Medical Give me suggestions to make my app more competitive for the 2022-'23 cycle

[TheBoneDoctah]

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I have gotten two (in-state) interviews, but rejections from both schools after the interview. Those schools are Wright St and Cincinnati (I'm an Ohio resident). Here's my current app and things I'm doing already to improve in the coming year. Any feedback is appreciated!

undergrad GPA = 3.30 (AMCAS), 143 credits (3.52 freshman year->3.08->3.39->3.25 senior year)
BCPM GPA = 3.34 GPA (AMCAS), 95 credits (3.43 freshman year->3.18->3.41->3.30 senior year)
grad GPA (not an SMP) = 3.5 (AMCAS), I know this doesn't count but I have to include it for you. Its a Masters of Pharmacology. I did this so I could get access to research experience then take undergrad classes at this College of Medicine for a DIY post-bacc.
MCATs (2): -Aug 2018 503 (128/123(yikes I know), 125, 127)
-July 2020 516 (128/128/132/128)

-extracurriculars are written as they stand today:
-I know the trend of my GPAs are not inspiring, but I'm doing a DIY post bacc to show the me now is not me then (see below under "Continuing Education")

Clinical volunteer experience
-(Summer 2015) 40 hours (rounding up from 36) hours as volunteer in ER at local hospital
- (November 2020-present) 40 hours at a local free health clinic for the underserved and uninsured in my community (I do this 4 hours per week which will put me at ~300 clinical hours by June 1 2022)

Shadowing:
- (2018) 22 hours in total across Orthopedics, Peds, and IM (I will get to 50+ hours once Shadowing opens back up)

Non-Clinical Volunteering
- (August 2020-present) 40 hours at a local food pantry for the impoverished. I'm here 2 hours per week. This should put me at about 180 hours by application time

Research Experience
-(September 2019-present) Since I do this full time for my Master's of Pharmacology thesis, this is about 1000 hours
- I have generated two papers (both first author) that are soon to be submitted for publication. So by June 1, 2022 I will have two first author papers in my name

Leadership
- (Aug 2017-May 2018) Supplemental Instruction Leader for General Chemistry I, Organic I, and Organic II. (200 hours)

Continuing Coursework:
- I know my Grad GPA is not factored into consideration by a lot of schools so I have begun pursuing a part-time DIY post-bacc. I cannot do a post-bacc full time since I am working on my research as well as will soon be taking the role as RA to work full-time to support myself. This means I cannot take 12+ credits per semester just do to time constraints. My schedule for the coming year is as follows (I've posted this elsewhere so I apologize if you've seen it before):

Spring 2021
-Histology (3) (94% so far with half of class to go)
-Immunology (2) (No grade so far. 1 midterm and 1 final, and the midterm is March 5)
-Medical Genetics (3) (94% so far with 2/3 of points available to go (3 tests, each worth 1/3 of the final grade))

Summer 2021
-Developmental Biology (3)
-Cell Bio (4)

Fall 2021
-Fundamentals of Molecular Genetics (3)
-Neurobiology (3)
-Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering (3)

Spring 2022
-Endocrinology (3)
-Cancer Biology (3)



Questions:
1) Do I need to retake the MCAT?
2) Does my DIY post-bacc look bad since it is part time (again, I can't do full-time since I need to work to support myself)?
3) With a 4.0 post-bacc above, that would be 30 credits which would raise my sGPA to a 3.5. I know that's not amazing, but will schools care a lot about the 4.0 over a year and half (part time)?

4) Anything you'd like me to address or answer?

1. No.
2. You absolutely have to work on research? It would look better to take more courses to really show your stuff, but some post-bac is better than none.
3. It's not about the actual GPA, it's to show you have changed.

This year your problems were your low ECs and low GPA. If you can actually get your ECs up to the numbers you listed (180/300) AND do extremely well in the post-bac, your chances will be much better with a tailored list.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you! Hopefully the fact I got two MD interviews (Cincy and Wright St) means I'm atleast decent at writing essays! There's still hope this cycle with Toledo as I know people who applied before me and been rejected, and people who applied after me and have been rejected. They just began their interview cycle about a month ago so I'm holding out hope I can snag one more interview. But I think two MD interviews with my stats/EC's is still really good.

I agree. Hopefully, you can snag one. Also if you reapply, throw in some DO schools.

 

[Goro]

Your nice, high MCAT does not remediate a downward GPA trend.

For MD, you've got to reverse that and you'll probably need to do a DIY post-bac or SMP to show that you can handle the challenges of med school. The MS will not count for MD, but should for DO

 

[Goro]

The DIY post-bacc (the courses I listed) are all undergrad courses here at the University of Cincinnati (although some are at Xavier University, which is like a mile away). The only thing (and correct me if I'm wrong, that's why I post) I think my second MCAT is doing is make adcoms wonder "Hmmm why does someone with a 3.3 GPA have a 516 MCAT? Is this student lazy?" Which ultimately means my second MCAT, altough decent, is potentially working against me until I demonstrate a new academic aptitude through a DIY post-bacc.

The reason I avoid an SMP is both the cost and I'm not necessarily in dire need of it. If I had a 3.0 or sub 3.0 GPA I would be more open to it. But my GPA is already good enough for DO as it stands (I just want to be an Internist so I'm not even sure if MD vs DO matters for me really) and if I were to not do so ideally in an SMP, that path would be obliterated as well.

My mistake!!

You got two IIs?

Work on interview skills if you get shut out this year

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Alright so I'll have the post-bacc grades, two first author papers, a year of working full time, 300 clinical hours (250 of which are for the underserved), 180 nonclinical hours working directly with the impoverish, 50 hours of shadowing, and a little bit less hair on top of my head (curse you, genetics). Maybe I'll work as a TA for some class next year also, who knows.

The academic class listings for the coming Fall 2021 semester were actually posted yesterday and I had to make some changes to my post-bacc. Here is the revised schedule (changes in italics):

Spring 2021
-Histology (3)
-Immunology (2)
-Medical Genetics (3)

Summer 2021
-Medical Botany (3) (first half session)
-Cell Bio (4) (full summer session)

Fall 2021
-Fundamentals of Molecular Genetics (3)
-Neurobiology (3)
-Medical Parasitology or Developmental Biology (3)

Spring 2022
-????
-Cancer Biology (3)

Questions:
1) Are these substitutions okay? I'm worried about Medical Botany but it's course description seems promising. (I'll post that at the end of this post)

2) Sooooooo I've taken General Microbiology in undergrad and got an A but here at my new school they have Medical Microbiology. Would it look bad to go take Med Micro after having taken Gen Micro (the highest level of undergrad Micro)? This is offered in Fall 2021 so as you can see there is a hot contest for my three classes being waged already.

3) Parasitology vs Dev Bio. Which one would be better? (or Option C: There is no wrong choice)
Here's the course description for Medical Botany:

This course is designed to educate students on the importance and value of plants and plant-derived compounds in medicine. Participants will learn how plants and plant-based compounds can cause as well as treat a variety of medical conditions in humans and other animals. The course focuses on chemical compounds produced by plants that make medicinal effects possible and the biological mechanisms through which these effects take place. Students will examine both beneficial and poisonous plant compounds used in Western medicine and in other cultures around the world

1. That medical botany class actually sounds super interesting, haha.
2. Is there another class you could take in lieu of the micro class? Can you post the course description of the medical micro class?
3. Personally would rather take parasitology, but that's just me. Whichever course is fine for the post-bac...but do something you are interested in and get A.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Medical Microbiology is offered only in the Fall semester, which means its competing with Fundamentals of Molecular Genetics (I need this to take Cancer Biology in the Spring), Parasitology, Neurobio, and Dev Bio. Since Im working and cant go up to full time, I cant take everything and must choose 2-3 classes. This means Med Micro probably loses out considering I have already taken General Microbiology back in my last semester of undergrad (Spring 2019) and got an A.

Here's the course description of Med Micro:
"Medical Microbiology is a branch of microbiology that is concerned with the biology of microbial pathogens and how it relates to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. How does a microbe interact with the human host? Why do some microbes cause life-threatening infections and others only mild, transient ones? What is the role of the normal microbiota? How can the understanding of a disease process impact infection control measures? This course will introduce students to the major classes of bacterial and fungal pathogens that infect humans.

The course is divided into four modules. The first module will cover fundamental concepts in microbiology that are necessary to understand how specific microbes cause disease. The subsequent three modules will go through the major bacterial and fungal pathogens that infect humans. Each module will comprise a mix of didactic lectures, hands-on laboratory exercises in microbiology, and problem-based learning in a clinical case format. Clinical cases will be directed by clinicians who are board-certified in infectious diseases or clinical laboratory diagnosis."

Well if you can't take it cause you can't squeeze it in then don't take it. No one is going to fault you for not taking it. The goal here is to take science courses and ace them.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Hey everyone, so I just got done going over my application with the University of Cincinnati (whom I interviewed with but was rejected) and the committee said some pretty interesting things, so I'll bullet point them and you can let me know your corresponding thoughts!

1) Given how long ago my undergrad grades are (2015-'19) and my first MCAT is from Aug 2018, if you compare that to the recency of my Masters of Pharm grades from 2019-2020 along with my second MCAT in the middle of the pandemic (July 7, 2020 to be exact), the committee felt that my MS grades (due to recency) and second MCAT were better reflections of my capabilities than my undergrad grades! So the committee did care about my Masters grades! My Masters BCPM GPA was 3.83 with a 516 MCAT vs my undergrad BCPM of 3.33 with an MCAT of 503. This is one of the rare(ish) instances where an MCAT can sorta save a mediocre GPA. So apparently this was not a concern to the University of Cincinnati. They also said an SMP would serve me no benefit compared to taking maybe 1-2 classes a semester while working full time and building my EC's (more on that in #2).

2) The major reason I was rejected was low EC hours with people unlike myself. I didn't have a lot of volunteering (as you can see in my original post) and shadowing. This also inhibited my ability to perform well on their MMI as I scored very low. However, it was noted that the reason I scored low was not due to character flaws, rather just surface-level answers. They knew the reason I could not give better answers was due to lack of experience from my low EC hours. They noted I was not arrogant or rude, just simply inexperienced so I could not give in-depth answers given by people who have more experience than I.

3) According to UC policy, my 2018 MCAT will actually be invisible to the committee starting next year. So when I reapply in 2022, the committee has informed me only the 516 from 2020 will be visible to them. It will still be on the primary app, but UC has a filter policy that makes MCATs more than 3 years old invisible.

I mean, this is basically what we had said. Get those ECs up! That’s cool they actually told you why.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Yup, you guys were spot on! Im just surprised they thought my academic record was good enough! (im still gonna be taking those classes tho. Its better to have them [and A’s in them] than to not have them)

I was also surprised by number 3

That’s a pretty sweet deal.