Longtime lurker, first time poster

[WY2CA]

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I will preface this by saying I really have no idea what I am doing... so here goes.
I will be a Senior next year at the University of San Diego and only recently have I decided to pursue Medical school. I had interest in going to Medical School in High School, but during my first year in College I decied that I did not want any part to do with medical school. However, I was able to go abroad to the Netherlands last fall where I enrolled in a Health Care Economics class. This class single handedly turned around my interest around and pushed me into pursing medical school. I am now invigorated to pursue a career in Rural Medicine. When I came to this realization... It think I was a bit behind my peers. Pre-med student that I know have been so much more dedicated, have had numerous volunteer hours etc...As a result I feel as if I am way behind and would appreciate a little help. I realize that this is my first post to the forum please don't hold it against me as I become more fluent with the entire process I will try to offer helpful advice to other, but as I said before I really have no idea what I am doing therefore it is difficult for me to give advice. if you guys could offer potential schools for me to apply to or simply comment on what my chances would be, or if I should just scrap this entire idea.

State Residency- Wyoming 18 years and proud (not a hick...edumicated)
Undergrad- Univ. of San Diego
Major- Biology, Biochemistry, and Economics. With minors in Physics and Math
GPA- 3.74 sGPA-3.66
MCAT- I studied one week for the test (which apparently is like winging it) and I go a 32.
Shadowing- I shadowed a Surgeon in High school received both clinical and surgical observational hours
Volunteer experience- None really here and there for an event or two. nothing major really.
Research- 1 summer of research in chemistry got published and 1 summer of Health Economic research.
Other- I took a W-EMT course with Nols and I am an avid skier so I was going to try to get on ski patrol next year.

If you could help me out by saying if I am even a possible candidate and if so what school and what are my chances I would really appreciate that.

I was thinking Univ of Washington (WWAMI), Univ. of Southern Claif, Univ or Oregon HS, or Univ. of New Mexico...I also like Chicago... don't know my chances at Northwestern, Univ of Chicago, Ros Frank, or Rush.

Thanks once again🙂

 

[boshtrich]

I will preface this by saying I really have no idea what I am doing... so here goes.
I will be a Senior next year at the University of San Diego and only recently have I decided to pursue Medical school. I had interest in going to Medical School in High School, but during my first year in College I decied that I did not want any part to do with medical school. However, I was able to go abroad to the Netherlands last fall where I enrolled in a Health Care Economics class. This class single handedly turned around my interest around and pushed me into pursing medical school. I am now invigorated to pursue a career in Rural Medicine. When I came to this realization... It think I was a bit behind my peers. Pre-med student that I know have been so much more dedicated, have had numerous volunteer hours etc...As a result I feel as if I am way behind and would appreciate a little help. I realize that this is my first post to the forum please don't hold it against me as I become more fluent with the entire process I will try to offer helpful advice to other, but as I said before I really have no idea what I am doing therefore it is difficult for me to give advice. if you guys could offer potential schools for me to apply to or simply comment on what my chances would be, or if I should just scrap this entire idea.

State Residency- Wyoming 18 years and proud (not a hick...edumicated)
Undergrad- Univ. of San Diego
Major- Biology, Biochemistry, and Economics. With minors in Physics and Math
GPA- 3.74 sGPA-3.66
MCAT- I studied one week for the test (which apparently is like winging it) and I go a 32.
Shadowing- I shadowed a Surgeon in High school received both clinical and surgical observational hours
Volunteer experience- None really here and there for an event or two. nothing major really.
Research- 1 summer of research in chemistry got published and 1 summer of Health Economic research.
Other- I took a W-EMT course with Nols and I am an avid skier so I was going to try to get on ski patrol next year.

If you could help me out by saying if I am even a possible candidate and if so what school and what are my chances I would really appreciate that.

I was thinking Univ of Washington (WWAMI), Univ. of Southern Claif, Univ or Oregon HS, or Univ. of New Mexico...I also like Chicago... don't know my chances at Northwestern, Univ of Chicago, Ros Frank, or Rush.

Thanks once again🙂

From a stat standpoint you are a good candidate for MD and well above average for DO. However, the lack of clinical experience and volunteering could scare school off and hurt your chances. I think you could really improve your application by taking a year off and doing lots of volunteering. If you are dead set on applying this cycle, I would apply broadly to mostly mid tier schools. Washington, OHSU, Chicago Pritzker, and Northwestern would all be reaches. New Mexico heavily favors IS, though I don't know how WWAMI plays into that. Rush also favors Illinois residents and can be very hard for OOS people to get into. RFU would probably be a good school to apply to. I would look around on SDN and see some school lists of people with similar stats and see which of those schools you would be willing to go to. Schools that come to mind off the top of my head are Albany, Creighton, Drexel, Hofstra, Loyola, NYMC, St. Louis, and Toledo. I'm sure there are also several other schools that would be good. I can't really speak for DO schools. Overall, you have a decent chance this cycle, but the lack of volunteering could hurt you. If you took a year off to address that, you should be in good shape.

 

[mcm628]

I will preface this by saying I really have no idea what I am doing... so here goes.
I will be a Senior next year at the University of San Diego and only recently have I decided to pursue Medical school. I had interest in going to Medical School in High School, but during my first year in College I decied that I did not want any part to do with medical school. However, I was able to go abroad to the Netherlands last fall where I enrolled in a Health Care Economics class. This class single handedly turned around my interest around and pushed me into pursing medical school. I am now invigorated to pursue a career in Rural Medicine. When I came to this realization... It think I was a bit behind my peers. Pre-med student that I know have been so much more dedicated, have had numerous volunteer hours etc...As a result I feel as if I am way behind and would appreciate a little help. I realize that this is my first post to the forum please don't hold it against me as I become more fluent with the entire process I will try to offer helpful advice to other, but as I said before I really have no idea what I am doing therefore it is difficult for me to give advice. if you guys could offer potential schools for me to apply to or simply comment on what my chances would be, or if I should just scrap this entire idea.

State Residency- Wyoming 18 years and proud (not a hick...edumicated)
Undergrad- Univ. of San Diego
Major- Biology, Biochemistry, and Economics. With minors in Physics and Math
GPA- 3.74 sGPA-3.66
MCAT- I studied one week for the test (which apparently is like winging it) and I go a 32.
Shadowing- I shadowed a Surgeon in High school received both clinical and surgical observational hours
Volunteer experience- None really here and there for an event or two. nothing major really.
Research- 1 summer of research in chemistry got published and 1 summer of Health Economic research.
Other- I took a W-EMT course with Nols and I am an avid skier so I was going to try to get on ski patrol next year.

If you could help me out by saying if I am even a possible candidate and if so what school and what are my chances I would really appreciate that.

I was thinking Univ of Washington (WWAMI), Univ. of Southern Claif, Univ or Oregon HS, or Univ. of New Mexico...I also like Chicago... don't know my chances at Northwestern, Univ of Chicago, Ros Frank, or Rush.

Thanks once again🙂

Get it USD! 🙂

 

[WY2CA]

@Bosh
Thanks for the advice I agree with you as well that my major weakness would be my lack of volunteering and clinical experience. Although I forgot to ad that with my WEMT I did receive clinical experience, but once again not as much as other that I have seen on this forum. When you said those schools were reaches, which I agree with you on, were they reaches because of my lack of volunteering experience, or my stats (MCAT/GPA), or both?

I threw in Univ of Wash in there because of WWAMI and according to something that I found on the UW site WY residents have a 40% acceptance rate into the program. Also WY and MT residents only are given some sort of special consideration at OHSU and UNM Med and I think at most other WICHE schools.

Hypothetically speaking would it be possible to get accepted this cycle, differ one year and apply next cycle while still maintaining the differment?

Should I retake the MCAT and actually study for it like others do to improve my score?

...and I am not that pretentious of a person, are all MD degrees the same? Does it really matter later in life where one went to Med school?

 

[boshtrich]

@Bosh
Thanks for the advice I agree with you as well that my major weakness would be my lack of volunteering and clinical experience. Although I forgot to ad that with my WEMT I did receive clinical experience, but once again not as much as other that I have seen on this forum. When you said those schools were reaches, which I agree with you on, were they reaches because of my lack of volunteering experience, or my stats (MCAT/GPA), or both?

I threw in Univ of Wash in there because of WWAMI and according to something that I found on the UW site WY residents have a 40% acceptance rate into the program. Also WY and MT residents only are given some sort of special consideration at OHSU and UNM Med and I think at most other WICHE schools.

Hypothetically speaking would it be possible to get accepted this cycle, differ one year and apply next cycle while still maintaining the differment?

Should I retake the MCAT and actually study for it like others do to improve my score?

...and I am not that pretentious of a person, are all MD degrees the same? Does it really matter later in life where one went to Med school?

I think as long as you have some clinical experience you should be okay. I wouldn't get intimidated by the people on here with thousands of volunteering hours. As long as you have enough to convince schools you know what you are getting into, you should be fine. The schools that are reaches are reaches due to both stats and experience, and just because they tend to be very competitive. You could get a deferment, but it generally needs to be for a good reason (Teach for America, Americorps, Fulbright, research opportunity, etc). However, most schools do not let you apply for other schools during the deferred year. I think your MCAT is fine. You are kind of in the weird range of scores that are good enough to get in, but below average for many top schools. If you are confident you can score higher, I would say go for it. As for where you go to school mattering, I personally feel that it matters, but not for prestige reasons. There are some people that are dead set on certain specialties, but the majority of people decide this based on their experiences in med school. Since every school has different faculty and different strengths and weaknesses, where you go to school will likely impact which specialty you decide to pursue. However, I do not think where you go to school plays a big role in your ability to match for residency. Going to a top school will probably help for the top residency programs, but for the most part, an MD is an MD, regardless of where it is from. Going to a lower ranked school will not close any doors.

 

[DO.ctor]

Considering you're only getting started on this path, you've got a good start. I would not worry for one second about where your peers are. I'm 29 and pursuing this. You're academics are clearly strong. If I were you, I would study and retake the MCAT. It seems like you can easily better that score. I also agree with others that more volunteering, shadowing, or even clinical exp would help.

On a side note, I have a spot for the Sept-Oct NOLS W-EMT. What are your thoughts on the program? Did you find work after?

 

[WY2CA]

How do most people get clinical experience? As aforementioned I had some in High School that was set up through a shadowing program through my high school. I don't really know any doctors so there is no one really to ask.... I have heard that volunteering at a hospital a lot of times you just sort and file papers. Does this count as clinical experience? or are there hospitals out there that allow you to actually get pt. contact?

@Mdizzie
My WEMT program was one of the best experiences of my life. Not neccessarly because of the content, but because of the people in my class and my instructors. I definitely met some great friends that I still keep in contact with and visit whenever I can. Throughout the entire course I came to the realization that EMT-Basics really can't do anything. The final test you take for the NREMT is complete bull**** and very poorly written in my opinon. The content is easy though.

As for work...I love skiing so I moonlight as ski patrol in the winters and I also love to downhill bike so I do patrol in the summer when resorts turn into bike parks. I have heard that finding work is really dependent upon where you are looking for work and who you know. In some cities it is easier to find work than others and if you have an in then that is all the better. Also being fluent in Spanish is a plus as well. So it really all depends...Sorry I can't provide more info.