MD High GPA / MCAT, poor extras. UCSD?

[doohgk]

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What are my chances of getting accepted to UCSD School of Medicine with the following statistics? My GPA and MCAT are good, but the rest of my application is less than impressive.

*28 year old white male with no connection to California.
*3.94 GPA (4.0 since my first semester which was a 3.27) Chemistry - Health Sciences Major
*521 MCAT (129/130/132/130)
*4 years in the US Air Force as a radar technician.
*Only 15 hours shadowing an anesthesiologist.
*440 hours tutoring college general chemistry.
*100+ hours volunteering at a hospice spending time with terminally ill patients.
*Three times I volunteered for week long trips to impoverished areas to help rebuild houses and connect with the locals, but those were back in 2008 / 2009.
*Some other small things that aren't of any significance.
*No research or publications or anything of that type. (I wrote an article review for Capstone on the cardio protective nature of a plant based diet, but it wasn't published anywhere. Should I mention that?)

 

[LizzyM]

It is really, really difficult to know your chances at one particular school... keep in mind that far, far less than 10% of applicants to a given school are admitted to that school.
Your GPA and MCAT are exceptional and your military service is icing on the cake but your clinical exposure is very thin and would leave doubts about your knowledge of the realities of the profession. As old as you are, I'd recommend either submitting late (usually the kiss of death but with your metrics you can get away with it-- cream rises to the top) or applying next year. You are likely to be applying next year anyway if you apply with a total of 115 hours of patient exposure none of which was in primary care or emergency services (the most typical experiences).

Writing a literature review as a requirement for a degree is not really going to be considered a research experience. You could include it considering that it is better than nothing but I would not call it "research" or "publication". Call it "other". Keep in mind that >80% of successful applicants to any school have research experience. On the other hand, military service is very rare among applicants. However, I'd figure that military vets tend to gravitate toward UCSD because of the Naval Base so you may be less of a novelty at that school than you would be elsewhere.

 

[doohgk]

Thank you for the detailed reply. You made some very compelling points. I could get some more shadowing when I move back to my home state in July and submit the application shortly after that. Is that too late?

 

[LizzyM]

You need some employment or volunteering in a setting where physicians are working and patients are seeking medical care. Shadowing will not be enough. Frankly, I'd recommend applying on Aug 31 which is late but which gives you 3 months to bulk up the expereince section. Continue with your clinical exposure efforts until you are admitted. Consider that you may have to reapply in 2019.

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ?

 

[doohgk]

Technically Oklahoma, but only because I was stationed here. There's 0% chance I'm going to go to medical school in Oklahoma. Originally I'm from WV. What type of clinical job would look good on an application? I don't really have time to get my EMT or nursing certifications.