Need some advice for reapplying...

[GoBears1987]

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So I applied to medical school this round and have had no success so far, not even interviews. I recently got accepted into the GTown SMP but I'm still vacillating as to whether I should go or just improve my EC's.

Stats:
cGPA: 3.56
sGPA: 3.55
MCAT: 31R (10P 10V 11B)

Currently: Working full time in a neurobio lab as a research associate and volunteering in a hospital (emergency department) 7 hrs a week.

ECs: Marching Band 4 years (with leadership), worked in clinic abroad for about a month, part-time work/independent research in same lab for almost 4 years, volunteered in special needs aquatic program 1 year, graduated with honors.

I already know that clinical experience is one of my huge weaknesses which is why I'm trying to do that right now. I also am unfortunately from California. I know my stats are average but I don't know - am I deluding myself into thinking that it's really THAT difficult to get into med school b/c of my Cali residence (and in order to compensate for that, go to an SMP to make myself stand out) or is it that my application is just lacking? I'm having a tough time just looking at it all objectively.

I have already asked multiple times around here and gone to an advisor what the best route would be and some people advise SMP route while applying this June and others say just to volunteer more. EEk! What to do!?

 

[gman33]

What schools did you apply to?

Your stats are right around average, but not very good for CA schools.

 

[MiniMoo]

How many hours of hospital volunteering have you accumulated?

And can you list the schools you applied to? School selection is really key, especially as a CA resident.

Just looking at your numbers, you don't need an SMP. My MCAT score is about the same as yours, with my verbal being a few points higher. My GPA is in your range too. CA resident. No SMP. Several acceptances. You can PM me if you want to compare school lists.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

Your problem isn't your GPA or MCAT, as long as both are balanced, which yours are. Don't do a SMP. SMP are for people who have low GPAs.

As you said, you need to work on clinical experience, but it would probably do you good to examine your personal statement and think about how good your LORs were, as well. Think about the quality of your clinical experience, and don't forget to shadow physicians so that you may learn what the patient-physician relationship looks like from the physician's side. What do you do in the ER?

Applying broadly to schools outside of the UC's would likely also help you. Call and see whether any schools you applied to this cycle would give you an exit interview, since they have seen your app, and are an actual ADCOM rather than an internet forum.

Good luck.

 

[GoBears1987]

Davis
Irvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
Stanford
USC
KU (I have ties to the state)
UIC
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Drexel
NYMC
Georgetown
George Washington
VCU
Tulane
EVMS
USUHS (didn't do the secondary though, military not for me)

I think I applied to more but I can't remember. That's the majority though.

As for hospital volunteering I haven't racked up many hours since they only placed me in January. There were many hoops to jump through to get in the emergency room.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

Davis
Irvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF

UC's - good choice as a CA resident, but hard numbers wise. Did you get secondaries from them? If yes, which ones?

Stanford
USC

The private CA schools... Stanford is a reach, USC seems like a solid choice.

KU (I have ties to the state)
UIC

No idea...

Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Drexel
NYMC
Georgetown
George Washington
VCU
Tulane
EVMS

These seem like all of the schools people apply to when they aren't so sure of their numbers. Many of them have a huge number of applicants, so you need to stand out somehow.


Overall, you seem to have selected a good range of schools. You have solid numbers and research experience, but your clinical experience is lacking. Did you have others read over your personal statement?

 

[GoBears1987]

Overall, you seem to have selected a good range of schools. You have solid numbers and research experience, but your clinical experience is lacking. Did you have others read over your personal statement?

I had a few people read it over, but not many. I'm not exactly sure how strong my letters of rec were either. I went to a UC, so I had a tough time finding professors who could write me a personal letter. I think I had at least two solid letters, one science and one humanities, but the other science letter was probably very generic.

Ugh, I don't know what to do really. I'm getting really frustrated because there is not much more that I could do than just volunteer more and even then it's not really going to make me stand out. I know doing an SMP isn't a guarantee and extremely expensive but if I kick butt in the program (and continue with clinical volunteering) it would help out my application so much more. But of course I'm torn because it is so costly.

My plan is to apply again this June so I feel like additional volunteering after June would be useless because the schools wouldn't even see what I did. At least if I did an SMP they would be able to get concrete grades in December.

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

Ugh, I don't know what to do really. .... I could do than just volunteer more and even then it's not really going to make me stand out....

It could make you stand out. Here are some examples of things that you could do:

100 hrs of physician shadowing with a few physicians;
8 hrs/week working as a medical assistant at a free clinic;
Becoming a health educator in your community (VISTA or volunteer, for example, at Planned Parenthood).

Browse through mdapps and see what others have done and start emailing and calling people.

And if you "just volunteer more", you are right that it may not help you. You need CLINICAL experience. Smell the patients and do something you enjoy.

 

[MiniMoo]

I think you could've applied to more schools. 18 is not very many, especially with slightly below average numbers and limited clinical experience. Your school selection also could have been better. Places like Drexel, NYMC, Georgetown, and GW get more than 10k applicants a year. That's HUGE competition. I would have probably added Toledo, MCW, SLU, Albany at the very least.

And get the SMP out of your mind. You don't need it. The major gaping, purulent hole in your application is lack of volunteering. The importance of clinical exposure and ECs cannot be emphasized enough. Doing an SMP and getting more classes/grades under your belt is not going to make up for this. Start volunteering. Get your hands dirty. You don't have to volunteer in a hospital -- nursing homes, community health clinics, hospice care centers all work. Anything hands-on with patients counts. If you're hell bent on making your application stand out, instead of wasting a year on an SMP, take a year and do AmeriCorps. If you still want to take classes or what-not to be able to bump your GPA a little higher and have something to update schools about, you can still do so through post-bacc work.

 

[GoBears1987]

I think you could've applied to more schools. 18 is not very many, especially with slightly below average numbers and limited clinical experience. Your school selection also could have been better. Places like Drexel, NYMC, Georgetown, and GW get more than 10k applicants a year. That's HUGE competition. I would have probably added Toledo, MCW, SLU, Albany at the very least.

And get the SMP out of your mind. You don't need it. The major gaping, purulent hole in your application is lack of volunteering. The importance of clinical exposure and ECs cannot be emphasized enough. Doing an SMP and getting more classes/grades under your belt is not going to make up for this. Start volunteering. Get your hands dirty. You don't have to volunteer in a hospital -- nursing homes, community health clinics, hospice care centers all work. Anything hands-on with patients counts. If you're hell bent on making your application stand out, instead of wasting a year on an SMP, take a year and do AmeriCorps.

I was actually thinking about doing AmeriCorps. But would you suggest then that I wait on applying for med school this June then?

And thanks for all the advice you guys!

 

[rbnsafsadgf]

I was actually thinking about doing AmeriCorps.

AmeriCoprs would rock if it were health-related. Just make sure you get some time watching physicians doing their thing, whether it is this, or some shadowing.

 

[dragonfly99]

Your grades and MCAT are kind of mediocre (only by med school application standards, of course...at 3.6 GPA doesn't suck in general).

I agree w/above comments. I don't think the SMP will get you where you want to go...also I would imagine it would set you back 50,000...which by the time the interest adds up before you pay it off years from now, could be 70k or 100k or something crazy. I don't think it is worth it. It would not hurt to take maybe 1 class at a time/per semester and ace it...anything that shows academic work is good. However...

If you just started hospital volunteering in January, I agree that clinical experience is a big gaping hole in your application. Most places will not take you without it...that, along with perhaps your LOR's, I think must explain the zero interviews...unless you applied really late or something. Perhaps your personal statement needs work as well.

It sounds like maybe you work at a university, in a neuro lab. In your position I would start by keeping up with the hospital volunteering over the next few months. Also, look for some doctors to shadow...perhaps your PI knows someone who is a neurologist or neurosurgeon (though the latter tend to be REALLY busy so may not be the best people to hit up for a shadowing experience). You could potentially network from there to find more shadowing opportunities.

If there are any med schools there locally (where you live) would DEFINITELY swallow your pride and try to get an exit interview with them. You need to go over there and show your face, dress neatly and conservatively, and be REALLY nice to them and ask for feedback about your application. They'll probably say you need more clinical experience, but it may be of interest seeing if they say anything else that is helpful.

The Americorps thing may be worth considering, particularly if you can get something health care related. I'm not very familiar with the program (? can you just sign up for 1 year?) so will leave further advice on this to others. You may potentially have gotten all the benefit you can from your current lab tech job...unless/until you have a major publication coming.

Another angle you could work if you want is to try to get into an MD/PhD program, but again your GPA and MCAT are lowish for that...if you had/have great publications you might have a shot. One of your problems may be that you have a very "sciencey" application with little clinical experience, yet you aren't applying MD/PhD and don't have super high numbers. Your app on paper probably looks like a lot of other peoples', and you haven't done something to make yourself stand out.

The LOR's need to be worked on. It sounds like you could use a 3rd one that is better...if you got into a better volunteer job, perhaps one that has physicians involved (I know, hard to do...) maybe you could get a better one from one of them. Otherwise, you could try to find out the best professors at the university where you work, and try to take some upper level science class (or maybe 2 from the same prof over a couple of semesters) and then approach that person about a LOR. You need someone who has an actual rank, like full professor or associate professor, and hopefully who has some familiarity with the med school admissions process.

 

[MiniMoo]

I was actually thinking about doing AmeriCorps. But would you suggest then that I wait on applying for med school this June then?

And thanks for all the advice you guys!

I think different programs start and end at different times. I would say ideally you'd be involved for a few months at the very least prior to filling out AMCAS so that you can be fully trained and describe your duties in detail, what you've learned thus far, and how the experience will benefit you as a future physician. With March coming up already and with you not having yet even applied for an AmeriCorps program, I don't know if submitting AMCAS this spring/summer would be realistic. But again, do more research and get more information to see what kind of timeline they operate under. And yes, if you do get involved, make sure the project is somehow patient-care oriented/health-related.

 

[Go Ducks]

I was in a similar situation as the OP... lots of research experience, not much clinical or volunteer, resident of a hard state to get accepted from. I took language courses and moved to a rural town in a third-world country, where I volunteered at a hospital (assisted in surgeries, delivered babies, stuff that fourth-year med students can't do in the US) and at an orphanage. I lived there for over a year, but because village living is dirt cheap, it cost way less than an SMP would have. After that, I was accepted into some pretty good med schools.

It's just one option of many, but it worked for me and the experience was awesome.

 

[GoBears1987]

I was in a similar situation as the OP... lots of research experience, not much clinical or volunteer, resident of a hard state to get accepted from. I took language courses and moved to a rural town in a third-world country, where I volunteered at a hospital (assisted in surgeries, delivered babies, stuff that fourth-year med students can't do in the US) and at an orphanage. I lived there for over a year, but because village living is dirt cheap, it cost way less than an SMP would have. After that, I was accepted into some pretty good med schools.

It's just one option of many, but it worked for me and the experience was awesome.

That sounds like an amazing experience. Did you do this with a program?

 

[Go Ducks]

I went with an organization called "HealthCare Volunteer", which is less of an organization and more of a loose, small network of people. They set me up with a doctor who was headed overseas to volunteer. I spent the first month working closely with him, and continued on afterward doing my own thing.