MD Non-traditional... should I apply in September or wait?

[JoshuaNY]

I've lurked here quite some time and have really enjoyed the insights on the board. It's all been very helpful. So, here's my predicament and I'm hoping for some suggestions:

I'm a non-traditional student, 31 years old, just took my MCAT in August, but have not received my score. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and apply or just wait until next year. What are your thoughts?


Here's a bit about me to weigh the odds:

Graduated from U of Colorado - Boulder with a 3.45 GPA in environmental biology and tool all pre-med recs. Worked in a lab at UC-Boulder - one published article as the third author and multiple posters and presentations at Neuroscience along with colleagues.

Spent one full year in Santiago, Chile taking my elective courses at two universities down there (all registered as pass/fail at UC-Boulder, which hurt my GPA quite a bit) and learning Spanish fluently.

After undergrad, worked at Genentech for two years making the cancer drug Avastin and thought I would stay there, but did not like the future job prospects as much as expected. After two years, left and began writing at ESPN, building their skateboarding website (I had long been an avid skateboarder). I later became the associate editor of Transworld Skateboard Magazine.

I had always wanted to go in the direction of medicine, but at that point I had found myself a bit outside of it, so I spoke to some friends about their grad school work in public health and it gripped me. I applied to schools and got into Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a major in Epidemiology/Global Health.

I just completed that two year program in May of this 2012, receiving my MPH. One and a half years of the program were coursework (grad GPA 3.67). I also spent 7 months in Ghana implementing and completing a reliability study for an emergency medicine assessment tool, as well as collecting GPS data to improve pre-hospital systems around rural, district hospitals. The experience in hospitals abroad really sparked me to go back toward medicine and apply to MD programs.

Basically, I now have everything ready for my apps - recs written by professors, physicians and PIs who are successful in their field (all extremely positive), good extracurricular activities, everything entered - but I'm waiting on my scores.

Would you all recommend going ahead and submitting my application (I know it's considered "late" in Sept), pending my MCAT is good enough (my scores have been 30-31)? Or, would you recommend waiting?


... sorry for the essay. Would really appreciate suggestions. Thanks.

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[alpinism]

I've lurked here quite some time and have really enjoyed the insights on the board. It's all been very helpful. So, here's my predicament and I'm hoping for some suggestions:

I'm a non-traditional student, 31 years old, just took my MCAT in August, but have not received my score. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and apply or just wait until next year. What are your thoughts?


Here's a bit about me to weigh the odds:

Graduated from U of Colorado - Boulder with a 3.45 GPA in environmental biology and tool all pre-med recs. Worked in a lab at UC-Boulder - one published article as the third author and multiple posters and presentations at Neuroscience along with colleagues.

Spent one full year in Santiago, Chile taking my elective courses at two universities down there (all registered as pass/fail at UC-Boulder, which hurt my GPA quite a bit) and learning Spanish fluently.

After undergrad, worked at Genentech for two years making the cancer drug Avastin and thought I would stay there, but did not like the future job prospects as much as expected. After two years, left and began writing at ESPN, building their skateboarding website (I had long been an avid skateboarder). I later became the associate editor of Transworld Skateboard Magazine.

I had always wanted to go in the direction of medicine, but at that point I had found myself a bit outside of it, so I spoke to some friends about their grad school work in public health and it gripped me. I applied to schools and got into Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health with a major in Epidemiology/Global Health.

I just completed that two year program in May of this 2012, receiving my MPH. One and a half years of the program were coursework (grad GPA 3.67). I also spent 7 months in Ghana implementing and completing a reliability study for an emergency medicine assessment tool, as well as collecting GPS data to improve pre-hospital systems around rural, district hospitals. The experience in hospitals abroad really sparked me to go back toward medicine and apply to MD programs.

Basically, I now have everything ready for my apps - recs written by professors, physicians and PIs who are successful in their field (all extremely positive), good extracurricular activities, everything entered - but I'm waiting on my scores.

Would you all recommend going ahead and submitting my application (I know it's considered "late" in Sept), pending my MCAT is good enough (my scores have been 30-31)? Or, would you recommend waiting?


... sorry for the essay. Would really appreciate suggestions. Thanks.

Well it all depends...
Are you a NY or CO resident or neither?
What was your sGPA and how did you do in the prereqs?
Also, what specific ECs do you have in terms of clinical experience, community service, and shadowing?

You have a very interesting/unique app, and if you apply early and broadly w/ an 30+ MCAT you'll have a MUCH better chance and prob get in somewhere.

The problem is if you end up submitting now, you'll wait 4-6wks for verification and won't likely complete secondaries till Oct./Nov. This puts you at a VERY significant disadvantage (esp. w/ your GPA being on the low side) and there's a good chance you may not get in anywhere (assuming a 31 MCAT).

If you can pre-write secondaries and complete them all before Oct. and are applying broadly/smartly to 20+ schools you may have a better chance but will still be at a disadvantage.

In the end it will prob depend on your MCAT score.

 

[JoshuaNY]

Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it. Here are the answers to your questions.

Are you a NY or CO resident or neither?
I'm currently an NY resident. I live in the city. Going to apply at multiple NYC schools and upstate as well. Probably will apply to NYU, NY Med college, Albany, Cornell for the heck of it, St Louis, U Minnesota, BU, Tulane, Case Western, U of Illinois, Rush med school, U of Wisconsin, MCOW, Case Western and honestly, a plethora of other schools, particularly those supposedly friendly to the non-trad. Will be 20+ total. May put in some DO schools too. Grew up in WI, so would like to go back there, but I'd honestly go anywhere.

What was your sGPA and how did you do in the prereqs?
SGPA is 3.25 total for all bio/sci/math (that's including all my environmental bio coursework, MD prereqs, calculus, genetics, anatomy, physiology, etc). My MD GPA is 3.45 (for the AAMC prereqs of 1 yr bio, 1 yr physics, 2 yr chem including ochem, 1 yr English... I know those aren't the complete list of prereqs for all schools, but the ones listed as a simple baseline for prereqs on AAMC).

Also, what specific ECs do you have in terms of clinical experience, community service, and shadowing?
- worked at U of Wisconsin Clinical Center for Neurology for most of youth (from 1994-1999 pretty much) where I was exposed to patients with ALS on a daily basis, though my duties were primarily clerical
-have shadowed my brother, who is a neurosurgeon multiple times
- volunteered at UCSD Thornton hospital in San Diego for a full year (08-09), when I worked at Genentech, where I mostly stocked supplies in the ICU, but also got a great deal of patient interaction and interaction with the nurses/doctors there
- volunteered as tutor of English to immigrants while in Boulder
- was managing editor of pretty prominent global health journal here at Columbia while in MPH program
- pretty extensive exposure to rural and largely undeserved hospital settings during 7 mo. Practicum in Ghana and shadowed doctors, med assistants and nurses there
- doing epidemiology communication fellowship now at Columbia, even though I just graduated
-Life boy scout
- national scholastics art award In pottery in high school... Know that's out of scope, but definitely a bunch of diff experiences... Not sure if those are strong in the eyes of an Adcom.

... Anyway, as you said it probably depends heavily on my MCAT. Would rather apply and get the ball rolling, but if there's a huge chance I'll have to spend all that money and then do it all again, I would rather not. The odds would be much better, I'm sure if I did it all early next year.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions. Thanks.

 

[theseeker4]

Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate it. Here are the answers to your questions.

Are you a NY or CO resident or neither?
I'm currently an NY resident. I live in the city. Going to apply at multiple NYC schools and upstate as well. Probably will apply to NYU, NY Med college, Albany, Cornell for the heck of it, St Louis, U Minnesota, BU, Tulane, Case Western, U of Illinois, Rush med school, U of Wisconsin, MCOW, Case Western and honestly, a plethora of other schools, particularly those supposedly friendly to the non-trad. Will be 20+ total. May put in some DO schools too. Grew up in WI, so would like to go back there, but I'd honestly go anywhere.

What was your sGPA and how did you do in the prereqs?
SGPA is 3.25 total for all bio/sci/math (that's including all my environmental bio coursework, MD prereqs, calculus, genetics, anatomy, physiology, etc). My MD GPA is 3.45 (for the AAMC prereqs of 1 yr bio, 1 yr physics, 2 yr chem including ochem, 1 yr English... I know those aren't the complete list of prereqs for all schools, but the ones listed as a simple baseline for prereqs on AAMC).

Also, what specific ECs do you have in terms of clinical experience, community service, and shadowing?
- worked at U of Wisconsin Clinical Center for Neurology for most of youth (from 1994-1999 pretty much) where I was exposed to patients with ALS on a daily basis, though my duties were primarily clerical
-have shadowed my brother, who is a neurosurgeon multiple times
- volunteered at UCSD Thornton hospital in San Diego for a full year (08-09), when I worked at Genentech, where I mostly stocked supplies in the ICU, but also got a great deal of patient interaction and interaction with the nurses/doctors there
- volunteered as tutor of English to immigrants while in Boulder
- was managing editor of pretty prominent global health journal here at Columbia while in MPH program
- pretty extensive exposure to rural and largely undeserved hospital settings during 7 mo. Practicum in Ghana and shadowed doctors, med assistants and nurses there
- doing epidemiology communication fellowship now at Columbia, even though I just graduated
-Life boy scout
- national scholastics art award In pottery in high school... Know that's out of scope, but definitely a bunch of diff experiences... Not sure if those are strong in the eyes of an Adcom.

... Anyway, as you said it probably depends heavily on my MCAT. Would rather apply and get the ball rolling, but if there's a huge chance I'll have to spend all that money and then do it all again, I would rather not. The odds would be much better, I'm sure if I did it all early next year.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions. Thanks.

Pretty good chance you will have to reapply. If the money spent now is worth a marginal chance at admission this cycle, go ahead and apply. If you would rather wait a year than go through this twice, which is most likely what will happen if you apply now, submit your application the first day it opens next cycle.

 

[JoshuaNY]

Thanks for the assessment. Yeah, it's really a cost-benefit analysis at this point. I would like to get it moving, but I know I'm applying late already and it puts me at a disadvantage. Guess I'll see how that MCAT comes out to decide if it's worth the money.

Fingers crossed, for sure. I appreciate your insight.

 

[alpinism]

Yeah, I agree w/ Seeker.

You might have a shot at IS NY schools this cycle is you get everything done ASAP. I'd def recommend applying to all NY state schools (buffalo/upstate/downstate/stony). Most likely if u do get in it will only be to 1 or 2 low-tier schools and it won't be till late in the cycle. But, understand its a long-shot unless you get a >32 MCAT. If you really want to go back to Wisconsin/Midwest for MD you'd have a much better shot submitting next June.

You have a great app for DO and would likely get in most places you apply (CCOM in Chicago or DMU in Iowa are 2 of the best DO schools and are nearby WI).

If you have the money/time you can submit this cycle to MD only (try to stick to schools your sGPA is above the 10th percentile) and then if needed apply to DO and MD early next cycle.

 

[JoshuaNY]

Very helpful suggestions. One last question... If I apply exclusively to the NY MD schools this cycle, how detrimental is that to my applications next year if I have to apply again?

Or is that not really as big a deal as everyone makes it?

 

[notbobtrustme]

I'd wait. Having your app not even verified in Sept is a deal-killer.

 

[coolingglasses]

You'd only be considered a reapplicant for schools you applied to--so... no effect on your applications to other schools in a future cycle.