Medical School Timeline

[mattpott090]

I am hoping for some advice to determine if it is still reasonable to begin applying to medical schools this late in the application cycle. A little background on myself: I graduate from Georgia Tech in 2012 with a B.S in Mechanical Engineering. I have spent the past several years as a corporate engineer.

I have yet to begin studying for the MCAT. Assuming I start tomorrow, this would give me roughly six weeks to prepare for the last MCAT exam date this year, September 23. Is it reasonable to do well on the MCAT with such a condensed study schedule.

Another concern is my lack of volunteer/shadowing hours, which is no existent in my case. I would plan to get a volunteer position ASAP so that I could have some experience to talk about during the interviews.

A few other considerations: I am still lacking chemistry and biology prerequisites, but I could complete these prior to matriculating in the Fall of 2016. I have a year of undergraduate research experience, which I believe medical schools like. Lastly, I feel that I would not have strong Letters of Evaluation, as I haven't maintained contact with my undergraduate professors since graduating.

It seems that it would be best to wait till next years application cycle, meaning a Fall 2017 matriculation. However, the idea of waiting two years from today to begin medical school is very unappealing. If anyone believes I still have a shot at this years application cycle, I would very much appreciate your thoughts.

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[SpicyFalafel]

I am hoping for some advice to determine if it is still reasonable to begin applying to medical schools this late in the application cycle. A little background on myself: I graduate from Georgia Tech in 2012 with a B.S in Mechanical Engineering. I have spent the past several years as a corporate engineer.

I have yet to begin studying for the MCAT. Assuming I start tomorrow, this would give me roughly six weeks to prepare for the last MCAT exam date this year, September 23. Is it reasonable to do well on the MCAT with such a condensed study schedule.

Another concern is my lack of volunteer/shadowing hours, which is no existent in my case. I would plan to get a volunteer position ASAP so that I could have some experience to talk about during the interviews.

A few other considerations: I am still lacking chemistry and biology prerequisites, but I could complete these prior to matriculating in the Fall of 2016. I have a year of undergraduate research experience, which I believe medical schools like. Lastly, I feel that I would not have strong Letters of Evaluation, as I haven't maintained contact with my undergraduate professors since graduating.

It seems that it would be best to wait till next years application cycle, meaning a Fall 2017 matriculation. However, the idea of waiting two years from today to begin medical school is very unappealing. If anyone believes I still have a shot at this years application cycle, I would very much appreciate your thoughts.

Sorry, your chances are zilch. Probably, you have decent cGPA/sGPA , but you still lack some pre-reqs. Also, you have no volunteering/shadowing experience.
I hate to tell you that you would be risking your MCAT score, money and time. Your app would be toast.

 

[Eccesignum]

Don't do it. You're already looking at not being verified until September, which is late. Your MCAT would then take about a month to be scored, without which nobody would look at you in the first place. And believe me you don't want to take the MCAT without your pre-reqs. It's not worth risking a bad score that will haunt you. Take it when you're ready for it.

So take the time to complete your pre-reqs, then study for the MCAT and ace it. In the meantime, work on your ECs, as without those even the best GPA/MCAT combinations get sunk. Give yourself time to spend on them and find something that really means something to you; adcoms can smell when someone's just blandly doing 20 hours to check a box on an application.

Best of luck to you.

 

[DrMidlife]

Visit the reapplicant forum. You're making almost every mistake.

 

[el_duderino]

I am hoping for some advice to determine if it is still reasonable to begin applying to medical schools this late in the application cycle. A little background on myself: I graduate from Georgia Tech in 2012 with a B.S in Mechanical Engineering. I have spent the past several years as a corporate engineer.

I have yet to begin studying for the MCAT. Assuming I start tomorrow, this would give me roughly six weeks to prepare for the last MCAT exam date this year, September 23. Is it reasonable to do well on the MCAT with such a condensed study schedule.

Another concern is my lack of volunteer/shadowing hours, which is no existent in my case. I would plan to get a volunteer position ASAP so that I could have some experience to talk about during the interviews.

A few other considerations: I am still lacking chemistry and biology prerequisites, but I could complete these prior to matriculating in the Fall of 2016. I have a year of undergraduate research experience, which I believe medical schools like. Lastly, I feel that I would not have strong Letters of Evaluation, as I haven't maintained contact with my undergraduate professors since graduating.

It seems that it would be best to wait till next years application cycle, meaning a Fall 2017 matriculation. However, the idea of waiting two years from today to begin medical school is very unappealing. If anyone believes I still have a shot at this years application cycle, I would very much appreciate your thoughts.

No, you don't have a shot this cycle. You're not even ready to take the MCAT, not having completed basic bio and chemistry prereqs.

Medical schools want to see a few things. First, they want to see that you can handle the curriculum. This means high GPA and MCAT. You don't have an MCAT and are wholly unprepared to get a good score right now. They also want to see that you know what you're getting into. This means clinical (patient contact) and shadowing (what do doctors actually do) experience. You have none. They further want to see that you're committed somehow to service of humanity. This means a solid history of service work. You have none.

Your application would not satisfy the minimum that adcoms are looking for, and there doesn't seem to be anything besides a year of undergraduate research to make you compelling.

It's time to hit the pre-allo forum hard and start researching what a good application and cycle looks like.

 

[jl lin]

Visit the reapplicant forum. You're making almost every mistake.

^ Listen to Dr. ML and the others. Best thing is to hit your best first time out; it's not having to go back and re-take. People do, but it's really averaged after that.
Not taking the Bio and Chem is setting yourself up to flop, first time out. Perhaps 1:1000000 in a similar situation can make the bell ring first time out. Most can't. It's very risky and not worth it.

 

[Bru]

Because you are an engineer, I am going to throw out an office space answer:

 

[mattpott090]

Thank you everybody for the feedback. The overwhelming response against applying this cycle has confirmed my gut instinct, but I just wanted to verify. Looks like I will wait and put together a strong application for the next cycle. Thanks again.

 

[ROSC]

Youre making the right decision, if you want to get the ball rolling then sign up for your pre reqs for this semester and get your basic bio and chem out of the way then re-evaluate at the end of the semester