high mcat\gpa low ec

[barcamdphd21]

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Hello everyone,

I have a 4.0 GPA and 36 MCAT, but only 50 hrs of ER volunteering and 20 of shadowing. The rest of my EC were research related. Are these clinical EC enough? Is there a positive way of explaining my change of heart and the little EC? What other EC can I do during these 4 months before June?

Thanks for the help.

 

[wanderer]

As of right now, those ECs are not enough. High stats don't make up for low ECs and you need to either improve your ECs a lot now or wait a year. Besides clinical experience you should have some community service, hobbies and other things listed as well.

 

[Ranna]

Assuming 16 more weeks of clinical volunteering at 3 hours a week, you'd have nearly 100 hours which isn't great, but I applied with a similar amount and have multiple acceptances (and somewhat lower stats). If you don't have any non-clinical volunteering however, that will likely be a problem.

 

[barcamdphd21]

i got a lot of honors and awards as well as several poster presentation since i was planning on doing md-phd. I got several semester of tutoring, but i got paid so I don't know if I can put that on the application. Can I explain my lack of EC in the personal statement?
I think I can rack up 100 hours in this 4 months by volunteering 8 hours a week. is 150 enough?
Has anyone else being in this situation?

 

[deleted357625]

As of right now, those ECs are not enough. High stats don't make up for low ECs and you need to either improve your ECs a lot now or wait a year. Besides clinical experience you should have some community service, hobbies and other things listed as well.

👍

 

[CoolWhipp]

Easier to be accepted with high gpa/mcat and poor ECs than the other way around.

Easier to bring up ECs too. You're in a good position.

 

[barcamdphd21]

After doing some math, I will have close to 200 hours of ER volunteering and 40 of shadowing by June of this year. Will that be enough? What else can I do?

 

[smad4]

After doing some math, I will have close to 200 hours of ER volunteering and 40 of shadowing by June of this year. Will that be enough? What else can I do?

You'll be fine.

 

[Perrotfish]

After doing some math, I will have close to 200 hours of ER volunteering and 40 of shadowing by June of this year. Will that be enough? What else can I do?

You'll be fine. Honestly with those stats if you apply broadly and early you'll get in somewhere even if you have no ECs at all, for you ECs are really more about maximizing your potential (i.e. making sure you pay as little as possible for medical school). 240 hours of clinical experience is definiltey more than enough.

 

[Kaustikos]

Hello everyone,

Recently i have decided to apply MD only instead of MD-PhD. After working one year in a lab I realized that I don't want to do research for the rest of my life. I have a 4.0 GPA and 36 MCAT, but only 50 hrs of ER volunteering and 20 of shadowing. The rest of my EC were research related. Are these clinical EC enough? Is there a positive way of explaining my change of heart and the little EC? What other EC can I do during these 4 months before June?

Thanks for the help.

You need to elaborate on the type of research you did and what other jobs you had while in undergrad. The volunteering isn't bad, per say, but I'd definitely pursue a volunteering gig to do until and during the coming application cycle.

 

[barcamdphd21]

I was heavily involved inresearh for 2 years, with several poster presentation
Thanks for the help

 

[Holderlin]

Is it a huge no no to report your EC hours to what they'll be when your application is processed in the Fall?

Like how could they be pissed that you reported the 100 hours that you actually racked up before you interview?

 

[barcamdphd21]

all the hours I am talking about will be done before I send my amcas in June.

 

[obscurehero]

all the hours I am talking about will be done before I send my amcas in June.

You'll be fine.

However, you might really have a competitive application for the MD/PhD. Not all labs are the same you know. There's also clinical research and other topics in basic science research. To add to that, not having as many EC's is a lot more understandable as an MD/PhD applicant. I think the adcom's understand you don't have as much time between getting a 4.0 and getting research experience (and publications written).

Are you sure you've written off MD/PhD?

 

[Robinson Crusoe]

Is it a huge no no to report your EC hours to what they'll be when your application is processed in the Fall?

Like how could they be pissed that you reported the 100 hours that you actually racked up before you interview?

AMCAS doesn't actually ask how many hours you've done an activity. It asks for hours per week and it asks for the dates over which you've done the activity. It is possible to put the concluding date as some point in the future.

 

[gravitywave]

i got a lot of honors and awards as well as several poster presentation since i was planning on doing md-phd. I got several semester of tutoring, but i got paid so I don't know if I can put that on the application. Can I explain my lack of EC in the personal statement?
I think I can rack up 100 hours in this 4 months by volunteering 8 hours a week. is 150 enough?
Has anyone else being in this situation?

put down all of it, including the paid jobs. those of us who applied after a first career would have an awful lot of empty space on our resume if we excluded all the paid stuff

you're not going to have a lack of EC's. you're going to get on your horse about them right now, and you're going to mention on AMCAS that you're going to continue with those EC's through the app cycle. under no circumstances should you delay submission of apps for extra EC hours. If you start a new one post-submission, it's an awesome excuse to write an update letter. You'll be fine.

 

[barcamdphd21]

thanks everyone for the help,

. I have worked in 3 differents labs, and while my experience have been different in all of them, my opinion remains the same.

Thanks again to everyone, I