MD Current app review/should I be worried?

[nabokovausten]

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hi everyone, i’m a current applicant w/o any II’s and am prepping for a re-application just in case; have only heard back from 4 schools (2 R’s, 1 waitlist for II, and 1 hold). i wanted to see if anyone could review my current application/stats and suggest what to improve for next cycle.

my thoughts on what is going wrong for this cycle

• 3 MCAT takes within one year; only improved to 507
• later complete date due to MCAT retake (complete at all schools late august-september 10th)
• not enough volunteering

ORM female, PA resident

Academics
UNDERGRAD: double majors in Biology & English (3.77 overall GPA); CS and philosophy minors
GRADUATE: MS in Biotechnology at a T10 (4.0 GPA), completing and defending my research thesis next year
MCAT: 503 —> 504 —> 507
Dean’s List 6 semesters; graduated with Honors

Research
~3,000 hours across OCD clinical, computational biology, and humanities research
Multiple poster/oral presentations (including a national conference)
1 peer-reviewed humanities research publication

Clinical Experience
1500 hours - ED scribe
60 hours - shadowing (psychiatry, emergency medicine)

Paid Non-Clinical
210 hours - camp counselor for children with special needs
150 hours - essay tutor

Volunteering / Service
125 hours - Crisis Text Line counselor 80 hours - suicide prevention advocacy (idk what else to call this i basically worked with my high school to add mental health resources and therapy appointments for the students)
160 hours - helped with the disability support services at my undergrad

Extracurriculars & Leadership
210 hours - Apprentice teacher for a Health, Med, & Society Course Editorial roles (undergrad literary magazine, grad film magazine)
Social media chair for my undergrad premed club and film club
didn’t include this in my app but my LOR writer likely mentioned it; i did about a year of public health volunteering/research

Random Stuff
2 awarded undergrad research grants
merit scholarship for grad school around 10
poetry publications + 2 film review essay publications (idk if admissions people care but it’s in my app anyways) over a 3 year period, i won 11 creative writing cash prizes at my undergrad in different things (philosophy, poetry, english essay, etc)

UPDATE STUFF
(recent things i started after submitting my application, which i talked about in my update letters)

• part-time research assistant in meta-analysis of addiction treatment clinical trials
• weekly tutoring of U.S. immigrant in high school
• my 2 grad classes i started for this semester

SCHOOL LIST Albany (NY) Alice Walton (AR) Anne Burnett (TX) Beaumont (MI) Belmont (TN) Buffalo (NY) Central Michigan (MI) Drexel (PA) Eastern Virginia Geisinger (PA) Indiana U Loyola stritch (IL) Michigan State Ohio State Penn State (PA) Pitt Quinnipiac (CT) Rosalind Franklin (IL) Roseman (NV) Rush (IL) SUNY Downstate Saint Louis Sidney Kimmel (PA) Temple (PA) Toledo (OH) Tulane (LA) UConn (CT) UIC UMass (MA) UMinnesota UMissouri-Columbia USC Greenville UVermont UWisconsin Virginia Tech WVU (WV) Wake Forest (NC) Wayne State (MI) Wisconsin Wright State (OH) Rutgers NYMC

 

[Faha]

You would benefit from more non clinical volunteering hours and schools such as Loyola and Rush expect many hundreds of hours. Accumulate 150+ hours in an activity such as food bank, homeless shelter. It is also not late to apply to DO schools.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you are going to reapply, you need a significant improvement. Your non-clinical volunteering includes Crisis Text Line; while that's convenient, you need personal, face-to-face activities involving food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You must have 150 hours when you submit; having zero hours as I see it now makes your file at great risk of getting screened out at most schools, which seems to be happening. Loyola and Rush expect hundreds more hours, and their applicant pools typically have candidates that have spent a year focused on these activities (think Americorps full-time).

You have plateaued on your MCAT. Some schools will screen you out for taking the MCAT more than 3 times if you reapply. Figure out which schools will do that (ask students at those schools if they know of peers who took the MCAT 4+ times).

What have you done with non-clinical volunteering lately... as in, while you have been completing your MS degree?

Tutoring is nice, but that's what every premed is doing. It won't help you stand out if you are relying on it to convey your service orientation. Tutoring shows academic competency.

 

[nabokovausten]

If you are going to reapply, you need a significant improvement. Your non-clinical volunteering includes Crisis Text Line; while that's convenient, you need personal, face-to-face activities involving food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. You must have 150 hours when you submit; having zero hours as I see it now makes your file at great risk of getting screened out at most schools, which seems to be happening. Loyola and Rush expect hundreds more hours, and their applicant pools typically have candidates that have spent a year focused on these activities (think Americorps full-time).

You have plateaued on your MCAT. Some schools will screen you out for taking the MCAT more than 3 times if you reapply. Figure out which schools will do that (ask students at those schools if they know of peers who took the MCAT 4+ times).

What have you done with non-clinical volunteering lately... as in, while you have been completing your MS degree?

Tutoring is nice, but that's what every premed is doing. It won't help you stand out if you are relying on it to convey your service orientation. Tutoring shows academic competency.

hi, thank your for your post; i also volunteer with my school’s addiction medicine club and am involved with the addiction recovery facility. forgot to include that here but i wrote about it in most of my secondaries.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

hi, thank your for your post; i also volunteer with my school’s addiction medicine club and am involved with the addiction recovery facility. forgot to include that here but i wrote about it in most of my secondaries.

You listed it in W/A? Did you emphasize club or facility activities?

 

[nabokovausten]

You listed it in W/A? Did you emphasize club or facility activities?

not listed in W/A, i ran out of slots and at that time it was a newer activity so i wanted to include my more established/long term things there. i wrote about my facility work in my secondaries