Hi all, I'm just wondering what are my chances. I'm planning to apply in June. I'm currently a 3rd year in Cali. I am also wondering what I should do more and what should my target MCAT scores be My science GPA is 3.78 and cum. GPA is 3.76 but will drop after this quarter I think. extracirculars I've done are a summer quarter of hospital admin stuff overseas and a quarter at a hospital both are on transcript notations I didn't really join any clubs that relate to health... so I duno if that counts even if I was an officer in it taking MCAT in april so duno what score I need.. I haven't gotten any LORs yet but I'm planning to get one from a doctor I worked with over last summer but what I did wasn't on transcript notations... Also plan to get one from my bio prof.. thanks,
Did you get actual patient contact doing "hospital admin stuff?" Regardless, even if you did, a half a year of clinical experience seems to be considered a bit low by others on these boards. What other extracurriculars do you have? Research? Leadership in other places/clubs? If you want to stay in Cali for med school, you really probably need at LEAST a 33-34 to have a shot, unless you have some stellar ECs you didn't tell me about. More likely, you'll need a 35+; CA's just the hardest state to get into med school in. Make sure you apply broadly as well outside of CA; a 30+ should get you a look from most of the low and some mid tier out of state privates.
From your ECs, adcomms will like to see evidence of at least a year and a half of sustained interest in a career as a physician (usually demonstrated as clinical exposure/physician shadowing). Many schools, especially CA schools will like to see research; about a year seems average. A semester's worth, or a summer three-month gig is the minimum. Your are expected to have a pattern of altuistic service via volunteerism. Leadership and evidence of teamwork are needed too. Your GPA is great right now. Don't let it go down too much. The overseas experience sounds interesting. Was it maybe required for a course, since it is on your transcript? It's never too early to start collecting your Letters of Recommendation, so i'm glad you're on top of that. If you don't have all the expected elements I've mentioned, either get it going ASAP, or change your plan for application and wait a year to make it as solid as it can be. Joining clubs is not necessary and there are other ways to demonstrate leadership besides officership. I've seen it said here on SDN that adcomms don't care about clubs if all you did was show up for the meetings.
Thanks for all your comments. I appreciate it. let me add more stuff or be more detailed about the experiences I listed the overseas wasnt required for a course.. umm I applied because I was overseas for the summer and is possible to get it on transcript as proof that I did it... is hard to find something that lasts a year because all the internship/volunteering here is like 1-2 quarter committment only so getting it again is hard oh i also worked this summer at kaiser shadowing a pediatrican and also got patient contact the quarter at the hospital was learning how to do EKGs on patients and then doing it on them the hospital admin stuff... the patient contact I had was asking them if they would like to fill out a survey to see how the hospital is doing then I average their responses to see the hospital's overall status. but the rest didn't have patient contact such as patient chart audit and such. I was active in my position as a public relations officer for a chinese club lol.. had to go meet managers resturant to see if they would sponsor us and such. i joined ncsc and planning to join golden key and they do volunteering and stuff i think i'll join premed amsa too and do their volunteering and fundraising events next quarter also got a volunteering award showing proof that i volunteered over 100 hours from my UC. but yea... trying to get sustained clinical experience is hard since they don't really offer it
I'm from Cali too, and the schools here realllly stress volunteering or doing some activity like americorp or doing something that demonstrates your humanitarian self. You have a great GPA and depending on which UC you would like to attent. I would say 32+ is good for schools like Davis/Irvine. And maybe 34+ for UCSD, UCLA, UCSF. Good luck
