Enough improvement?

[dohgrl76]

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Hi everyone, I have officially given up now for this cycle, as I've been waitlisted at the two schools I interviewed at. Unfortunately, I didn't really understand how the application process worked this year, and I applied pretty late (October) to only about 10-12 schools, several of which were long shots for me.

This year I've been working as a full time research assistant in a neuroscience lab, no pubs yet, no posters either (my PI is a bit of a jerk and is actually having some possible legal and/or grant trouble, delaying much of his work). I am just now starting to volunteer at Planned Parenthood, because I know my little clinical experience hurt me. I am going to try to shadow my new doctors out here in Chicago also.

Additionally, I was an Ohio resident last year, but this year I will be an IL resident. My science gpa is a bit low, but I recently realized that there were 4 classes in stats and neuroscience that I could have listed as BCPM but didn't, and got As in all those. So hopefully that will bring it up a bit. But I wasn't planning on retaking the MCAT, or going into a post-bacc program.

So basically I am wondering if picking better schools and applying much earlier will be enough? I will get a few additional LORs also, but March seems a bit late to try to add anything dramatic. Thanks so much for any advice! 🙂

 

[sylvanthus]

I think your plan sounds reasonable. It may help to call a couple of the schools that rejected you to find out what they suggest as well. Perhaps some practice interviews may help increase your chances if that was a weak point.

 

[gman33]

Do you know what your BCPM will be with those extra classes?
How many hours of clinical experience do you have?
Make sure you have at least 200.

 

[dohgrl76]

my BCPM will go from a 3.35 to a 3.48, which is a pretty decent improvement for not actually taking any classes, ha. But I don't know if it's possible to get my clinical experience up to 200 hours, I was thinking 100 is definitely doable by June, and I will continue to volunteer through the secondaries and interviews, but I want to submit my AMCAS early. The reason I didn't volunteer in undergrad was because I was diagnosed with RA at 21 and put on all sorts of immunosupressants (not good for a hospital environment) and walking around wasn't very comfortable. I'm basically in remission now though, so it's all good 🙂

 

[dragonfly99]

It wouldn't hurt to enroll yourself in an upper level science course next summer, and next fall. Your GPA is lowish and you want to show the adcom that you can excel in science courses. If there's any way you can make time (and take a class in night school) you should do it. If you're working in a university, they might have an evening program. If not, I'm sure there are a bunch in Chicago. Try UIC or U of Chicago, etc.

I agree with the above recommendation about getting as many clinical hours as you can. You might want to consider a little hospital volunteer work...it is what adcoms like to see. You can see how the Planned Parenthood thing goes first, though.

 

[dohgrl76]

It wouldn't hurt to enroll yourself in an upper level science course next summer, and next fall. Your GPA is lowish and you want to show the adcom that you can excel in science courses. If there's any way you can make time (and take a class in night school) you should do it. If you're working in a university, they might have an evening program. If not, I'm sure there are a bunch in Chicago. Try UIC or U of Chicago, etc.

I agree with the above recommendation about getting as many clinical hours as you can. You might want to consider a little hospital volunteer work...it is what adcoms like to see. You can see how the Planned Parenthood thing goes first, though.

I actually do work for UIC, so I looked into it, but they don't really offer science classes during the summer session, other than intro bio and stuff, which I did fine in. It was 2 of 5 Ochem classes and my math class that hurt my GPA so much, I got B-'s. I can probably enroll in a class in fall, but how much would that help me for applying this summer?

I got 3 interviews out of 12 apps this past cycle, so I'm hoping if I double the number of schools and pick more wisely, as well as apply much earlier, I can repeat a 25% interview invite rate. Does that seem likely?