Reapplicant Advise

[psychcloud]

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[djiboutiman]

Hi Everyone,
I am seeking some desperate advice on what I can improve for this next cycle. Last cycle I applied with the following:

Residence: California Ethnicity: Asian Indian Undergrad: UCLA MCAT: 516 (128,129,128,131) cGPA: 3.71 sGPA: 3.72

My letters of recommendation were average according to schools that have advised me but no red flags. My PS was pretty good but could be problematic depending on the school as I discussed my father's psychiatric issues. My EC's are as follows:

Hospital Volunteering in ER and Front Desk: 375 hours with 270 hours expected during gap year
Research in PTSD lab during undergrad: 300 hours over 7 months. No posters or publications.
Shadowing of two family physicians: 105 hours total
Club mentorship, volunteer at Ronald Mcdonald charity house, environmental conservation volunteer: 50 hours
Part time restaurant job: 300 hours over 6 months
Teaching and tutoring: 400 hours and 750 hours expected over gap year (MCAT instructor job and science tutoring side hustle)
Weightlifting: 1500 hours over 6 years
Violist/Music production: 2300 hours across life, 150 hours anticipated during gap year
Golfing: 2700 hours across life, 300 anticipated during gap year
Intramural water polo champion, two service awards from hospital, Dean's honor list

I have been advised to add more clinical hours, community service, and get one new LOR and reapply with new essays from a couple schools. From the mouth of my advisor and a few adcoms, everyone is surprised I had such little success this cycle and I am not sure what else I should do. During my gap year, I have added 400 hours of teaching so far, 100 more hours of hospital volunteering, 85 hours of volunteering at a youth shelter as a tutor and general worker, 20 hrs shadowing a neurologist and 20 hrs shadowing an internist at work, and even started a full time clinical research coordinator job in December until now. This job is in my field of interest in neurological/psychiatric disease (clinical trials) and I will have like 900 hours of that by the time I apply in early June. I received one interview from USC keck which resulted in a waitlist and these are the schools I applied to:

Jefferson, Tufts , Hofstra , SUNY Downstate, Wake Forest, Wright State, Rosalind Franklin, Cincinatti, Drexel, Arizona Tucson, Colorado, Pittsburg, Western Michigan Homer Stryker, NYMC, Rochester, Albert Einstein, Keck USC (II to waitlist), UCI, Boston University, Ohio State, University of Virginia, University of Vermont, UCLA, Miami, UCSF, Quinnipiac, MCW, Albany, Utah, Maryland, Yale, Case Western, IOWA, UCR, Temple

No red flags elsewhere in the application that I am aware of.
What else should I do? I plan on rewriting all essays/secondaries, getting a supervisor LOR and possible updates on current ones, adding the new EC's, and apply to DO schools as well. Tbh I am getting p over this process. I really hope I can get it right this time. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank You !

Fellow CA re-applicant here. Since you got an II from Keck, I would assume you're app/essays/LORs are not really dragging you down. I think your plan of beefing up clinical and non-clinical volunteer work is good. You seem to have a great application, just given the ORM CA curse. If I were you I would add more low-tier schools like:

USF-Morsani, Wayne State, Creighton, Oakland, SLU, Cincinnati, Indiana(no secondary), Toledo, SUNY Downstate, Stony Brook, VCU, EVMS, Loma Linda, Cal Science and Medicine, Kaiser, Nova, Seton Hall, TCU, etc.

Hang in their brother!

 

[Faha]

I am surprised you did not receive more interviews. Apply more broadly the next time. I suggest all these schools:
Tufts
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
NYMC
Hofstra
Rochester
Seton Hall
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Wayne State
Cincinnati
Indiana
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
TCU-UNTHSC (new school)
Kaiser
California University
Loma Linda
UC Davis
UC Irvine
Keck USC
Also apply to at least 6 DO schools and include the CA schools

 

[psychcloud]

Fellow CA re-applicant here. Since you got an II from Keck, I would assume you're app/essays/LORs are not really dragging you down. I think your plan of beefing up clinical and non-clinical volunteer work is good. You seem to have a great application, just given the ORM CA curse. If I were you I would add more low-tier schools like:

USF-Morsani, Wayne State, Creighton, Oakland, SLU, Cincinnati, Indiana(no secondary), Toledo, SUNY Downstate, Stony Brook, VCU, EVMS, Loma Linda, Cal Science and Medicine, Kaiser, Nova, Seton Hall, TCU, etc.

Hang in their brother!

Thanks for the words of encouragement and I definitely agree on adding some of those other schools. Best of luck to you as well!

 

[MedicalDestiny]

Hi Everyone,
I am seeking some desperate advice on what I can improve for this next cycle. Last cycle I applied with the following:

Residence: California Ethnicity: Asian Indian Undergrad: UCLA MCAT: 516 (128,129,128,131) cGPA: 3.71 sGPA: 3.72

My letters of recommendation were average according to schools that have advised me but no red flags. My PS was pretty good but could be problematic depending on the school as I discussed my father's psychiatric issues. My EC's are as follows:

Hospital Volunteering in ER and Front Desk: 375 hours with 270 hours expected during gap year
Research in PTSD lab during undergrad: 300 hours over 7 months. No posters or publications.
Shadowing of two family physicians: 105 hours total
Club mentorship, volunteer at Ronald Mcdonald charity house, environmental conservation volunteer: 50 hours
Part time restaurant job: 300 hours over 6 months
Teaching and tutoring: 400 hours and 750 hours expected over gap year (MCAT instructor job and science tutoring side hustle)
Weightlifting: 1500 hours over 6 years
Violist/Music production: 2300 hours across life, 150 hours anticipated during gap year
Golfing: 2700 hours across life, 300 anticipated during gap year
Intramural water polo champion, two service awards from hospital, Dean's honor list

I have been advised to add more clinical hours, community service, and get one new LOR and reapply with new essays from a couple schools. From the mouth of my advisor and a few adcoms, everyone is surprised I had such little success this cycle and I am not sure what else I should do. During my gap year, I have added 400 hours of teaching so far, 100 more hours of hospital volunteering, 85 hours of volunteering at a youth shelter as a tutor and general worker, 20 hrs shadowing a neurologist and 20 hrs shadowing an internist at work, and even started a full time clinical research coordinator job in December until now. This job is in my field of interest in neurological/psychiatric disease (clinical trials) and I will have like 900 hours of that by the time I apply in early June. I received one interview from USC keck which resulted in a waitlist and these are the schools I applied to:

Jefferson, Tufts , Hofstra , SUNY Downstate, Wake Forest, Wright State, Rosalind Franklin, Cincinatti, Drexel, Arizona Tucson, Colorado, Pittsburg, Western Michigan Homer Stryker, NYMC, Rochester, Albert Einstein, Keck USC (II to waitlist), UCI, Boston University, Ohio State, University of Virginia, University of Vermont, UCLA, Miami, UCSF, Quinnipiac, MCW, Albany, Utah, Maryland, Yale, Case Western, IOWA, UCR, Temple

No red flags elsewhere in the application that I am aware of.
What else should I do? I plan on rewriting all essays/secondaries, getting a supervisor LOR and possible updates on current ones, adding the new EC's, and apply to DO schools as well. Tbh I am getting p over this process. I really hope I can get it right this time. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank You !

How were your interviews and is your personal statement strong? You seem to have a good plan for this round.