COVID-19, Apply next year?

[deleted980156]

The original thought process I had (and shared with my schools’ diversity program contact) was to get more clinical and non-clinical volunteering hours in my gap year (January to July 2021) and get a solid MCAT score on May 21st. Now with COVID-19, the volunteering/shadowing is on hold until further notice and my MCAT is basically pushed back until September. I really don’t want to wait a year due to circumstances that have nothing to do with me/were not within my control because everything else on my app is solid (URM, DI athlete, Mentoring, all that). Anyone else in the same boat of needing their MCAT score to round out their app/needing more hours? Or can anyone give some advice?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[la flame]

When you say you need more hours, how many hours do you currently have? If you have absolutely 0 for both, then I would definitely reconsider. If not, most people on this website will probably still tell you to take another gap year. However, if I was in your shoes, I would apply this cycle still (assuming you ace your MCAT) because I like to bet on myself. There are thousands of applicants this cycle will won't have enough shadowing, volunteering, clinical experience EC's due to Covid-19.

I'm in a similar boat as you since I don't have much shadowing hours (less than 20 hours) or an MCAT yet. However, I'm URM as well, have over 1000+ hours of clinical experiences and average volunteering hours.

 

[deleted980156]

When you say you need more hours, how many hours do you currently have? If you have absolutely 0 for both, then I would definitely reconsider. If not, most people on this website will probably still tell you to take another gap year. However, if I was in your shoes, I would apply this cycle still (assuming you ace your MCAT) because I like to bet on myself. There are thousands of applicants this cycle will won't have enough shadowing, volunteering, clinical experience EC's due to Covid-19.

I'm in a similar boat as you since I don't have much shadowing hours (less than 20 hours) or an MCAT yet. However, I'm URM as well, have over 1000+ hours of clinical experiences and average volunteering hours.

About 30 for shadowing. 100 volunteering in the community (that I have a contact for). The rest I do like one a week (so about 300 by next year). The clinical work is weird because that’s also once a week but with COVID-19 it’s on hold. I have no idea how to report that on my application either except to put It in my activity list and say I’m going to continue doing It in my gap year once we come back to normal

 

[deleted1044561]

When you say you need more hours, how many hours do you currently have? If you have absolutely 0 for both, then I would definitely reconsider. If not, most people on this website will probably still tell you to take another gap year. However, if I was in your shoes, I would apply this cycle still (assuming you ace your MCAT) because I like to bet on myself. There are thousands of applicants this cycle will won't have enough shadowing, volunteering, clinical experience EC's due to Covid-19.

I'm in a similar boat as you since I don't have much shadowing hours (less than 20 hours) or an MCAT yet. However, I'm URM as well, have over 1000+ hours of clinical experiences and average volunteering hours.

You can't just assume you'll ace your MCAT -- trust your practice tests. Personally, I think COVID is providing accommodations but staying focused during this time is whole different ball game. It's not worth it just to to apply with a mediocre application thinking everyone is in the same spot.

I also think you're underestimating how many people will have strong clinical experience, shadowing, etc. It's generally frowned upon if you start volunteering within a year of applying anyways so I don't see how COVID-19 excuse will hold much weight.

 

[deleted980156]

You can't just assume you'll ace your MCAT -- trust your practice tests. Personally, I think COVID is providing accommodations but staying focused during this time is whole different ball game. It's not worth it just to to apply with a mediocre application thinking everyone is in the same spot.

I also think you're underestimating how many people will have strong clinical experience, shadowing, etc. It's generally frowned upon if you start volunteering within a year of applying anyways so I don't see how COVID-19 excuse will hold much weight.

personally for me, volunteering the year leading up to medical school was really my only option. I spent 20-30 (if not more) hours a week playing a division one sport. So no matter what schools I applied to this cycle, they were going to have to understand my hours were coming post graduation(January 2020-Medical School start date). I mainly brought up The COVID-19 issue to say that It wrecked my prime time months to gather hours. I was seeking advice on how to explain that

 

[la flame]

You can't just assume you'll ace your MCAT -- trust your practice tests. Personally, I think COVID is providing accommodations but staying focused during this time is whole different ball game. It's not worth it just to to apply with a mediocre application thinking everyone is in the same spot.

I also think you're underestimating how many people will have strong clinical experience, shadowing, etc. It's generally frowned upon if you start volunteering within a year of applying anyways so I don't see how COVID-19 excuse will hold much weight.

That’s why it’s a big “if” since the MCAT will ultimately decide to apply or not. If you have some lacking EC’s, OP (and anyone else in the same boat including myself) NEEDS a good MCAT to make up for it. I personally don’t think it makes sense to wait an entire year just because someone doesn’t have enough volunteer/shadowing hours but has good/great stats. Trust your gut OP

 

[deleted1044561]

That’s why it’s a big “if” since the MCAT will ultimately decide to apply or not. If you have some lacking EC’s, OP (and anyone else in the same boat including myself) NEEDS a good MCAT to make up for it. I personally don’t think it makes sense to wait an entire year just because someone doesn’t have enough volunteer/shadowing hours but has good/great stats. Trust your gut OP

There are people who have to reapply with 520+ and 3.9+ who dont have the basic EC requisites. I wouldn't sleep on ECs.

You have to demonstrate a commitment to medicine after all

 

[la flame]

There are people who have to reapply with 520+ and 3.9+ who dont have the basic EC requisites. I wouldn't sleep on ECs.

You have to demonstrate a commitment to medicine after all

yeah those people are only applying to t-20 schools or have horrible interview skills (and I mean horrible). There is no reason to wait to apply a whole year due to subpar EC’s with good stats. I mean yeah your lowering your potential but if you apply to a broad amount of schools, you’ll have a good chance of an A. There is a lot of ifs and buts and hypothetical situations but you just gotta take your shot is all I’m sayin.

 

[mmchick]

yeah those people are only applying to t-20 schools or have horrible interview skills (and I mean horrible). There is no reason to wait to apply a whole year due to subpar EC’s with good stats. I mean yeah your lowering your potential but if you apply to a broad amount of schools, you’ll have a good chance of an A. There is a lot of ifs and buts and hypothetical situations but you just gotta take your shot is all I’m sayin.

This is the fundamental misunderstanding that makes up a large cohort of the rejections in any given year. There is plenty good reason to not apply when you have "good stats" and "subpar ECs". ECs show your entire commitment to medicine, show you have experience with it and know what you're getting yourself into, and justify your "why medicine" you're spewing all over your application.

Getting your ECs in in the same cycle you're applying is naive and foolish. Once you hit "submit", adcoms take your application as-is. They couldn't care any less about the hours you "project" as there is any given likelihood you never complete those hours due to all sorts of circumstances. Projected hours are the same as taking up a W/A spot to say you watch Netflix all day.

If you apply with subpar ECs, you sure as hell are taking a bet on yourself. You're also lowering your sell value and reducing the impact of the experiences you have thus far in a second cycle as a reapplicant who has to work double-time to show how they've improved from a totally rejected first round.

Medical school isn't going anywhere. You're doing yourself a huge injustice to rush a timeline that has taken you at least 2 decades to reach with a now complete unwillingness to give an extra year to give yourself the greatest chance at acquiring multiple acceptances to schools you actually want to be at - not to mention more opportunities for finaid or scholarships. OP, I implore you to do more research on those that do postmortems of their applications around here. You'll likely come to a very common conclusion that those without stat issues are severely lacking in their EC department (those without multiple IIs in their failed round).

 

[Goro]

About 30 for shadowing. 100 volunteering in the community (that I have a contact for). The rest I do like one a week (so about 300 by next year). The clinical work is weird because that’s also once a week but with COVID-19 it’s on hold. I have no idea how to report that on my application either except to put It in my activity list and say I’m going to continue doing It in my gap year once we come back to normal

Strongly suggest that you apply when you are 100% ready. You're not ready.

 

[Grapesurgery]

So no matter what schools I applied to this cycle, they were going to have to understand my hours were coming post graduation(January 2020-Medical School start date). I mainly brought up The COVID-19 issue to say that It wrecked my prime time months to gather hours. I was seeking advice on how to explain that

This is not how it works. Med schools don't "just have to understand" and deal with any shortcomings in one's app. There is more than a fair share of well-rounded applicants per seat. Unfortunately, it seems to make your app competitive you need an extra year for clinical ECs, as most other posters have suggested.

 

[bluelemon]

D1 athlete here with a high MCAT (517) and all the "recommended" ECs. I applied last cycle and am sitting on 0 acceptances out of 27 schools. Nothing is a given in this process.

Commitment to a sport does not translate to commitment to medicine and until you demonstrate the latter, I'd recommend holding off on applying.

 

[deleted980156]

D1 athlete here with a high MCAT (517) and all the "recommended" ECs. I applied last cycle and am sitting on 0 acceptances out of 27 schools. Nothing is a given in this process.

Commitment to a sport does not translate to commitment to medicine and until you demonstrate the latter, I'd recommend holding off on applying.

I didn’t say that It translates over. I did hours during school but did I have the ability to do 8 a week? Or even 4? Absolutely not. So for example, my volunteering with an inner city program to teach children the fundamentals of track (field events): 08/2018-04/2020. The hours are just low because I didn’t have the time since I played a sport. It wasn’t meant to be like “oh let me relate this to this”.

 

[deleted980156]

This is not how it works. Med schools don't "just have to understand" and deal with any shortcomings in one's app. There is more than a fair share of well-rounded applicants per seat. Unfortunately, it seems to make your app competitive you need an extra year for clinical ECs, as most other posters have suggested.

As in my other reply, my hours were accrued over years of time, but I could only go once or twice a week (so the numbers are low). Schools surely don’t have to accept that, but I also don’t believe my college experience is comparative to the normal student. I also believe there are schools that would appreciate that I still committed time to my ECs while I maybe had one or two hours of freedom outside of training and going to national level competitions. Positivity and believing in unique circumstances that set me apart ☺️ My point wasn’t to debate these sport semantics, because I personally know four people in my athletic circle with WAY lesser EC hours/academic stats that are currently MS1s and MS2s. I posted this specifically asking on my new experiences that have been interrupted due to COVID and my inability to expand on them. If I’m not applying it’s because I want more hours for my own sense of security and not at all because I feel the need to defend my application differences compared to a normal, college student. Hope that’s makes more sense?

 

[deleted980156]

The original thought process I had (and shared with my schools’ diversity program contact) was to get more clinical and non-clinical volunteering hours in my gap year (January to July 2021) and get a solid MCAT score on May 21st. Now with COVID-19, the volunteering/shadowing is on hold until further notice and my MCAT is basically pushed back until September. I really don’t want to wait a year due to circumstances that have nothing to do with me/were not within my control because everything else on my app is solid (URM, DI athlete, Mentoring, all that). Anyone else in the same boat of needing their MCAT score to round out their app/needing more hours? Or can anyone give some advice?

-4.0cGPA/sGPA
- Valedictorian
-D1 athlete (several conference accolades, one national preliminary competition)
-Tutoring (1,000+ hours and started a program), Mentoring (192 hours: To encourage inner city children to pursue pre-medicine/sciences), volunteering with the underserved (100 hours:food kitchens, veterans rehab). All of which have been done over 2-4 years each
- Current government enforcement officer (OSHA)
- Clinical (Shadowing 50 hours. ED volunteer 30 hours both over the course of two years. Hospice 4hrs/week but then COVID.)
So yeah, I have a lot to put into my application and I don’t want to feel like it’s all potatoes in comparison to clinical hours that I couldn’t do while in college (even with a long term commitment to these clinical spaces...). I can’t compete with people who had 40 hours a week to go volunteer or work clinically, but I definitely committed

 

[souravdada]

I can’t compete with people who had 40 hours a week to go volunteer or work clinically, but I definitely committed

But you can. That’s essentially what they are saying is that you can compete even with all the people who had 40 hours a week to go volunteer if you spend this year doing just that, or anything that you couldn’t do when you were in school but wanted to. Once you have that under your belt as completed hours in place of projected hours not only will it look better on your application but you’ll have more points to talk about and reflect on for your secondary apps as well as interviews.

However, I think you want to apply this year. There are more learned people who can give you guidance on that but I think all of them require a MCAT score to offer the best help. I would say just buckle down and worry about acing the MCAT for now and everything else will come after. All the best OP!

 

[mmchick]

If you think your D1 status and willingness to throw a few hours here and there for medical-school-relevant-and-necessary ECs/clinical experience/etc. makes you an exception to the rule because you have a "couple buddies who did it", then go ahead and apply and don't ask for our advice.

You may very well slip in through the skin of your teeth, but that doesn't negate the reality that your application could use serious EC remediation and you're selling yourself short by not giving an extra year to do so. Having one overarching commitment that does not relate to a med app does not justify shortcomings in areas that are important in med apps. It is your choice to take this shortcut path. You will not change anyone's minds on their advice given their backgrounds/expertise/experiences much like it does not seem we will change yours. Good luck.

 

[tessellations]

FWIW, most of the successful D1 athlete med applicants I've met have taken at least two gap years (and often more) before matriculating to medical school. Not only will you be competing with students who had the extra time to get more med school experience before graduating, you'll also be competing against non-athletes who had that time plus took extra gap years.

 

[Kirby Smart]

-4.0cGPA/sGPA
- Valedictorian
-D1 athlete (several conference accolades, one national preliminary competition)
-Tutoring (1,000+ hours and started a program), Mentoring (192 hours: To encourage inner city children to pursue pre-medicine/sciences), volunteering with the underserved (100 hours:food kitchens, veterans rehab). All of which have been done over 2-4 years each
- Current government enforcement officer (OSHA)
- Clinical (Shadowing 50 hours. ED volunteer 30 hours both over the course of two years. Hospice 4hrs/week but then COVID.)
So yeah, I have a lot to put into my application and I don’t want to feel like it’s all potatoes in comparison to clinical hours that I couldn’t do while in college (even with a long term commitment to these clinical spaces...). I can’t compete with people who had 40 hours a week to go volunteer or work clinically, but I definitely committed

- Great job with the GPAs!
- Generally high school accomplishments are not listed on apps, so assume being valedictorian will be irrelevant.
- impressive sports experience, especially if you were able to get any leadership experience?
- The tutoring is great and decent non-clinical volunteering
- You have the bare minimum shadowing hour + almost 0 other clinical experience.

If you were hoping for everyone here to say "Oh, your app is so awesome that it doesn't matter that you've shown no real commitment/interest in medicine - you're in no matter what!" then that's not going to happen. If you wanted a few of us to say "Yeah, you're missing a main slice of the pie, but your overall application might be good enough for an acceptance" then you can probably count me as one who could say the latter.

It's possible you'd get in cause you have a great app (as long as your MCAT mirrors your GPA, which isn't a given), however you need to ditch this fantasy that just because you've been committed to something else (D1 sport) adcoms are going to cut you slack and not expect you to have put in the clinical hours that 90+% of all other applicants have.

EDIT: all of that being said, you actually are essentially a shoe-in as a URM with a 4.0 as long as you get at least like a 510 on the MCAT. BUT, if you took extra time to really beef up the clinical experience AND got like a 520+ MCAT, you'd have all T-10 schools fighting over you.