One Year Before Application: What can I do to improve my chances?

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BleedinBlue2016

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(Sorry in advance for how long this ended up being -- I tried to bold out my main questions)
Hi all -- I am currently 23 & graduated in 2016 from a top 10 university. I was pre-med for the first 3 years of college, and ended up dropping the track at that point for various reasons and ended up working in consulting for two years at a mid-tier firm (EY/PWC/Deloitte/Accenture/etc.)
I knew that there was a strong chance that I would go back to medicine after having a few gap years, and I am at that point now where I am pretty certain I'm ready to take the plunge.

I am currently thinking I will most likely leave my job in late June and apply in the 2019 cycle. Looking for any and all advice on how to best use my next year to my advantage. This is my situation as of now:
  • I have 3 additional courses to take in order to complete my pre-reqs: O-Chem II, GenChem II, and Physics II
    • Most likely taking these at a local state university over the course of July - December 2018
  • My GPA after these courses will likely land around 3.75 / sGPA around 3.6 :/
  • I have not yet taken the MCAT -- planning on doing this in April of 2019 (using Jan - March to study essentially full time)
  • I have 3 years of college research experience, but nothing phenomenal (no papers, etc.) -- I did very basic stuff for the two labs I worked at
  • My volunteer/shadowing experience is very, very lacking -- I do have 3 internships from undergrad:
    • International internship at an ophthalmology NGO clinic
    • Summer as an healthcare administration intern at a medical clinic (learned a lot about the business side of healthcare)
    • One summer as a teaching fellow in a competitive sister program of TFA (Breakthrough Collaborative)
  • I was a part of healthcare related organizations at my company -- writing for a monthly newsletter/blog on international healthcare/hot topics/etc. and an organization looking into AI in health/weekly meetings with healthcare startups
    • Not sure if this is relevant?
    • I was not doing healthcare related work on my projects at my company, but I do think I learned a lot of transferable skills that I can speak to with the experiences I did have
These are the biggest questions I have:
  • MCAT: not sure if this is out of reach, but I am thinking about a range of schools like Ohio State, UVA, Baylor, Emory, Duke, etc. -- with my GPA, what sort of MCAT range should I be aiming for for these schools?
  • Recs: I'm struggling here, being 2 years out of college.
    • I am hoping I can get a rec from one (maybe two) managers from my company, 1 or 2 profs from the science pre-reqs I will be taking in the fall, and hopefully one non-science teacher from undergrad. I don't think any of these other than potentially the one from my recent manager will be phenomenal in any way, but would that be sufficient (~3 recs minimum)?
    • I also believe I can get a committee letter from my undergrad university.
  • Shadowing/Volunteering:
    • This is 100% my biggest weakness -- I have been trying to find a way to shadow while I take the rest of my classes, but finding opportunities as a post-grad has been super difficult. Any advice?
    • I'm also unsure of the types of hours I should be aiming to get for shadowing/volunteering -- what is the benchmark here?
  • Is there anything I'm missing other than what is listed above that I should focus on during my one year off before the application cycle? Is there anything else that I could be doing to further amp up my application?

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Are you 23 or 26-28? Just curious because your old posts/threads seem to indicate you're older than 23.

You should get the MSAR to see what MCAT score you need for the schools you listed.

Try to get at least one more LOR, but it shouldn't kill your app if you can't get more than 3.

You should aim to get as many volunteering hours as humanly possible without neglecting work, classes, etc. Look here VolunteerMatch - Where Volunteering Begins and here Idealist. You should easily be able to rack up at least 200 hours between now and the time you apply next year simply by volunteering 3-4 hours a week. It looks like you also need to get a lot more clinical work as well.
 
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Are you 23 or 26-28? Just curious because your old posts/threads seem to indicate you're older than 23.

You should get the MSAR to see what MCAT score you need for the schools you listed.

Try to get at least one more LOR, but it shouldn't kill your app if you can't get more than 3.

You should aim to get as many volunteering hours as humanly possible without neglecting work, classes, etc. Look here VolunteerMatch - Where Volunteering Begins and here Idealist. You should easily be able to rack up at least 200 hours between now and the time you apply next year simply by volunteering 3-4 hours a week. It looks like you also need to get a lot more clinical work as well.

I'm 23 (essentially 24) currently, but will be 26 when entering medical school if all goes according to plan!
Thanks for the advice -- I definitely want to try to do as many volunteer hours as possible while studying for my classes. I think volunteer opportunities will be fairly easy to find but I definitely am struggling with how to get more clinical work in that time, especially given the fact that I am in a pretty small town. Trying to reach out to college alums in my area, but I'm finding it tough to get shadowing experience while not going through a formal program.
 
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I'm 23 (essentially 24) currently, but will be 26 when entering medical school if all goes according to plan!
Thanks for the advice -- I definitely want to try to do as many volunteer hours as possible while studying for my classes. I think volunteer opportunities will be fairly easy to find but I definitely am struggling with how to get more clinical work in that time, especially given the fact that I am in a pretty small town. Trying to reach out to college alums in my area, but I'm finding it tough to get shadowing experience while not going through a formal program.
hey! I thought it was difficult to get shadowing opportunities after finishing undergrad as well. Esp after leaving a college town which was surrounded by docs who were used to students shadowing. Nonetheless I cold called probably ~20 clinics in the surrounding area and got 2 people to say yes. Just call, explain yourself a little and you should find something. Also, I’d ask the doc you shadow if they’re involved in any volunteering and that might be your in on some extra health care related volunteering
 
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hey! I thought it was difficult to get shadowing opportunities after finishing undergrad as well. Esp after leaving a college town which was surrounded by docs who were used to students shadowing. Nonetheless I cold called probably ~20 clinics in the surrounding area and got 2 people to say yes. Just call, explain yourself a little and you should find something. Also, I’d ask the doc you shadow if they’re involved in any volunteering and that might be your in on some extra health care related volunteering

Awesome, thanks for the help! Did you mostly shadow at private practices? Also, were you able to establish any long-term shadowing opportunities (maybe being able to come in once or twice a week for a few months) or did the clinics you called just allow you to come in one-off for a few hours? I'm hoping to get some sort of arrangement to get shadowing experience over a few months, but not sure how open people are to allowing that.
 
Awesome, thanks for the help! Did you mostly shadow at private practices? Also, were you able to establish any long-term shadowing opportunities (maybe being able to come in once or twice a week for a few months) or did the clinics you called just allow you to come in one-off for a few hours? I'm hoping to get some sort of arrangement to get shadowing experience over a few months, but not sure how open people are to allowing that.

I cold called private practices only. I found it easier than contacting hospitals because they are less stringent with hour limitations and the shadowing process in general (ie I didn't even have to sign a HIPPA form). I have only shadowed at 1 clinic so far and they actually reached out to me to schedule more shadowing opportunities as I had mentioned it when I was there. I'm going to guess this is not the norm.

After calling a bunch of clinics, I'm finding it is beneficial to read the doc's bios and see if theyre involved in teaching or are faculty members at any schools. They are more receptive to students and you will get a better experience. Hope that helps- good luck!
 
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Find a volunteering gig where there are physicians around, then ask if you can shadow them!
 
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Quick follow-up question -- I was able to get a part-time medical scribe position in order to get some clinical experience. Does scribing 'cover' the shadowing requirement on apps, or is it considered a form of clinical experience outside of shadowing? I have been really struggling to get any sort of straightforward shadowing experience so I figured this would be the best way, but if I need shadowing hours in addition I will continue to look for that as well.
I also was able to start volunteering at a free clinic in my area, but it is very non-clinical and mostly front desk work such as checking people in and filing documents. For the sake of my app, should I look for additional volunteer opportunities that are more clinical, such as at a hospice?
 
As far as I know, there are no specific shadowing requirements at most schools. Some schools strongly recommend it, but if you look through SDN you'll find many applicants got in without shadowing at all. I think you'll be fine with the scribing. That's basically a better version of shadowing anyway even though you'd categorize it as clinical work.

You don't necessarily need to find clinical volunteer work. You have clinical work as a scribe and you have volunteer work by working in the free clinic. If you want more clinical volunteering work then, yes, hospice would be a great choice.
 
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