Please help. Potential reapplicant

[jeffreylei]

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So clearly I have gotten rejected to almost all of the schools that I have applied to including my IS school. This cycle I have applied to 16 schools with only 2 interviews and currently I am waiting for an OOS post-interview decision. However, I am not optimistic about it and starting to prep for next cycle. The stats below includes the things that I have done this year after my application as well. Please leave comments and suggestions to my stats and any input is greatly appreciated.

(the ones with * are updates from last application)

Institution: University of Utah (expected: May 13)
Major: Biomedical Engineering (University Honors and Departmental Honors)
Minor: Chemistry
cGPA/ BCPM GPA: 3.76/3.94
MCAT: 31Q (12/7/12) retaking it this year 7/2 to boost VR
Ethnicity: Asian (trilinguial, English as third language)

Extracurricular:
Came to America in 2008, got my citizenship 2012 (maybe that explains the low VR)
Research lab- 2.5 years (15hrs/wk) in 2 labs
Publications- 3* (1 new this year)
Poster/powerpoint presentations/conferences- 4* (1 new this year)
Tutor at free drop in tutoring center- 1 year
Tutor (paid)- 1 year
OChem 2 TA- 1 year
Refugee teacher- 1 year
Orientation leader- 1 year (40hr/wk during summer, 5hr/wk during school)
Service learning leader (plan big service projects)- 1 year*
Piano recital every year- 4 years (2/year)
Competed in table tennis for my university and won state
Several scholarships from state school and Kaplan
Composed and defended honor thesis and senior project thesis
participated in many leadership building conferences

Clinical experiences:
AED honor society membership (active, many 1 time volunteering event)
Shadowing- 80 hrs (2 anesthesiologist*, 1 OBGYN, 1 internalist)
Clinical internship- 10hrs/wk in summer
Biodesign project - 1 yr (entered student competition)*
BLS*, Radioactive material use, Animal use certified
ER volunteering- 1.5 year*

LOR: (strong in some and I dont know about the others)
last year: 1 non science, 1 science, 1 advisor, 1 MD, 1 research, 1 volunteering
this year: 1 non science*, 2 science*, 1 clinical*, 1 volunteering, 1 research

Self assessment:
In my opinion, I was lacking clinical hours, a solid MCAT score and strong personal statement. This year I am hoping to improve all those. After last year's application, I have started taking graduate level courses regarding medical system physiology, anatomy and anesthesiology from the state SOM. Volunteered about 4-8 hrs/wk in an ER. Did a student innovation design project. Facilitated service learning projects. Finished my thesis and degree and shadowed some more doctors.

Also, in case I don't get in again. During this gap year I am think about doing an internship at the state artificial heart program, biomedical device design project, EMT certification (basic) and possibly another Bachelor in chemistry (maybe not). I am planning on submitting my primary on 6/4 as soon as it opens, get my 7/2 MCAT about early August and submit all the secondaries as soon as I receive the score.

I know this post is long but I am humbled during this process and hope that someone may shed some light onto my application because i truly aspire to become a physician.

Sincerely,
Jeff

 

[red doctober]

What was your school list and when were you verified?

 

[jeffreylei]

What was your school list and when were you verified?

I was verified July 31st. Submitted most of the secondaries mid August. and 1 or 2 secondaries early September.

School list:
George Washington
Creighton
Stanford
Ohio State
Colorado
SLU
Rosalind Franklin
Virginia CommonWealth
OHSU
Illinois (UIC)
NYMC
Utah
Penn State
Drexel
Wisconsin
UC Davis

 

[aspiring20]

you seem like an excellent candidate. that 7 in VR might raise some eyebrows (are you a ESL speaker?) and that july 31 verification date is a bit late.

how are you planning on improving your verbal score? are you doing the EK 101 passages?

 

[jeffreylei]

you seem like an excellent candidate. that 7 in VR might raise some eyebrows (are you a ESL speaker?) and that july 31 verification date is a bit late.

how are you planning on improving your verbal score? are you doing the EK 101 passages?

Yes. English is my third language and I learned it when I first came to the US when I was 18. I am planning on retaking the MCAT on 7/2 this year and hopefully I can get at least a 10 this time around. Right now I am reading the economist daily, improving my vocab, and also doing all the EK101 and Kaplan material that I had.

In my opinion, a 7 in the VR did hurt me a lot regarding my chances in getting an interview. Or maybe I am over thinking this.

 

[Weewee]

Yes. English is my third language and I learned it when I first came to the US when I was 18. I am planning on retaking the MCAT on 7/2 this year and hopefully I can get at least a 10 this time around. Right now I am reading the economist daily, improving my vocab, and also doing all the EK101 and Kaplan material that I had.

In my opinion, a 7 in the VR did hurt me a lot regarding my chances in getting an interview. Or maybe I am over thinking this.

Your story is very impressive. Not many people can go to a foreign country, learn the language, and do that well on a reading comprehension portion of the mcat....but a 7 does not really help your chances.

As others have stated, apply early. The July retake puts you at a disadvantage because you will be later in the cycle. Try and take the mcat earlier and get your app in the first day possible. Good luck with everything!!

 

[jeffreylei]

Your story is very impressive. Not many people can go to a foreign country, learn the language, and do that well on a reading comprehension portion of the mcat....but a 7 does not really help your chances.

As others have stated, apply early. The July retake puts you at a disadvantage because you will be later in the cycle. Try and take the mcat earlier and get your app in the first day possible. Good luck with everything!!

Thank you for your complement. My four years of college did help me a lot in improving my writing as well as english comprehension skills. Unfortunately, MCAT is just more challenging. Sometimes i would not even understand a passage completely just because i dont know a specific keyword and therefore miss most of the questions. However, when i do understand it, i get most of them.

 

[Goro]

A lot of the stuff you list is academic work and not traditional EC. Defending your Honor's Thesis, for example.

What we want to see is evidence of your altruism. Your updated list is much improved and I foresee interviews this time around. You definitely will need to improve that MCAT VR score. Too imbalanced as is, especially for MD schools. DO programs would be more forgiving.

So clearly I have gotten rejected to almost all of the schools that I have applied to including my IS school. This cycle I have applied to 16 schools with only 2 interviews and currently I am waiting for an OOS post-interview decision. However, I am not optimistic about it and starting to prep for next cycle. The stats below includes the things that I have done this year after my application as well. Please leave comments and suggestions to my stats and any input is greatly appreciated.

(the ones with * are updates from last application)

Institution: University of Utah (expected: May 13)
Major: Biomedical Engineering (University Honors and Departmental Honors)
Minor: Chemistry
cGPA/ BCPM GPA: 3.76/3.94
MCAT: 31Q (12/7/12) retaking it this year 7/2 to boost VR
Ethnicity: Asian (trilinguial, English as third language)

Extracurricular:
Came to America in 2008, got my citizenship 2012 (maybe that explains the low VR)
Research lab- 2.5 years (15hrs/wk) in 2 labs
Publications- 3* (1 new this year)
Poster/powerpoint presentations/conferences- 4* (1 new this year)
Tutor at free drop in tutoring center- 1 year
Tutor (paid)- 1 year
OChem 2 TA- 1 year
Refugee teacher- 1 year
Orientation leader- 1 year (40hr/wk during summer, 5hr/wk during school)
Service learning leader (plan big service projects)- 1 year*
Piano recital every year- 4 years (2/year)
Competed in table tennis for my university and won state
Several scholarships from state school and Kaplan
Composed and defended honor thesis and senior project thesis
participated in many leadership building conferences

Clinical experiences:
AED honor society membership (active, many 1 time volunteering event)
Shadowing- 80 hrs (2 anesthesiologist*, 1 OBGYN, 1 internalist)
Clinical internship- 10hrs/wk in summer
Biodesign project - 1 yr (entered student competition)*
BLS*, Radioactive material use, Animal use certified
ER volunteering- 1.5 year*

LOR: (strong in some and I dont know about the others)
last year: 1 non science, 1 science, 1 advisor, 1 MD, 1 research, 1 volunteering
this year: 1 non science*, 2 science*, 1 clinical*, 1 volunteering, 1 research

Self assessment:
In my opinion, I was lacking clinical hours, a solid MCAT score and strong personal statement. This year I am hoping to improve all those. After last year's application, I have started taking graduate level courses regarding medical system physiology, anatomy and anesthesiology from the state SOM. Volunteered about 4-8 hrs/wk in an ER. Did a student innovation design project. Facilitated service learning projects. Finished my thesis and degree and shadowed some more doctors.

Also, in case I don't get in again. During this gap year I am think about doing an internship at the state artificial heart program, biomedical device design project, EMT certification (basic) and possibly another Bachelor in chemistry (maybe not). I am planning on submitting my primary on 6/4 as soon as it opens, get my 7/2 MCAT about early August and submit all the secondaries as soon as I receive the score.

I know this post is long but I am humbled during this process and hope that someone may shed some light onto my application because i truly aspire to become a physician.

Sincerely,
Jeff

 

[jeffreylei]

A lot of the stuff you list is academic work and not traditional EC. Defending your Honor's Thesis, for example.

What we want to see is evidence of your altruism. Your updated list is much improved and I foresee interviews this time around. You definitely will need to improve that MCAT VR score. Too imbalanced as is, especially for MD schools. DO programs would be more forgiving.

Goro, Thank you for your input. I hope to reapply this year more strategically by submitting everything early and study the MCAT really hard to try to take it in May rather than July. Regarding to academics, I know my application is more academically oriented and I saw that coming therefore I have done more leadership development, service project planning, volunteering and shadowing. In addition, i believe last year i did not spend enough time in composing a strong personal statement, that was my downfall and now I am suffering my consequences. Hopefully my VR can be improved upon and this year I will get some good news.

Any other comments/inputs?

 

[aspiring20]

Yes. English is my third language and I learned it when I first came to the US when I was 18. I am planning on retaking the MCAT on 7/2 this year and hopefully I can get at least a 10 this time around. Right now I am reading the economist daily, improving my vocab, and also doing all the EK101 and Kaplan material that I had.

In my opinion, a 7 in the VR did hurt me a lot regarding my chances in getting an interview. Or maybe I am over thinking this.

because your app looks great overall, the only two factors that explain the lack of success (that I can see) are your VR score and the fact that you were verified at the end of july.

so just raise your VR score (but make sure your science scores don't drop in the retake) and have your app verified early june if you have to reapply.

 

[jeffreylei]

because your app looks great overall, the only two factors that explain the lack of success (that I can see) are your VR score and the fact that you were verified at the end of july.

so just raise your VR score (but make sure your science scores don't drop in the retake) and have your app verified early june if you have to reapply.

Thank you. Do you guys have any personal tips on VR? I know this topic has been covered in many threads but I just want to hear more opinions.

 

[zhartley]

I think your biggest problem may have been your late verification date (although the 7 isn't doing you any favors). If you take the MCAT on 7/2 you won't have your scores until August, and you'll be in the same boat as you are this year. Your high science scores also have a chance to drop on the retake, and if you get a 31 but your scores are 11/10/10, the fact that your science scores dropped would be concerning.

Just apply early, early, early.

 

[jeffreylei]

I think your biggest problem may have been your late verification date (although the 7 isn't doing you any favors). If you take the MCAT on 7/2 you won't have your scores until August, and you'll be in the same boat as you are this year. Your high science scores also have a chance to drop on the retake, and if you get a 31 but your scores are 11/10/10, the fact that your science scores dropped would be concerning.

Just apply early, early, early.

So you would recommend not retaking the MCAT, but rather apply early? I am just concern because most schools prescreen, and any score below a 8 in any sections would be a goner.