explaining gaps in application

[docmayer]

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Alright so I have a feeling I will be confronted on 2 things in my application during interviews:
1) my 6 in VR 2) no work exp. in undergrad

From what I read online, I should not make excuses for these, but look at ways to turn them into positives. Is this accurate?
As far as no work exp goes: I did not want to work during school so I could focus on my grades. In the summer, it is nearly impossible to find a job as I am in the city with the highest unemployment rate in my country. I don't think saying this would turn over well in the interview. I was thinking of saying something such as "Although I have no work experience in undergrad, and work experience is generally important for developing qualities such as dedication and team-work, I feel I have developed these qualities through volunteering with X and Y organizations by ______. I also was able to maintain a high average in university which was partly due to dedication to my classes." I would probably work it differently but this gives you an idea of what I am thinking of saying if I am encountered with such a question. Is that bad? What do you think?

As far as explaining a 6 in VR: I don't know how the hell I managed that. It was a fluke and a true shocker to see that. How would I explain this and turn it into a positive? Advice?

Thanks!

 

[ShabNasty]

Alright so I have a feeling I will be confronted on 2 things in my application during interviews:
1) my 6 in VR 2) no work exp. in undergrad

From what I read online, I should not make excuses for these, but look at ways to turn them into positives. Is this accurate?
As far as no work exp goes: I did not want to work during school so I could focus on my grades. In the summer, it is nearly impossible to find a job as I am in the city with the highest unemployment rate in my country. I don't think saying this would turn over well in the interview. I was thinking of saying something such as "Although I have no work experience in undergrad, and work experience is generally important for developing qualities such as dedication and team-work, I feel I have developed these qualities through volunteering with X and Y organizations by ______. I also was able to maintain a high average in university which was partly due to dedication to my classes." I would probably work it differently but this gives you an idea of what I am thinking of saying if I am encountered with such a question. Is that bad? What do you think?

As far as explaining a 6 in VR: I don't know how the hell I managed that. It was a fluke and a true shocker to see that. How would I explain this and turn it into a positive? Advice?

Thanks!

Are you looking for a job right now? If not, try to get a job and if it comes up in an interview, you can talk about how you wanted to have real world work experience and that you are working from now until you start medical school. But like you said, definitely talk about your ECs and relate them to how they have helped develop your character. Your GPAs are awesome. If you had average to sub-average GPAs and you were only focusing on school, I think it would definitely be harder to explain.

For the 6 in VR, were you scoring higher on practice exams? You have a solid MCAT score for D.O. schools so honestly, I think you will be fine.

 

[Goro]

I think given these two negatives, the less explanation, the better. If you have no work experience, that's OK...push the volunteerism. That's what we're looking for anyway.

This is just me; whenever I read someone's PS trying to explain something bad, it's just comes across to me as making excuses.

VR6 you can explain in the interview.

Alright so I have a feeling I will be confronted on 2 things in my application during interviews:
1) my 6 in VR 2) no work exp. in undergrad

From what I read online, I should not make excuses for these, but look at ways to turn them into positives. Is this accurate?
As far as no work exp goes: I did not want to work during school so I could focus on my grades. In the summer, it is nearly impossible to find a job as I am in the city with the highest unemployment rate in my country. I don't think saying this would turn over well in the interview. I was thinking of saying something such as "Although I have no work experience in undergrad, and work experience is generally important for developing qualities such as dedication and team-work, I feel I have developed these qualities through volunteering with X and Y organizations by ______. I also was able to maintain a high average in university which was partly due to dedication to my classes." I would probably work it differently but this gives you an idea of what I am thinking of saying if I am encountered with such a question. Is that bad? What do you think?

As far as explaining a 6 in VR: I don't know how the hell I managed that. It was a fluke and a true shocker to see that. How would I explain this and turn it into a positive? Advice?

Thanks!

 

[Mehd School]

Considering your score in the sciences, have you considered a retake? Bumping up your VR to 8 would be huge.

 

[MedPR]

Alright so I have a feeling I will be confronted on 2 things in my application during interviews:
1) my 6 in VR 2) no work exp. in undergrad

From what I read online, I should not make excuses for these, but look at ways to turn them into positives. Is this accurate?
As far as no work exp goes: I did not want to work during school so I could focus on my grades. In the summer, it is nearly impossible to find a job as I am in the city with the highest unemployment rate in my country. I don't think saying this would turn over well in the interview. I was thinking of saying something such as "Although I have no work experience in undergrad, and work experience is generally important for developing qualities such as dedication and team-work, I feel I have developed these qualities through volunteering with X and Y organizations by ______. I also was able to maintain a high average in university which was partly due to dedication to my classes." I would probably work it differently but this gives you an idea of what I am thinking of saying if I am encountered with such a question. Is that bad? What do you think?

As far as explaining a 6 in VR: I don't know how the hell I managed that. It was a fluke and a true shocker to see that. How would I explain this and turn it into a positive? Advice?

Thanks!

How high was your GPA? Lots of people work and get ~3.6-3.7. If you're around that (or lower) I don't think you should mention it. I'm like Goro in that every explanation seems to sound like an excuse. Don't try to explain why or what happened. Just say you didn't do as well as you hoped, or didn't do something you hoped to, but learned XYZ from it and now are making up for it with ABC activity.

You can't turn a 6 into a positive. It's a bad score. Don't try to turn it into a positive, don't try to make excuses for it. Don't talk about it unless they ask you about it. If asked about it, say something like you recognized it as a weakness and have been working on reading comprehension (not for the MCAT, but in general) since then.

Your goal should be showing improvement and/or dedication to improvement.

 

[docmayer]

I would never bring up my negatives in my PS or the interview unless asked about them. That is what I am preparing for by making this thread. A 6 in VR is bad and can't be turned around. I will take MedPRs advice and say something along the lines of working on my reading comprehension since then in general. If asked about previous work experience, I will most likely go on to explain qualities I have developed through some of my volunteer activities. Since it was mentioned a couple times, my GPA is 3.9/3.92, so when I say I focused on my academics I was not making an excuse. Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[DrWily]

I was never asked about gaps in my history and i have some pretty large gaps lol >_>

 

[coolingglasses]

I think given these two negatives, the less explanation, the better. If you have no work experience, that's OK...push the volunteerism. That's what we're looking for anyway.

This is just me; whenever I read someone's PS trying to explain something bad, it's just comes across to me as making excuses.

VR6 you can explain in the interview.

Good to know... I ultimately came to the same conclusion and pushed the positives in my PS. I figure negatives can be tackled in my secondaries where asked, or interviews.

 

[ModernAlchemist]

I have a similar MCAT situation. Same verbal score with 12s in sciences. If asked, I was going to be honest. I was scoring an average of 11 in VR during my practice tests with an average of 35 overall. I never scored below a 9 in verbal and I honestly didn't feel much different on the real test. I did score a 9 on my first MCAT last year though, so maybe they won't ask.