Dire need of good advice

[akpete]

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hi everyone. I just joined this site yesterday, and from what I've read so far, you all give really great advice. Well, I'm in need of some. Here's my numbers:

GPA = 3.75
Science GPA = 3.60
MCAT = 29O - 10VS, 9PS, 10BS
BS in Athletic Training and soon will have BS in Human Biology

First question: Should I consider retaking the MCAT?

Secondly, I'm concerned about my ECs. As an athletic training student, I have put in 20 hours of clinical work per week for the last 2 years. This is good in that I was directly providing sports medicine health care to the university's athletes and working with physicians, but it's bad in that I wasn't really able to do much else. I'd be in the classroom and then the athletic training room from 8am-6pm and had events on the weekend. I was also working from 1 to 3 jobs at a time.

Now that I'm done with my athletic training degree, I have a little more time, but I'm still working a lot to pay off some credit card debt, and so I have the money to apply!!

Should I try to get involved in more ECs now, or will it not matter for applying Fall 2005 because it's so late in the scheme of things. Or should I get some more ECs going and apply to Fall 2006? But I'm not getting any younger. Will the Adcoms look favorably on my athletic training experience?

Sorry this is so long, but as you can see, I need help!!

Thanks

 

[arikansas]

I think your athletic training experience will be very helpful...you have been exposed to medicine firsthand...are you interested in going into sports medicine? i would assume yes, which would mean your experience is awesome...if you arent interested in this, though, you should be able to explain why you arent interested in it and how you became interested in whatever it is that you are interested in...based on your description of everything you have been doing in the past few years, it is really evident that you havent been sitting on your ass...i dont think you should be concerned about not doing ec's because your app will show that you've been doing all this other stuff...with reference to your mcat score, i think you are fine...you have a solid gpa and that will help you. 29 is a respectable score.

 

[skypilot]

You will get in

 

[OmahaMX80]

I'd be surprised if you didn't get in anywhere. I would like to respond to your comment though, about additional volunteering/clinical exposure. First of all, it is NEVER too late. When I applied for this upcoming fall (2004), I had no clinical exposure... after my first couple of interviews I realized this was very problematic. So I did some shadowing and tried to enhance my clinical exposure activities. Then I sent update letters to all the schools I was serious about. Nearly all medical schools will let you update your application, in fact many encourage it. I credit being accepted anywhere to the updates I made to my application because I know now, looking back, I was not good enough when the process started. So, it's never too late and you don't have to save the world, just put in some hours each week at a hospital or shadow some doctors, that's all most places really want to see... just that you have some idea you know what you're getting yourself into.

 

[akpete]

I really appreciate all of your feedback. Makes me feel a little better. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some more clinical experience this summer. I was also thinking of getting involved with Habitat for Humanity b/c they're building close to my apartment.

I never realized you could update your application later on.

Yes, I do want to go into orthopedics and sports medicine, hopefully be a team physcian one day.

Thanks guys.