I'm a junior, 3.99 cumulative GPA and around 3.92 sGPA. As far as EC's, I work in a research lab at the college of medicine at my university running my own project - about 2000 hours over the last 2 years. Multiple poster presentations, one trip to state capitol to present my research to politicians, hoping to pin down a publication by the time I graduate. I have been a fellow with a school grant for the last two semesters, currently applying for an American Heart Association fellowship for the summer.
I volunteer in the ER 3 hours/week for the last year, rounding and checking on patients as well as assisting staff. Due to the small nature of the ER I have been lucky enough to spend much of my time each week observing physician-patient interaction and medical procedures (get to stand in room for most trauma cases that go through). Unfortunately, rotating shifts of ER mean I don't have lots of connections with individual staff members.
Besides clinical volunteering, I am a member of an organization at my school called the research ambassadors - since research spots at my school are generally unknown and underfilled, we give talks to high schoolers, incoming students, and current students about the opportunities and benefits available. We also organize conferences and festivals for current students to show off their work. Probably 4 hours per week over last two years, mainly leadership and outreach type events.
I also had a 40 hour internship in Oncology two years ago, that mostly involved shadowing staff (most of them physicians). I have about 10 hours of shadowing in my University Hospital's ER as well (ER is the specialty I hope to enter). I think the point of comparison between the same specialty in private and university medicine would be an interesting talking point.
Obviously my experience contains a lot of research - my in-state school (Iowa) has an emphasis on research I'm hoping will help me. I would prefer more clinical hours but they can be difficult to obtain. I was involved in more non-clinical volunteering but had to withdraw from some activities after the sudden death of a parent sophomore year. I'm hoping to spin this as a positive in essays - more intimate experience with the process of loss, and a rare view of medicine as a patient/family of patient.
Clearly my MCAT is still up in the air, but I am studying hard have tested well in the past (this is SDN though, so who hasn't). My main question is if my current application looks on track for in-state at a Midwest public medical school. I don't have tons of extracurriculars, but I hope my application impresses on depth rather than breadth. Any advice?
I volunteer in the ER 3 hours/week for the last year, rounding and checking on patients as well as assisting staff. Due to the small nature of the ER I have been lucky enough to spend much of my time each week observing physician-patient interaction and medical procedures (get to stand in room for most trauma cases that go through). Unfortunately, rotating shifts of ER mean I don't have lots of connections with individual staff members.
Besides clinical volunteering, I am a member of an organization at my school called the research ambassadors - since research spots at my school are generally unknown and underfilled, we give talks to high schoolers, incoming students, and current students about the opportunities and benefits available. We also organize conferences and festivals for current students to show off their work. Probably 4 hours per week over last two years, mainly leadership and outreach type events.
I also had a 40 hour internship in Oncology two years ago, that mostly involved shadowing staff (most of them physicians). I have about 10 hours of shadowing in my University Hospital's ER as well (ER is the specialty I hope to enter). I think the point of comparison between the same specialty in private and university medicine would be an interesting talking point.
Obviously my experience contains a lot of research - my in-state school (Iowa) has an emphasis on research I'm hoping will help me. I would prefer more clinical hours but they can be difficult to obtain. I was involved in more non-clinical volunteering but had to withdraw from some activities after the sudden death of a parent sophomore year. I'm hoping to spin this as a positive in essays - more intimate experience with the process of loss, and a rare view of medicine as a patient/family of patient.
Clearly my MCAT is still up in the air, but I am studying hard have tested well in the past (this is SDN though, so who hasn't). My main question is if my current application looks on track for in-state at a Midwest public medical school. I don't have tons of extracurriculars, but I hope my application impresses on depth rather than breadth. Any advice?
