Need Help! Strength Pre-MCAT Score. List Advice

[Rheopecty]

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[ihoop24]

Both your non-clinical and clinical hours are low. You should take a gap year to get these hours at least >150 for each.

 

[GreenDuck12]

Is there anything I can do now without having to take a gap year to bring them up? My whole purpose of finished undergrad in 3 years was to apply to medicine earlier by a year.

If you’re graduating earlier, and will be younger, it’s even more critical that you have those hours.

 

[ihoop24]

Could I potentially slide at schools that are more known for their heavy stat-weighting (NYU comes to mind)?

There are many applicants with high stats. That doesn't guarantee anything even at a school like NYU. Also, you don't even have an MCAT score yet, so it is tough to determine where you would be competitive.

 

[GreenDuck12]

Could I potentially slide at schools that are more known for their heavy stat-weighting (NYU comes to mind)?

I don’t know of any programs that look at stats alone. As the poster above said, there are plenty of high stat applicants and highly ranked programs can afford to be picky. Based on your list, you’re targeting top tier programs. If you look around the forums you will see high stat applicants ask for advice after an unsuccessful cycle. Applying without a well rounded application is risky. You’ve got 100 clinical hours and 50 non clinical hours. I see no evidence that you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone or have an interest in serving others, especially less fortunate communities. Remember, schools will see your age, and that you graduated early but they won’t cut you slack for it. You’re going to have to demonstrate that you know what you’re signing up for with a career in medicine and that you are mature enough for medical school. Your age is well under the median for MD admissions. Our Dean of admissions flat out told us interview day that they would rather reject candidates that had the stats to get in but weren’t quite ready yet and give them another year or two to be ready. Just make sure your application is ready and you are well prepared before clicking submit.

 

[ihoop24]

I would REALLY not prefer taking a gap year if I can avoid it. I have wanted to go into medicine for a very long time and no other career interests me. The corona-virus epidemic is making clinical volunteering nearly impossible. Would being in a 100/100 position be closer to acceptable if I bring my non-clinical up to 100?

To be completely real witchu, if you didn't wanna take a gap year you should have began clinical and non-clinical volunteering when you first got to college. Also, your clinical hours were only between 2018 and 2019. What happened to the rest of the hours up until the pandemic? It is in your best interest to take a gap year. Granted you get a good MCAT and increase your hours, you could very well be competitive for the many top schools you listed above.

 

[GreenDuck12]

For the schools on your list, you should assume your competition has similar stats. Do you think your competition will have more or less clinical exposure, non clinical service, research, publications, awards, etc? If you think more, then you have your answer. I’m not saying don’t apply this cycle, nor am I saying you won’t be admitted. I’m simply saying that your ECs are not well rounded and that you should be careful because younger applicants have to confront bias surrounding maturity and commitment to a career path. 100 hours would not be enough to convince me regardless of the covid-19 situation.

 

[Grapesurgery]

Congratulations on maintaining your high GPA over three years. Like others noted, your hours are on the low side. In reference to the top tier schools, all are quite synonymous in that they specifically look for potential “leaders” in medicine. Note Harvard’s MCAT median, for example, around 518. High, but easily on the lower side for t20s. Trust me, they have more than their fair share of 520+ applicants. Some things are sought after more than stats. Unfortunately, nothing beyond your 4.0 quite stands out in terms of defining how you want to impact medicine or your dedications to help others. I would say that maybe, MAYBE given a good mcat score you can have moderate success at midtiers and low tiers, but your list is too top heavy as of now. At all of my interviews at t20s, and honestly just combing through school specific forums here on sdn, essentially every applicant had an incredible story/clear mission and extracurriculars to back up what they want to do in medicine, of course on top of impressive stats (and some with not so impressive stats but incredible achievements!). If you take time off and work on extracurriculars I believe you can achieve this. However, as of now, I believe your list is unrealistically too top heavy.
A gap year would not be the worst thing. Take some time to get more volunteering (of course), earn some extra $ before med school, and time to just relax after grinding through earning a degree in 3 yrs...

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So you volunteer at Cleveland Clinic... you haven't clearly said what you did.
Also, low non-clinical volunteering hours: it's very dedicated to the STEM education side (40 hours) but nothing showing me that you're willing to stretch beyond your comfort zone and immerse yourself in vulnerable communities who have difficulty accessing education, health, finances, or social services. 10 hours of translation services doesn't make par.

No bets until you get an official MCAT score, but based on what you have described, it's very engineering heavy*: lots of brains but very little heart. Take the gap year. Mature and get some realistic perspective about the limits of health care, now further under stress because of what is going on. If your application screams "immature" at all, it will be ruled out, even by the best schools regardless of your GPA/MCAT.

* Why don't you know about Carle/UIllinois?