Hello everyone! Sad to say that I’m preparing to reapply this upcoming cycle 2025-2026 and I’d appreciate any advice on my app.
I managed to get one interview this cycle, which unfortunately turned into a rejection. Every other secondary I submitted resulted in a pre-II R. As far as what I think the weaknesses of my application might be: My research is weak (I’m pretty much just checking a box). I know there’s mixed opinions about scribing as clinical experience as it’s sometimes not considered direct patient interaction; hopefully, I’ve remedied this by taking on more MA duties the past few months. My non clinical volunteering may have been on the lower side, especially for certain schools. The last thing I can think of is my shadowing was limited to 2 specialties: family medicine and pain management.
As far as writing, I did have several friends review my PS. Three of them recently went through their own application process for grad/dental school and they helped me revise. Although, I'm not sure if my narrative was the strongest. I basically did a chronological recap of how my interest in physiology started in high school, I went on to explore other careers and interests but discovered many aspects of the different careers I explored/was interested in could be found in medicine. (If anyone is willing to read my PS, pls let me know. I would really appreciate it) I tried my best to pre-write as many secondaries as I could, but time caught up to me. I prioritized submitting these early and didn’t have anyone look over the writing. I just did a quick proofread for spelling/grammar errors through grammarly. I ended up submitting most secondaries by the end of July with just a handful submitted by mid-August.
All in all, I have some ideas on where I can improve and where my pitfalls are. But there are also times when I lay in bed at night and feel quite lost. So any insight or advice would be much appreciated!
Stats:
ORM from CA
3.93 Science GPA
516 MCAT
Improvements: (** - significant experience)
I managed to get one interview this cycle, which unfortunately turned into a rejection. Every other secondary I submitted resulted in a pre-II R. As far as what I think the weaknesses of my application might be: My research is weak (I’m pretty much just checking a box). I know there’s mixed opinions about scribing as clinical experience as it’s sometimes not considered direct patient interaction; hopefully, I’ve remedied this by taking on more MA duties the past few months. My non clinical volunteering may have been on the lower side, especially for certain schools. The last thing I can think of is my shadowing was limited to 2 specialties: family medicine and pain management.
As far as writing, I did have several friends review my PS. Three of them recently went through their own application process for grad/dental school and they helped me revise. Although, I'm not sure if my narrative was the strongest. I basically did a chronological recap of how my interest in physiology started in high school, I went on to explore other careers and interests but discovered many aspects of the different careers I explored/was interested in could be found in medicine. (If anyone is willing to read my PS, pls let me know. I would really appreciate it) I tried my best to pre-write as many secondaries as I could, but time caught up to me. I prioritized submitting these early and didn’t have anyone look over the writing. I just did a quick proofread for spelling/grammar errors through grammarly. I ended up submitting most secondaries by the end of July with just a handful submitted by mid-August.
All in all, I have some ideas on where I can improve and where my pitfalls are. But there are also times when I lay in bed at night and feel quite lost. So any insight or advice would be much appreciated!
Stats:
ORM from CA
3.93 Science GPA
516 MCAT
Improvements: (** - significant experience)
- 1500 additional hours of scribe/MA experience**
- Previously 1000+ hours of just scribe experience
- More direct patient experience i.e., rooming, taking vitals, taking glucose, taking patient history and presenting to PA/physician
- 200 additional hours of non-clinical volunteering at a soup kitchen**
- Previously 80 hours
- Now training new volunteers (more leadership experience?)
- New LOR from volunteer coordinator/supervisor
- 150 additional hours of shadowing
- Previously 50 hours across family medicine and pain management (MD)
- Now across more specialties: radiology, urology, neurotology, rhinology, neurology, endocrinology, DO (family medicine and pain management)
- 100 hours of clinical volunteering at a brain injury clinic
- Rooming patients, taking vitals, preparing exam rooms
- Mostly clerical work i.e., scanning and filing papers
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