Just looking for feedback

[wjin06]

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I'm planning on applying and would love feedback on my situation, and sorry in advance cause it's soo long!

In high school, I did whatever I was interested in, which resulted in me being in a huge number of clubs and having many leadership positions in them. It was this experience that really led me to deciding, right before college, that I wanted to be a doctor. Before coming to college, I (yes, I actually did this) went through what I wanted to get out of my next few years and made some specific and some ambiguous plans on how I could achieve those goals.

What's relevant now is that I decided then that I would refrain from doing much extracurricular activities as I had done in high school for a number of reasons. First, the thing that worried me most about being a doctor wasn't whether it was what I wanted to do, but whether I was "smart" enough for it. I've always struggled a bit with academics and wanted to really focus on this in college. To summarize, I consciously opted not to do these activities because I wanted to focus on my schoolwork, among other other reasons. My family was also going through a rough patch and I had some other personal reasons for making that decision.

Of course, now I'm applying and have very little I can put down in my ECs section, and I'm wondering what chances I have of getting in.

3.5ish GPA (Carleton College - Top 10 if any care/don't know)
32M
Did research at the Mayo Clinic for 3 summers and have my name on 3 papers, have done some research at school, and will be spending this next summer working in a bio lab here, (but I'm really not interested in doing MD/PhD in the future, it's a combo of it being the most practical and fun thing to do)
Worked as a camp counselor for kids with ADHD/Autism one summer
Did a little bit of tutoring during freshman and sophomore years
Volunteered on and off at Salvation Army Free Clinic as a "nurse" for a couple breaks
Worked as a nursing assistant for a month during a break

Suggestions?

 

[apnea]

As far as ECs go, the overwhelming response will be quality > quantity.

ECs aren't REQUIRED, really...sort of an "unofficial" thing. Really when it comes down to it, if the guy sitting beside you has the same stats (by this i mean GPA, MCAT, LORs, interview went just as well, etc.) as you do and he volunteered to feed poor starving one armed gimp African kids who were born without bodies (head trip right there), and you didn't, he'd probably be the one to get in. but if the same guy spent like 3 hours in a thousand different volunteer/EC areas, he's not likely to get much out of it and therefore would probably be a pretty boring person. Adcoms don't like to be bored.

Don't get involved in something to pad up your app, that will shine through like a hillbilly with a new set of dentures. Get involved because it's something that interests you, or it's something you believe in, or it's a cause you think is worthy of your time, etc. Don't feed starving Bolivians if you'd rather scoop poop out of kitten cages at an animal shelter down the street.

 

[DrPsychiatry]

well, the adcoms that I've talked to said that 200+ hours of both research and clinical ARE vital these days. unless you ahve 3.8 and 34 or better or something

 

[wjin06]

I'm not worried about trying to pad my resume though. I really just don't have much, as you can see from above.

 

[apnea]

If you're concerned about it, fix it Even the crappiest places in the world have a ton of ways to get involved in something worth doing, and there's no shortage of hungry Africans. Or kittens with dirty cages. Ohh...how i do love kittens

 

[wjin06]

Except I don't think I'll have time before I apply to run to Africa and get in +200 hours worth of clinical experience I'm planning on doing a number of volunter stuff this summer since I'll have time for once, but I don't even think I'll be putting those on my app since med schools might think that's just me trying to pad my resume or something.

 

[apnea]

International stuff like that is overrated, there are plenty of starving babies right here. Don't worry about that

How many hours do you have in at your existing ECs? If you've been with them from the beginning, go back and put some more time in. You've got a strong GPA and a good MCAT (go team you btw ), make sure your LORs are strong and worry about getting substance out of your volunteer work. Yes it's a good thing to have, and typically you don't get into straight MD/DO programs without it, but adcoms really just want to see that you're capable of giving back to your community, and sometimes it gives them a bit of a clue as to who you are outside of your app.

 

[Madame]

The research is going to jump out at anyone who looks at your application. You have some clinical experience and you've done some service to the needy. You are good to go.

 

[gsmithers68]

I'm planning on applying and would love feedback on my situation, and sorry in advance cause it's soo long!

In high school, I did whatever I was interested in, which resulted in me being in a huge number of clubs and having many leadership positions in them. It was this experience that really led me to deciding, right before college, that I wanted to be a doctor. Before coming to college, I (yes, I actually did this) went through what I wanted to get out of my next few years and made some specific and some ambiguous plans on how I could achieve those goals.

What's relevant now is that I decided then that I would refrain from doing much extracurricular activities as I had done in high school for a number of reasons. First, the thing that worried me most about being a doctor wasn't whether it was what I wanted to do, but whether I was "smart" enough for it. I've always struggled a bit with academics and wanted to really focus on this in college. To summarize, I consciously opted not to do these activities because I wanted to focus on my schoolwork, among other other reasons. My family was also going through a rough patch and I had some other personal reasons for making that decision.

Of course, now I'm applying and have very little I can put down in my ECs section, and I'm wondering what chances I have of getting in.

3.5ish GPA (Carleton College - Top 10 if any care/don't know)
32M
Did research at the Mayo Clinic for 3 summers and have my name on 3 papers, have done some research at school, and will be spending this next summer working in a bio lab here, (but I'm really not interested in doing MD/PhD in the future, it's a combo of it being the most practical and fun thing to do)
Worked as a camp counselor for kids with ADHD/Autism one summer
Did a little bit of tutoring during freshman and sophomore years
Volunteered on and off at Salvation Army Free Clinic as a "nurse" for a couple breaks
Worked as a nursing assistant for a month during a break

Suggestions?

You are golden . I wouldn't worry about things too much. Apply to 15-20 schools and I bet you get at least 2-3 acceptances. That is a ton of research and I think it will really stand out. If I were you I would shadow some physicians... that seems to be the only thing I see you really missing. Get into an OR or a clinic and really watch what a doctor does on a daily basis.

 

[baylormed]

well, the adcoms that I've talked to said that 200+ hours of both research and clinical ARE vital these days. unless you ahve 3.8 and 34 or better or something

I'm sure many of us can disprove that statement. I (and I know many of my future classmates, because it was discussed) do not have any research experience.

Clinical, however, does seem to be somewhat vital these days, although I doubt there's a specific number of hours you need. The main idea is to get QUALITY clinical experience, as opposed to quantity.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

I know several Carleton pre-meds in the class of '08, and much like them, I don't think you have anything to worry about. One quick question though: how exactly did you score an M on the writing sample?

 

[wjin06]

Heh, I have no idea how I got an M. I actually feel like there's many things I'm worse at than writing.

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I have shadowed a couple of doctors.

I also want to ask, how big of a deal is it if we can't remember the names of one of the doctors shadowed? Also, when people shadow doctors, does it usually tend to be the sort of thing where you do it day after day for a few months, or in my case, I've shadowed 3 doctors for about one day per doc.

Also, how big of a deal is it if the volunteer experience we did was really lax about recording hours, and so basically, I didn't record many. In particular, I'm talking about working at the Salvation Army Clinic. I didn't even find out there was a volunteer log until a couple months after I started!

 

[Divine Furor]

well, the adcoms that I've talked to said that 200+ hours of both research and clinical ARE vital these days. unless you ahve 3.8 and 34 or better or something

This is untrue, or someone made a huge clerical error on my acceptances.

 

[NJDIF]

volunteered to feed poor starving one armed gimp African kids who were born without bodies

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Top 10 if any care/don't know

According to whom? And why should we give a flying rat's ass what they think?

 

[apnea]

I also want to ask, how big of a deal is it if we can't remember the names of one of the doctors shadowed?

That....MIGHT be one of those things you want to take care of...

As for the volunteer thing, i've never heard of them actually going and checking up on your volunteer activities. i could be way off, but it just doesn't seem like they'd care enough to go that far unless they had reason to suspect you. If it were me, i'd go back to wherever you didn't log your hours, explain the situation, and i'd bet they'll be happy to help out. Otherwise just ballpark it, i'd be surprised if it came up.

 

[TheRealMD]

The thing about volunteering is that if you haven't done it, you are practically lying in your PS about wanting to help people (or didn't mention it at all, which is equally bad) and then probably had lots of trouble in your interviews because you had little to no experiences to talk about.

Having volunteer hours shows commitment, but I don't think adcoms literally count how many hours you've done. There are MUCH easier ways to weed out applicants than based on such meaningless numbers alone (especially since it's quite easy to say you've done 300 hours if you've only done 150, it isn't that much of a stretch. You'll still have plenty of experiences to talk about. That's why it's not reliable.)

 

[wjin06]

I don't think I'll have much with interviews in terms of getting across my desire to help people. I've had tons of volunteer experience in the past, just not a ton during the college years. I just hope I get to the interview part.