How do I look?

Started by mmk18369
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mmk18369

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Hello Everyone,

I'm applying this June for Fall of 2013 and I was hoping to get some opinions on how I look as an applicant. I'm a BA Biology undergraduate at CSUN and will graduate in Spring 2013

MCAT: 31Q, 11 Phys, 11 Bio, 9 Verb
oGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.3
- President of Phi Delta Epsilon (Professional International Pre-medical and Medical Fraternity), have been VP of Recruitment, Chair of Recruitment in past
- Currently Senator of my science and math college with Associated Students, and have been for the past year and a half.
- Chairman and vice chair for multiple committees within student government, served on various other committees.
- Secretary of Iranian Student Association, and participation in various other clubs
- 1 year of research in cancer based and genetics based research, no publications unfortunately.
- Volunteering: over 350 hours at a hospital in family practice and the ER
- Currently working as a Scribe with EMSS, about 16-24 hours a week
- Part time actor at the Art Institute, about 8 short films
- Piano, concerts when I was younger, nothing recent, but still playing and learning new songs
- I play various sports: basketball, football, soccer, tennis, not on school teams
- Mentor to 3 high school students
- Tutoring in sciences (physics, gen. chem, O. chem, bio)
- I'll be getting letters of recommendation from the following: O.Chem professor, Microbio professor, Philosophy professor, International president of Phi Delta Epsilon, General Manager of Associated Students, an ER doctor, the International CEO of Phi Delta Epsilon, and my mentor who is also a doctor

I have other extracurriculars I can discuss or place in my application, which are either leadership positions, lobying for healthcare, non-clinical volunteering, etc, that I don't remember at this time but I have written down else where. I just wanted to see if I look alright as an applicant because I'm concerned most about my GPA.
 
Last edited:
mmk18369 said:
Hello Everyone,

I'm applying this June for Fall of 2013 and I was hoping to get some opinions on how I look as an applicant. I'm a BA Biology undergraduate at CSUN and will graduate in Spring 2013

MCAT: 31Q, 11 Phys, 11 Bio, 9 Verb
oGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.3
- President of Phi Delta Epsilon (Professional International Pre-medical and Medical Fraternity), have been VP of Recruitment, Chair of Recruitment in past
- Currently Senator of my science and math college with Associated Students, and have been for the past year and a half.
- Chairman and vice chair for multiple committees within student government, served on various other committees.
- Secretary of Iranian Student Association, and participation in various other clubs
- 1 year of research in cancer based and genetics based research, no publications unfortunately.
- Volunteering: over 350 hours at a hospital in family practice and the ER
- Currently working as a Scribe with EMSS, about 16-24 hours a week
- Part time actor at the Art Institute, about 8 short films
- Piano, concerts when I was younger, nothing recent, but still playing and learning new songs
- I play various sports: basketball, football, soccer, tennis, not on school teams
- Mentor to 3 high school students
- Tutoring in sciences (physics, gen. chem, O. chem, bio)
- I'll be getting letters of recommendation from the following: O.Chem professor, Microbio professor, Philosophy professor, International president of Phi Delta Epsilon, General Manager of Associated Students, an ER doctor, the International CEO of Phi Delta Epsilon, and my mentor who is also a doctor

I have other extracurriculars I can discuss or place in my application, which are either leadership positions, lobying for healthcare, non-clinical volunteering, etc, that I don't remember at this time but I have written down else where. I just wanted to see if I look alright as an applicant because I'm concerned most about my GPA.
Click to expand...
Your ECs are terrific, but the GPA is certainly a concern, especially the lower BCPM GPA.

What is your year-by-year GPA (with an extrapolation for junior year)? Why is the BCPM so low?
 
Wow, great Extra curriculars. I Wish I had those.

Hopefully your GPA won't hurt ya.

Also, how many letters of recommendation are pre-med students supposed to have?
 
ur2l8 said:
Wow, great Extra curriculars. I Wish I had those.

Hopefully your GPA won't hurt ya.

Also, how many letters of recommendation are pre-med students supposed to have?
Click to expand...

Depends on the medical school you are applying to. 3 science (one from a professor you do research with is good), 1 non-science, and 1 committee letter should cover any school.
 
Thank you for the responses,

I miscalculated it on accident. It's roughly a 3.5 as well. I average B+/A- on my BCPM courses.
My GPA is low mainly because of all the extracurriculars I participate in. It started off around 3.7 or so freshman year and came down a bit Sophomore year since that was when I started getting really involved in other activities and picked up a job, which I worked about 20-30 hours every weekend. It was about 3.5 or so Sophomore year, then a little lower my Junior year, probably 3.3 or so, because I was still working and focusing on the MCAT. I ended up only taking a Kaplan course and doing minimal work for the MCAT to keep my GPA from going too low that Spring semester and studied for a month and a half before taking the MCAT.
In hindsight I should have post-poned it because I wasn't able to get a good registration date and didn't get the classes I needed to make sure I graduate on time, but that's another issue.
My current year, Senior year is starting off alright, I didn't do as well because I took on too many shifts at my scribe job the first month or so of the semester and ended up doing poorly on my first biochem exam. I got A's in all my other courses but a C+ in biochem, which I'm very bummed about. Regardless, I plan on not making that mistake again and will have a great improvement next semester as I'm taking an entamology course, microbio, and 2 other easy GE courses.
 
I have to agree with the above post, I am also a Cali resident from a UC and all of their medical schools are really competitive, but your stats leave you with a decent chance at getting into medical school if you apply BROADLY and not expect to stay in Cali.
 
To be quite frank, I've come to not care where I go for medical school. A medical school is a medical school to me and it depends on my own performance when I get there. I'm already staying an extra year since I'm applying this June. I know Ivy leagues are great and all that jazz, but there isn't a significant difference in what you learn at the end of the day as long as you excel wherever you go. At least that's what I've gatherd from physicians and medical school students I've spoken to.
 
The downward grade trend is going to be a concerning factor at many schools, regardless of where you apply. Do your best to bring the grades back up for the rest of the school year.
 
Of course. Thank you for the feedback, anything else I should work on? Or is the GPA really the only concern?
 
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Is there anything else I should be concerned about other than the GPA? I'm working on maintaining straight A's over the Spring semester as I have a simple semester of classes. I'm just finishing upper division biology classes and GE's.
 
mmk18369 said:
Hello Everyone,

I'm applying this June for Fall of 2013 and I was hoping to get some opinions on how I look as an applicant. I'm a BA Biology undergraduate at CSUN and will graduate in Spring 2013

MCAT: 31Q, 11 Phys, 11 Bio, 9 Verb
oGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.3
- President of Phi Delta Epsilon (Professional International Pre-medical and Medical Fraternity), have been VP of Recruitment, Chair of Recruitment in past
- Currently Senator of my science and math college with Associated Students, and have been for the past year and a half.
- Chairman and vice chair for multiple committees within student government, served on various other committees.
- Secretary of Iranian Student Association, and participation in various other clubs
- 1 year of research in cancer based and genetics based research, no publications unfortunately.
- Volunteering: over 350 hours at a hospital in family practice and the ER
- Currently working as a Scribe with EMSS, about 16-24 hours a week
- Part time actor at the Art Institute, about 8 short films
- Piano, concerts when I was younger, nothing recent, but still playing and learning new songs
- I play various sports: basketball, football, soccer, tennis, not on school teams
- Mentor to 3 high school students
- Tutoring in sciences (physics, gen. chem, O. chem, bio)
- I'll be getting letters of recommendation from the following: O.Chem professor, Microbio professor, Philosophy professor, International president of Phi Delta Epsilon, General Manager of Associated Students, an ER doctor, the International CEO of Phi Delta Epsilon, and my mentor who is also a doctor

I have other extracurriculars I can discuss or place in my application, which are either leadership positions, lobying for healthcare, non-clinical volunteering, etc, that I don't remember at this time but I have written down else where. I just wanted to see if I look alright as an applicant because I'm concerned most about my GPA.
Click to expand...

Only eight LORs? Most schools require at least 17.
 
As I am reading this as an internet post I cannot tell if you're being sarcastic or not lol. I would assume you are?
 
mmk18369 said:
Hello Everyone,

I'm applying this June for Fall of 2013 and I was hoping to get some opinions on how I look as an applicant. I'm a BA Biology undergraduate at CSUN and will graduate in Spring 2013

MCAT: 31Q, 11 Phys, 11 Bio, 9 Verb
oGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.3
- President of Phi Delta Epsilon (Professional International Pre-medical and Medical Fraternity), have been VP of Recruitment, Chair of Recruitment in past
- Currently Senator of my science and math college with Associated Students, and have been for the past year and a half.
- Chairman and vice chair for multiple committees within student government, served on various other committees.
- Secretary of Iranian Student Association, and participation in various other clubs
- 1 year of research in cancer based and genetics based research, no publications unfortunately.
- Volunteering: over 350 hours at a hospital in family practice and the ER
- Currently working as a Scribe with EMSS, about 16-24 hours a week
- Part time actor at the Art Institute, about 8 short films
- Piano, concerts when I was younger, nothing recent, but still playing and learning new songs
- I play various sports: basketball, football, soccer, tennis, not on school teams
- Mentor to 3 high school students
- Tutoring in sciences (physics, gen. chem, O. chem, bio)
- I'll be getting letters of recommendation from the following: O.Chem professor, Microbio professor, Philosophy professor, International president of Phi Delta Epsilon, General Manager of Associated Students, an ER doctor, the International CEO of Phi Delta Epsilon, and my mentor who is also a doctor

I have other extracurriculars I can discuss or place in my application, which are either leadership positions, lobying for healthcare, non-clinical volunteering, etc, that I don't remember at this time but I have written down else where. I just wanted to see if I look alright as an applicant because I'm concerned most about my GPA.
Click to expand...

Did you end up getting in or applying?? My activities/grades are eerily similar to yours, so I'm just curious 🙂
 
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mmk18369 said:
To be quite frank, I've come to not care where I go for medical school. A medical school is a medical school to me and it depends on my own performance when I get there. I'm already staying an extra year since I'm applying this June. I know Ivy leagues are great and all that jazz, but there isn't a significant difference in what you learn at the end of the day as long as you excel wherever you go. At least that's what I've gatherd from physicians and medical school students I've spoken to.
Click to expand...

from my 35 years in the business and as a hiring partner in private practice i can say that is true. by the time you are done with everything, nobody cares where you went to med school or even, very much, residency. i/we looked for 1) board certification, 2) experience ( post residency----I know---a "catch 22" ) and 3) EXCELLENT communication skills/winning personality. The "3 A's" of medicine (at least my specialty) are affability, availability and ability---roughly in that order.

fixating on what medical school you go to is so far removed from the real world of medical practice that it is sad.

i would not recommend the carribbean due to the inherent difficulties. but among my colleagues over the decades there is not a whit of difference between the "low tier" D.O. grads and the Harvard grads ( and I know a couple mediocre Harvard folks)
 
As a matter of fact, no I did not make up my extracurriculars. I busted my ass over the past few years and I'd appreciate it if you didn't acuse me of making that up.
 
I did end up reading the thread. In what way have I exaggerated my activities? I never claimed that it was always 24 hours a week, however every so often I picked up an extra shift over the semester when needed. In fact, over the summer I worked full time as was needed. With respect to my volunteering, I put the total number of hours per final form given to me by the volunteer coordinator (and note that this is over 2.5 years that I accumulated 350 hours). I never said I was in 8 movies, I said short-films. Significantly different if you have even the slightest bit of common sense, but perhaps I should have elaborated further. While I do not mentor or tutor many high school students, I still do so for the 5 whose parents have asked of me. I never claimed 1 year total of either research. I had one semester of each.

Just because I actually put effort into pursuing things that interested me and that led to a rather large array of experiences does not mean I made it up. I wanted to make a point of that, regardless of whether it affects peoples views of me on this forum. I know what I've done, and those around me have seen it. I simply came to this forum to get an opinion of my application and I guess it's good enough to be "too good to be true." Shame, that I am called a liar simply for pursuing my interests.
 
mmk18369 said:
I did end up reading the thread. In what way have I exaggerated my activities? I never claimed that it was always 24 hours a week, however every so often I picked up an extra shift over the semester when needed. In fact, over the summer I worked full time as was needed. With respect to my volunteering, I put the total number of hours per final form given to me by the volunteer coordinator (and note that this is over 2.5 years that I accumulated 350 hours). I never said I was in 8 movies, I said short-films. Significantly different if you have even the slightest bit of common sense, but perhaps I should have elaborated further. While I do not mentor or tutor many high school students, I still do so for the 5 whose parents have asked of me. I never claimed 1 year total of either research. I had one semester of each.

Just because I actually put effort into pursuing things that interested me and that led to a rather large array of experiences does not mean I made it up. I wanted to make a point of that, regardless of whether it affects peoples views of me on this forum. I know what I've done, and those around me have seen it. I simply came to this forum to get an opinion of my application and I guess it's good enough to be "too good to be true." Shame, that I am called a liar simply for pursuing my interests.
Click to expand...

Your friend said you made stuff up, not us. No need to blame the forum....

And you sound very arrogant...
 
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