My numbers are: 3.75cGPA, 3.51sGPA, 32R MCAT (10PS-12VR-10BS), AR resident.
I know my scores are not great but are at least decent. If it matters, I come from a background of extreme poverty, food stamps, homeless, etc, etc. I haven't decided whether or not I will discuss this on my application. I am a nontrad applicant who was originally taking a gap year before graduate school until I stumbled into special education and fell in love. I have spent the last 4 years working at a local high school. I would consider this work to be rather clinical in nature. We have many students with extreme medical needs and I assist with personal care needs such as toileting, distributing medicine, and feeding. I am a licensed medicaid provider and bill for services for several of my students.
Apart from that, I have also started a special needs program in my church nursery which I am currently the head of. I have worked as a Direct Service Provider for adults with special needs over the summer, tutored Upward Bound students (10 hrs/wk for about a year), volunteered at Special Olympics, and in college has the usual assortment of activities: a couple of research projects, one of which led to a poster presentation at the ACS National Meeting, lab assistant, Model UN (became parliamentarian my third year). I don't have a lot of shadowing or other clinical experience. I stay very busy during the school year and was hoping to get some more hours before I send in my application at the end of June. It took me a while to finally decide on medicine as the way to best combine my science background with my newfound passion for special needs; ultimately, I would love to do pediatric neurology or maybe psychiatry.
My biggest concern is an incident which occurred my senior year. My roommate and I were caught with an illicit substance in our apartment. My roommate took responsibility for it, but since I was well aware of what was occurring, I had to complete an online course and do 10 hours of community service. The administration told me it would be off my record, but obviously I am going to report it anyway. I am just worried this might make it that much harder to get into an OOS school. Obviously, as a teacher I am required to maintain a clean and healthy lifestyle and I would hope this might be taken into consideration. 🙂
Sorry for the essay, but I just don't have the kind of money it takes to apply across the board and hope for interviews at a couple. I kind of need to limit the places I apply to those which I have a realistic chance to get into, but I am really not sure where I am competitive. I kind of have my heart set on MD, but might be willing to consider DO.
Thank you to anyone who reads this!
I know my scores are not great but are at least decent. If it matters, I come from a background of extreme poverty, food stamps, homeless, etc, etc. I haven't decided whether or not I will discuss this on my application. I am a nontrad applicant who was originally taking a gap year before graduate school until I stumbled into special education and fell in love. I have spent the last 4 years working at a local high school. I would consider this work to be rather clinical in nature. We have many students with extreme medical needs and I assist with personal care needs such as toileting, distributing medicine, and feeding. I am a licensed medicaid provider and bill for services for several of my students.
Apart from that, I have also started a special needs program in my church nursery which I am currently the head of. I have worked as a Direct Service Provider for adults with special needs over the summer, tutored Upward Bound students (10 hrs/wk for about a year), volunteered at Special Olympics, and in college has the usual assortment of activities: a couple of research projects, one of which led to a poster presentation at the ACS National Meeting, lab assistant, Model UN (became parliamentarian my third year). I don't have a lot of shadowing or other clinical experience. I stay very busy during the school year and was hoping to get some more hours before I send in my application at the end of June. It took me a while to finally decide on medicine as the way to best combine my science background with my newfound passion for special needs; ultimately, I would love to do pediatric neurology or maybe psychiatry.
My biggest concern is an incident which occurred my senior year. My roommate and I were caught with an illicit substance in our apartment. My roommate took responsibility for it, but since I was well aware of what was occurring, I had to complete an online course and do 10 hours of community service. The administration told me it would be off my record, but obviously I am going to report it anyway. I am just worried this might make it that much harder to get into an OOS school. Obviously, as a teacher I am required to maintain a clean and healthy lifestyle and I would hope this might be taken into consideration. 🙂
Sorry for the essay, but I just don't have the kind of money it takes to apply across the board and hope for interviews at a couple. I kind of need to limit the places I apply to those which I have a realistic chance to get into, but I am really not sure where I am competitive. I kind of have my heart set on MD, but might be willing to consider DO.
Thank you to anyone who reads this!
