Choosing schools as a nontrad high MCAT, lower GPA CA applicant

[Pico25]

Hey, I'm quasi nontrad (27, BS in molecular biology, working in medical biotech R&D since late 2015). CA resident, not URM.

cGPA is 3.5, sGPA 3.46 from UC Santa Cruz. MCAT in 2020 was 522, so a LizzyM score of ~74. Several hundred hours volunteering, mostly clinical (COVID testing and vaccination), 40hrs shadowing etc.

I plan to apply MD as well as some MD/PhD. I got MSAR but I have some questions about choosing schools to apply to.

1. Should I just apply to all CA med schools since many seem to have in state advantage?

2. How should I think about where I fit given that my GPA and MCAT are not well correlated? My MCAT is way above average at schools with 3.5 GPA but my GPA is way below schools with my MCAT. Should I apply to schools based on LizzyM or does that breakdown in situations like mine?

3. If I am going by some metric LizzyM how much should my school list deviate from my score? +/- 5 points? 15?

Thanks

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[LeaveNoTrace]

Important question: do you have an upward trend, or not? For MD/PhD: how's your research history? Do you have posters or publications?

 

[Pico25]

Grade trend is flat, two publications. The majority of my work experience has been as a research associate/senior research associate. I worked at a startup developing a liposomal drug for an ultra rare metabolic disorder, then another startup that launched a novel non invasive prenatal test and now a larger company developing an AAV therapy for a type of childhood epilepsy.

Research at the startups was pretty extensive, I managed a clinical trial, developed bioassays, helped build a bioinformatics pipeline for clinical NGS data, did a tech transfer if several key elemts to CLIA lab, screened drugs, cell culture work, designed, executed, ran, and analyzed experiments including in vitro, flow cytometry, ddPCR, NGS etc.

 

[Goro]

Hey, I'm quasi nontrad (27, BS in molecular biology, working in medical biotech R&D since late 2015). CA resident, not URM.

cGPA is 3.5, sGPA 3.46 from UC Santa Cruz. MCAT in 2020 was 522, so a LizzyM score of ~74. Several hundred hours volunteering, mostly clinical (COVID testing and vaccination), 40hrs shadowing etc.

I plan to apply MD as well as some MD/PhD. I got MSAR but I have some questions about choosing schools to apply to.

1. Should I just apply to all CA med schools since many seem to have in state advantage?

2. How should I think about where I fit given that my GPA and MCAT are not well correlated? My MCAT is way above average at schools with 3.5 GPA but my GPA is way below schools with my MCAT. Should I apply to schools based on LizzyM or does that breakdown in situations like mine?

3. If I am going by some metric LizzyM how much should my school list deviate from my score? +/- 5 points? 15?

Thanks

MD/PhD candidates generally tend to be superstars; I fear your GPAs will hinder you in that.

Use MSAR and target those schools where your median GPAs are > their 10th %iles for acceptees.

With the exception of UCR and UCD, CA schools do not have a IS bias. It only seems that way because there ore so many great candidates. UCLA pre-meds alone could fill every med school seat in CA.

In using MSAR also pay very careful attention tot he IS/OOS rations of OOS publics schools; they favor the home team. Do not think that your MCAT score alone will open doors.

How much clinical experience, nonclinical volunteering and shadowing do you have?

As your GPAs are some 0.2 basis points below the national median for acceptees, you should have some DO schools on your list.

 

[Pico25]

MD/PhD candidates generally tend to be superstars; I fear your GPAs will hinder you in that.

Use MSAR and target those schools where your median GPAs are > their 10th %iles for acceptees.

With the exception of UCR and UCD, CA schools do not have a IS bias. It only seems that way because there ore so many great candidates. UCLA pre-meds alone could fill every med school seat in CA.

In using MSAR also pay very careful attention tot he IS/OOS rations of OOS publics schools; they favor the home team. Do not think that your MCAT score alone will open doors.

How much clinical experience, nonclinical volunteering and shadowing do you have?

As your GPAs are some 0.2 basis points below the national median for acceptees, you should have some DO schools on your list.

Thanks. Almost all clinical volunteering Aaound 250hrs clinical (COVID vaccination and testing sites). 50 or so hours non-clinical (foodbank and homeless shelter). 40hrs shadowing a pediatrician in hospital.

Yes, I understand about my GPA, I wasn't considering med school in college. The doctor I shadowed recommend I consider applying MD/PhD given the amount of research experience, priority 1 is a medical degree, I realize MD/PhD is very competitive.

Ok got it, so if the 10th percentile accepted cGPA for a school is less than or equal to my cGPA then it's worth applying to and same for sGPA.

 

[Goro]

Thanks. Almost all clinical volunteering Aaound 250hrs clinical (COVID vaccination and testing sites). 50 or so hours non-clinical (foodbank and homeless shelter). 40hrs shadowing a pediatrician in hospital.

Yes, I understand about my GPA, I wasn't considering med school in college. The doctor I shadowed recommend I consider applying MD/PhD given the amount of research experience, priority 1 is a medical degree, I realize MD/PhD is very competitive.

Ok got it, so if the 10th percentile accepted cGPA for a school is less than or equal to my cGPA then it's worth applying to and same for sGPA.

You're going to need to at least triple the amount of nonclinical volunteering. Medicine is a service profession, after all, and you need to show off your altruism.

 

[Pico25]

You're going to need to at least triple the amount of nonclinical volunteering. Medicine is a service profession, after all, and you need to show off your altruism.

Realistically what do you think I can do at this point? Volunteer opportunities were limited due to COVID and I decided to prioritize volunteering at COVID testing/vaccination sites because I found it significantly more meaningful and the shifts were much longer so I could accumulate more hours.

Do you think that given that my chances are just very low and I will inevitably need to apply next cycle?

 

[Goro]

Realistically what do you think I can do at this point? Volunteer opportunities were limited due to COVID and I decided to prioritize volunteering at COVID testing/vaccination sites because I found it significantly more meaningful and the shifts were much longer so I could accumulate more hours.

Do you think that given that my chances are just very low and I will inevitably need to apply next cycle?

There are still some venues that you could try even in the age of covet. First of all get yourself vaccinated if you haven't done so already.

Then look for service at food banks, Meals on Wheels, election poll working, which is normally done by seniors, or anything your local houses of worship can have you do.

You'll be able to explain the effect of covet on your application, and explain your interest in covid-19 sting exactly as you've written here.

 

[Kerans717]

You're going to need to at least triple the amount of nonclinical volunteering. Medicine is a service profession, after all, and you need to show off your altruism.

Does vaccine clinic volunteering generally fall into the clinical category?

 

[Goro]

Does vaccine clinic volunteering generally fall into the clinical category?

It does for me!

 

[Catalystik]

Do you think that given that my chances are just very low and I will inevitably need to apply next cycle?

Considering your strong research focus, if you plan to emphasize that for the upcoming cycle, I think you need to prepare yourself for the possibility/likelihood (depending on other factors of which we are unaware that would boost your candidacy) of a second cycle. Build clinical hours with sick and injured folks (many won't view vaccinating healthy folks as patient contact), add significantly to your nonmedical community service, take some upper-level science classes earning As to establish an upward grade trend, and consider grouping the research experience to de-emphasize it next time. Also, add some DO schools to your list. Augmenting your application with an eye to the future will have some benefit for this upcoming cycle through update letters (where allowed), Secondary essays, and interview conversations.

 

[djiboutiman]

Only apply MD/Ph.D. if you really want to do research throughout your career (most MD/PhDs are 75% research, 25% clinical, or even less). My best advice would be to apply broadly. Your GPA might hold you back in some places, your MCAT might be too high for others. MSAR and LizzyM scores are good tools, but for people with your kind of application, I don't think it applies all that well. Since your research and MCAT are great, don't be afraid of applying to some of the top-tier schools. I knew someone that interviewed at UCSD with low stats (3.5, under 508, ORM), but great research. I would still apply to all the CA schools, even though you won't have a significant advantage. I had a similar application to yours, although less research productivity, and was able to score 4 interviews (1 top 10, 1 CA state school, 1 mid-tier out of state public school, 1 low-tier). It really is a crapshoot, so always be preparing for reapplication.