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!!
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!!