New Member: Should I apply? No "EC's",39R, 3.45 GPA

[midnight611]

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Hey,
I am new to the forum. I have tried to look under the Special Circumstance link in the Rules Sticky but I could not find any info pertaining to me. Hope somebody can help me out...
BS from Private School in IL with 3.33 sGPA and 3.45cGPA
MCAT: 39R
EC: None!
Work: Full-Time or more through out undergrad.
I am not a non-traditional student, but special circumstances. I worked full-time through out undergrad and after I graduated I worked 40-55 hrs a week to put me through school. I have two jobs at the moment one in retail, the other at a hospital as a Health Unit Coordinator for a year. I work on the ortho floor of the hospital which also gets medical and general surgical over flow pts, so I have been around many different types of doctors. I have no question about whether this is a good career choice for me. I have no shadowing or volunteering. I never really had no time due to the full time job and many responsibilities at home. My dad and I do raise money for our village in India which he was the mayor through an annual picnic for the members of the village who are located around the Chicago-land area. Overall we have probably raised about 20k over 4-5 years. Can I even list this as an EC? So my question becomes do I have a shot at any MD school since I have no traditional ECs?
Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for any input.

 

[sustentacular]

Hey,
I am new to the forum. I have tried to look under the Special Circumstance link in the Rules Sticky but I could not find any info pertaining to me. Hope somebody can help me out...
BS from Private School in IL with 3.33 sGPA and 3.45cGPA
MCAT: 39R
EC: None!
Work: Full-Time or more through out undergrad.
I am not a non-traditional student, but special circumstances. I worked full-time through out undergrad and after I graduated I worked 40-55 hrs a week to put me through school. I have two jobs at the moment one in retail, the other at a hospital as a Health Unit Coordinator for a year. I work on the ortho floor of the hospital which also gets medical and general surgical over flow pts, so I have been around many different types of doctors. I have no question about whether this is a good career choice for me. I have no shadowing or volunteering. I never really had no time due to the full time job and many responsibilities at home. My dad and I do raise money for our village in India which he was the mayor through an annual picnic for the members of the village who are located around the Chicago-land area. Overall we have probably raised about 20k over 4-5 years. Can I even list this as an EC? So my question becomes do I have a shot at any MD school since I have no traditional ECs?
Sorry about the long post and thanks in advance for any input.

Fund raising for your village in India counts as an "EC", and a pretty good one at that. Did you create an organization or something to do the fund raising through?
Also, paid employment goes under the work/activities section so you can list both the retail job and the hospital job, which will show clinical exposure and leadership experience.
Do you have any research experience at all?

 

[Catalystik]

Make it clear that the job includes some physician contact-time that may serve in lieu of shadowing time. It would help, particularly at your state schools that like to see shadowing, if you could get in some formal shadowing, perhaps among docs you see at work.

In what way do you interact with patients at work, if at all?

Why did you have to work full-time during college?

What is your role in the fund-raising effort? Can to stretch it to a leadership role?

 

[midnight611]

Thanks for the replies!
I did not setup an organization because this is mostly informal. Most of the people who donate are people my dad grew up with and is in contact with within the Chicago area. Also, the current mayor of the village is my uncle so the money is given to him to fund the improvements in the village. As far as my role, I setup the annual fundraiser/picnic, setup the transfer and tracking of the funds. Can I still list this as an EC because it is not really a formal organization?

As far as work, I had to work full time in order to pay for college and help my parents. I had no choice at the time. Looking back I could have just gotten a loan somehow, however I did not want to have the loan looming over my head if I did not get into med school. My current job does not really involve direct patient care. If I had to describe the my position, it entails with the operations of the floor.

Also, what schools do I have a shot at with my stats?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ThaliaNox]

I think your limited ECs do limit your chances. Not eliminate, but definetely limit. Even with a full time job it is possible to get ECs, especially shadowing, which only requires a minimal time committment. If your job is not clinical experience, schools will also want to see that.

Do you have a spouse or kids? Sometimes this is seen as balancing out otherwise weak ECs. (Not usually as weak as yours, though...) How about interesting hobbies?

 

[longhorn09]

Apply to those schools that value MCAT a lot.

 

[Naijaboiler]

Apply to those schools that value MCAT a lot.

what schools are those?

 

[Catalystik]

Without clinical experience and physician shadowing, how can you write a compelling personal Statement that convinces adcomms that you know what you're getting yourself into by entering a medical career?

I think you have demonstrable altuism since you have worked on a fund raising effort for many years (a formal organization isn't necessary), as well as helped support your parents, but a lack of reasonable familiarity with medicine (other than a hospital environment) will limit your chances. Since funds are tight for your family, you would do better to take the next year to build up your ECs and apply in a year when your application dollars would be more likely to yield results.

 

[knightstale4]

I don't know a lot about the admissions process, but I definitely think you should apply this year. As someone mentioned earlier, there are many schools that value a high MCAT score, and if presented properly, the detriment due to lack of ECs can be minimized.

Step 1: Contact any doctors you know (whether friends, relatives, or parents' acquaintances, at your hospital), and ask them if you can shadow them for at least 10 hours. Your goal should be to have at least four doctors. If you do not know any doctors, look up the physician directory at your local hospital, find the e-mail addresses, and contact them through that. Contact at least 15-20 doctors because 1 out of 5 doctors will typically respond.

Step 2: See if you can set up an ongoing 4-hr volunteer position where you interact directly with patients (most hospitals have something of this sort)

Step 3: Start writing your personal statement. Make sure you hit on how all your experiences have shaped you, and what exactly made you decide on medicine. You can hone in on your quality of being self-sufficient, responsible, caring, altruistic, etc. Say you didn't have time to pursue all the extracurriculars you wanted at the time because of all your responsibilities, but now you do, and are making every effort to partake in the profession which enthralls you. If you consider yourself disadvantaged (look into FAP if yes--it can help with applying to medical school by cutting down primary and secondary fees), you can also say you want to help other under-served or disadvantaged populations through this career choice. You get the general idea.

Step 4: Start filling out the AMCAS, and make sure you submit by the end of June, or at the absolute latest, first week of July. Hopefully, you will at least have some ongoing clinical experiences by then, and can fill up some more of the Work/Extracurriculars.

Step 5: Make sure you send update letters to schools as you finish more and more of your clinical experiences. Also, look around for the schools that longhorn was talking about.

I am fairly confident you can get into medical school, perhaps even a top 20.

 

[midnight611]

I think I forgot to answer someone's question about my hobbies. In my spare time outside of work I "flipped" homes after I graduated. I have flipped 3 homes in the past 1.5 years. I do mostly all of the work myself. I did this mostly to get some money for my parents when I leave for school. Can I also list this as a strength on my application?
I wanted to thank everyone for their responses and advice. Does anyone know where/what sub-forum I can do research on school that value a high MCAT? I am also wondering what forum has info on what certain school value i.e Superb EC's, High MCAT/GPA, strong leadership skills, etc. Any lead in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thanks Ya'll!

 

[NotAsking4Much]

You never know what a school is looking for.

Generally, the more competitive schools value ECs a bit more because the overwhelming majority of their students have decent / excellent stats so they use ECs as one method to distinguish one from another.

 

[Catalystik]

In my spare time outside of work I "flipped" homes after I graduated. I have flipped 3 homes in the past 1.5 years. I do mostly all of the work myself. I did this mostly to get some money for my parents when I leave for school. Can I also list this as a strength on my application?

Yes.

The MSAR has details of median stats for those accepted for each school. It also has each school's mission statement, from which you might infer the ECs they are looking for.