Reapplication advice/WAMC -- very little direct patient care experience

[Liabill]

Hi all!

I’m a 3rd time potential reapplicant (but only applied to ~8 schools both times before, no interviews) and am currently on my 2nd gap year postbac at NIH. My advisors tell me my biggest red flag to admissions committees would be my lack of direct patient care/clinical exposure.

I’m not sure whether I should apply this year, or wait until next year when I have more experience. I’ll be working on a more clinical project where I’ll get more patient interfacing next year and continue my current clinical volunteering OR I can quit my full time job at NIH and become a medical scribe. If I apply next year, I’ll also have to take the MCAT.

Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me!!

1. cGPA: 3.85, sGPA: 3.80
2. Total: 519 – taken in 6/2021 – am unsure if I should wait another year to apply and take it again

CP	CARS	Bio	PS
130	130	128	131

1. Maryland resident (?); California born & raised
2. Asian
3. University of California, Davis (graduated 2021)
4. 150 hours volunteering in various clinics within the Walter Reed Hospital (ER most meaningful)
   1. Not much direct patient care in this opportunity. I’ve been advised that I need to be actually providing medical services to patients to have a good shot at getting into medical school.
5. 3800 hrs at the National Institutes of health, 1 commentary publication, no conferences/publications on my research yet (but hopefully next year)
6. ~45 hrs total, internal medicine, medical genetics, ER, OBGYN
   1. OBGYN: +140 hrs (but while I was in joint high school/community college) – advised not to include on AMCAS
7. 300+ hours total
   1. >200 hours fostering kittens
   2. 90 hrs tutoring in underserved communities
   3. 35 hours volunteering with a couple outreach organizations mainly working with unhoused individuals
8. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
   1. Assistant coach for an MMA course for 2+ years
   2. Co-founder of a pre-health club in community college
   3. On the postbac committee at NIH (1 year as service subcommittee co-chair, this year elected as co-chair of the committee)
9. Relevant honors or awards
   1. Dean’s list for a couple quarters at UCD, Departmental Citation upon graduating from UCD
   2. Small scholarship for women in STEM
   3. Poster Award for presentation of research at NIH
10. I’m not sure that I have the strongest LOR? 1 science LOR each from undergrad and community college, 1 research from my current PI at NIH, 1 from the doctor that I shadowed in high school/community college. The other two are from my boss while tutoring biology during school and from the coach I volunteered under as an assistant coach (but it’s not on official letterhead). Should I ask for letters of rec from physician’s I’ve only shadowed for a month (~8 hrs so far)?

Schools list:
UCSF (reach)
Cleveland Clinic (reach)
UCSD (reach)
UCLA (reach)
U Maryland
Rochester
USC Keck
Albert Einstein
MC Wisconsion
V Tech
UCD
UCI
Stanford (reach)
Emory (reach)
Dartmouth
OSU
UVA
Hofstra
CUSM
Creighton
Robert larner (UVM)
Saint Louis (SLO)
WMU Stryker
VA Commonwealth
Cincinnati
GWU
Georgetown
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
Tufts

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[Faha]

Which schools did you apply to in your most recent cycle ? If you want to reapply this year you should accumulate another 100+ hours of clinical volunteering with patient contact.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

This is the only issue I have with the NIH Postbac IRTA. You are actually discouraged from doing more clinical exposure while in the program (unless something changed very recently). I'm not sure what else I could suggest. You know what you should do.

 

[chilly_md]

Do not include physician shadowing LORs, they are of little to no value for the vast majority of MD schools. And schools would rather have less letters to sort through if possible.

 

[Liabill]

Thank you all for your input! Yes, there are more clinical opportunities for postbacs at NIH now, but research takes precedent over that and any free clinics/similar experiences are over saturated with postbacs. I’m thinking of leaving NIH for this reason and spending a couple years scribing/doing part time clinical research while retaking the MCAT.

@Faha I applied to UCSF, UCD, UCSD, UCI, USC, Tufts, Kaiser, and Brown. Not the best fit for my stats, I know .

 

[Faha]

Most of those schools were unrealistic with your clinical and non clinical volunteering hours. A year of scribing, and 150 hours of non clinical volunteering at a homeless shelter, food bank, etc, and you should be able to apply in June 2024.

 

[mstpgrind]

I think a year of scribing isn't necessary though - if you work in a clinical setting for like 20 hours/wk (scribe america, etc.) , that should be enough. (20 hours/week x 20 weeks (5 months) = 400 hours.

Agree with the 150 hours of non clinical volunteering. While fostering kittens is great, adcoms typically want to see you interacting with the less fortunate, so I'm not sure I'd really factor that in as non-clinical volunteering on the same level as, say, habitat for humanity.