Barely Interviewed and in waitlist limbo...

[Sidious]

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Alright.. where to begin.

I graduate next week. I have right now overall a 3.42 GPA and a 29R on the MCAT's.

I applied to MD and DO schools. I applied MD in late July, however, due to my school needing the $6 dollar transcript fee up front and not charge my student account like I assumed they would, I never sent my transcripts out until very early September. I will be honest, I also dicked around with a majority of my secondaries. I applied to DO school in late November and dicked around even more on those secondaries.

My senior year has been horrible. I went from a solid 3.5 to my current GPA (I am sure you can imagine my grades). A great deal of this trouble stemmed from a combination of being completely and utterly broke and some senioritis. I made the mistake of volunteering as an EMT for almost a year and got shafted on being promoted to a pay position (in their defense they just could not bring on any more pay staff). I had to go back to working at a local pizza place so I could pay for my apartment, books, and
car.

Everyday it became more apparent I was going to get very few interviews. This did not help motivate me. As I got waitlisted for interviews, I cared less and less. I finally got a DO interview in late February for mid March and this did light a fire under me to get all my DO applications completed. Then April came and rejections began to pill up. I got one more interview at another DO school right around when I found out I was waitlisted at the first DO school. Around this time I completely stopped caring.

Well, now it is May. I am waitlisted at 2 DO schools and I have a stack of rejection letters. I have very little faith that those 2 schools will accept me. I may have interviewed well, but I know that time and the odds are against me.

Right now I am trying to decide what to do and how to fix things. My senior year is going to hurt the hell out of me. My MCAT's are lame. I personally know I can do better on them and I fully plan to take them again. I probably studied off and on for a month.

I know the new in-thing is Post-bacc's, but I am utterly broke and I do not know if I can muster up the motivation to really do well. I honestly have myself convinced that I dug my grave way too deep. I currently looking for some research opportunities because it gives me the chance to make money and boost my application. It has come to my attention that this is a myth and getting published may do very little to help me get into a med school.

I know reading over this I sound like a huge slacker and probably not Med School material. To be honest, I am starting to think that myself. I may not be able to hack it. I wanted to be brutally honest with this post because I want all of your brutally honest opinion's. I have never really wanted to do anything other, but I feel that I significantly killed my chances. I also have no idea how to even begin to fix what I have done. Any advice would truly be appreciated.

Sorry for the long post, but thanks for any help.

CLIFFS
-Average Stats
-Slacker Senior Year
-Screwed
-Now What?

 

[ShyRem]

Ok. First question first. Do you want to be a doctor or not?

If not, you're done. Find a job or go to grad school.

If you do, REALLY do, then get your app ready NOW.

1. Pull yourself together. Your GPA and MCAT aren't the worst, but they aren't the best. Plenty fine for most DO schools, adequate for a look at several MD schools. So realize you can't change the past unless you want to borrow more money for SMP (but I really think you'll get in if you do the following).

2. Apply the VERY FIRST DAY you can. And I mean the VERY FIRST DAY the amcas and aacomas are open. So start writing your PM.

3. Get letters for your transcripts ready right now so all you need to do is either drop them off at your school's registrar (and pay any fee necessary) or mail them (after making a phone call to find out how much to make the check out for). Mail/drop those off as soon as you have your application numbers and verify addresses.

4. If you have old applications from places, start writing essays right now. You want to have those things ready to go out the door within two days of receipt of secondaries. TWO DAYS.

5. Get your LORs ready NOW. Ask for them, set up an Interfolio account, and get it all ready now. You do NOT want to scramble later getting stuff together.

6. If you want to do research, then do it. If you don't, then find something else to do. Padding your application just because it looks good won't do much for your attitude right now. If you want to find a job as a construction worker to get your aggression out (and believe me, this works wonders for your motivation factor too) and make money, you can always spin that one into "I wanted to become comfortable with power tools because I was interested in Orthopaedics". And if you discover you really hate building stuff, you can also follow that up with "but I've discovered I'm not so hot at putting stuff together, so perhaps ortho isnt' my place after all...". Should at least get you a laugh from your interviewer.

7. Be honest with yourself. Why are you doing this? Should you take some time off? And if you really want it, how do you make it happen? (hint: start with #1 above.)

I implore you not to give this a half-hearted attempt or you risk the same outcome as last year.

You can't change last year. Look in the mirror and say "today is another day and I will try again because I'm worth it". And mean it.

Good luck.

 

[ana]

Ok. First question first. Do you want to be a doctor or not?

If not, you're done. Find a job or go to grad school.

If you do, REALLY do, then get your app ready NOW.

1. Pull yourself together. Your GPA and MCAT aren't the worst, but they aren't the best. Plenty fine for most DO schools, adequate for a look at several MD schools. So realize you can't change the past unless you want to borrow more money for SMP (but I really think you'll get in if you do the following).

2. Apply the VERY FIRST DAY you can. And I mean the VERY FIRST DAY the amcas and aacomas are open. So start writing your PM.

3. Get letters for your transcripts ready right now so all you need to do is either drop them off at your school's registrar (and pay any fee necessary) or mail them (after making a phone call to find out how much to make the check out for). Mail/drop those off as soon as you have your application numbers and verify addresses.

4. If you have old applications from places, start writing essays right now. You want to have those things ready to go out the door within two days of receipt of secondaries. TWO DAYS.

5. Get your LORs ready NOW. Ask for them, set up an Interfolio account, and get it all ready now. You do NOT want to scramble later getting stuff together.

6. If you want to do research, then do it. If you don't, then find something else to do. Padding your application just because it looks good won't do much for your attitude right now. If you want to find a job as a construction worker to get your aggression out (and believe me, this works wonders for your motivation factor too) and make money, you can always spin that one into "I wanted to become comfortable with power tools because I was interested in Orthopaedics". And if you discover you really hate building stuff, you can also follow that up with "but I've discovered I'm not so hot at putting stuff together, so perhaps ortho isnt' my place after all...". Should at least get you a laugh from your interviewer.

7. Be honest with yourself. Why are you doing this? Should you take some time off? And if you really want it, how do you make it happen? (hint: start with #1 above.)

I implore you not to give this a half-hearted attempt or you risk the same outcome as last year.

You can't change last year. Look in the mirror and say "today is another day and I will try again because I'm worth it". And mean it.

Good luck.

Agree with all above if you do not get in this year.

However, all is not lost yet! Quit farting around!

Send a letter to the two schools which have wait listed you. Let them know about current grades (if they are good) and activities (if they are medicall related). Express strong desire to matriculate into their program. State specific reasons why (ie, do not send bland and generic letters).

Are either of the schools within travelling distance? On the first day of school, if you have not gotten in yet, show up (dressed and groomed nicely), explain that you will be on campus, give them your cell phone no.! For some inexplicable reason, schools get no shows during the first week of school. They will take the guy who is standing in their office over someone else they have to hunt down. If you cannot get there because it is too far away, call the admissions office.

And remember, in all your interaction with staff -- whether by telephone or in person -- be respectful, friendly (but don't go overboard), and polite. You have no idea how many candidates have been blackballed by a trusted admissions office staff member who was treated rudely.

 

[dr.pinky]

Sidious,

I could not agree more with the previous posts! I went through a similar experience with the application process and am in the process of re-applying this year. I could only hope that I had the kinds of stats that you have right now because I want to get into medical school so bad that I can hardly put it into words. I was able to get several interviews the first time around and two waitlists at good schools. Despite all my struggles, I have not given up on my dream. So, you really need to sit down with yourself and figure out whether or not this is what you want. There will always be people out there who tell you that you are not good enough or will tell you that you should do it just because they say so, but it is your life and decision at the end of the day. In medical school and in the rest of your life, you will face challenges along the path for the things that you really want. You will have to decide if the things that you desire are worth the hardship. I wish you good luck on your journey no matter which way you decide to go.

 

[PunjabiCurry]

RAISE YOUR MCAT!!!!!
With 3.4 and 29, you realistically have shots at only ~10 schools.
Finally, if you're not a URM, those stats are 👎 to adcoms

 

[Tiagao]

RAISE YOUR MCAT!!!!!
With 3.4 and 29, you realistically have shots at only ~10 schools.
Finally, if you're not a URM, those stats are 👎 to adcoms

Unless you are talking only about MD schools, this is an inaccurate assesment. If so, then I'd say that's a fair statement.

OP, you are at or above the norms for most DO schools and while the senior slide is not a good thing, it may not be a killer either. As was posted earlier, no one can stress speaking with the school(s) enough. Get to know the people on the Admissions staff and the ADCOM at each school you are interested in, especially the ones that still have a chance for this year.