

Did you refresh your science courses? I had to do that since it has been >14 years since I last took them. You can inquire at schools that offer post-baccalaureate premed programs if you need to retake the prerequisites.

Good luck

 

[FloridaRL]

Oh, and I was also advised by the admissions office to consider doing volunteer work for my reapplication. I think this helped a lot. Time was also an issue for me as I worked in allied health for 40-50 hours/week, but see if you can do something that will only take half a day for each week like Meals on Wheels, etc...

 

[phrygian]

I am glad to see that I am not alone out there! All of my prereqs were done in the last 2-4 years so they are pretty current. I am reworking my essay now, and I am looking into my LOR's to see if something might have been wrong there, but I had good relationships with my instructors so I doubt that there were issues with the LOR's. Right now I am just taking more bio-science classes to boost up the GPA to provide more proof that I can succeed in the science field. My MCAT breakdown was BS10, VR10, PS11 so I did good in all three sections. I will have to do some volunteer work just to round the application off...

 

[Krazykritter]

phrygian,

Try finding a free health clinic in your area. They are almost always in need of volunteers & you will get to see a wide variety of patients. The docs are almost always cool b/c they volunteer their time and believe in what they are doing.

Personal statement is another huge part of applications. I have reads tons of these b/c I am a student interviewer. I would be happy to try to read and give some constructive criticism if you would be interested. PM me if I can be of anymore help.

P.S.--I would also like to thank you/congratulate you on serving for our country. I have a soft spot for military men/women. Thanks

 

[FDoRoML]

I am glad to see that I am not alone out there! All of my prereqs were done in the last 2-4 years so they are pretty current. I am reworking my essay now, and I am looking into my LOR's to see if something might have been wrong there, but I had good relationships with my instructors so I doubt that there were issues with the LOR's. Right now I am just taking more bio-science classes to boost up the GPA to provide more proof that I can succeed in the science field. My MCAT breakdown was BS10, VR10, PS11 so I did good in all three sections. I will have to do some volunteer work just to round the application off...

Hi, yet another non-trad here... and a reapplicant (successful this time, thank God!). I applied in 2003 to 13 schools, no interview, so I know how you feel.

LORs might be playing a big part for you. You mentioned instructors' letters, but you didn't mentiont supervisor/coworker letters. If you work in an FP environment, I would guess you have built a relationship with the physician(s) there? If so, is it good? A glowing (and I mean GLOWING) letter from one of the docs there would be a huge asset. I know they say they want letters from instructors and some schools go further and comment they want letters from employers if you've been out of school for some time, but I believe for you this may be one big key for your reapplication. Also, volunteer and get a letter from that. I know you've been in healthcare for a while, but it could be useful to shadow a physician in a different environment (and a chance to maybe get tuned into a specialty you could be interested in)... preferrably academic medicine if you are close to a med school or teaching hospital.

And, like a previous poster mentioned, the personal statement is really quite important. Plus, when you are writing out essays for your secondaries, you need to keep the theme true but offer more detailed info and tailor it to each school. I found a lot of schools don't read the primary app very carefully when looking to interview people (they look at grades but at that point are giving a lot of weight to LORs, perhaps the PS, and your secondary essays). Plan plan plan... write your PS with the schools you are applying to in mind. Don't just tell your story (I made this mistake in my 1st attempt at applications), but tell why you want to be a physician and how you are sure (e.g. what have you done to be certain this is the right choice for you?). If you need PS help or secondary help when they start rolling in, feel free to PM me.

Good luck! It's a serious roller coaster, but it's sooooo worth it.