Made some improvements, worth applying to MD schools?

[libraryismyhome]

I applied in 2011 but didn't get any interviews. I had major flaws including three low MCATs, low verbal scores, and not having permanent residency until January 2012. Yes, I am aware that my chances at allo schools are still very slim.. But I don't want to give up. Since last year, I have been working at NIH, had a poster presentation, and several authorships are coming soon.

Here are my stats.

Ethnicity: Asian
Status: FL resident, permanent resident
Application Verified, submitted 6 secondaries out of 20

GPA: 3.73 sGPA, 3.76 cGPA (1 W in non-prereq and 1 C+ in prereq during freshman year)
upward trend: 3.61 Freshman, 3.68 sophomore, 3.74 junior, 3.97 senior
Summa Cum Laude

MCAT:
11 PS, 6VR, 11BS 28Q (Sept/2010) (expire in Sept 2013)
9 PS, 7VR, 11BS 27M (Jan/2011)
10PS, 7VR, 11BS 28Q (May/2011)
11 PS, 8VR, 11 BS 30 (Jul/2013)
*English is my second language.

Volunteering:
(1) Medical: 500+ hours in large and small hospitals since high school, homeless clinic for 3 years, nursing home, hospice, and mission trip
(2) non-medical: Big Bro Big Sis (1 year) and short term volunteerism through club (90 hours), Sunday school teacher

Leadership:
Vice president of martial art club
President of a community service club, projects including serving meals to homeless, habitat for humanity, and fundraising activity


Research:
(1) 6 months in Entomology, just doing PCR
(2) 2.5 years in Pharmacology, poster, and senior thesis
(3) worked as a clinical research student under the chairman of Neurology Department in UF, designed my project, but not IRB approved due to not being a med student
(4) NIH IRTA research: independent project, poster, authorships in Cell

Shadowing:
ER, ENT, Neurologist, Family Practitioner, Pediatrician, and Internist (total 70 hours)

LORs:
1 NIH Principal Investigator
1 dean (science letter 1)
1 p-chem prof (science letter 2)
1 writing instructor (non science letter)
*Two deans in Univ Florida COM attempt to defend my low MCAT VR in their LORs.


Schools
OOS:
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Creighton
Drexel
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Georgetown
Howard
Med college of wisconsin
Morehouse
Oakland
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Rush Med
Temple
Commonwealth
Virginia Commonwealth

FL schools
FSU:
FAU
FIU
UF
USF
UCF
Miami

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[gyngyn]

With the exception of the HBCU's, your list is good. Success would be much more likely with the addition of a few DO schools, though.

BTW, MCAT scores never expire. They may no longer be useful if they don't fall into the time frame required by a specific school but they never disappear from the AMCAS application. Good luck.

 

[Catalystik]

Made some improvements, worth applying to MD schools?

I applied in 2011 but didn't get any interviews. I had major flaws including three low MCATs, low verbal scores, and not having permanent residency until January 2012. Yes, I am aware that my chances at allo schools are still very slim.. But I don't want to give up. Since last year, I have been working at NIH, had a poster presentation, and several authorships are coming soon.

Here are my stats.

Ethnicity: Asian
Status: FL resident, permanent resident
Application Verified, submitted 6 secondaries out of 20

GPA: 3.73 sGPA, 3.76 cGPA (1 W in non-prereq and 1 C+ in prereq during freshman year)
upward trend: 3.61 Freshman, 3.68 sophomore, 3.74 junior, 3.97 senior
Summa Cum Laude

MCAT:
11 PS, 6VR, 11BS 28Q (Sept/2010) (expire in Sept 2013)
9 PS, 7VR, 11BS 27M (Jan/2011)
10PS, 7VR, 11BS 28Q (May/2011)
11 PS, 8VR, 11 BS 30 (Jul/2013)
*English is my second language.

Volunteering:
(1) Medical: 500+ hours in large and small hospitals since high school, homeless clinic for 3 years, nursing home, hospice, and mission trip
(2) non-medical: Big Bro Big Sis (1 year) and short term volunteerism through club (90 hours), Sunday school teacher

Leadership:
Vice president of martial art club
President of a community service club, projects including serving meals to homeless, habitat for humanity, and fundraising activity


Research:
(1) 6 months in Entomology, just doing PCR
(2) 2.5 years in Pharmacology, poster, and senior thesis
(3) worked as a clinical research student under the chairman of Neurology Department in UF, designed my project, but not IRB approved due to not being a med student
(4) NIH IRTA research: independent project, poster, authorships in Cell

Shadowing:
ER, ENT, Neurologist, Family Practitioner, Pediatrician, and Internist (total 70 hours)

LORs:
1 NIH Principal Investigator
1 dean (science letter 1)
1 p-chem prof (science letter 2)
1 writing instructor (non science letter)
*Two deans in Univ Florida COM attempt to defend my low MCAT VR in their LORs.


Schools
OOS:
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Creighton
Drexel
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Georgetown
Howard
Med college of wisconsin
Morehouse
Oakland
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Rush Med
Temple
Commonwealth
Virginia Commonwealth

FL schools
FSU:
FAU
FIU
UF
USF
UCF
Miami

I think you have a decent chance at MD schools. Did you consider Virginia Tech?

 

[clubwestpua]

Nvm

 

[libraryismyhome]

I think you have a decent chance at MD schools. Did you consider Virginia Tech?

Vtech?? thought their stats are far above mine, but if you think I have a decent shot there I would definitely add it. In fact, I lived in Blacksburg with my fam during my first year in U.S, and to learn English and keep up with high school course work, I spent my evenings at Vtech library. I added this story in my primary personal statement back in 2011, and this was also the reason I decided to use "libraryismyhome" as my sdn id. haha

 

[gdfernan]

Add Albany, Quinnipiac & Hofstra. Rethink Drexel, Temple and Georgetown because they apparently get 10k plus applications.

 

[alpinism]

Take off the HBCUs and look into adding places like Toledo, Albany, Vermont, and Loyola.

 

[clubwestpua]

best wishes!

 

[libraryismyhome]

thank you guys!

Just added Toledo, Quinnipac, Albany, and Vtech, am going to hold off temple and georgetown, already submitted the secondary for drexel

For Hofstra, however, my mcat is bottom 10% of their last year's class according to MSAR...

 

[mehc012]

thank you guys!

Just added Toledo, Quinnipac, Albany, and Vtech, am going to hold off temple and georgetown, already submitted the secondary for drexel

For Hofstra, however, my mcat is bottom 10% of their last year's class according to MSAR...

I think the main critique everyone is giving your list (in a rather cryptic fashion, if you ask me) is to leave out Howard and Morehouse because they are Historically Black colleges and therefore prefer URMs, which you are not.

At least, I think that's what they mean by "HBCUs"...seems odd to use an abbreviation here, though, because it seems to me that if someone already knew what an HBCU was and which ones qualify, they wouldn't be included on the list in the first place So, maybe they mean something else? Either way, you should probably remove Morehouse and Howard
Good luck!

 

[Catalystik]

"Historically Black" doesn't mean exclusively Black Colleges. SDN has seen white, hispanic, and asian members accepted to these institutions where their ECs fulfilled the stated mission of each school. Generally that means some years of committed service to those with poor economic resources, often with a related leadership experience.

 

[mehc012]

"Historically Black" doesn't mean exclusively Black Colleges. SDN has seen white, hispanic, and asian members accepted to these institutions where their ECs fulfilled the stated mission of each school. Generally that means some years of committed service to those with poor economic resources, often with a related leadership experience.

Hey, my only knowledge of the issue is that on every WAMC with a list, there is a post saying "you should avoid x and y, they're Historically Black colleges"...so I assumed that's what was meant this time as well! As I said, I'm not sure that's what the acronym was intended to show...but if it was, it seemed odd to use the acronym.

And yes, now that you've pointed it out, on the few threads with any explanation, they did tend to say "unless you've shown commitments to the URM community" rather than BEING URM...but in any case, nothing of the sort was mentioned for OP!

Thanks Cat!

 

[kmp0410]

I would think you have a good shot at FL schools. The only thing that hurts you really is your MCAT, which even with the most recent one you haven't shown significant improvement. That standalone 30 would have gotten you in somewhere, with it being your 4th try it will certainly hurt. That said, its always Verbal that's keeping your score down and since English is your second language that's a valid excuse.

I would throw in some DO's as backups, but I think you have a solid chance for MD.

 

[libraryismyhome]

Got into USF College of Medicine!!! Thank you so much for both helpful and encouraging comments!!!

 

[DrCharlemagne]

Congrats!

 

[Goro]

Kudos to you!

 

[Catalystik]

Got into USF College of Medicine!!! Thank you so much for both helpful and encouraging comments!!!

Congrats! That's great to hear.

 

[alpinism]

Congrats!