Do I have enough extracurriculars to even bother applying??

[WellHello]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I was planning on applying to med in 2015 for (hopefully) matriculation in 2016. However, the two med schools in my Province (I'm Canadian) are only accepting the 2015 MCAT starting as soon as it comes out... that's right, not even a year leniency. As far as I can tell this is unique to these two med schools. This policy was revealed after I had already ordered the books so I decided to still write the MCAT this summer, and I would prefer not to have to study again and rewrite next summer. I am not opposed to applying elsewhere, but this would result in paying approximately 5 times the tuition, and make it more difficult to get in due to preferences given to in-province applicants. These two schools are my best bet by far, so I'm strongly considering applying this year, before I finish my degree (which I actually kind of want to finish...) and before I have everything I was planning on having under my belt in terms of ECs.

Here's what my application would look like at this stage:

4.00 GPA in chemical/biomedical engineering which, like I said, I would unfortunately not be able to finish if I applied this year. I would only have one academic semester left (I'm in a co-op program so it's a 5 year degree and I don't have the traditional fall/winter academic with summers off)

? on the MCAT (haven't written yet but lets just say its competitive, not because I'm a pretentious jerk, but because if it isn't then I would have to rewrite anyways and this whole post is null)

2 months work experience as a medical office assistant in a family practice clinic (lots of patient interaction in this job)

8 months work experience in a scoliosis research clinic (recruited adolescent patients for a study, collected data, analyzed data, wrote papers and will have at least 1 publication in a journal)

3 years peer tutoring (for pay, so not volunteer)

a couple other largely irrelevant jobs

about 100 hours of volunteer experience at iRSM in the biomechanical engineering lab

I have just signed up for big brothers big sisters but am still waiting to be paired with a little. I have wanted to do this for a while but was hoping to wait until after the MCAT to avoid overloading myself. I decided that if I hoped to apply this year I couldn't afford to put it off any longer.

Is it worth applying now with minimal volunteer and no shadowing (although my parents are docs, so even as a kid I spent a lot of time in hospitals and have done a lot of unofficial shadowing, just nothing I could write down) or should I suck it up, finish my degree, and apply to out-of-province schools in 2015 when I will hopefully have more to show? Sorry this was so long!

 

[kyamh]

Unless you are working full time right now, there is no reason you cannot get 20-30 shadowing hours before the end of next week! Start emailing physicians right now.

I won't say that applying with little volunteering is a good idea, but it's possible. I certainly didn't have SDN levels of volunteer hours and managed....but only by playing up the little bit I had.

 

[WellHello]

Unless you are working full time right now, there is no reason you cannot get 20-30 shadowing hours before the end of next week! Start emailing physicians right now.

I won't say that applying with little volunteering is a good idea, but it's possible. I certainly didn't have SDN levels of volunteer hours and managed....but only by playing up the little bit I had.

Unfortunately I am currently working full time (it is a requirement of the Co-op program I'm in, so quitting or decreasing the time I work is not an option), plus tutoring, studying for the MCAT, and hopefully will soon be doing big brothers big sisters. It would be very tough to fit in shadowing.

 

[Donald Kimball]

Your stats might carry you through, but your clinical experience is sorely lacking.

Hard to say, because I think MCAT and GPA are the huge drivers of acceptance, but from my experience this cycle, I would not apply without more clinical experience. Even if you started shadowing and volunteering now, adcoms will see right through that, like they did me.

The biggest hurdle is going to be explaining how you know medicine is what you want to do with your life, if all you've done is spent 2 months in a medical office?

 

[WellHello]

Your stats might carry you through, but your clinical experience is sorely lacking.

Hard to say, because I think MCAT and GPA are the huge drivers of acceptance, but from my experience this cycle, I would not apply without more clinical experience. Even if you started shadowing and volunteering now, adcoms will see right through that, like they did me.

The biggest hurdle is going to be explaining how you know medicine is what you want to do with your life, if all you've done is spent 2 months in a medical office?

This is a very good point, and what I'm afraid of. The 8 month research job also had a fair amount of patient interaction since I was responsible for performing the procedures for the study at the pediatric scoliosis clinic. I've grown up with medicine and I know med is what I want to do, but I realize it would be very difficult to express that. The problem is that if I don't apply this year, I will end up in a similar situation next year, where I will be working full time (because of my co-op program), still tutoring, and again studying for the MCAT so will still not have time for shadowing (unless I can find shadowing opportunities on Sunday... which is possible if I go for emerg or something) or copious amounts of volunteer.

 

[Donald Kimball]

This is a very good point, and what I'm afraid of. The 8 month research job also had a fair amount of patient interaction since I was responsible for performing the procedures for the study at the pediatric scoliosis clinic. I've grown up with medicine and I know med is what I want to do, but I realize it would be very difficult to express that. The problem is that if I don't apply this year, I will end up in a similar situation next year, where I will be working full time (because of my co-op program), still tutoring, and again studying for the MCAT so will still not have time for shadowing (unless I can find shadowing opportunities on Sunday... which is possible if I got for emerg or something) or copious amounts of volunteer.

Oh wow, I didn't notice you were Canadian, so I can't say the process is entirely the same. Maybe they don't look so heavily on volunteer experience and shadowing up north? I'm not sure.

Still, it sucks man. I know how you feel. I knew medicine was right for me with a minimum of experience, and my shadowing and volunteering have done nothing to dissuade that passion, only further reinforce it. But schools want the proof. They want evidence that you know what medicine is about.

Hopefully you beast the MCAT, because if you do, I'm sure a 4.00 GPA and 35+ MCAT will help assuage any concerns stemming from your lack of experience.

 

[WellHello]

Oh wow, I didn't notice you were Canadian, so I can't say the process is entirely the same. Maybe they don't look so heavily on volunteer experience and shadowing up north? I'm not sure.

Still, it sucks man. I know how you feel. I knew medicine was right for me with a minimum of experience, and my shadowing and volunteering have done nothing to dissuade that passion, only further reinforce it. But schools want the proof. They want evidence that you know what medicine is about.

Hopefully you beast the MCAT, because if you do, I'm sure a 4.00 GPA and 35+ MCAT will help assuage any concerns stemming from your lack of experience.

I know they look fairly heavily on volunteering at most Canadian schools, but not necessarily shadowing. Every school has a largely independent application process so there is a lot of variety in what they look for, whereas in America I imagine AMCAS kind of standardizes things a bit (? I don't know that much about the American application system haha). Makes it a little annoying to mass apply to schools when they all have totally different application submission procedures, deadlines, and requirements. I know people who have gotten in with no shadowing experience and very little clinical experience as long as they had a lot of community service volunteer hours/research.

Sometimes I really regret going into a co-op program... having a few months off to focus on ECs and clinical experience definitely would have helped! At the time it seemed like engineering would be a good fallback if I didn't get into med... now I've started to realize I have absolutely no interest in becoming an engineer 😛 I guess I just have to look for a very research-centric school and cross my fingers on the MCAT... Thanks for the advice!