I was thinking about applying MSTP, but...

Started by slothify
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slothify

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So, my original post was super long. I have decided not to torture you guys like that. I will be brief.

Ugrad GPA: 3.4 (super upwards trend, honors for junior and senior years)
Major: Biochemistry (with Math and Arabic minor - don't ask me why Arabic, it was just super interesting)
MCAT: Consistently score 39+ on practice, so assuming 36+ for real thing
Research: 2 years undergraduate research in biochemistry (2 papers, 2nd author) 6 months industrial research at a large chemical company in Germany (presently doing this), 1-2 years research with NIH IRTA (doing this upon return to the states)
Other ECs: A decent amount of community volunteering (mostly Boys and Girls club and mentoring programs like such), but no clinical experience yet. Upon returning to the states, I plan to aggressively go about getting this clinical background.
MISC: I think I would stick out in a pool of applicants due to my experiences throughout life. Such as: I moved out of my parents house when I was 16 and, subsequently, was homeless for a good portion of time in my junior and senior years of high school. After that I lived in a shed for a year with a couple of squirrels as roommates (don't worry, the squirrels and I respected each other's privacy). I have worked a variety of jobs, including a lot of factory and manual labor. I even had a job for a while assembling and disassembling planes.

Also, I am a competent researcher, and both my undergrad PI and current supervisor will write me beautiful LORs. Assuming I keep my competence, I believe my IRTA PI will also write me a decent LOR.

Lastly, I am great with interviews, and am very good at discussing my research along with the research of others.


So, that is my profile, and I can't stress enough how much I would like to do an MSTP. There are several programs that have research I am really interested in, but they are kind of top tier schools. I would like to apply MSTP (because I would really like the medical education for clinical applications in my research), however I am not sure I would be very competitive for a higher MSTP program. Worse comes to worse, I just plan on applying to the PhD departments of the schools that have the interesting research. Any advice and thoughts concerning my abilities to get into a good MSTP would be appreciated. Hell, advice in general is always good, I would even appreciate it if someone told me how to get the terrible smell out of my shoes after being caught in two thunderstorms (they smell god awful).


THANKS GUYS
 
As Neuronix mentions in the FAQ, admittance is never a sure thing; admittance to a particular school especially so. Also, while your practice MCATs suggest you'll have no problem with the test, an actual score would be more helpful.

That said, you already seem to have good research experience, and should have excellent experience by the time you're done at the NIH. If actual MCAT is as good as your practice tests, you should be in good shape.
 
You will for sure get into a number of top 25 MSTPs (assuming your MCAT is 36 as you suggest). However, within those it can be pretty random sometimes.
 
The gpa is a little on the low side but everything else seems strong.

Also, if you get your shoes wet during a thunderstorm and don't want them to smell, dry them out with a hair dryer immediately after you get home. Leaving things that are cotton material wet will make them stink. For example not immediately tossing clothes into the dryer after they have been cleaned by the washer makes the clothes smell disgusting.