Reapplication advice

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lakers30

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Hi everyone,

Looking for any advice y'all can give and any possible improvements I can make to my application.

I applied last cycle and was complete at all my schools at the very end of July (list below). I might have rushed through some of my secondaries but I had them read by friends and overall I thought they were solid. I received 1 II in late January from SLU but was just recently put on the WL. All other schools I was rejected from. Below are my stats/activities/other pertinent info for the past application cycle:

Year/Undergrad/Residence:
graduated in May 2019 from a out of state, private T10 university, CA resident
GPA: 3.76 cGPA/3.7 sGPA
MCAT: 1st attempt 510 (128/125/130/127); 2nd attempt 513 (130/126/130/127)
Schools I applied to (all MD): Stanford, WashU, Pitt, UCLA, UCSF, UCSD, USC, UCI, Emory, Case, Darmouth, Wake, Kaiser, Miami, USF, Jefferson, SLU, SUNY, Tulane, Colorado, Wayne State, Vermont, VCU, George Washington, Tufts, Rochester, Temple, Penn State, CUSM

Research: 500 hours at basic science lab, with 5th author pub; 900 hours at clinical/imaging research lab, with 1st author pub and oral presentation at large conference

Volunteering (clinical): 110 hours, volunteering on nursing unit at hospital

Volunteering (nonclinical): 100 hours; 60 hours at local YMCA/tennis camps, 40 hours at local soup kitchen

Shadowing: 110 hours; 60 hours in ED, rest in other specialties

Extra-curriculars: >3000 hours playing Division 3 tennis at highly ranked program; team captain my senior year; tennis accolades include All American honors

Other employment: 200 hours working at tennis camps over summers (teaching)

Misc: no institutional actions; LOR's from clinical research PI, tennis coach, 2 science professors (have very good relationships with 3/4 letter writers)

Just to give a very brief overview of my PS, the main theme was that I want to be able to apply research to better treat and take care of patients in a clinical setting. So while I believe I had some pretty good research experience for this past cycle, I think that my severe lack of any meaningful clinical experiences (which I have tried to address with ED scribing over my gap year) might have set me back.

Gap Year activities:

Clinical:
600 hours of ED scribing (will be at 1000 in June)
Research: continued part time research at clinical research lab (will have additional 150 hours, difficult to see another pub in the immediate future with covid-19 situation)
Non-clinical volunteering: 75 hours, continued volunteering at local soup kitchen
Hobby/employment: 25 hours, teaching/hitting with junior tennis players

Do you guys see any glaring flaws in my application that would need addressing immediately and delaying reapplying? I am currently planning on reapplying this cycle as I feel I have worked to address the weaknesses (mainly clinical experience as well as volunteering) I had in my app last cycle.

If I do end up reapplying this cycle, I will probably omit all T20 schools. Any recommendations on mid/lower range schools I could add? Is it a good idea to reapply to most of my lower/mid range schools?

Lastly, I personally do not know anyone who has been in my position and re-applied to medical school. I have read that most things (PS/activities/secondaries) need to be re-written, but if anyone could provide guidance on that that would be really helpful!!

I apologize for such a long post, but am truly appreciative of any kind of advice/guidance. Thank you!!

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School list was a little top heavy imo. California applicants usually have very good stats.

I would personally revise that PS. Talk more about why you want to be a physician over a research scientist. Show your humanistic side and let your accomplishments exemplify your analytical side. One question that might come up is why MD and not PhD?

if you don’t get off the WL, keep with the volunteering. I have a first author pub, second author pub, co-author, poster presentations and had over 7k hours in research before switching. If you wanna read my PS shoot me a PM - I did an SMP and my advisor congratulated me on a compelling PS given my extensive research background.

more people should be in here for your school list and to give more feedback. Just giving my 2 cents when talking about research in a PS.

3000 hours playing Division 3 tennis at highly ranked program

School didn’t have D1? :angelic:
 
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School list was a little top heavy imo. California applicants usually have very good stats.

I would personally revise that PS. Talk more about why you want to be a physician over a research scientist. Show your humanistic side and let your accomplishments exemplify your analytical side. One question that might come up is why MD and not PhD?

if you don’t get off the WL, keep with the volunteering. I have a first author pub, second author pub, co-author, poster presentations and had over 7k hours in research before switching. If you wanna read my PS shoot me a PM - I did an SMP and my advisor congratulated me on a compelling PS given my extensive research background.

more people should be in here for your school list and to give more feedback. Just giving my 2 cents when talking about research in a PS.



School didn’t have D1? :angelic:
I really appreciate your input! Looking back at my list of schools I probably should I been more realistic and applied to more schools in my range.
The advice about the Personal statement is extremely helpful! I got that sentiment in my one interview as well as I didn't get a single question about any of my research haha
Also the school I went to unfortunately only had Division 3 athletics...
Thank you for your time and insight again!
 
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Your list was too top heavy and half of those schools were unrealistic with your stats. I suggest these schools when you reapply:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Hofstra
Seton Hall
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
St Louis
Creighton
TCU-UNT
Kaiser
CUSM
UC Davis
UC Irvine
Loma Linda
 
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I really appreciate all the advice! Does anyone see other parts of my application that I should significantly strengthen before reapplying? Especially do ya'll think I have improved my clinical experience enough with scribing for the past year?
 
I really appreciate all the advice! Does anyone see other parts of my application that I should significantly strengthen before reapplying? Especially do ya'll think I have improved my clinical experience enough with scribing for the past year?

I'd say your clinical/nonclinical volunteering hours were on the lower side this past cycle, but you've addressed that during this last year. You should be in great shape to apply this cycle.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
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