Extended gap year, feeling lost...

[MDMack]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey fellow SDNers. I’m a first-time reapplicant who’s hoping to reapply during the 2018-2019 cycle, but is struggling to figure out what specific steps to take to improve my application.
Since I don’t know any doctors personally and am the first person in my family to pursue a career in medicine, thought it might help to reach out to the SDN community for insight. Appreciate any advice you can give!

Application Background

• Graduated undergraduate in May 2016 with degrees in Biology and Global Health.
• Took a gap year, during which I worked full-time (clinical research assistant at a nonprofit, public health research organization, my current job) and applied to medical school in the 2016-2017 cycle.
• Applied to 19 medical schools (17 AMCAS – 9 private, 8 public; 2 TMDSAS – both public).
• Received one interview at my state school.
• Received rejections from all schools, final one from my state school in May 2017.
• Met with my school’s pre-med advising director and completed an exit interview with an admissions committee member from my state medical school. They both noted the following weaknesses in my application: poor school choice, low GPA, and limited clinical experience (volunteering & shadowing).
• Getting married in May 2018, and trying to figure out how to balance:
  • Working full time
  • Taking classes to improve my GPA
  • Volunteering
  • Shadowing
  • Planning for the wedding
  • General adulating (paying rent/loans, cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, maintaining healthy relationships with my fiancé, family, and friends….)

So far, the only change I’ve made is to start volunteering in the ER at my local hospital. Still working as a clinical research coordinator. I guess my overall question is:

1. How to best use my time over the next two years to address the weaknesses in my application?

And more specifically, some decisions I’m having a hard time making:

1. Should I consider finding a new job that provides more direct clinical experience/hands on patient experience (i.e. medical scribe)?
2. If I were to apply for medical scribe positions, could a job like this be considered shadowing experience? Or would it still be a good idea to do shadowing outside of the job?
3. Would shadowing 2 more physicians for ~50 hours each be considered sufficient shadowing experience? I’m interested in shadowing a pediatrician and an OBGYN, not sure if I should consider other physicians and specialties as well. Would happily shadow ALL of the doctors, just constrained by time.
4. Would taking 2-3 science classes (biochemistry II, immunology II, cell biology II, etc.) at night through my state school be a good way to improve my GPA? Or should I consider a postbac program/SMP?

Applicant Information
cGPA: 3.51 (upward trend: 3.3/2.96 Freshman&Sophomore, 3.84/3.83 Junior&Senior)
sGPA: 3.28 (upward trend: 2.67/2.50 Freshman&Sophomore, 3.75/3.78 Junior&Senior)
MCAT: 512 [Chem/Phys: 127 (79%), CARS: 128 (90%), Bio: 130 (97%), Psych/Soc: 127 (78%)]

ECs:
Lots of paid employment, worked ~10-12 hours a week throughout undergrad as part of work-study financial aid. This, combined with uncovering and dealing with an anxiety disorder, is what I think most contributed to poor Freshman and Sophomore year GPAs. Once I sought treatment and made steps to balance work/school, it was much easier to focus on learning and studying.

Specific Work Experiences (in order):

• Intern at my school’s Department of Medicine.
• Preschool summer camp teacher.
• Intern at my school’s Department of Pediatric Medical Genetics.
• Writing tutor for one semester (selected by freshman writing instructor to participate in the writing tutor program, took a class and then worked for a semester on top of my other work study job).
• Lab intern at a research umbilical cord blood bank (one semester; my only shadowing experience comes from this internship, as we shadowed the cord blood bank’s PI, a pediatric hematologist/oncologist, weekly).
• AV technician and then administrative assistant at a humanities research/human rights group within my school.

Research Experience:

• Two are included in paid employment above:
  • Department of Pediatric Medical Genetics – I assisted genetic counselors and researchers with an online disease registry and trial management in the form of IRB binder maintenance/supply ordering, etc.
  • Cord blood bank lab intern –the cord blood units that the lab prepares are used in many clinical research trials and as experimental treatment for a variety of disorders such as stroke, autism, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, etc.
• One semester psychology research practicum in an adult development and aging lab (helped design/QC a trial protocol, recruited patients, ran experiments, collected data).

Volunteering:

• ~100 hours over the course of one year (Junior year) in the Children’s Health Center waiting room (coloring/playing board games/generally hanging out with cute kiddos? Yes please… wish I could have done more, I missed volunteering throughout UG, just couldn’t ever seem to find time with work/school).
• Spent 2 months teaching at primary schools in Muhuru Bay, Kenya (doubled as field work for my global health major, part of a school program that is essentially a partnership with a women’s secondary school in Muhuru Bay; the school was built as a global health initiative – based on the idea of utilizing education as a tool to promote gender equality, reduce poverty, and provide a behavioral health intervention for HIV, since this area has the highest infection rates in the country).

Shadowing:

• ~50 hours shadowing the pediatric hematologist/oncologist who was the scientific director of the cord blood bank where I interned.

Leadership Experience:

• Vice president of my school’s chapel choir.
• Mentorship committee in my school’s chapter of American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA).
• Music/social justice leader for my campus ministry group.

Hope this isn't information overload. If you've read this far, you are awesome and I'm sending lots of virtual high fives.

Thanks again,
-MJ

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence? Which schools did you apply to?

 

[MDMack]

Where is your state of residence? Which schools did you apply to?

NC is my state of residence... I applied to all of the public and private med schools in state (apart from Wake Forest). Other schools were a mixture of public and private schools from other states, all MD programs.

 

[Faha]

You do not need more than 50 hours of physician shadowing. Volunteering at your local ER will help. If you can take science courses at a local college to increase your sGPA that will help also. I suggest these MD schools with your state:
UNC
East Carolina
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
West Virginia
Vermont
Quinnipiac
New York Medical College
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
GW
Georgetown
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
any new schools that may open by 2019 (Seton Hall, Henricopolis, NOVA MD, Roseman, Kaiser).
Your chances for a MD acceptance with your stats are only 50% so it would be a good strategy to apply to at least 6 DO schools and you are competitive for all DO schools.

 

[MDMack]

You do not need more than 50 hours of physician shadowing. Volunteering at your local ER will help. If you can take science courses at a local college to increase your sGPA that will help also. I suggest these MD schools with your state:
UNC
East Carolina
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
West Virginia
Vermont
Quinnipiac
New York Medical College
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
GW
Georgetown
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
any new schools that may open by 2019 (Seton Hall, Henricopolis, NOVA MD, Roseman, Kaiser).
Your chances for a MD acceptance with your stats are only 50% so it would be a good strategy to apply to at least 6 DO schools and you are competitive for all DO schools.

Thanks, Faha! This is logical and helpful advice, especially in terms of the school list. The only issue is that it'll be tricky to work out attending med schools far from my current city of residence, because my fiancé has just started his PhD and is here for the next 6 years or so. I can imagine a worst case scenario (aside from another round of all rejections) where I get into only one school in a different state and have to spend 4 years living apart from my spouse. I know med school, and the life of a physician, involves a lot of sacrifices, but that's one I hope to avoid. Luckily, there are 3 state schools within 2-3 hours of where we live, and I'll definitely look into what DO schools may be nearby.

Any thoughts on whether to find a new job? Or anything else that could help to improve my application, so that I have a better chance at being included in the 50% accepted?

 

[Faha]

If you need to stay local in North Carolina, CUSOM is the only DO school in the state. You do not need to find a new job as long you have adequate shadowing and clinical volunteering hours.

 

[MedNole1]

Hey MDMack,

I'm a reapplicant this year and with a similar situation. My undergrad GPA is about the same but I did a Master's program and did very well with that. I also became a medical scribe (about 1600 hours so far) and volunteered at a nearby hospital. I also married last year while taking classes and working/paying bills which can be a hectic time. So far this year I have two upcoming DO interviews as my MCAT score is lower but I applied everywhere basically. For me, getting more shadowing and clinical experiencing through scribing has been great and I think taking extra classes certainly helped. I don't suggest becoming a scribe if you already enjoy your current job and it allows good clinical experience. Just wanted to give you my experiences and where I'm at because I just went through most of this.

 

[MDMack]

Thanks, MedNole1, it's comforting to hear that you are in a similar situation and found a way to manage it. Appreciate the insight about medical scribing as well. My current job has taught me a lot about clinical research design and management, but it's not in a clinical setting and I don't interact with patients. The work is also largely administrative (scheduling calls with investigators, collecting documents from research sites, etc) and can get repetitive. That, combined with feeling pretty isolated (it's a huge company, easy to feel anonymous, most people telecommute or keep to their desks) has left me feeling drained/demotivated. So I've been thinking about applying for a new job more and more. Did you enjoy medical scribing/find it to be a helpful learning experience?

And haha thanks bigbite, okay, good to know scribing does not equal shadowing. Definitely will keep your advice in mind and look for more long-term volunteering opportunities. Working with underserved communities is a humbling and rewarding experience in and of itself- that's awesome that you got so involved with tutoring.

 

[MedNole1]

Thanks, MedNole1, it's comforting to hear that you are in a similar situation and found a way to manage it. Appreciate the insight about medical scribing as well. So I've been thinking about applying for a new job more and more. Did you enjoy medical scribing/find it to be a helpful learning experience?

Of course. When I read your post it was all too familiar! I love being a medical scribe, especially with a great/cool doctor who enjoys explaining his decision process and why he is doing what he is doing. It's also been great to get to know patients over the past year and a half as we've seen each other often between then. I certainly get plenty of clinical time and experience. One plus of my company is that I'm not required to commit a crazy amount of time to them and I'm able to volunteer on the side or take classes last year without any problems. If you do go that route, make sure you find out from whichever company you are looking at if they allow flexibility to do other EC's, volunteer, shadow, etc.

Also, I was taking classes at night, scribing full-time, and volunteering on weekends while planning our wedding. The best piece of advice I can give for that is to start planning early and allot a certain amount of time per day/week for planning. It gets difficult mixing everything together at the same time!