Neurotic or cause for concern?

[AnimusRelic]

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[Catalystik]

You have 90 hours of clinical experience and 10 hours of shadowing. I generally suggest aiming for 150 hours of clinical experience and 60-80 hours of shadowing split among several types of doctor. If you have two more weeks of winter break left, you could get that much shadowing in before returning to school. Or you can do it over spring break. With a semester left before you apply (presumably), you should have no trouble topping off your clinical experience with patients. I don't think you are in a worrisome position, but you do have more work to do.

You should be planning to apply in June to get maximum consideration from your schools. Thus, any activity you begin after your submission won't be regarded when your application is reviewed by schools. You can inform schools of your belated summer research activity by an update letter later in the cycle, though. And you should continue to build your clinical activities throughout the application cycle. IMO, about 150 hours is average for applicants, so strive to get close to this before you apply.

If you wait until the end of the summer to apply, you decrease your chances of success. But if you had to make a choice, then clinical experience is more important than research if you can only get one in, and it's impossible to do it during the next semester.

 

[bravofleet4]

EC's seem a little weak. I would find it a little suspicious that so many activities you start seem to prematurely end like your acting troupe and founding fraternity. Other activities only lasted a day and maybe should be grouped up together into one category. I'll warn you right now but things like deans list and honor's society are practically worthless. How long have you been a tutor? Research was only during the summer.

So far, the most impressive thing is your debating b/c you founded a club and volunteer to be a judge at competitions b/c it shows passion and that you've embraced many aspects of it. Is religion a big part of your life? Do you set up a lot of activities for your church or help out with its program? I'm just asking b/c a lot of churches go on missions to developing countries or set up food drives. In that case, you could portray giving the pope your speech and presenting him with a gift as a substantial milestone of your involvement with the church and could be a big plus on your app when by itself it seems a little out of place.

Clinical hours are low but by the time you apply I'm sure will not be a problem.

 

[loveoforganic]

it's your weak point, but I still wouldn't be too worried.

 

[AnimusRelic]

Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate it. Its nice to know at least I'm not in a horrible position. The fact that the fraternity and acting troupe things ended prematurely - the fraternity was beyond my control and although I no longer act, I still aim to help the troupe through my service with stage crew and publicity when I am home from school/ not researching etc. Research, although only for the 2+ summers, was from May-August every weekday for 6+hrs nearly every day. I feel that's worth something

In regards to the Pope speech, that stemmed from the speech/debate thing from high school. Although I am a practicing Catholic and somewhat active, I believe they asked me to speak because I was in the top 15 nationally ranked performer - should I mention this? They knew of this but the activity was from high school so I figured leave it out..But maybe I should considering I followed it up with the Debate team and its connection to this honor of meeting the Pope?

I have been tutoring for over a year and am continuing for the remaining semesters. The private tutoring was only 1 semester this past fall because I was asked by the head of the chemistry department to help a non-traditional student.

Thanks again for the advice, I will be spending the remainder of this holiday break volunteering at the nursing home - it has been a really great experience. I tried to get some shadowing this winter but I've had horrible luck and haven't found any opportunities- a lot of HIPPA stories and lack of answers 🙁 I don't understand how people get so much shadowing- family friends/hook ups? I'll probably take the MCAT end of May and during the period that I wait for my score and AMCAS verification for the shadowing/clinical and pick up research when the AMCAS are in so I can still note my intended continuation of research, and if I still feel weak I'll send a letter like Catalystik suggested. Thanks again!

ANy further advice/suggestions/commented are greatly appreciated

 

[bravofleet4]

Just a little tip is that you should list the tutoring experiences under one category out of a total of 15 boxes available for activities/hobbies on your AMCAS application. There there is enough room to explain the differences but when you want to tell other people about it here on the forum I wouldn't bother making the distinction, because people don't care and it's pretty much all the same to us. Yeah, I would keep tutoring if you can. It makes for great review for the MCAT but I'm sure you've already found that out for yourself. It's also a great source for LOR's if you get to know any of the professors teaching the course. If you're tutoring for a course in which you took a class in and got a good grade, he/she can write about your exceptional qualities as a student and and a tutor, so there's a good angle to play there.

 

[Catalystik]

In regards to the Pope speech, that stemmed from the speech/debate thing from high school. Although I am a practicing Catholic and somewhat active, I believe they asked me to speak because I was in the top 15 nationally ranked performer - should I mention this? They knew of this but the activity was from high school so I figured leave it out..But maybe I should considering I followed it up with the Debate team and its connection to this honor of meeting the Pope?

I'd try to hard to link it into a college activity so you can mention it all in one space. I think you could work it somewhere into the sequence of "Artistic Endeavors" segueing into the "Honors and Awards" of being a top ranked actor, leading to the "Leadership" of starting the debate team in college. Well, you can work it out more gracefully than I can. It's unique and interesting, so figure it out.