ana.stomosis
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Hey y'all, looking for admissions folks/med students perspectives on this one.
I am 35, non-traditional even by nontrad standards. 3.93 graduating GPA from UCSD in 2023 (BS in Public Health), probably a 3.99 now that I've done all my postbacc work. 520 MCAT that I took June 13, so just submitted at 2:30AM July 17th, with typos I didn't catch.
Sources of angst:
- typos. I was supposed to have help editing, but the person fell through and I was on my own submitting late-ish (see below). It's all fine, I know it's on me at the end of the day, but I am sad and afraid it makes me seem disorganized/inattentive.
All 3 are activities typos: incorrect email for my supervisor at Planned Parenthood, but what's much worse is that I ended the activity description with an incomplete sentence. It's nonsensical. The description ends with ". I am ". Lastly, in describing my capstone research I used the term meta analysis instead of lit review, which I fear will kick my ass when being looked at by research heavy T10s that could maybe just maybe give me a full ride if I got in. I know it is a long shot with low research hours anyway, but it's my best shot at paying for school and not being completely ruined financially until I'm 60. I am trying to get research positions now, but with political attacks on all things logical and helpful, research assistant positions for people who aren't active students seem sparse. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
- later submission. By the time my fee waiver was processed, the other dates were filled. And bc I got the fee waiver, if I submitted to verify before scores were released and I incorrectly predicted my score, then I would have wasted my 20 free submissions on schools that were an inappropriate tier. I'm glad I didn't do that, I would have underestimated my score by a lot.
- Ws from early edu (lowest grade is a 2014 B- in physical and inorganic chem, but the Ws look bad I'm sure):
I had a rough start to adulthood/college. In 2008 I got run over by a streetcar while cycling during my first semester at Tulane, 2 years later had another serious bike wreck with facial trauma (I'm sober btw, alcohol has nothing to do with the accidents), transferred to a state school due to financial troubles, mom lost her job and the house and family moved to diff states so lost instate tuition, cousin that was like a brother committed suicide, yada yada. Have always had too work multiple jobs during school but esp early edu when my mom's prior income (~70k) determined my out of pocket expenses that I was trying to pay alone making about 12k/year. Housing insecurity for years etc. Nothing people haven't been through ofc, but my luck went from bad to worse for a while. I withdrew 3 separate semesters (med withdrawals, doesn't feel like it matters bc Tulane and GSU don't even specify medical Ws on transcripts). My last withdrawn semester was >10 years ago (Fall 2014). I have spent the decade since trying to kinda just baseline survive and doing meaningful work however I could. It was the right move. I have genuinely loved my work and am a more complete person because of it. I went back to school when the pandemic upended my job and housing situation, and have been consistent since. I continued to show up without dropping out when my dad got sick and later died by my side. I think I can establish that my constitution and context are very different now.
I know 3 of my LORs are strong, and have medium hopes for the 4th. I have volunteered where I could throughout the years, hours in the high hundreds for what I included, I've done more. Plenty of clinical and non-clinical paid work. And honestly, none of this was done with the ulterior motive of med school apps, things just fell into place and I realized it's still what I want to do all these years later. I have 40 recent shadowing hours, probably 1000 older shadowing hours from 2007-2009 that I didn't put on there but can speak about, and a good understanding of healthcare from several diff perspectives. Waiting on Preview and Casper scores but I feel like they'll be decent. My PS isn't conventional, but I've been told it's good. No, it's not as annoying to read as this vent/anxiety post.
STILL - with all my diligence and sincere love of this work and blah blah blah, I feel like I'll be seen as a risky candidate. And one who can't even effectively proofread their own writing.
Not verified, received a secondary invite from Tufts presumably bc I met a minimum threshold. I want to be excited about secondaries, I want the chance to share my vision for a better future (damn don't we all need that rn) and how I can participate in generating it through medicine and public health, but several of the prompts focus on the past, and it has been adding to the din of self-doubt that I have ruined my chances to become a physician.
So the advice I'm seeking? I guess... should I give up and withdraw my app? The mistakes feel minor, but they also don't? Should I keep on and just hope my app is given a chance somewhere? I have applied to ~43 allopathic schools. My thinking is that if any other schools give me a shot to do secondaries, could I maybe find a way to acknowledge that I realized my mistakes a few days later and why? Or just apologize w/o explanation bc it reads like excuses? Idk. I just feel like for what I'm shooting for, I'm too late, have too little research (capstone and microbio wet lab only no pubs like 300-400hrs), and the careless mistakes are nails in the coffin. Tbh I interview well and am a compelling candidate IRL, but worried I won't have the chance to get that far.
This year feels like it, because of funding changes, and because I don't know how to keep drudging on living paycheck to paycheck, especially when I won't be in school anymore (which has saved me from the depression of the times and our organization shifting in negative ways because we can no longer help our most in-need patients). I am less keen on DO schools purely due to finances, but am planning to apply to ~10 DOs if I can get the $ together.
So if any admissions savvy folks didn't die of boredom and somehow got to the end of this, am I being dramatic or realistic?
How do I address the 1000 character prompts about challenges, Ws and time off from school without making my failures a central focus over what I have done for the past 10 years? I already addressed a lot of this in the primary, and 1000 characters is not enough to fully explain. Can I skate over them and just refocus their attention on what I have demonstrated since?
Should I withdraw my apps from T10s? Should I withdraw it altogether? This process has been so expensive that I don't know if I can swing doing it all over again next year. Being broke keeps getting harder. And truthfully, I will already be starting residency at 40 if I get in this year. I am ready--I've been ready--to do so much more for my patients. But, I'm concerned adcoms won't see it, or won't care; concerned that I'll never be chosen over greener pastures, with more years to labor, and fewer incomplete sentences.
I am 35, non-traditional even by nontrad standards. 3.93 graduating GPA from UCSD in 2023 (BS in Public Health), probably a 3.99 now that I've done all my postbacc work. 520 MCAT that I took June 13, so just submitted at 2:30AM July 17th, with typos I didn't catch.
Sources of angst:
- typos. I was supposed to have help editing, but the person fell through and I was on my own submitting late-ish (see below). It's all fine, I know it's on me at the end of the day, but I am sad and afraid it makes me seem disorganized/inattentive.
All 3 are activities typos: incorrect email for my supervisor at Planned Parenthood, but what's much worse is that I ended the activity description with an incomplete sentence. It's nonsensical. The description ends with ". I am ". Lastly, in describing my capstone research I used the term meta analysis instead of lit review, which I fear will kick my ass when being looked at by research heavy T10s that could maybe just maybe give me a full ride if I got in. I know it is a long shot with low research hours anyway, but it's my best shot at paying for school and not being completely ruined financially until I'm 60. I am trying to get research positions now, but with political attacks on all things logical and helpful, research assistant positions for people who aren't active students seem sparse. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
- later submission. By the time my fee waiver was processed, the other dates were filled. And bc I got the fee waiver, if I submitted to verify before scores were released and I incorrectly predicted my score, then I would have wasted my 20 free submissions on schools that were an inappropriate tier. I'm glad I didn't do that, I would have underestimated my score by a lot.
- Ws from early edu (lowest grade is a 2014 B- in physical and inorganic chem, but the Ws look bad I'm sure):
I had a rough start to adulthood/college. In 2008 I got run over by a streetcar while cycling during my first semester at Tulane, 2 years later had another serious bike wreck with facial trauma (I'm sober btw, alcohol has nothing to do with the accidents), transferred to a state school due to financial troubles, mom lost her job and the house and family moved to diff states so lost instate tuition, cousin that was like a brother committed suicide, yada yada. Have always had too work multiple jobs during school but esp early edu when my mom's prior income (~70k) determined my out of pocket expenses that I was trying to pay alone making about 12k/year. Housing insecurity for years etc. Nothing people haven't been through ofc, but my luck went from bad to worse for a while. I withdrew 3 separate semesters (med withdrawals, doesn't feel like it matters bc Tulane and GSU don't even specify medical Ws on transcripts). My last withdrawn semester was >10 years ago (Fall 2014). I have spent the decade since trying to kinda just baseline survive and doing meaningful work however I could. It was the right move. I have genuinely loved my work and am a more complete person because of it. I went back to school when the pandemic upended my job and housing situation, and have been consistent since. I continued to show up without dropping out when my dad got sick and later died by my side. I think I can establish that my constitution and context are very different now.
I know 3 of my LORs are strong, and have medium hopes for the 4th. I have volunteered where I could throughout the years, hours in the high hundreds for what I included, I've done more. Plenty of clinical and non-clinical paid work. And honestly, none of this was done with the ulterior motive of med school apps, things just fell into place and I realized it's still what I want to do all these years later. I have 40 recent shadowing hours, probably 1000 older shadowing hours from 2007-2009 that I didn't put on there but can speak about, and a good understanding of healthcare from several diff perspectives. Waiting on Preview and Casper scores but I feel like they'll be decent. My PS isn't conventional, but I've been told it's good. No, it's not as annoying to read as this vent/anxiety post.
STILL - with all my diligence and sincere love of this work and blah blah blah, I feel like I'll be seen as a risky candidate. And one who can't even effectively proofread their own writing.
Not verified, received a secondary invite from Tufts presumably bc I met a minimum threshold. I want to be excited about secondaries, I want the chance to share my vision for a better future (damn don't we all need that rn) and how I can participate in generating it through medicine and public health, but several of the prompts focus on the past, and it has been adding to the din of self-doubt that I have ruined my chances to become a physician.
So the advice I'm seeking? I guess... should I give up and withdraw my app? The mistakes feel minor, but they also don't? Should I keep on and just hope my app is given a chance somewhere? I have applied to ~43 allopathic schools. My thinking is that if any other schools give me a shot to do secondaries, could I maybe find a way to acknowledge that I realized my mistakes a few days later and why? Or just apologize w/o explanation bc it reads like excuses? Idk. I just feel like for what I'm shooting for, I'm too late, have too little research (capstone and microbio wet lab only no pubs like 300-400hrs), and the careless mistakes are nails in the coffin. Tbh I interview well and am a compelling candidate IRL, but worried I won't have the chance to get that far.
This year feels like it, because of funding changes, and because I don't know how to keep drudging on living paycheck to paycheck, especially when I won't be in school anymore (which has saved me from the depression of the times and our organization shifting in negative ways because we can no longer help our most in-need patients). I am less keen on DO schools purely due to finances, but am planning to apply to ~10 DOs if I can get the $ together.
So if any admissions savvy folks didn't die of boredom and somehow got to the end of this, am I being dramatic or realistic?
How do I address the 1000 character prompts about challenges, Ws and time off from school without making my failures a central focus over what I have done for the past 10 years? I already addressed a lot of this in the primary, and 1000 characters is not enough to fully explain. Can I skate over them and just refocus their attention on what I have demonstrated since?
Should I withdraw my apps from T10s? Should I withdraw it altogether? This process has been so expensive that I don't know if I can swing doing it all over again next year. Being broke keeps getting harder. And truthfully, I will already be starting residency at 40 if I get in this year. I am ready--I've been ready--to do so much more for my patients. But, I'm concerned adcoms won't see it, or won't care; concerned that I'll never be chosen over greener pastures, with more years to labor, and fewer incomplete sentences.
