Chances for MD/PhD, 3.8 gpa, 524 MCAT

[rozaymmg]

Hello, since beginning undergrad I've been interested in MD/PhD, but due to the competitiveness of the MSTP programs I have always been concerned about the viability of these plans. Now that I'm applying in a month, I've done a lot of self reflection and I'm going to try to apply to some.

Major: Biochemistry
Minor: Poverty Studies
MCAT: 524
cGPA: 3.82
sGPA: 3.84

I'm a white male coming from a top 15 school in their honors program. Thus far I've taken 4 grad classes in organic chemistry, which I'm hoping will help set me apart.

I've been doing organic chemistry research in a group since October of my freshman year, all very independent projects so I have yet to publish anything from this group. I stayed one summer, spent the second summer in Germany doing chemistry research, with a publication hopefully coming up soon, and will be spending this summer with my "chemistry hero" at Scripps Research Institute. The project I'm currently involved in is a drug development project, so at the end of the summer or this coming Fall break I'll likely travel to Weill Cornell or Dana Farber at Harvard to participate in the biological assays with the molecules I'm currently finishing up.

Besides research I've been involved with a social concerns institute on campus, and have spent multiple fall/spring breaks volunteering in Appalachia and have served on their student advisory board. I led a project for an on campus business club working with a healthcare consulting firm for a year. This semester I received the annual top undergrad chem/biochem award at the university. Other than that I've had some other minor awards and some student government involvement.

I did an extensive amount of volunteering in high school (circa 250 hours) which confirmed my interest in a medical career, but since then I have had about 50 hours of shadowing at Wake Forest and the Cleveland Clinic. I found it more important to focus on my research at the time, but now I have many regrets about not doing an EMT course and getting some extra experience. I'm not sure how big of a deficit this will be, however. One of my primary worries is that this will seem too much life a chemistry grad school application, although I never intended it to come off as such.

My top programs would be

U Chicago
Duke
Weill Cornell Tri-I
Wash U
UNC
Emory
Columbia
Yale
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Icahn
UC San Diego (partnered with Scripps)

Personally it seems like a very intimidating list, but if I follow through with MD PhD I'd like to make sure I have a good PI and plenty of resources. I'm also going to apply to Fulbright and DAAD this year, so if I don't get in this cycle I could reapply. Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

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[MaxPlancker]

Hard to say. For these top programs, it really will come down to your LORs and ability to discuss your research from a variety of perspectives and levels since you don't have the most glamorous app in terms of research productivity. You have the stats but assuming you are average (compared to the applicant pool at these MD/PhD programs) for LORs and ability to talk about your work, I'd guess you may get a bite (acceptance) here or there but definitely no guarantees. Interviews at these schools: good chance.

 

[Penguin33]

One of my primary worries is that this will seem too much life a chemistry grad school application, although I never intended it to come off as such.

I think this is probably a legitimate concern and you'll just have to be really careful how you present yourself in the application. It is unfortunate that you have not done as much clinical experience work in recent years besides shadowing (is that correct?) so I think it will be especially important for you to demonstrate that you have interpersonal skills, etc. to prove that you have a strong motivation to work with people besides conduct research. If any of your LORs can talk about your abilities as a team player, leader, etc. that could be good. If you can also get more clinical experiences or show that it's ongoing that might help?

In terms of research productivity I wouldn't worry to much about the number of publications you can-- it matters more how your PIs talk about you as a researcher/how you talk about research during your interviews. Overall I think you should go for it-- I'd apply to more than 12 though, if resources allow it. I applied to 21 starting out and it's often very difficult to predict the number of interviews you get.

 

[nonamesleft]

I did an extensive amount of volunteering in high school (circa 250 hours) which confirmed my interest in a medical career, but since then I have had about 50 hours of shadowing at Wake Forest and the Cleveland Clinic.

It's been a while, but I don't think AMCAS lets you enter anything older than a few years in the EC's?