Re-applying without much application improvement?

[Jcherno]

Hey! I could use some advice about my re-app situation here.

Last year I applied, got three interviews and 2 waitlists. My stats in general are:

double major in Bio / Nutrition
3.8 GPA, 3.7 science (i think)
35 MCAT

EC: one summer of research, lots of teaching/tutoring, TAing, being an RA in the dorm, random community service. Hobbies = drawing (amateur cartoon animator) music (made a band, sold some CDs/t-shirts, scored some short movies)

The obvious hole in my application is clinical experience: only 2 days of shadowing and about 60 hours of volunteering. I'm working on getting some more experience, but it's super hard... only thing I can find is some basic volunteer work in a hospital (not the most in-depth patient contact i imagine) and more shadowing. But the problem is by the time I want to submit my application I'll probably have just begun to do these experiences. Since I applied last year I've only been improving my strengths (more teaching, better grades...) but haven't improved my weakness.

My question would be how to address the weaknesses in my application the second time around? Should I mention I'll be doing these things and submit updates to adcoms as time passes?

My strength probably comes from other types of interactions with people, mainly teaching. I was thinking about trying to reconcile my lack of patient contact with my abundance of contact with students/children in my personal statement... would this be a good idea?

Should I just not apply this year? I figured since I got a few waitlists last year and a decent number of interviews (3/10) I might get lucky.

Thanks for any advice you can give!

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[giraffe17]

will your mcat still be good if you wait to reapply until 2012?

the safe bet, i'd imagine, would be to wait a year and work on getting more clinical experience - esp since you're a reapplicant, and presumably this is what the schools had issue with before. maybe you could find a job in clinical research that has lots of patient contact (and where hopefully you'll be able to shadow doctors and stuff too)?

however (keep in mind n=1 and all that), i got like 95% of my clinical experience during my application year - i had done shadowing before, but nothing else. i put the job i started after spring semester ended in AMCAS (and waited to submit until july so i had been at it for a few weeks) and went from there. also my stats were very similar to yours, but with more research. anyway, obviously this was not an ideal situation, but i did ok, ended up with multiple interviews and acceptances, so it can work.

one question, do you feel you had a good mix of schools last time? maybe you just needed to apply to more (like 15-20 instead of 10).

good luck! hope you get pulled from one of your waitlists and make this advice irrelevant!

 

[Jcherno]

My MCATs will be good for awhile i hope, i took them a year ago. A clinical research job sounds great, but they seem impossible to find without connections--they all want some sort of certification or previous experience it seems.

I'm glad to hear you got acceptances while getting your clinical experience during your application year. I hope I might be able to pull off a similar situation. The interviews I got last year were for my state schools, and maybe half of the applications were for top schools (my very naive mother insisted i do so.. "you have good grades!!" she said). I agree that if i spread out my schools more I might have more success.

Would early decision to one of the schools i'm wait-listed at be a bad idea?

 

[SisterDisco08]

Just to make sure you know, if you apply ED, you cannot apply anywhere else until they have made some sort of decision on your application, and that will likely put you in the position of applying to other schools in sept/oct if you aren't accepted ED at the school you applied to ED

 

[YHman]

My S is in the same boat. He applied very late last year (in september) and only get one interview. His status then was

sGPA 3.61
Overall GPA 3.64
MCAT 32R (but only 8 on Reading)

Now, his GPA improved a little bit (sGPA 3.71, Overall GPA 3.69). He is going to take July 16 MCAT again (hope to get 10 or more on reading). He plan to submit primary in this week and try to finish his secondary before the new MCAT score coming out (Aug 16).

My question is: If he can get the score he want, is this time frame he planed still too late for this cycle?

Any comment is apreciated.

thanks!

 

[intothedark]

My S is in the same boat. He applied very late last year (in september) and only get one interview. His status then was

sGPA 3.61
Overall GPA 3.64
MCAT 32R (but only 8 on Reading)

Now, his GPA improved a little bit (sGPA 3.71, Overall GPA 3.69). He is going to take July 16 MCAT again (hope to get 10 or more on reading). He plan to submit primary in this week and try to finish his secondary before the new MCAT score coming out (Aug 16).

My question is: If he can get the score he want, is this time frame he planed still too late for this cycle?

Any comment is apreciated.

thanks!

No. You should be fine.