Medical High Stat and Solid EC Applicant, Don't understand why the cycle is going poorly

[GoSpursGo]

So I applied to 27 schools this cycle, a few T20s, mostly T50s, and a handful ranked lower than that. I applied with a 521 MCAT, a 3.86 GPA, and a 3.87 sGPA. I have been involved in clinical volunteering for all 4 years of undergrad, research for 3, hold 2 leadership positions, and believe I have a great personal statement (I was told this by a communications professor teaching a medical writing class). There is more to my application but I feel this is enough gist, if you need more details please let me know.

So far, I have received 2 interviews from in-state schools and was WL'ed at both (UCF and USF). Otherwise, I have been rejected from everywhere except for UF (my alma mater), UM, UColorado, UIllinois, Emory, Harvard, and Yale (I probably just haven't received the rejection from the last 3).

I am still optimistic about receiving more interviews but am mostly disillusioned with being rejected from nearly all my out-of-state schools and having not yet received an interview from my desired in-state schools. It feels like I'm pretty much out of luck this cycle and am preparing to apply to 1-year master's programs. 3 questions: 1. Why is this happening considering the perceived strength of my application? 2. Is it realistic to improve my application enough to reapply? and 3. Should I reach out to the schools I have yet to hear from? Any other advice or explanation would be appreciated. If I'm just being a brat, also feel free to let me know, thanks.

1) Yeah it's hard to say what's happening here, but I suspect something about your perceived strength of ECs is off (ie maybe the hours of clinical volunteering are low even if they're spread out across 4 years). Getting an actual hour breakdown of these activities might be helpful. Did you apply on time?

2) What have you been doing since you applied?

3) I think it would be reasonable to reach out to your alma mater. If anyone is going to give you meaningful feedback, it would be them.

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[GoSpursGo]

Hey there, thanks for taking the time to reply.

1. Here's a breakdown of my activities
Volunteering
Hospital Volunteer: 36 hrs
Volunteering in a clinic for underserved abroad: 40 hrs
Volunteering in a local clinic for the underserved: 80 hrs (spread btwn 2 clinics, 130 hrs total since applying)

Clinical Experience
Unpaid Medical Assistant (Derm clinic): 200 hrs
Cardiologist Shadowing (regional hospital): 150 hrs

Research
Microbio Lab: 30 hrs (I left because I wasn't interested)
Neurointensive care lab: 60 hrs (currently at 90 hrs and preparing to publish study)

Leadership
Food director at Culinary Arts Student Union
Clinic Coordinator at the local clinic for the underserved

I applied to most schools in July-August and 2 or 3 in September. I feel like my research experience is lacking for T20 schools but my clinical experience is okay. Am I off in this evaluation?

Additionally, I speak 3 languages. Don't know how much that actually helped my application but I thought it was at least unique.

2. I have been completing my senior year of undergrad, with ongoing involvement in my clinic, research lab, and in leadership of a campus organization.

3. I already sent an update to my undergrad school, I just have not received any decision yet. Should I be asking for feedback after the cycle is complete?

1) I think that if you honed in on T20 and T50 schools, your research was definitely lacking. Your clinical experience is probably on the low-end of what's acceptable. So I think you wound up in a tough spot--your stats are high enough to make you competitive at top schools, but you don't have the ECs to help you stand out from the crowd of highly-competitive applicants. I don't have a great explanation for what happened at your state schools, but I can only guess that they felt that your clinical/volunteering experience was lacking and were worried that you didn't know what you're getting yourself into.

2) If you have more than doubled your clinical volunteering experience since applying, and are accruing additional research hours, then I think it would be reasonable to reapply next year. As long as you cut the T20s out of your school list and apply a little more broadly I think you'll find love.

3) Yeah, wait until the cycle is fully complete before asking for feedback.

Finally, you mentioned that you were thinking about applying to 1-year masters plans. I actually don't know that this is the best way to spend your time--your stats are the strongest part of your application, so I'm not sure that an SMP helps or is necessary. Rather, I might suggest finding a research or scribing position for your gap year. It'll help build up some money for school and address some of the areas that are actually lacking in your application.

 

[GoSpursGo]

You made it clear that I am lacking in my clinical experience and quite clearly research, both of which I will focus on in what looks like an impending gap year. I really hope to be involved in medical research, either in neuroscience or public health, so I focused on T50s and T20s and will likely include them in a reapplication. I felt that my career goals would be best pursued there and I had the metrics to at least qualify me for consideration. I can obviously live with not going to a T20, but I feel that my goals and application qualify me for a T50. Please tell me if I'm wrong here and should lower my expectations, as I've heard being a reapplicant really hurts your chances.

Also, you advised against pursuing a master's. I am under significant pressure from my parents to apply to programs at the moment, so are you confident that lab positions or paid clinical experience would be a better use of my time? Is it advisable to do a master's alongside such involvement or would this simply not be worth it?

Thank you again for your time answering my questions, this is much more helpful than I expected.

So, a couple of things--one's APPLICATION qualifies them for schools; one's GOALS don't qualify you for anything. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if this disconnect was evident in your application. For example, if you talk extensively about your desire to be involved in research as your motivation to go to med school, and a reviewer sees that you have <100 hours of research experience... that just isn't a story that makes sense. Don't tell me what you want to do, show me with the experiences that you have obtained.

Bottom line, nobody "deserves" a T20/50/whatever. You apply to a range of schools and you get what you get. Again, I don't have a great explanation for what happened with your state schools, but you threw your hat into the ring this year for T20/50 schools and the resounding answer you received from each and every school is that your app is lacking. You can try again, but without substantial changes to your application (which I'm not hearing) I'm not sure why you would expect a different outcome at the same schools. If you take a year off and really address these areas in your app, then maybe the outcome would be different.

I'd like to hear some of my other colleagues' feedback, but I just don't know what more you need to show from an academic perspective. Your MCAT and GPA are the strongest parts of your application. If anything, if you do a masters and for some reason perform POORLY, you will shoot yourself in the foot for no reason.

 

[Goro]

Bad essays
Weak or bad LORs
Very competitive cycle

 

[Goro]

Late app?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Understood, thank you for the honest feedback. I know what my goals and interests are and this disconnect that you explained is likely why my application is lacking for top schools. Most of my essays focused on public health and policy, due to my experiences with the underserved, but for the top schools, I sprinkled in my desire to perform research, for which <100 hrs of experience was evidently not enough.

I'll keep what you said in mind while planning a gap year. My reasoning for the masters would be to prepare me for research, but if this is better pursued with a full-time lab position I'll just pivot to that instead of wasting time and money on a degree that could hurt me. If you do hear something contrary about the masters though I would love to know.

The only changes to my application I could see myself making are dramatically increasing my clinical and research experience. Hopefully, this qualifies for the "substantial changes" you mentioned. Otherwise, I hope the in-state schools I am waiting for give me chance, as I would be thrilled to go to all but one of them. Thank you for the advice and assessment!

Yeah I'm not sure why you would do a masters to "prepare" you for research, when you could just *do* research. And most one-year masters aren't really intended to give you preparation for a research-career, but rather are set up to give people an opportunity to prove they are up to the academic rigor of med school. An MPH might lend you credence to the story you're telling about being involved in public health, but as far as I know those are at least 2 year degrees.

Those would be important changes to make to your application--I was merely saying that it didn't sound like what you have done this year would greatly move the needle. I do wonder if you could re-write your essays and at least get more love from your in-state schools. But I don't see anything here that would lead me to expect a different outcome from your OOS schools unless you apply more broadly.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

I don't know why, but this post kinda makes me think your "I deserve to be here" thoughts came across in your apps/interviews. There are a ton of students with scores like yours at the schools you are applying to. To get into T20 schools, you not only need to have a super high GPA and MCAT, but you gotta be flat out different somehow. A couple hundred clinical hours in the clinic isn't really groundbreakingly different and doesn't set you apart. If you want T20, you also will need to increase your research production. Did you have anything published or present at any conferences?

The other thing that could have happened was a bad LOR that basically flagged you which would be horrible or your ECs were too normal and not unique enough/didn't have enough hours. I agree with the above that SMP wouldn't be smart. Do something to improve the WEAK parts of your app. It's obvious you can study and do well in courses and tests. Show ADCOM the unique side of you and why you would bring diversity to their school.

 

[Goro]

Ahhh, parent. Doing their best to destroy your medical career out of love and ignorance. Ignore them. Get them accounts on SDN and we can show them the errors of thier ways.

For a high stat-Stanford/Harvard class candidate that you should be, I suggest getting in over 200 hrs clinical exposure but more importantly, service to other less fortunate than yourself. Take a gap year and do this.

 

[Goro]

Also, I feel like this could have contributed to the weakness of my application. One of my rec letters came from a professor who I did not really know, but agreed to give me a recommendation after a 30-min interview. Is this what you mean by weak?

Yup

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Yup

More like extremely weak.

 

[GoSpursGo]

More like extremely weak.

Agreed.

Just to throw you a bone because I don't want this feedback to come off as overly negative--you nailed your MCAT and GPA. That is, by far, the hardest part of getting into med school. So good on you for focusing on your studies over the last 4 years. Your application deficiencies are fixable, which is more than a lot of people who ask for our help can say.

If you take the next year to accrue the hours that you have not had time to while in school, I fully expect that you will gain admission to a good school. Nobody can guarantee you top x, but I would be shocked if you aren't eventually a doctor.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Agreed.

Just to throw you a bone because I don't want this feedback to come off as overly negative--you nailed your MCAT and GPA. That is, by far, the hardest part of getting into med school. So good on you for focusing on your studies over the last 4 years. Your application deficiencies are fixable, which is more than a lot of people who ask for our help can say.

If you take the next year to accrue the hours that you have not had time to while in school, I fully expect that you will gain admission to a good school. Nobody can guarantee you top x, but I would be shocked if you aren't eventually a doctor.

Absolutely agree. We are giving you a hard time because we are trying to help. Your MCAT and gpa are stellar and you will likely get many interviews if you can beef up the other parts of you app.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm going back to the questions I always ask for strategy: what schools have you done networking, with respect to outreach to current AMSA or SNMA chapter leaders? How often did you attend recruiting events to speak with admissions officers or faculty?

You do not need to improve your academic record or MCAT, so running into a postbac program would not be worthwhile unless there are still some upper-level courses you missed out on. Definitely more focus on your extracurricular activities as well as volunteering activities that really show you have experienced being uncomfortable with societal issues and inequities. Maybe you are avoiding discussion of those things in this forum since all I see is "volunteering" without any real idea of what you did or accomplished. Apparently whatever you did describe did not resonate with enough screeners to move you forward.