Brand new to this site, so as far as I can tell this is the right place to post this, but if not please redirect me. I don't really want to put much information online right now, but I am wondering about how I should approach applying. I am hoping to go to med school in-state or nearby (in the midwest) and would prefer MD. I was getting outdated information regarding the application process and was kind of on the fence for my first couple years about doing a PhD vs MD (combined with some other factors). I am going into my last semester of undergrad and am severely lacking patient interaction clinical hours. I am hopefully set up to get myself to around 100-150 hours this semester before I was hoping to apply in June. My GPA is average for matriculants of my race and I like to think I have pretty solid research background (2 summers with NIH doing bench and clinical as well as undergrad research). Obligatory note that I have not taken the MCAT yet, but will do that in March, obviously this is all moot if that doesn't go well. My extracurriculars aren't in a terrible spot, but could probably be better (mostly work with global students at my school and tutoring an unhoused high school student in math).
I understand that clinical experience is very important and having none or very little will kill my app and I am trying to rectify that, albeit last minute. I was considering putting just a few applications into schools (obviously assuming MCAT goes well) that I would really like to go to this spring as my first go around to see what happens. I am planning to work some sort of clinical job after I graduate for at least a year to rectify my lack of clinical hours and will plan to pick up some other non-clinical community service during my gap year to strengthen that aspect of my application as well. Is it a bad idea to send in kind of a "hail mary" application to those few schools and hope that I can articulate my desire to work in medicine and that I do understand the reality of the field in my personal statement to see what happens? Or will being a re-applicant put me at a significant disadvantage where there is an expectation of me to greatly improve my application? I am assuming that clinical and community service hours would be the primary weakness of my application and so would just focusing on fixing those up be sufficient to show that I did work to improve my application? Am I just better off accepting the two gap years right now and turning in a more solid first application?
P.S. While it is obviously not the same as having a lot of firsthand patient interaction, I grew up with a parent who is a PA and tells me a lot about their experiences regarding the field as a whole, have done ~50 hours of shadowing and had 100+ hospital volunteering hours in high school, so I think I have at least a decent idea of what a career in healthcare entails.
I understand that clinical experience is very important and having none or very little will kill my app and I am trying to rectify that, albeit last minute. I was considering putting just a few applications into schools (obviously assuming MCAT goes well) that I would really like to go to this spring as my first go around to see what happens. I am planning to work some sort of clinical job after I graduate for at least a year to rectify my lack of clinical hours and will plan to pick up some other non-clinical community service during my gap year to strengthen that aspect of my application as well. Is it a bad idea to send in kind of a "hail mary" application to those few schools and hope that I can articulate my desire to work in medicine and that I do understand the reality of the field in my personal statement to see what happens? Or will being a re-applicant put me at a significant disadvantage where there is an expectation of me to greatly improve my application? I am assuming that clinical and community service hours would be the primary weakness of my application and so would just focusing on fixing those up be sufficient to show that I did work to improve my application? Am I just better off accepting the two gap years right now and turning in a more solid first application?
P.S. While it is obviously not the same as having a lot of firsthand patient interaction, I grew up with a parent who is a PA and tells me a lot about their experiences regarding the field as a whole, have done ~50 hours of shadowing and had 100+ hospital volunteering hours in high school, so I think I have at least a decent idea of what a career in healthcare entails.
