Bad ECs, but good GPA. your thoughts..

[luckyduckie]

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Hey all,

I'm a junior looking to apply this summer. Getting into a top-20 school would be great, but I'm also fine with going to a middle-tier school. I haven't taken the MCAT yet (this June), but here are my stats:

Cell Bio Major
cGPA=3.85
BCPM-GPA-3.79

Research
Undergraduate Research Fellowship at a cancer institute- Summer 2008
-Presented my research. paper in the works, but most likely won't be published until after I apply

Research assistant on a clinical research project at a children's hospital-sophomore year

Lab assistant at a cancer center-sophomore year

Clinical
Shadowed an infectious disease doctor for a whole day
Volunteer at a free health clinic-Jan09-present

Activities
VP of a small school club-manage events, club finances
Health committee member of a service organization on campus since my Freshman year-through which i've done volunteer tutoring, soup kitchen serving, and site-leading various projects
Alternative Spring Break Trip-helped deliver and prepare meals to those living with HIV/AIDS and cancer in an urban city

As you can see my clinical and EC activities are not very strong. I will hopefully be shadowing more doctors this summer and volunteering more at the free health clinic. Even so, this might look bad as it's right before I apply. I would love to go to U of M but I know this is a reach. I plan on a applying there as well as Michigan State's college of Human Medicine, Wayne State, Case Western, Rush, Indiana, Cincinnati. Haven't completed my list yet. Anyways, your feedback on my chances of getting into these schools would be much much much appreciated. Any last-minute ideas of how I can improve my app? Thanks in advance.

 

[Stratego]

Five months volunteering in a free clinic isn't much, but depending on what your contact with patients was during the clinical research project, that may be viewed as clinical experience also. And the week bringing meals to patients is clinical contact also.

Your research looks fine. You have leadership experience. You need more shadowing. Your GPA is very good. Without an MCAT score, it's hard to make predictions.

 

[longhorn09]

if you have stellar gpa/mcat combo, i think relatively weak ECs is not a major problem.