I know What Some Adcoms Think... Now What Do *You* Think?

[Chai17]

I've been on the path towards a career in medicine for quite some time and just recently reached a point were I am able to apply without family and/or personal restraints. Given my background, what are my chances?

Background info
GPA: c2.77, s-b/n a 2.77 and 3.4, SMP gpa 3.57 (A, B, C, F scale) ...Additional info – left undergrad for two years and returned with a positive upward trend. Two semesters of retroactive medical withdrawals. Worked full-time (40hrs wk) to directly pay for 90% of expenses.
Demogrpahics: FL Resident, URM, lived well under poverty guidelines and periodically homeless for 3 1/2 years during ages 0-18.
MCAT: 6P, 9B, 11V …Additional info – physics is undeniably a weakness for me. Take that coupled with anxiously starting the exam *50* minutes late without any explanation from the proctors really threw me off the little game I had.
Clinical experience: Emergency Dept (4 years), EMT (<1 year)
Shadowing experience: Emergency Dept., Surgery Dept., and Family Medicine - all lasting for about a semester.
Volunteer experience: Self-initiated and conducting fundraisers for natural disasters, Red Cross Disaster Relief team, volunteered during a large merger of two emergency departments, March of Dimes, and Health fair volunteer for diabetes education in rural communities from ages 15 to 23ish (8 years).
Work Experiences: Emergency Dept. (4 years), Plasma Center (1 year), Surgery Dept. (1 semester internship), Resident Assistant aka RA (1 semester), and it's likely I'll work as a community college A&P instructor.
Other Extracurriculars: Intramural sports athlete for several semesters (even in grad school), intramural ref, and rugby player in college & grad school. Member of 3 volunteer based student organizations. President & founder of a student organization for 1 consecutive year.
Research: Presenter and 3rd author of a local poster... the 1st author is actually the dean of a medical school now (go figure, haha)
LORs: I deeply feel they are all strongly supportive, and personally written letters.

After multiple discussions with adcoms at different schools, they have stated positive things about my resume and application packet as a whole. The only negative I was told to improve, is my 6P to help balance my GPA&#8230; as much as possible.... and yes they have seen my transcripts. My SMP admissions committee [surprisingly] called and stated that though, I was accepted they "were very impressed with my application packet and although [they] have accepted [me], should consider at least applying to some D.O. schools because it's quite possible could be accepted into one". I'm generally idealistic; given my stats, reality has birthed a bit of skepticism. Opinions please.

A Couple More Things&#8230;
I am participating in the 2011-2012 application cycle and sitting for the Aug 6th MCAT. The physical science portion should improve by a few points with all of the practice I've had compared to the last exam. I also have a physics tutor helping for 5 weeks prior to the test. Some of my LORs are complete, so I'm considering applying to one school in July to get verified. I'll submit the app to other schools after receiving my MCAT scores. I'm applying broadly to about 30-40 schools (MD & DO).

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[leggo]

Hi, the MCAT will hurt you, but if you get at least 32, that will def help you. Which SMP did you do? You should also consider applying to that med school when you apply.

 

[Whatyousay]

Hmm.... that August MCAT is pretty late, but I guess it's worth it to try to get everything in order.

Your ECs look great, so as long as schools are willing to look past your numbers, I would think that you might have a chance somewhere. Hopefully Catalystik will stop by and provide some input.

 

[Chai17]

Hi, the MCAT will hurt you, but if you get at least 32, that will def help you. Which SMP did you do? You should also consider applying to that med school when you apply.

Thanks for your feedback! I know large score jumps are rare, so I'm training to jump over the moon. The wonderful shield of anonymity is likely to disappear if I state my SMP... I'm applying to their medical school as well.

 

[leggo]

Ah, thats all right. Is it possible to message me the school? I'm considering applying to a SMP for next year, and hearing about how the program and the courses were would be very helpful. If not, then its still all good haha. As for your app and chances, like I said before, if you get at least a 32 on the MCAT, you should get accepted somewhere. Try to get you PS score to at least 7, cause many schools will automatically screen you out at low section scores. Best of luck.

 

[Chai17]

I'm blogging about this journey... It's nice for others to view outcomes.

 

[leggo]

Nice! lemme get the link when you post it!

 

[miketour]

You should retake to try and balance out your score a little bit. Your EC's are awesome. Someone is going to take a true interest into your story. I am an URM and have been through similar situations. My approach in the application process (personal statements, secondary apps, and interviews) would be to not focus on your hardships. I would make them subtle as if you want the application committee to understand you as a person, however you don't want to use your hardships as a reason alone that they should take you. I was in no way saying that you were coming across like that, but some of my friends who are also URM's approached their interviews with their personal struggles as their main bargaining chip and it came back to bite them in the butt. I wish you the best and I truly think you have a great shot at getting in somewhere. As said above, I would try and raise your PS score to above a 6. If you could do that I think you are set!

 

[Chai17]

Nice! lemme get the link when you post it!

Will do! Let me make sure I'm going to actually commit to it first... then I'll post the link.

You should retake to try and balance out your score a little bit. Your EC's are awesome. Someone is going to take a true interest into your story. I am an URM and have been through similar situations. My approach in the application process (personal statements, secondary apps, and interviews) would be to not focus on your hardships. I would make them subtle as if you want the application committee to understand you as a person, however you don't want to use your hardships as a reason alone that they should take you. I was in no way saying that you were coming across like that, but some of my friends who are also URM's approached their interviews with their personal struggles as their main bargaining chip and it came back to bite them in the butt. I wish you the best and I truly think you have a great shot at getting in somewhere. As said above, I would try and raise your PS score to above a 6. If you could do that I think you are set!

Thanks for your input Mike! Are suggesting I should retake a couple of courses to help boost my aacomas GPA? If so I think that's a pretty good idea... why not, right? Though there isn't much hope for my amcas GPA...

I also agree with you regarding the ps. After starting this thread and looking at my CV, I noticed that the most meaningful ECs were those in which I relate to most. This is a time where implications are much stronger than explicit outcries... it'll leave my audience wondering and perhaps I'll get an interview or two.