Open convo/app advice

[304_lidocaine]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hey everyone!



I am about a year into my post bacc and have 1 year left to complete all required pre requisites for medical school. I graduated years ago with business degrees and the pursued my MBA and worked in consulting. I realized after a while it was not for me and (after a very easy decision) decided to pursue a career in medicine.



I currently am just grinding through the basic prerequisites. Undergrad GPA is 3.8, sGPA is 3.92. No research. It’s been difficult trying to acquire that with no degree.



Have not taken the MCAT yet. Quit my consulting job and have been working as a PCT at a hospital nearby. I believe I have a good story to portray on an application.



My question is, what else can I do to be beyond qualified on my application? I have a ton research/volunteering as well. Anything that you know could be considered unique and stand out? I also have a few leadership roles as well.



On paper it doesn’t look bad, but I feel like I am lacking in some way. Any advice would really help me out a ton!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Here's a past similar conversation

T

Thread 'management consulting to medical school questions'

Jan 16, 2018

hi everyone,

quick stats:

age: 23
graduated may of 2017 from a state school with a degree in business management
cum undergraduate gpa: 3.56 (got a "D" in an accounting class, not sure how bad that hurts)
cum science gpa: 3.75 (only taken general chem + general bio, 2 semesters each)
ACT: 34

ended up working for a big 4 consulting firm (think Deloitte/EY/ Pwc/KPMG) in San Francisco (relatively prestigious high paying job out of college). my clients are related to the life sciences / health fields (i.e. payers like Kaiser or diagnostics companies like Roche) and realized i hated being in...

• tiredrat
• application advice business consulting nontraditional applicant
• Replies: 7
• Forum: Nontraditional Students

 

[polymerization]

I'm an applicant, but I realized as I started to write the application that the real challenge in admissions isn't just trying to show competence or qualification, at least not in the way you probably think you need to. The "average" applicant to medical school (let's just call it a 3.5/500) is technically "good enough," but they do not make compelling applicants if we're just looking at scores.

The real challenge throughout pre-med (in my view) is conceptualizing and executing a professional identity and using that to drive your own education and experiences. This is not intuitive: people typically go to college with the expectation that all you need to know is what you want your job to be, and the school will figure out the rest. Without guidance, it's easy to think meeting the basic requirements (clinical experiences, volunteering, leadership, etc.) and checking the box already earns you a seat. It does not, and that's really shocking to high GPA, high MCAT applicants with disjointed, random experiences who don't get in and feel disillusioned by the whole process. Bonus points if they blame it on the nearest person of color.

What this process requires is foresight. At some point, an evaluator will sit in front of 15 of your activities, your personal statement, your secondary essays... and what they're looking for is cohesion. They need to see a clear line between where you started and where you are now—and everything in that goes in between should "make sense" within the context of the application; i.e., why did you get so deep into business? What led you to leave? How do you know you want to be a physician? Why would you make this decision so late in life? Do you really understand the commitment in terms of time and effort you're getting yourself into? These are not questions for you to answer literally (if you did, no one would believe you), but they're questions they're expecting implicit answers to through your reflections.

Because of all of this, it's probably the greatest (but most important) challenge to ensure that the decisions you make are self-aware, considered, and explainable. Every elective you take in college, every activity you do, all of the reflections you have should coalesce to form a clear vision of the physician you want to become.

What is most impressive, in my opinion, is showing clearly that you weren't waiting for someone to roll out the welcome wagon, like you're waiting for someone to accept you for permission to start working toward your broader professional goals. You roll up your sleeves and demonstrably embody the values of the profession in the ways available to you.

Virtually everyone talks the talk, but so few walk the walk. So it goes.