Just got my final rejection. I'm lost. Help please?

[ucfknight407]

uhh your username has ufc in it, need i say more about your time off? BECOME A UFC FIGHTER

ps i realize this is an awfully stupid comment because your username has UCF in it - not ufc so, i refuse to delete it for posterity. laugh at me.

lol

Dude you just found your problem.

yea i know that was a factor in it all

First off - I'm pretty surprised you didn't get in this cycle. Second - don't do a special masters post-bacc. Take another year of college at the best university in your state and rock 32 credits of A's in upper division sciences. Get solid clinical experience during this time - not that candystriper or hospital gift shop crap. Find a free clinic where they let you interact with patients, or find something decent at a hospital. Find some physicians to shadow. Don't retake the MCAT. Just get the GPA up to a 3.4 and you should be set.

Cheers

im trying to figure out a way now so that i could start in may possibly at some place that would give meaningful experience. we'll see how it goes

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[BrainBuff]

I agree with batch5000. You do not give any specific about your ECs and shadowing, but definitely your GPA and your alma mater are both the problem. I am not really surprised that you did not get any acceptances. When you have competitive Florida schools like UM, UF, USF and FSU, such a low GPA from a lower tier undergrad school like UCF does not look good at all.

Strengthen your academics and volunteering and make sure you apply broadly (especially out of state privates - Drexel, etc) next cycle.

 

[STAT EKG]

First off - I'm pretty surprised you didn't get in this cycle. Second - don't do a special masters post-bacc. Take another year of college at the best university in your state and rock 32 credits of A's in upper division sciences. Get solid clinical experience during this time - not that candystriper or hospital gift shop crap. Find a free clinic where they let you interact with patients, or find something decent at a hospital. Find some physicians to shadow. Don't retake the MCAT. Just get the GPA up to a 3.4 and you should be set.

Cheers

This. Also, apply in June - as others have said. Also, someone mentioned you may not have applied broadly enough, so apply more broadly. I had multiple MD interviews with a 3.0/30 and no MD rejections (granted my low GPA is sort of a weird situation that I won't get into here), so it's hard to believe that you wouldn't get some interviews (and acceptances) this cycle.

Typically I'd tell someone *not* to apply for a second time in a row if their application hasn't significantly improved, as this is kind of a silly idea... but you appled late and not broadly, so I think if you just do those things you'll get some interviews.

Also realize that med schools aren't going to see anything you do this year from your application, so you'll have to send in updates to schools individually.

 

[sdausuzhe]

Yeah, might not be your GPA, tho. The lack of ECs is more likely, but how many interviews did you get out of the schools you applied to?

If you didn't get many interviews, you should seriously consider whether you had a poisonous LOR. I know that there are some (a lot) of professors who will gladly write students letters of rec - and students think, "yay! Dr. Serious is happy to write me a letter!" but that prof will be completely honest with the adcoms in order to shore up their credibility (meaning they'll write something like: "Joe achieved an A in Cell Kinetics, but frequently missed class and still expected to monopolize my office hours. While he would doubtless be an acceptable candidate for medical school, I can think of several more exceptional students from that class alone.") and it kills your app.

Happened to my friend (after 3 cycles, he finally just straight-up asked his letter writers what they said). Just something to think about.

Wow. So 3 cycles? Is he going for a 4th cycle? I am heading towards the end of my 2nd cycle (but I did not apply to med school right away so I am already as old as someone applying for the 6th time or something). From what I've heard many schools do not even look at your LOR until after the interview... Anyway, I think that PS might be important? Or the interview itself if you got it.

And to add with my own disappointing example: I have the same ugrad gpa with no upward trend, from a top school, slightly higher mcat, but insignificantly. Last year I applied widely and got 1 interview ->rejected. I went into smp (I don't believe they will reject you if you have >3.0 and 35+ mcat, are you sure you got rejected from smp??).
Anyway I had 3.8+ in the smp and got 2 interviews other than the smp, just got my 2nd rejection. At the smp I interviewed also but somehow I doubt that it will not be a rejection.. So I suspect in my case I just buried myself on the interviews. But the question is if you have the numbers gpa/mcat and still get rejected, any point in reapplying? Or just drink yourself to death? I do not have any outside work experience and I could not get any decent job outside of medicine.

 

[sdausuzhe]

Dude, with those stats you are a shoo-in for DO school. Hit up the DO doctor, get a LOR, and snap your fingers.

Hm, althought I did not shadow a DO doctor, it's not a requirement at many schools including NOVA. I would not mind going to school there but I got rejected without any interview. P.s. I was in florida last summer and called a bunch of DO doctors if I could shadow them and none of them called me back.

 

[sdausuzhe]

Its not too late to apply for a job that starts in May. Work for a year and reapply this fall with a better app.

Most people apply for jobs in a hospital, but without a medical or nursing degree the best job you can get is a paper pusher, something that has nothing to do with patient care and won't give you any real medical experience to put on your resume.

I went the other route and applied for research jobs. Apply for Research Tech positions at local med schools that do research. A Research Tech pretty much does the same thing you did in Undergraduate Research (I'm assuming you did that or knows someone who did...). So the work is pretty interesting and challenging. Pays like 30k a year by me to.

It's not something you want to do as a career, but its not bad at all to work for a year in research and take evening classes to boost your GPA.
You get biomedical research experience, you get a better GPA, you make $30,000, and you get some powerful PhD's to write letters of recommendation for next year. Not all that bad really

Hm, do you think it's easy to get those jobs?? How exactly do you propose I would get one? Last year while contemplating whether to enter SMP, I applied for research tech jobs. Guess what I could not find any(i.e. send my CV to profs' emails or those job ads on unis like mt sinai, einstein, nyu, columbia and not even get any interviews, i was still getting emails like "sorry we found a more qualified candidate" in december when i was in smp). They all want "research lab experience and LOR from prior PI". Not to mention that they all want you either to commit to 2yrs or some other outrageous requirements. And btw 30k is a very low pay and the job kind of sucks. You're not doing any breakthrough experiments, you're just a lab monkey. You needed to spend 200k on your ugrad education just to beg those profs to pay you less than a teacher or a cop?

 

[VillageShaman]

Your parents are doctors, yet you did not know that you needed to do volunteer stuff, ECs, shadowing, and maybe research?

I don't believe it. Nobody is that stupid.

Hey dick. He didn't say his patents would be substitutes he said he had exposure but never did anything tangible.
A lot of people know what they have to do but can't cause scheduling is difficult.

Anyways buddy all I can say is take a gap year and try and raise some grades you aren't in a bad situations you can easily get into a med school next time.

 

[CapnCrunch]

also, you had a 35N right? Though a 35 is a great score for the MCAT, an N on the writing section is kind of weak. I know people usually consider the writing score to be unimportant, but an N is below the average, which might have made the adcoms question your ability to communicate. Could you also give your individual section scores for the test? Maybe one section was really low.

Do NOT retake the MCAT because of the writing section... People think it gets overlooked because it is overlooked. Your communication skillz are established in your PS and your interview, getting a T in writing is not going to make up for those two aspects. Also, getting an 11 in verbal is more than enough...

Apply early, get some quick shadowing done and possibly an LOR from them, ask the schools you applied to about your app and see if they respond, evaluate your previous LOR writers and maybe think about subbing a particular letter if you might have gotten negative comments. If you're willing, take some post-bacc classes to get the GPA up and in the meantime, do some research during the summer and during your post-bacc year. During your extra year, volunteer at either a hospice or something to get more established clinical experience.

What SMP did you apply to? Very odd to get rejected from it considering your stats. Maybe late app there also.

 

[jkhanh]

Or maybe he has ice in his veins, blood in his eyes, hate in his heart. And hes gonna pick the world up and drop it on yo fluxin head.

flip, you've got ice water in your veins friend.

What if the poor fellow is speaking truth? He just got rejected to all his schools man. Think about the emotional devastation!

With that said, please continue

 

[HAROLDGOODLOOKI]

hey,
A 35MCAT is great! What schools did you apply to? Did you get an interviews?

 

[vickpick]

ok, wow. So, i feel like people calling u troll and stupid were kind of harsh. On the other hand, who, which such a low GPA, does not apply to atleast a grad program?

Its not too late - atleast for a masters or a phD program in ur own institution. Take the GRE.

That mean you try for 2 things now. Apply again to MD/DO schools, and maybe get a masters or phD GPA going for urself.

 

[jboz]

OP, one question...

 

[Slack3r]

how long would that take?

I was being facetious.

 

[mvenus929]

how long would that take?

DNP... first, you need a BSN. If you already have a bachelor's degree, you can usually get on a fast track to get a BSN by taking a year or two worth of classes.

Then, you work as an RN for 2 or more years.

Then, you go for your NP, which I think lasts 1-2 years, then you go for your DNP, which lasts for another 1-2 years. So, you're looking at 8 years til you become a DNP, but two of those you're working full time as an RN.

 

[Food]

I'm pretty amazed you got rejected from that SMP. What SMP was it? To be honest though, your case doesn't surprise me. My sGPA was around yours last year and I had a 38 MCAT and I got rejected everywhere too, except for one interview which turned into a WL...

You're going to have to do a ton of clinical volunteering/shadowing etc and try to get it all on your AMCAS before June/July when you submit. If you wait a year before reapplying, you'll be able to add a lot more stuff and probably some grades as well. UCF does have some kind of a post-bacc program, I'm pretty sure. And if they don't, see if you can take some classes as a non-degree student to help boost your GPA. I'm still shocked you got rejected from an SMP though. Perhaps it was a letter?