No recent clinical and late app: worth applying?

[SlugLuv]

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Hello, Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I'm a first-time poster, and I am in the process of applying to a few well-regarded postbacs for career-changers. I don't have a good sense of whether I am a competitive candidate, or where I might instead consider applying. Also, apps opened October 1, and I would not be able to submit until the second week of November. Is it even worth applying late with the below stats, or should I defer a year, take microbiology, gain a lot of clinical experience, and try again next fall?

My stats are below; any thoughts or pieces of advice are greatly appreciated.


2004 SATs: 1300 (out of 1600). Also got mid-600s on SAT subject tests.

1 semester + 1.5 years Community College General Ed: 3.9
-B in summer intro chem course (1 semester's worth only)
-One W

UC Berkeley spring admit, 1 semester: 3.4 GPA
-C+ in Analytic Geometry & Calculus
-Dropped out for personal reasons during second semester, and returned to community college (included in above GPA)

1.75 years @ another UC: 4.0 GPA
-BA in Literature
-Studied Latin and skipped ahead

ECs
-Many at each school, each for about 1 year
-Including rape prevention workshops, tutoring, sorority, mentoring, acting, choir, queer student alliance, etc.
-Volunteered at a hospital for 6 months in 2006

After college
-Temped and held 3 non-career jobs in 3 years: retail, bartending, etc.
-No volunteering during this time (yet).
- Took postbac exploratory courses @ community college: 4.0
-Physiology, Anatomy, Human Development
-May have one W

 

[thlaxer]

Go ahead and apply. When I was applying to post-bacs, I didn't submit until around late January and I still got into a few post-bac programs. They weren't among the most selective (i.e. not BM, Goucher, etc.), but they were still well-regarded and things ultimately worked out for me. Quite frankly, it isn't worth delaying a whole year just to have a better shot at the top post-bacs. From what you've written, your cGPA is great (your 3.4 semester from UCBerkeley is still decent), and you've got some decent ECs. I don't see a reason why you can't get in a program this cycle. Post-bac programs in general are nowhere near as selective as medical schools. Good luck!

 

[SlugLuv]

thlaxer, thank you so much for your reply. You've helped quell my anxiety.

With the AMMC database having been down for 1 million years, does anybody have any recommendations as to which particular programs I might look into? Any experiences to share?

 

[SeverusSnape]

Hello, Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I'm a first-time poster, and I am in the process of applying to a few well-regarded postbacs for career-changers. I don't have a good sense of whether I am a competitive candidate, or where I might instead consider applying. Also, apps opened October 1, and I would not be able to submit until the second week of November. Is it even worth applying late with the below stats, or should I defer a year, take microbiology, gain a lot of clinical experience, and try again next fall?

Hmm I'm int he process of applying as well. I understand most programs are rolling admission so it's better to apply earlier, but do you really believe applying a month after applications opened would be considered applying "late." Most apps don't officially even close until sometime after the new year so, while November is certainly not right when the applications because available, I do not believe it is late. Of course I'm also trying to convince myself of this because that is when I'm planning on having my completed apps in as well. 🙂

 

[Goucher2013]

Not to sound like a broken record, but stats without story is like a dating profile without a photo -- I just can't make an assessment.

 

[SlugLuv]

Thank you for pointing out my fairly skewed perception, Severus! I'm a very competitive person/perfectionist and a big-time worrier, but I also know I am competing for slots with others who are the same way. Truthfully, I would have been satisfied only if I'd been ready to submit on day 1.

Goucher, you don't sound like a broken record at all; I wasn't aware you wanted my story. I will probably not include much of this in my statement so as to avoid being negative, but my story is this: I became interested in medicine as a result of an eating disorder, from which I recovered in high school. My mother had borderline personality disorder, and my parents divorced when I was 12. I dealt with the chaos by inventing rigid, highly-researched meal plans for myself.
A strict vegan diet at age 12 morphed into a full-blown eating disorder, and I was hospitalized at 15. AS time passed, I continued to search pubmed, etc. for studies on health and psychology. I grew healthier and taught myself to weight train, focusing on eating for strength and health. Ten years later I do olympic lifting and can deadlift almost 200 pounds.
During this time I also attempted to improve my scoliosis using various techniques I researched. I bought textbooks and muscular anatomy atlases for physical therapists and learned about postural abnormalities and proprioception--I read everything I could.
My mom is also a longtime malingerer. I've learned so much just from researching all of the diseases and conditions she allegedly has/had. I've rushed her to the ER, convinced she was dying and calling 9-1-1 for a police escort, only to find out she was faking it and just had diarrhea.
So in a way, medicine has been my hobby and my coping mechanism. I never saw myself as strong in the sciences, so it wasn't until later in life, once I had gained more confidence and emotional fortitude, that I realized it was more than just a hobby and that this path was indeed open to me. So I took A&P to see if I liked it, and I fell in love.
Does that help? Is there any other information that would be useful?

 

[thlaxer]

With the AMMC database having been down for 1 million years, does anybody have any recommendations as to which particular programs I might look into? Any experiences to share?

Off the top of my mind: Goucher, Bryn Mawr, Scripps, JHU, HES, Penn, Columbia, NYU, Northwestern, Hunter College. There are plenty of other ones out there though, some of which are talked about in this forum.

I will probably not include much of this in my statement so as to avoid being negative

I think this is a good idea. Unfortunately, your story may raise some red flags with adcoms..

 

[SlugLuv]

I didn't think I was cut out for Bryn Mawr based on my stats and lack of story/clinical experience, but I suppose it can't hurt to apply. Thank you for all of your help thlaxer; I really appreciate it.

If anybody else has any thoughts about late apps, what sort of "level/tier" of schools tend to accept people with academic/EC records like mine, etc. Please don't hesitate to chime in!

And good luck to everyone who is applying during this cycle : ]

 

[Goucher2013]

Hi SlugLuv,

Thank you for pointing out my fairly skewed perception, Severus! I'm a very competitive person/perfectionist and a big-time worrier, but I also know I am competing for slots with others who are the same way. Truthfully, I would have been satisfied only if I'd been ready to submit on day 1.

On a very, very subjective note, I have some advice about perfectionism:
Perfectionism in medicine is poison for your soul. From diagnosis to treatment, to the system as a whole, all you will see is imperfection. Everything about healthcare is suboptimal. Patients will present every day with imperfect and unreasonable life choices that necessitate unnecessary treatment. You will make imperfect decisions under pressure - lack of time, lack of information, lack of sleep - and you will make mistakes. Over a forty-year career, there's a near-100% chance that some of your mistakes will cause serious harm, including death. I strongly advise that you take a deeper look at whether you can be happy as a doctor if you're a worrier and a perfectionist. There are already too many doctors who didn't think these things through and set themselves up for Prozac. And if you add strong competitiveness to that volatile mixture, you're setting those around you up for a prescription of that, too.