One of my first posts on SDN but I've been lurking the forums throughout undergrad to help me along as a Pre-Med so first off thank you to everyone for this great resource!
I'm kind of looking for some second opinions from other pre meds applying this 2020 cycle for 2021. I'm not super worried yet, but I am very anxious with how nontraditional my application timeline has been. Let me give some background.
I'm a recently graduated premed taking a gap year and have been building up my clinical experience ever since I graduated. My science GPA is 3.87, and overall 3.92. I took a hard science major with a lot of science classes, got all my prereqs done, and did a year abroad to study a foreign language. My MCAT is 512, all around pretty good although my psych/soc percentile is kind of low since I never took a psych class and self studied that.
I've got a lot of research experience, 1 publication, wrote a honors thesis on another project I worked on for about 2 years, spent about 3 years total in research labs. I've got shadowing from 2 physicians, both were fairly long experiences, but I could certainly have shadowed a bit more just didn't get the opportunity.
Volunteering was pretty substantial for non-clinical, did a lot of science education and foreign language/cultural inclusion type experiences over my 4 years undergrad. Helped found a student org too for leadership experience. Up until my gap year clinical experience was the fault in my app.
I've done a short-certificate B-EMT course post-bacc and got NREMT cert, working on licensing app still but been busy with my other clinical activity. Been working as a fulltime employee in a hospital for the past 5 months, involves direct patient care and has been great clinical experience which is why I've fallen behind on my EMT plans. Still plan on doing some volunteering as a basic EMT for my local EMS when I can, but I think I've made up for my lack of clinicals at least a fair bit this gap year.
My biggest concern with my application is that they weren't completed until November which brings me to the topic of my post. I submitted my primaries in mid-July, secondaries in August, but my school's pre-health committee was very late writing letters this cycle, outside of my control, and they didn't submit my rec letters until mid-November so my app wasn't considered complete until then.
I realize it's only been about 2 weeks since med schools would have started reviewing my app, hence why I'm not exactly worried yet, but was feeling anxious about it and wanted to ask here for advice. Anyone else this cycle have their apps delayed a lot by rec letters? Do you think my chances were hurt a lot by the late completion or with how COVID has influenced everything do I still have a good shot this late in? None of my schools are really a reach save for my top choice where my GPA is just slightly lower than the median. I tried to be realistic about my school choices. For privacy, I don't want to post my list if I can avoid it though. Thank you in advance, and best luck to everyone else applying this cycle!
I'm kind of looking for some second opinions from other pre meds applying this 2020 cycle for 2021. I'm not super worried yet, but I am very anxious with how nontraditional my application timeline has been. Let me give some background.
I'm a recently graduated premed taking a gap year and have been building up my clinical experience ever since I graduated. My science GPA is 3.87, and overall 3.92. I took a hard science major with a lot of science classes, got all my prereqs done, and did a year abroad to study a foreign language. My MCAT is 512, all around pretty good although my psych/soc percentile is kind of low since I never took a psych class and self studied that.
I've got a lot of research experience, 1 publication, wrote a honors thesis on another project I worked on for about 2 years, spent about 3 years total in research labs. I've got shadowing from 2 physicians, both were fairly long experiences, but I could certainly have shadowed a bit more just didn't get the opportunity.
Volunteering was pretty substantial for non-clinical, did a lot of science education and foreign language/cultural inclusion type experiences over my 4 years undergrad. Helped found a student org too for leadership experience. Up until my gap year clinical experience was the fault in my app.
I've done a short-certificate B-EMT course post-bacc and got NREMT cert, working on licensing app still but been busy with my other clinical activity. Been working as a fulltime employee in a hospital for the past 5 months, involves direct patient care and has been great clinical experience which is why I've fallen behind on my EMT plans. Still plan on doing some volunteering as a basic EMT for my local EMS when I can, but I think I've made up for my lack of clinicals at least a fair bit this gap year.
My biggest concern with my application is that they weren't completed until November which brings me to the topic of my post. I submitted my primaries in mid-July, secondaries in August, but my school's pre-health committee was very late writing letters this cycle, outside of my control, and they didn't submit my rec letters until mid-November so my app wasn't considered complete until then.
I realize it's only been about 2 weeks since med schools would have started reviewing my app, hence why I'm not exactly worried yet, but was feeling anxious about it and wanted to ask here for advice. Anyone else this cycle have their apps delayed a lot by rec letters? Do you think my chances were hurt a lot by the late completion or with how COVID has influenced everything do I still have a good shot this late in? None of my schools are really a reach save for my top choice where my GPA is just slightly lower than the median. I tried to be realistic about my school choices. For privacy, I don't want to post my list if I can avoid it though. Thank you in advance, and best luck to everyone else applying this cycle!
