Need Advice for Application Gaps: Engineering to Med School Path

[br85225]

Hi everyone. I would love to get your opinion on this situation if possible!

I came into college with the idea of wanting to follow the pre-med track, but I wanted to experience the other industries before fully committing to this career path. The summer before my junior year of college, I took a biomedical engineering internship. Long story short, I realized I wanted more patient exposure than the industry provided, so I decided to focus extracurriculars and interests on the pre-medicine path for the remainder of my college career.

With the junior year being the toughest year of my chemical engineering curriculum, it was difficult to give the MCAT and clinical exposure the time of day they needed. I was still able to handle leadership positions within my sorority and hospital volunteering, but that was the extent of my other ventures. Now, as a senior, I have the time and space to dedicate my efforts to about two application areas, and I would be grateful to get perspective as to which sector I should focus on improving over the next year or so.

GPA: When all is said and done, it will come out as a 3.5 cumulative.

MCAT: 505. With this said, I had six weeks of dedicated studying before taking it the first time, and still then, it was over Christmas break. If I give studying the time of day needed, I feel confident I can jump 7 points at least. (If I had checked SDN before I took it, I would've only focused on taking it once and given it the time of day needed. Wish I had known about this site beforehand!)

Volunteering:
• 85 hours at the hospital
• ~30 with other organizations, tutoring, and helping run different philanthropies.

Clinical Exposure:
• 35 hours of shadowing
• 130 hours of medical scribing (IM)

Patient Care:
• ~160 hours of medication aide/caregiving position

Research:
• I participated in research every day to improve company products and protocols as an engineering intern.
• I am interested in machine learning research potentially, but this may detract from other efforts.

Other experiences:
• Leadership positions in sorority
• Involved throughout the engineering department
• Gen. / Org. Chem Tutor for two years
• Restaurant server for two years

I will most likely be studying for the MCAT the proper way this time, but I'm not sure what other area I should focus on for the next year to solidify my application. What are your thoughts and perspectives about this situation? Any help is much appreciated!

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[LindaAccepted]

If you want to successfully apply to MD programs you need to improve significantly your non-clinical community service and MCAT score. If you try to do both in time to apply this summer, and maintain or raise your GPA, you may have the same problems you had with the previous MCAT exam -- not enough time to study and do your best

Would you consider a gap year? You could focus on your classes and leadership positions and maybe do some community service until you graduate. When the school year is over, focus on the MCAT and start volunteering more. Perhaps add a few more shadowing experiences during the gap year.

If you think you can raise your MCAT by 7 points, make sure you have the time and make the effort to do so. Then improve other elements of your profile, but prioritize the MCAT while prepping for it.

You may also want to get some DO experience/shadowing in case you end up applying both MD and DO.

 

[Dral]

Agree with above.

Shoot for about the 150 hour mark for both clinical work/volunteering and non-clinical volunteering. You're probably good to go from the clinical standpoint. For the non-clinical, seek out something that gets you outside your comfort zone (helping others less fortunate). Think soup kitchen kind of thing. You need to get on this now as alluded to above.

You should shoot for 50 hours of shadowing with a good chunk of it in primary care. You're probably good here with your scribing, but adding a few hours of shadowing a primary care field could look better.

Is the caregiving for those other than friends/family? We are asked the question a lot if caregiving for a loved one counts. We do not mean to downplay its importance and of course the experience 'counts', but there is a difference in intent. Someone might be in a position where they are the only one who can reliably care for a family member which is different than someone who goes out and seeks opportunities to provide care to those they have never met.

In terms of your research, do you have specific projects you can site on your app?

For GPA/MCAT, you are in good range for DO. You'll likely need some improvement for MD; since, unless you haven't told us everything, you don't have any super out of the ordinary things on your app (D1 athlete, military, disadvantaged status, etc).

 

[br85225]

Agree with above.

Shoot for about the 150 hour mark for both clinical work/volunteering and non-clinical volunteering. You're probably good to go from the clinical standpoint. For the non-clinical, seek out something that gets you outside your comfort zone (helping others less fortunate). Think soup kitchen kind of thing. You need to get on this now as alluded to above.

You should shoot for 50 hours of shadowing with a good chunk of it in primary care. You're probably good here with your scribing, but adding a few hours of shadowing a primary care field could look better.

Is the caregiving for those other than friends/family? We are asked the question a lot if caregiving for a loved one counts. We do not mean to downplay its importance and of course the experience 'counts', but there is a difference in intent. Someone might be in a position where they are the only one who can reliably care for a family member which is different than someone who goes out and seeks opportunities to provide care to those they have never met.

In terms of your research, do you have specific projects you can site on your app?

For GPA/MCAT, you are in good range for DO. You'll likely need some improvement for MD; since, unless you haven't told us everything, you don't have any super out of the ordinary things on your app (D1 athlete, military, disadvantaged status, etc).

The caregiving position was in a long term care facility for alzeheimer's and dementia residents. Also for the research portion, some project results were added to the machine's manual while others were for bacteria contamination in the facility. While it was not life changing research, it was a great learning experience!

I will make sure to start more non-clinical volunteer engagements in the next couple weeks. Thank you so much for your perspective and advice! I greatly appreciate it all.

 

[br85225]

If you want to successfully apply to MD programs you need to improve significantly your non-clinical community service and MCAT score. If you try to do both in time to apply this summer, and maintain or raise your GPA, you may have the same problems you had with the previous MCAT exam -- not enough time to study and do your best

Would you consider a gap year? You could focus on your classes and leadership positions and maybe do some community service until you graduate. When the school year is over, focus on the MCAT and start volunteering more. Perhaps add a few more shadowing experiences during the gap year.

If you think you can raise your MCAT by 7 points, make sure you have the time and make the effort to do so. Then improve other elements of your profile, but prioritize the MCAT while prepping for it.

You may also want to get some DO experience/shadowing in case you end up applying both MD and DO.

I am considering a gap year since I realized I wanted to go to medical school so late in the game. It is probably the better option to have enough MCAT study time and to increase other hours as well.

Along with this, I will start the community service soon in the next couple weeks to get ahead. Thank you so much for your help and perspective abou this! I am planning on making a realistic MCAT study schedule later today, so I will take this all of this into consideration. Hope you have a great rest of your week!

 

[LindaAccepted]

Thanks. I'm very glad to hear that you are going to take more time. I think it will really pay off with more competitive qualifications, a better application and a higher likelihood of acceptance. Good luck!