I've been reading many posts on sdn for the past few months and I've realized that a lot of you are very insightful so I'd appreciate any help/suggestions offered.
Standing: Junior, applying in next year's cycle (meaning I will have a gap year)
Currently attending a state school
State of residency: North Carolina
cGPA: 3.25
sGPA: 2.7
Very low I know. *Not an excuse* but a close family member passed away my sophomore year and I also had a re-emergence of an unexplainable health issue that contributed to the dip in my GPA. Will be working hard these next 3 semester to try and make my sGPA reach a 3.0 and cGPA reach a 3.3 by application time.
MCAT: Taking it in January. Have been lightly studying but will start hard-core once this semester ends in 2 weeks. Aiming for a 512+
Research: Research assistant in a psychology research lab where the experiments actually include human participants, and the other RAs and I are mostly in charge of them. Have been involved for a year, by the time I apply, 2 years. My senior year I have the option of presenting a poster about it at a research fair at my school, which I know I should do.
ECs: Class Representative in my school's NAACP chapter - 1 year
Resident Assistant in the residence halls - 1 year
(Haven't done yet) During my senior year, I will be a mentor for the 1st year students in my scholarship program -1 year (by application time)
I am also working to implement a system in my scholarship program to match incoming 1st-year students with upperclassmen mentors that are in their field of study, rather than just any mentor.
Shadowing: Only about 25ish hours with my family practitioner and her colleague.
Should I focus on getting more shadowing hours or put my efforts elsewhere?
Volunteering (non-medical) - 72 hours. A mix of on-campus initiatives to lower rates of unsafe drinking, making and serving food at a food bank, community beautification for the county surrounding my school (poorest county in my entire state) etc. Will be getting more involved in the food bank starting this summer so expecting to up my total hours to at least 150 and possibly a leadership position.
Volunteering (medical): 20ish hours at a hospital. Recently got another opportunity to volunteer at a different hospital and will begin soon, so by application time I should have at least 150 hours.
Should I focus more on getting non-medical or medical volunteer hours? Or should I split my efforts evenly between the two?
About me:
URM (African-American Female) Was born and lived a few years of my life outside of the U.S when I was younger, but have been in the U.S for most of my life + Bilingual
I am one of 10 students in my class that received a full-ride merit scholarship for all four years at my university (tuition + room and board)
Interest in medicine stemmed from a close family member's struggle with a skin disorder that basically makes their skin allergic to water + my own untreatable health issue with unknown causes
When my family member passed and my GPA dipped in my sophomore year, I lost my scholarship for a semester due to my grades but rectified it.
Is this a topic I could bring up in my application as an example of overcoming an obstacle or challenge, or should I avoid this? There's no way for adcoms to know about it if I don't bring it up myself.
Only interested in applying MD
Tentative school list:
Howard University College of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Tufts University School of Medicine
UNC School of Medicine
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
U of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Albany Medical College
ECU Brody School of Medicine
Marshall U Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Western Michigan U School of Medicine
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin
Loyola U Stritch School of Medicine
Rush Medical College
Charles R Drew University of Medicine
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Tulane University Medical School
U of Illinois College of Medicine
U of Maryland School of Medicine
U of Arizona Tucson College of Medicine
U of North Dakota School of Medicine
Indiana U School of Medicine
New York Medical College
U of Oklahoma School of Medicine
Do any of the out of state schools (non-NC schools) accept fairly low amounts of OOS applicants that I should not bother applying to them? Are there schools that I am not applying to that I should?
Lastly, during my gap year, I would like to do some kind of low level medically related training and work with said training. I have seen scribe/CNA/pharm tech enough times but I am looking for something more unique, that most applicants would not have done. I am considering training as an EMT but I am still searching for something less common. Say if they interview me and 100 applicants, I'll be the only applicant with said training. I would love suggestions!
Standing: Junior, applying in next year's cycle (meaning I will have a gap year)
Currently attending a state school
State of residency: North Carolina
cGPA: 3.25
sGPA: 2.7
Very low I know. *Not an excuse* but a close family member passed away my sophomore year and I also had a re-emergence of an unexplainable health issue that contributed to the dip in my GPA. Will be working hard these next 3 semester to try and make my sGPA reach a 3.0 and cGPA reach a 3.3 by application time.
MCAT: Taking it in January. Have been lightly studying but will start hard-core once this semester ends in 2 weeks. Aiming for a 512+
Research: Research assistant in a psychology research lab where the experiments actually include human participants, and the other RAs and I are mostly in charge of them. Have been involved for a year, by the time I apply, 2 years. My senior year I have the option of presenting a poster about it at a research fair at my school, which I know I should do.
ECs: Class Representative in my school's NAACP chapter - 1 year
Resident Assistant in the residence halls - 1 year
(Haven't done yet) During my senior year, I will be a mentor for the 1st year students in my scholarship program -1 year (by application time)
I am also working to implement a system in my scholarship program to match incoming 1st-year students with upperclassmen mentors that are in their field of study, rather than just any mentor.
Shadowing: Only about 25ish hours with my family practitioner and her colleague.
Should I focus on getting more shadowing hours or put my efforts elsewhere?
Volunteering (non-medical) - 72 hours. A mix of on-campus initiatives to lower rates of unsafe drinking, making and serving food at a food bank, community beautification for the county surrounding my school (poorest county in my entire state) etc. Will be getting more involved in the food bank starting this summer so expecting to up my total hours to at least 150 and possibly a leadership position.
Volunteering (medical): 20ish hours at a hospital. Recently got another opportunity to volunteer at a different hospital and will begin soon, so by application time I should have at least 150 hours.
Should I focus more on getting non-medical or medical volunteer hours? Or should I split my efforts evenly between the two?
About me:
URM (African-American Female) Was born and lived a few years of my life outside of the U.S when I was younger, but have been in the U.S for most of my life + Bilingual
I am one of 10 students in my class that received a full-ride merit scholarship for all four years at my university (tuition + room and board)
Interest in medicine stemmed from a close family member's struggle with a skin disorder that basically makes their skin allergic to water + my own untreatable health issue with unknown causes
When my family member passed and my GPA dipped in my sophomore year, I lost my scholarship for a semester due to my grades but rectified it.
Is this a topic I could bring up in my application as an example of overcoming an obstacle or challenge, or should I avoid this? There's no way for adcoms to know about it if I don't bring it up myself.
Only interested in applying MD
Tentative school list:
Howard University College of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Tufts University School of Medicine
UNC School of Medicine
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Morehouse School of Medicine
U of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
Albany Medical College
ECU Brody School of Medicine
Marshall U Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Drexel University College of Medicine
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Western Michigan U School of Medicine
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin
Loyola U Stritch School of Medicine
Rush Medical College
Charles R Drew University of Medicine
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Tulane University Medical School
U of Illinois College of Medicine
U of Maryland School of Medicine
U of Arizona Tucson College of Medicine
U of North Dakota School of Medicine
Indiana U School of Medicine
New York Medical College
U of Oklahoma School of Medicine
Do any of the out of state schools (non-NC schools) accept fairly low amounts of OOS applicants that I should not bother applying to them? Are there schools that I am not applying to that I should?
Lastly, during my gap year, I would like to do some kind of low level medically related training and work with said training. I have seen scribe/CNA/pharm tech enough times but I am looking for something more unique, that most applicants would not have done. I am considering training as an EMT but I am still searching for something less common. Say if they interview me and 100 applicants, I'll be the only applicant with said training. I would love suggestions!
