Not even a single medical school interview...did I do something wrong?

[confusedkid123]

Hi everyone..so it's been a rough few months for me. I am a desperate pre-med student applying this cycle and have gotten absolutely zero medical school interviews. I have been patiently waiting and refreshing my inbox since October, but considering it is January I am really, REALLY beginning to worry. At this point, I am focusing more on my back ups, but I just wanted to know if someone could help me figure out what I did wrong/what part of my application I can improve on in the future.

The run down:
-I applied to 23 schools, 10 of which have rejected me already
-I applied to all my in-state schools (Georgia) as well as several others across the east and west coast
-I have over 200 hours of hospital volunteer and research experience, but my shadowing experience is weak and only at 50 hours. I have several leadership roles in college and am a pretty well rounded student
-All my recs came from professors and people who really knew me so not sure if that would be the case...
-GPA right now is a high 3.5 at a top 10 institution (by graduation I will hopefully end at 3.6 if things go well, but not sure if medical schools even care at that point)
-I took the MCAT twice...first time didn't do so well but second time around I scored a 512 which isn't top notch and might be the problem since it was my second time taking it
-Have all As and Bs on my transcript (mostly As and a few B+ and one B-). In organic chemistry 2 I got a D+ (only bad grade on my transcript from freshman year) but the schools I applied to only look for one semester of organic chemistry (I called to double check) so I decided not to retake it...wondering if that was a mistake

I appreciate any help/advice you guys can offer. I have given up on getting an acceptance this cycle but I am really trying to improve for the next one!

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[djsbaseball2014]

What was your school list?

 

[confusedkid123]

What was your school list?

-Tufts (rejected)
-SUNY Upstate (rejected)
-SUNY Downstate
-NYU (rejected)
-Stony Brook (rejected)
-New York Medical College
-Wakeforest (rejected)
-Rush
-Drexel (rejected)
-Penn State (rejected)
-Tulane (rejected)
-Miami Miller
-Chicago Med (Rosalind Franklin)
-Sidney Kimmel
-Virginia Commonwealth (rejected)
-Loyola Stritch
-Temple
-Emory
-Morehouse
-Mercer Med
-MCG
-Georgetown (rejected)
-George Washington

 

[confusedkid123]

What about non clinical volunteering?

Plenty of that. I actually did/still am doing an americorps volunteer program which I have been involved in since freshman year and I have over 500 hours of non-clinical volunteering

 

[WedgeDawg]

When did you submit your primary? When were you marked Complete at schools?

 

[djsbaseball2014]

You have a lot of low yield schools (Tufts, GT, GW, Drexel, WF, etc) Rush has a crazy clinical hour "requirement" from what I have heard. I would focus on doing things you actually enjoy and things that are unique, you may have checked all of the boxes but whether or not those things stand out and whether you presented them in a way that makes them stand out is a completely different story. Do you feel your writing was quality and your PS was well written?

 

[confusedkid123]

When did you submit your primary? When were you marked Complete at schools?

I double checked with all my schools and I was marked as complete at all by late August

 

[confusedkid123]

You have a lot of low yield schools (Tufts, GT, GW, Drexel, WF, etc) Rush has a crazy clinical hour "requirement" from what I have heard. I would focus on doing things you actually enjoy and things that are unique, you may have checked all of the boxes but whether or not those things stand out and whether you presented them in a way that makes them stand out is a completely different story. Do you feel your writing was quality and your PS was well written?

I had my pre-medical advisor as well as a couple of current med school friends read over my personal statement and they thought it was pretty good. As for my essays, I tried my best to make them stand out and also had people read over them for quality but who knows...

I also sent updates to several schools who I am currently on hold at and I made sure to include new things I have been doing this year in terms of projects etc.

 

[candbgirl]

What was your first MCAT score? Did you apply to any DO schools?

 

[WedgeDawg]

I double checked with all my schools and I was marked as complete at all by late August

If we summarize your application, it looks like this:

3.55 GPA, 512 MCAT (second attempt), top school, 200 hours of volunteering, 200 hours of research, 50 hours of shadowing, some leadership, complete not late but not early, and applied MD only mostly to low yield schools.

It's not that there's any individual problem with the app (barring something wrong with your letters or essays), just that the whole package has nothing that makes you stand out. A lot of the schools you applied to get 7k apps plus and interview spots fill up fast.

The fact that you have no interviews at all makes me think there might be a red flag hiding somewhere in there that we're not aware of, but if you meticulously go through your application and find out that isn't the case, then I suspect the problem can be solved next time around by beefing up your ECs by focusing on one thing that speaks to you and doing that as hard as you can (again, each thing by itself is adequate, but there's nothing there that you're really excelling at or that pops out), modifying your school list to include DO schools, and then making sure you are complete literally as early as possible so you have every interview slot available to you.

The next time around, you will likely have the most success MD-wise at your state schools, so it might be worth a call in March or April to see if they would be willing to talk to you about your application, and (again, barring any red flags) you will likely get interviews from many DO schools.

 

[Goro]

Donations

-SUNY Upstate (rejected)
-SUNY Downstate
-NYU (rejected)
-Stony Brook (rejected)
-Rush
-Morehouse


If you haven't gotten any love from MCG or Mercer, then your essays must be terrible, or you have a bad LOR.

Or an IA that you haven't mentioned?

 

[confusedkid123]

If we summarize your application, it looks like this:

3.55 GPA, 512 MCAT (second attempt), top school, 200 hours of volunteering, 200 hours of research, 50 hours of shadowing, some leadership, complete not late but not early, and applied MD only mostly to low yield schools.

It's not that there's any individual problem with the app (barring something wrong with your letters or essays), just that the whole package has nothing that makes you stand out. A lot of the schools you applied to get 7k apps plus and interview spots fill up fast.

The fact that you have no interviews at all makes me think there might be a red flag hiding somewhere in there that we're not aware of, but if you meticulously go through your application and find out that isn't the case, then I suspect the problem can be solved next time around by beefing up your ECs by focusing on one thing that speaks to you and doing that as hard as you can (again, each thing by itself is adequate, but there's nothing there that you're really excelling at or that pops out), modifying your school list to include DO schools, and then making sure you are complete literally as early as possible so you have every interview slot available to you.

The next time around, you will likely have the most success MD-wise at your state schools, so it might be worth a call in March or April to see if they would be willing to talk to you about your application, and (again, barring any red flags) you will likely get interviews from many DO schools.

Yes I am hoping to meet with my pre-medical advisor soon and see if there were any red flags that we didn't catch. Thank you so much for your feedback! I'm going to look over my essays and ECs and figure out unique points I can highlight in the future

 

[confusedkid123]

Donations

-SUNY Upstate (rejected)
-SUNY Downstate
-NYU (rejected)
-Stony Brook (rejected)
-Rush
-Morehouse


If you haven't gotten any love from MCG or Mercer, then your essays must be terrible, or you have a bad LOR.

Or an IA that you haven't mentioned?

I'm not sure about them being terrible, but I did have my advisor read over them so they can't be that bad...

I will check with my advisor about my LOR since my schools does committee letters and LORs go through the committee first. I can't imagine a bad LOR since I am on extremely good terms with all my professors who wrote them :/

Edit: also no IA!

 

[djsbaseball2014]

I'm not sure about them being terrible, but I did have my advisor read over them so they can't be that bad...

I will check with my advisor about my LOR since my schools does committee letters and LORs go through the committee first. I can't imagine a bad LOR since I am on extremely good terms with all my professors who wrote them :/

Have you maybe thought your advisor isn't as helpful as they think they are? A simple browse through MSAR would have shown you that those schools are extremely low yield and not worth the donation... Just food for thought

 

[WedgeDawg]

Have you maybe thought your advisor isn't as helpful as they think they are? A simple browse through MSAR would have shown you that those schools are extremely low yield and not worth the donation... Just food for thought

So I disagree that all of those schools that @Goro listed were donations. NYU was definitely a donation given stats (unless they went to NYU undergrad, but afaik it's not a top 10 undergrad so probably not), OP does not have the vast amount of clinical experience required by Rush, and unless they are Black, they do not fit Morehouse's mission as a HBCU medical school.

SUNY Upstate, Downstate, and Stony Brook are all low yield NY state schools, but within OP's stat range and IMO smart applies. The rest (other than Emory) were also smart applies.

Unfortunately, that leaves <20 schools, and with OP's overall app, that's just not enough, particularly if they're applying MD only. It 1) should absolutely have had DO schools and 2) because they're coming from a top 10 undergrad, they likely have access to strong pre-med advising or at least records of where previous applicants with similar stats matriculated. Hofstra should definitely have been on their list, as should have Quinnipiac, Commonwealth (if their undergrad was in the northeast) and several more as well. I would have recommended applying to 27+ well-chosen low tier MD schools and 5-10 DO schools for optimal results.

 

[premedprepa]

Have you maybe thought your advisor isn't as helpful as they think they are? A simple browse through MSAR would have shown you that those schools are extremely low yield and not worth the donation... Just food for thought

Does "low yield" basically mean lower tier schools? If this is the case, why would these schools not be solid safety schools? Or is "low yield" another word for very low acceptance rate, considering amount of apps each cycle?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Does "low yield" basically mean lower tier schools? If this is the case, why would these schools not be solid safety schools? Or is "low yield" another word for very low acceptance rate, considering amount of apps each cycle?

Low Yield generally means that for most applicants, the time, effort, and money invested in applying to these particularly schools could better be used elsewhere. In general, these are schools with a very high volume of applicants or a very low interview:applicant ratio. Candidates with stronger applications will have a better shot at getting into schools overall, so for these applicants, the return on investment for applying to a few more schools that have low yield will not be worth the time, effort, and money. However, for more marginal or borderline candidates, the chances of getting into a school (any school) is lower, and therefore increasing the number of schools they apply to may appreciably increase their chances of getting accepted. Once all the non-low yield schools have been applied to, they will have to dip into the low yield schools.

(quoting myself from my WARS thread - citation because self-plagiarism is bad)

 

[Goro]

I'm not sure about them being terrible, but I did have my advisor read over them so they can't be that bad...

I will check with my advisor about my LOR since my schools does committee letters and LORs go through the committee first. I can't imagine a bad LOR since I am on extremely good terms with all my professors who wrote them :/

Edit: also no IA!

The smart thing is not to listen to your advisor. The road to medical school is littered with the festering corpses of students who did and found out that the information they'd been given was lousy. The wise LizzyM

It is also possible that your committee didn't given you the best possible ranking. Like they gave you a 3/5 ("Recommend", instead of "Highly Recommend" or "Exceptionally Recommend")

As a teaching moment, look at what MSAR has for median GPAs of OOS acceptees at the SUNYs. Then look at the ratios of IS vs OOS for IIs and accepts (which are about 2-3x of seats).

State schools favor the home teams.

OP has cookie cutter ECs, is a 2x MCAT taker, and has at best an LM score of ~66-68. Median candidate at best. OP definitely should have had some DO schools on the list.

 

[DubbiDoctor]

Going to agree that if you have to reapply, add some DO schools. MD median MCAT is 3.7, and yours is 3.5X (around average for DO). While your MCAT above 512 is right around the median for MD schools, most matriculants took the exam only once. Since you're not revealing your first MCAT score, it's presumably no higher than 500. Some med schools average the two scores, which would give you a 506 - below average for MD but above average for DO. Different schools treat multiple MCAT attempts differently. You are a somewhat below average MD applicant (relative to the median matriculant) but an above average DO candidate. Beef up your ECs and apply broadly if you need to reapply, including to a number of DO schools, at which you should get a number of interviews. Good luck!

 

[eaglebaseball4]

GA resident here also. I’m not sure what is up with MCG this cycle, I am a similar app to you and have received no love also. One of my best friends has already been accepted there (in October) with lower stats, around the same ECs, and he is ORM as well. All I can say is hang in there, keep praying that it all works out!

 

[Med Ed]

I appreciate any help/advice you guys can offer. I have given up on getting an acceptance this cycle but I am really trying to improve for the next one!

I can look at your PS, if you like.

 

[Blanky]

GPA is decent and MCAT is solid.
Might be ideal to work as a scribe for a year and build clinical hours and maybe score some nice LORs from physicians.
50 hrs of shadowing should be fine coupled with some scribe time especially if the shadowing was in primary care like FM IM or Peds.
Whatever you do DO NOT retake the MCAT, although you could consider retaking Ochem2 and a science or two to show your strength and an upward trend.

 

[doc05]

GPA sounds low. What was the sGPA? What's your undergrad school?

 

[Blanky]

Consider that typically institutions will give you a GPA number and allow for 1-3 retakes and they ignore previous grades in GPA calculations. This will not be the case when AMCAS time comes around so make sure you aren't surprised.

 

[futureDocDD]

Given OP has GA residence, why applied to 3 NY state schools? You took MCAT twice, how low was the 1st score? Most MD schools average MCAT scores, so your average is < 512. D+ in Orgo2 really pulls your sGPA down, which does not look good for MD schools.

 

[gavam08]

-Tufts (rejected)
-SUNY Upstate (rejected)
-SUNY Downstate
-NYU (rejected)
-Stony Brook (rejected)
-New York Medical College
-Wakeforest (rejected)
-Rush
-Drexel (rejected)
-Penn State (rejected)
-Tulane (rejected)
-Miami Miller
-Chicago Med (Rosalind Franklin)
-Sidney Kimmel
-Virginia Commonwealth (rejected)
-Loyola Stritch
-Temple
-Emory
-Morehouse
-Mercer Med
-MCG
-Georgetown (rejected)
-George Washington

i know this is an old thread so it may not get a response but SUNY downstate doesn't require orgo 2 lab? I took the same course sequence as you and i currently see that they do .

 

[gyngyn]

i know this is an old thread so it may not get a response but SUNY downstate doesn't require orgo 2 lab? I took the same course sequence as you and i currently see that they do .

OP hasn't been here in a year and a half...