No Interviews So Far...

[giggle_bot]

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Hello Everyone,

It's already mid-December and I have yet to receive a single interview from medical schools this cycle. I have already lost so much hope and have even signed up to take the MCAT again in April. I would really appreciate some feedback on how I can improve for next cycle, if I should still have hope for this cycle, and just needing some words of encouragement in general. This has been a difficult process and has been very hard for me. I made sure to apply to a wide-range of schools in all ranges, or at least I think I did. I tried to focus on fit mostly, but you tell me if I need to apply to different schools this second time around. I applied to majority of my schools by the end of August (many of them earlier by end of July), a handful in September, and 1-2 in early October. The ones I applied to later were places I wasn't going to get into anyway. I applied to 29 schools in total. I have received rejections from 10 of those schools. I think what is bothering me most is that I haven't even heard anything from my state schools yet (I am an Ohio resident). I am also afraid if I am in the situation where they don't even want to bother with rejecting me and I may never truly hear back from them. I just feel so discouraged. I have taken one gap year so far. Here are my stats and info about my ECs.

uGPA: 3.72
BCPM: 3.72
MCAT: 511

Clinical Experience - 680 hrs
Research - 1500 hrs
Shadowing - 150 hrs
Clinical Volunteering - 90 hrs
Other Volunteering - 190 hrs
Teaching/Tutoring - 395
Leadership Experiences - 945

I know my volunteering experiences are weak and a lot of that has to do with COVID-19. I have been working during my gap year to increase that. My leadership experience includes my work at my university's Student Government, working with a non-profit to recruit poll workers for the 2020 presidential election, and being a student orientation leader for first year students. My application demonstrated a strong interest in health policy and government work, hence my leadership experiences. My hobbies also included bird watching.

Here is the list of schools that I have yet to hear back from:
Albert Einstein
Cornell
Emory
George Washington
Harvard
Loyola
NYMC
Northwestern
OSU
Thomas Jefferson
Toledo
UColorado
UMichigan
UCincinnati
UPenn
VCU
WashU
Wright State
Yale

Thank you to all of you for taking the time to help me.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Your school list killed your application. I am taking a guess that the rest of the 10 schools were also in the upper tiers.

Red signifies below median for both GPA and MCAT
Yellow signifies below median for either GPA or MCAT
Green signifies at or above median.

Albert Einstein
Cornell
Emory
George Washington
Harvard
Loyola
NYMC
Northwestern
OSU
Thomas Jefferson (borderline)
Toledo
UColorado
UMichigan
UCincinnati
UPenn
VCU
WashU
Wright State
Yale

My suggestion for reapplying would be to not retake the MCAT, but to work on activities and volunteering within your community and it's needs. I would suggest making a significantly more conservative school list on reapplication.

 

[deleted966837]

Don't get discouraged! You have a solid application. Be proud of all of your work. Like the other poster suggested, your list may have been too top heavy. A particular school's median GPA/MCAT can be deceiving for many reasons.

Other thoughts...

• Have someone give you honest feedback on all of your essays.
• Try to determine if your application has any red flags.
• Consider applying to DO schools next cycle or even this cycle. Several of my classmates have stats very similar to yours but were unfortunately rejected from all MD schools.

 

[doomer_md]

Are you URM?

 

[wysdoc]

I have moved this thread to the WAMC forum and removed a duplicate thread

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I agree, it was the school list.

Consider the following

MCW
FAU
Quinnipiac
Rosalind Franklin
Northeast ohio
EVMS
Georgetown
FIU
Temple
Drexel
Wmed
Wayne state
SLU
Creighton
Virginia tech
Tufts
UCF
UVM


Reapply to
Jefferson
NYMC
Loyola
Wright state

 

[candbgirl]

Your school list is really off. For instance Harvard. Their average MCATis 518:and GPA is 3.9. Same for several others on your list. We really can tell nothing about your ECs because you only shared hours not what you did so who knows if that’s the issue. Are you letters great? Could there be a problem with one of them? Did you have a committee letter? Does your school offer a letter? Did you have an unbiased person read your essays?
You probably need to start over from scratch with the whole process. I don’t think you need to retake the MCAT but your school list needs major revisions. And @wilhelmsa is correct. Add some DO schools during the next cycle.

 

[DK2014]

Maybe its the personal statement? Feel free to DM me if you need another set of eyes

 

[giggle_bot]

Are you URM?

no

 

[giggle_bot]

Maybe its the personal statement? Feel free to DM me if you need another set of eyes

I had my personal statement read by many individuals including pediatric cardiology fellows near at the hospital near my undergraduate school who were very impressed with my personal statement. I do not think that is the issue in my personal opinion but I would be glad to provide it to you!

 

[giggle_bot]

Your school list killed your application. I am taking a guess that the rest of the 10 schools were also in the upper tiers.

Red signifies below median for both GPA and MCAT
Yellow signifies below median for either GPA or MCAT
Green signifies at or above median.

Albert Einstein
Cornell
Emory
George Washington
Harvard
Loyola
NYMC
Northwestern
OSU
Thomas Jefferson (borderline)
Toledo
UColorado
UMichigan
UCincinnati
UPenn
VCU
WashU
Wright State
Yale

My suggestion for reapplying would be to not retake the MCAT, but to work on activities and volunteering within your community and it's needs. I would suggest making a significantly more conservative school list on reapplication.

So I applied to the schools above and many others that I have been rejected from based on recommendations from my premedical advisor. I went to a T20 undergraduate school and was told that my gpa is not of concern and is viewed at many of these medical schools as a 3.9 rather than a 3.7. The thing that is bringing me down is my mcat according to my advisor and asked me to still apply to all these schools and to count those in my range as +/- 2 points from the median mcat. I was recommended to apply to top schools based on my extracurricular experiences. I am also an Ohio resident so is it still that OSU and UCincinnati are not reachable?

 

[giggle_bot]

Your school list is really off. For instance Harvard. Their average MCATis 518:and GPA is 3.9. Same for several others on your list. We really can tell nothing about your ECs because you only shared hours not what you did so who knows if that’s the issue. Are you letters great? Could there be a problem with one of them? Did you have a committee letter? Does your school offer a letter? Did you have an unbiased person read your essays?
You probably need to start over from scratch with the whole process. I don’t think you need to retake the MCAT but your school list needs major revisions. And @wilhelmsa is correct. Add some DO schools during the next cycle.

Right so I applied to these schools based on recommendation from my premedical advisor and historical data from my T20 undergraduate school and MSAR data. I was told that my gpa is not of concern for most schools that I will be applying to and that my MCAT would be the issue for most of these places but to still give it a shot even if my mcat is +/- 3 points from their median. I was also asked to apply to the schools I did based on my extracurricular activities. Yes my letters are really good from what I can tell. Im not sure if any of them might be a problem. If anything one letter might be really generic but the rest should be very good. My school did give a committee letter. I had multiple unbiased people read my essays including fellows from the university hospital who were very impressed by my work. I am a very good writer and have helped many of my friends with higher stats with their essays who are having great results! Actually one of my friends who is also not URM with a 512 MCAT and 3.6 GPA got an interview from Harvard and she went to my T20 undergraduate school. She had "less impressive" extracurriculars if you wanted to compare but nonetheless extremely meaningful. She was ultimately not selected but I am giving this example to show that at least from my school there are these different types of trends.

With regard to my extracurriculars, I worked in the Student Government at my school and obtained a leadership position where I enacted new policies to enable more equitable voting practices that encouraged the marginalized and minority students on campus to feel like their voice was heard at a majority rich white university. In fact, my work enabled several minority students to join SG and increased the diversity of SG which is historically not diverse. I also volunteered with inner city kids teaching them math and english. I taught Calculus I, II, and III to undergraduate students all four years and the position I did this in was not your regular TA position. I worked after hours at student dorms to provide help on homework and test prep. I also worked as a poll-worker recruiter during the 2020 presidential election. I volunteered at the hospital working with patients diagnosed with cancer to navigate the cancer illness, treatment, finances, etc. I worked at an urgent care center as a certified medical technician and learned phlebotomy, lab testing, all the stuff you do at an urgent care. I was a TA for an anatomy class. I was a student orientation leader assisting first year students to acclimate to student life and classes. I have a publication pending for my research and pioneered a new method of analyzing EKGs detecting for autonomic nervous system issues related to chemotherapy. I also worked as a patient care assistant for a hospital for some time. I shadowed and scribed.

 

[giggle_bot]

Are you URM?

No

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

So I applied to the schools above and many others that I have been rejected from based on recommendations from my premedical advisor. I went to a T20 undergraduate school and was told that my gpa is not of concern and is viewed at many of these medical schools as a 3.9 rather than a 3.7. The thing that is bringing me down is my mcat according to my advisor and asked me to still apply to all these schools and to count those in my range as +/- 2 points from the median mcat. I was recommended to apply to top schools based on my extracurricular experiences. I am also an Ohio resident so is it still that OSU and UCincinnati are not reachable?

To be blunt your stats are solid for lower to mid tier MD schools. They are not competitive for top tier schools. Its not that the schools in red are unreachable its that they are above median for you. You applied to 2 schools that weren’t above median from your list

 

[Proudfather94]

So I applied to the schools above and many others that I have been rejected from based on recommendations from my premedical advisor. I went to a T20 undergraduate school and was told that my gpa is not of concern and is viewed at many of these medical schools as a 3.9 rather than a 3.7. The thing that is bringing me down is my mcat according to my advisor and asked me to still apply to all these schools and to count those in my range as +/- 2 points from the median mcat. I was recommended to apply to top schools based on my extracurricular experiences. I am also an Ohio resident so is it still that OSU and UCincinnati are not reachable?

Ohio medical schools have a strong IS preference besides case so you should have applied to all of them. If you reapply I would do all Ohio medical schools including OUHCOM.

 

[doomer_md]

no

Just wanted to make sure. If you aren't then Harvard, Yale, etc. are not realistic.

 

[deleted1119327]

I totally understand your frustration but your school list is way off as others have mentioned. Also, it's not necessarily only the total hours you've devoted to some of the activities you've listed but you really need to have solid description for each. So make sure to have that as well.

 

[candbgirl]

Thanks for expanding your descriptions. As you most likely know , medicine is a service profession. You have to show ADCOMS that you are comfortable working with patients that are very unlike yourself. That’s why nonclinical volunteering is supposed to be focused on serving the unserved/underserved in your community. You have to get off campus and out of your comfort zone and find people that are in need. Look for opportunity to volunteer at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, a vet center, coach a group of underprivileged kids in a team sport, volunteer at habitat for Humanity, volunteer at a senior center, volunteer at a camp for disabled kids.etc.. You have to stretch your feelings and comfort and get used to helping people you will be seeing as a doc. Your on campus activities are wonderful. You are all over the place making a difference but you are dealing with other college students right there on your campus. Teaching and tutoring fine but everyone has those and that’s mainly all you seem to have. And I think that’s a separate listing on the application.

I also want to encourage you to be open to suggestions you are receiving in this thread. I can feel you don’t like what you are being told, but you asked so people are taking the time to help you. Obviously the information your pre med advisor gave you, especially in regards to your school list, wasn’t great. And to tell you that your 3.72 GPAs would be looked at as 3.9 , really? I’ve never heard that and why would a school do that?
Anyway, review what the people on SDN have shared, look realistically at your school list. And start working on your next application in case you have to reapply. Good luck.

 

[Proudfather94]

Thanks for expanding your descriptions. As you most likely know , medicine is a service profession. You have to show ADCOMS that you are comfortable working with patients that are very unlike yourself. That’s why nonclinical volunteering is supposed to be focused on serving the unserved/underserved in your community. You have to get off campus and out of your comfort zone and find people that are in need. Look for opportunity to volunteer at a homeless shelter, soup kitchen, a vet center, coach a group of underprivileged kids in a team sport, volunteer at habitat for Humanity, volunteer at a senior center, volunteer at a camp for disabled kids.etc.. You have to stretch your feelings and comfort and get used to helping people you will be seeing as a doc. Your on campus activities are wonderful. You are all over the place making a difference but you are dealing with other college students right there on your campus. Teaching and tutoring fine but everyone has those and that’s mainly all you seem to have. And I think that’s a separate listing on the application.

I also want to encourage you to be open to suggestions you are receiving in this thread. I can feel you don’t like what you are being told, but you asked so people are taking the time to help you. Obviously the information your pre med advisor gave you, especially in regards to your school list, wasn’t great. And to tell you that your 3.72 GPAs would be looked at as 3.9 , really? I’ve never heard that and why would a school do that?
Anyway, review what the people on SDN have shared, look realistically at your school list. And start working on your next application in case you have to reapply. Good luck.

I've heard of some medical schools giving you a slight GPA bump if the school you went to is one that does grade deflation. It was from a fellow student whose uncle was an adcom for an MD school.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I would guess that you may get a slight gpa bump if you went to Chicago, Princeton, MIT, or Caltech as these 4 are typically known for grade deflation. All Ivy League schools besides Princeton and maybe Cornell inflate grades

 

[candbgirl]

I've heard of some medical schools giving you a slight GPA bump if the school you went to is one that does grade deflation. It was from a fellow student whose uncle was an adcom for an MD school.

I’ve heard that too but OP’s seemed to think the advisor made a wide ranging blanket statement covering most schools and secondly , imo, it’s not the GPAs that are the big issue.

 

[Inbutanxious]

I think everyone else has already given great advice! I am no expert in ad com or anything. For your MCAT, are the sections all 125+? Some schools do care about that. Also, some of the schools on your list are more oriented toward diversity, community service, and working with the underserved. Does your application showcase those characteristics? I think the issue with applying to schools outside of your stat range is you are risking the fact they may screen based on stat and reject you right off the bat. I think having more mid-tier schools will give you a higher chance. There is still time in the cycle so fighting! Don't lose hope yet 🙂