cGPA 3.5, sGPA 3.4, MCAT 33P...competitive? ways to improve?

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flmro86

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100 hour volunteering in Hospital
2 years on eBoard of a Cancer fighting organization, setting up a portion of Relay for Life
15 hours of Shadowing MD
Resident Assistant
Donated hair this year

Applying next July, what do my chances, where could I improve, worth applying MD?
 
Oh yeah. I'd definitely apply next year. If you apply EARLY, as in get your personal statements done, with the rest of your primary app by early June, I think you will find a fruitful MD app cycle.

That said, I'd really focus on beefing up your extracirriculars, BIG time. One, imo, I feel they are weak. Perhaps diversify your hospital volunteering exposure, leadership for a cancer organization is nice, but perhaps become more involved with your local community? Definitely could use more shadowing hours, both with medicine and surgical specialties.

If I were reviewing your application, I would need a lot of stuff happening to offset that your GPA is a little bit on the low side. Is it impossible? Nope. But it'll require you being very assertive and figuring out ways that you can get involved beyond what you're doing now.

Finally, what I advise most people (in person, or on SDN) is to have a strong reflection on your experiences. What did it mean to be part of a cancer-fighting board? What did you feel like you accomplished? What challenges did you have? How has it given you perspective on healthcare, or the challenges of running a non-profit (I'm assuming it's nonprofit) for such a cause? Or with hospital volunteering: what did you gain from it? What were the patients that you interacted with, like? How did the MDs and nurses interact? Can you observe how healthcare is often a team-based setting?

Most students fail to do the reflection part, because they're so engulfed with just slapping things down on their resume, without getting any meaning from the activities they engage in.

I had similar stats as you and had a decent app cycle this past year. You can do it-just make sure you bust your butt off getting those ECs up.

Cheers,
 
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