Edit: TL;DR, everything worked out fine, everyone needs to chill. See recent post.
(New to SDN, this might not be the right place to post this, if so lemme know)
So, I graduated this past May, and did not apply until much later than I had hope (secondaries were completed yesterday). Because of this, I decided to only apply to "schools I can't say no to," knowing full well my chances were slim, as I figured I would have much better chances submitting day 1 next season with a stronger application from gap year activities. Did I mess up? What's the best thing I can do to increase my chances for next season, assuming I don't get in (applied to 8 schools, all top 20, mostly top 10, so yeah..)?
Double major molecular bio and psych, chem minor.
White.
MCAT 38, cGPA 3.81, sGPA 3.76 - I had one bad class, a 5 hour B-, that killed it. Didn't explain it at all on my apps but was due to circumstance, not difficulty. I had a 99% on all exams, but missed a great deal of classes as my girlfriend was very ill and taking the semester off and I was taking care of her. Without that class, they're both around 3.9
Research: 1 summer ~20 hours per week, now hired by same lab (neurosurgery) full-time (~40hr/week) for my gap year. No publications yet, but I'm working on it and will hopefully have one 1st author and one 2nd/3rd author.
Shadowing:
~200hrs, neurosurgery (scrubbed in for ~6hr surgeries a couple times a week, it was really fun)
Employment:
Worked in the molecular biology department prepping for laboratory classes for junior and senior years, 15hr/week.
Tutored Chemistry my last semester, 2hr/week
A few other part-time gigs during the summers, one in which I had a management role
Volunteering:
Member of a service fraternity, volunteered ~75hr plus another ~100 of other commitments
LoR:
One ridiculously good letter from my current PI (he showed me a copy privately as a 'keep up the good work' sort of thing; its as good as you can get)
Three probably mediocre letters from professors who didn't know me well, but I did really well in their (rather difficult) classes.
Personal statement was very good, but the rest of my essays more average in my opinion.
Where do I go from here? What's my next move?
(New to SDN, this might not be the right place to post this, if so lemme know)
So, I graduated this past May, and did not apply until much later than I had hope (secondaries were completed yesterday). Because of this, I decided to only apply to "schools I can't say no to," knowing full well my chances were slim, as I figured I would have much better chances submitting day 1 next season with a stronger application from gap year activities. Did I mess up? What's the best thing I can do to increase my chances for next season, assuming I don't get in (applied to 8 schools, all top 20, mostly top 10, so yeah..)?
Double major molecular bio and psych, chem minor.
White.
MCAT 38, cGPA 3.81, sGPA 3.76 - I had one bad class, a 5 hour B-, that killed it. Didn't explain it at all on my apps but was due to circumstance, not difficulty. I had a 99% on all exams, but missed a great deal of classes as my girlfriend was very ill and taking the semester off and I was taking care of her. Without that class, they're both around 3.9
Research: 1 summer ~20 hours per week, now hired by same lab (neurosurgery) full-time (~40hr/week) for my gap year. No publications yet, but I'm working on it and will hopefully have one 1st author and one 2nd/3rd author.
Shadowing:
~200hrs, neurosurgery (scrubbed in for ~6hr surgeries a couple times a week, it was really fun)
Employment:
Worked in the molecular biology department prepping for laboratory classes for junior and senior years, 15hr/week.
Tutored Chemistry my last semester, 2hr/week
A few other part-time gigs during the summers, one in which I had a management role
Volunteering:
Member of a service fraternity, volunteered ~75hr plus another ~100 of other commitments
LoR:
One ridiculously good letter from my current PI (he showed me a copy privately as a 'keep up the good work' sort of thing; its as good as you can get)
Three probably mediocre letters from professors who didn't know me well, but I did really well in their (rather difficult) classes.
Personal statement was very good, but the rest of my essays more average in my opinion.
Where do I go from here? What's my next move?
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