How am I looking for med school?

[MBaez1]

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Hey all I am currently a junior, 24 years old, just wondering how you think I'm looking so far for medical school, and also what schools I should be thinking about applying to. Thank you in advance...

Major: Biology
gpa - 3.6
BCPM gpa - 3.85
MCAT: haven't taken them yet, but I've taken a bunch of practice ones and have been scoring around 32-34

- I plan on graduating Magna Cum Laude...at worst Summa Cum Laude

EC's:

- Volunteer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital(in Oncology) - 1.5 years
- I'm doing EMT-B training this summer, and then volunteering as an EMT for 2 semesters
- 20 hours of M.D. shadowing
- Member of AED
- Member of AMSA
- Member of Tri-Beta (Biology honors society)
- Dean's list for 5 semesters
- I plan on doing research work either this summer or next school year
- I've played guitar for 8 years, and have played a few shows around Chicago

How do you think I will stack up once application time rolls around? Am I missing anything I should have as far as EC's?

Also, what schools do you guys think I should be looking at applying to?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

-Maurice

 

[flip26]

Hey all I am currently a junior, 24 years old, just wondering how you think I'm looking so far for medical school, and also what schools I should be thinking about applying to. Thank you in advance...

Major: Biology
gpa - 3.6
BCPM gpa - 3.85
MCAT: haven't taken them yet, but I've taken a bunch of practice ones and have been scoring around 32-34

- I plan on graduating Magna Cum Laude...at worst Summa Cum Laude

EC's:

- Volunteer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital(in Oncology) - 1.5 years
- I'm doing EMT-B training this summer, and then volunteering as an EMT for 2 semesters
- 20 hours of M.D. shadowing
- Member of AED
- Member of AMSA
- Member of Tri-Beta (Biology honors society)
- Dean's list for 5 semesters
- I plan on doing research work either this summer or next school year
- I've played guitar for 8 years, and have played a few shows around Chicago

How do you think I will stack up once application time rolls around? Am I missing anything I should have as far as EC's?

Also, what schools do you guys think I should be looking at applying to?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

-Maurice

Ummm....summa>magna...

Apply broadly. With a projected 33 MCAT, you will not be super competitive at the tippy top schools (say top 25 USNWR), so don't fall into the trap of just applying to them...

 

[MBaez1]

Hahaha, sorry I meant I'll be graduating Summa and at worst Magna

 

[Mobius1985]

I'd suggest that some more shadowing time of 1-2 other specialties would be nice. Eight to forty hours each is fine. I don't see mention of a leadership experience. Club membership in itself doesn't help your application much unless you get an officer position or engage in a substantive activity (fund raising, volunteer stuff, service in some manner). Do you have any other community service besides the hospital volunteering? Any teaching/mentoring? Working as an EMT will be great for additional clinical experience. The music shows dedication and is good to list. Definitely get the reasearch going. Average folks list about a year of this. The BCPM GPA is great; keep it up. The cGPA is a tad below the average of 3.66, but you have plenty of time to get it higher. So, overall, you're coming along nicely.

We can talk about school selection after your MCAT score is back.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

great points above re: leadership experience, I'd think most jobs would offer this, have you worked fulltime or in a meaningful part time position that may have allowed development of leadership skills?

Other than that, ECs look solid, much of your competitiveness will ride on MCAT score, both total and by section, as well as where you apply to and how early you send in the app.

as a reference point, I'm pretty sure that I was not interviewed at 1 school specifically because the secondary was submitted in mid-September, although my stats exceeded the schools averages in every category, including volunteer/ECs, and I'd spoken with the director of admissions after he reviewed my file last year (he felt i was a strong applicant and a good fit with the school). So timing is quite important.

Only other suggestion - this probably wouldn't matter much for the application, but you may want to check the criteria required to graduate magna or summa - I graduated Champaign/Urbana w/ a 3.7 which did not even qualify for "cum laude". The cutoff for either Magna or Summa at that time (mid 1990s) was around 3.93. A mid-3.9's GPA means around 2-3 Bs total in college, something that was definitely beyond me at that time.