Ok, I'll throw my hat in.

[Ellie Arroway]

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I'm a postbacc student and I'm going into my last year of prereqs at my local state University (organic chem, biology, genetics, biomedical ethics for kicks), so I don't have an MCAT score yet. I am mostly trying to figure out what to focus on in terms of extracirricular activities in the next year. There is plenty I want to do, but I also want to avoid total burnout so I can excel in everything I'm doing & have time to make friends/network/stay in shape.

Education-wise:
AA in graphic design with a 3.5 in 2003, BA from the Evergreen State College (no grades) in 2006, focusing on media activism & video production. Most recently I've done Anatomy & Physiology, Gen Chem, Physics, and math up through Calc 1 & Stats at a community college with a 4.0 in all of it, giving me a cumulative GPA of 3.74. That has a tremendous amount of GPA-inertia because of the number of credits I have, so I assume that this will be roughly the GPA I apply with in a year.

I've volunteered at a nonprofit clinic that serves homeless youth for over a year at 8 hours a week or so. This place is pretty important to me because before getting into the med track, I was probably on track to becoming a street kid. My life kind of fell apart for a minute when I came out as transgender in 2006, but things turned around. I got a fairly major regional LGBT scholarship for the coming year. I've done a short 6 month stint doing hospital volunteering also, and I've given presentations on transgender-related issues in healthcare at the Schools of Medicine and Nursing at my state's big teaching hospital (my top school choice).

My main area of concern in my total lack of research experience. I tried to get into a summer research program and didn't, and now I am not totally sure what I can do between now and application time. There are a couple research-related volunteer programs at the hospital (mostly data-entry), and I've also planning to prospectively look around for public health research projects that might need a hand (I'm interested in MD/MPH programs).

I was also told by an advisor for my state med school that they look for 6-12 months of shadowing, but everyone I know who has gotten in has skipped the shadowing altogether. I've done 40 hours over 3 months (totally cool since I got to see some patients a few times) at the nonprofit I volunteer at, with a family med doc. I'm interested in primary care, but possibly as a general IM doc, so I'm planning on spending around another 40 hours with an internist I know in the winter.

That got way longer than I thought it would! Am I missing anything here? Thanks in advance for the abusive/transphobic comments, I've already ignored them.👍

 

[somepremedkid]

Your GPA is great and your EC's are very unique so that's a good start. Plus, you've shown a upward trend in grades. If you manage to get a balanced MCAT score >30, I think you will be fine by the time you apply. 🙂

As long as you don't have your heart set on the top 20 research medical schools, I don't think your lack of research will hinder you. Of course, if you really want to do research then keep searching for opportunities. The experience could only have you!

Do you have any leadership experiences (i.e. executive position in a school organization/club)? Also what is your BCMP GPA (aka sGPA)?

 

[Ellie Arroway]

Thanks!

If my math is right, my BCMP GPA is 3.96. It's been all A's except for two classes in my first year of college 10 years ago (when I didn't care & didn't try that hard), and even those are only a B+ and A-. So I'm not too worried about that.

Leadership is another fuzzy area for me. I have experience working in collectively organized activist groups that run on "we have no leaders/we are all leaders" type principles. These require a lot of good conflict mediation and facilitation skills of everyone, but have no resume-ready position titles other than "group member." I know it's dicey to talk about political work on an application, but I've done some phenomenal stuff with the group in question (planning & giving several 20-hour first aid trainings, among other things). I also spent a term in 2006 teaching at-risk middle school students about organic gardening and leading them through weekly garden work activities, but that was a long time ago.

I'm also trying to reach out more to my little bro, who is having a really hard time with coping with some family issues we have going on & just dropped out of high school. I really feel like this is leadership, but I don't know to what extent I should talk about it in an application. I'm doing it whether or not the adcoms care, obviously.

 

[somepremedkid]

First off, your BCMP GPA is amazing!

Hmm, I think your experience with the activist group could serve as a form of leadership. I would definitely include your experience at the middle school. This shows that you can lead a class and have the ability to teach which is just as important as leadership.

Perhaps you could mention your experiences with your brother in secondaries? Obviously, this is very important to you, so why not? Not sure about the primary applicaion though. Your personal statement, in particular, should focus on why you want to practice medicine.