Reapplication advices

[Ex3]

It is (almost) the end of this application cycle so there are a few things that I need to prepare to reapply.
My biggest concern is my MCAT. I took it in April 2017 and got 520. So should I retake it since it is almost "expired"?

Other concerns are whether I should rewrite my personal statement and add new LORs? I got one interview at NYU this cycle so many people said that my PS and LORs should be decent.

My ECs are quite research-oriented (one first author, a few coauthors, and posters) so I am spending a lot of time scribing now (loving this). Though this cycle, I have about 300 hours of clinic volunteer.

Any other advice to improve my application would be greatly appreciated.

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[deleted964050]

In terms of MCAT, most schools are 3 years, but some are 2. The key is to figure out (either through website, MSAR, or direct contact), which ones will accept your score. Kudos to you on the great score though!

We generally advise against repeating personal statements verbatim. It never looks good when people are recycling the same stuff directly. If you're not planning on getting accepted this year, it might be an opportunity to refine or address whatever the concern was to begin with. This can be done after doing some reflection on your application, the process, and finding out more information.

It sounds like your research and scribing are good at this point. Re-post with more specific questions if they arise.

 

[JSReed]

520 is awesome, but gotta figure out which are 3 vs 2 years. Would be unfortuante to have to retake that, but I'm sure you'll still do well. Also, a GPA and maybe school list would be helpful here.

Don't re-use your PS. Start with a blank sheet and re-write. Can have a similar theme, but needs to at the very least be a new perspective. Have heard that schools to which you are a re-app will compare your 2 apps side-by-side. Not sure if its true, but better safe than sorry. Can keep some LORs, but you want a few new ones. And if you can get a hold of the old ones, get them to put in a little 2 sentence update and resubmit. No one is going to withdraw their support for your just because you're a reapplicant, and tbh its really not much work for them.

ECs sound decent, but a little cookie-cutter. Find something non-medical and pursue that a bit. Having the usual research/hospital volunteering must get boring for adcoms, try to add a little flavour. Could also make for a good PS topic.

My 2 cents..

 

[Ex3]

Thank you so much for your advice. I will spend more time to think about my PS.
I just checked MSAR a lot of schools this cycle still accept MCAT as old as of Jan 2016. Would it be safe to assume that the next cycle, the oldest MCAT accepted is Jan 2017?

Tentative school list for the next cycle:
- Top (Hopkins, NYU, UPenn, Mt Sinai, maybe Stanford)
- Reach (Cornell, Duke, Emory, UW, U of Rochester, U of Pitts, Brown, Dartmouth, Keck, +maybe few more)
- Safe (Drexel, SUNY, SLU, Tufts, GWashington, Georgetown, Einstein, Temple)

Also, more information about my app this cycle that I forgot to mention:
- State: Washington
- GPA: 3.73 (it is a little bit on the low side, unfortunately)
- Other ECs: I am Vietnamese (just came to the US abt 6 years ago) so I spent a lot of time organizing activities for this community. Currently, I am a teacher assistant for an afterschool program that teaches VNmese. Another thing is origami. I have close to 15 years of experiences in origami but did not mention in my app since I did not do anything earth-shattering with his hobby. Also, it is kinda tricky to guestimate how much time I spend on this cause I dont do origami every week or every month. Typically, I pick up a new project every few months and that can last from a week to a month. (Maybe I can write about this in PS instead of putting it in the EC portion)
- School lists this cycle (was really frustrating that I passed waves of rejection just to be rejected at the end of the cycle):
Columbia
WashU
Cornell
Emory
SidneyKimmel
Einstein
Rush
Saint Louis U
BU
Chicago
Stanford
NYU
UW
Vanderbilt
Baylor
USC-Keck
Georgetown
Rochester
Hofstra
UCLA
Drexel
Tufts
Dartmouth

 

[Ad2b]

Thank you so much for your advice. I will spend more time to think about my PS.
I just checked MSAR a lot of schools this cycle still accept MCAT as old as of Jan 2016. Would it be safe to assume that the next cycle, the oldest MCAT accepted is Jan 2017?

Tentative school list for the next cycle:
- Top (Hopkins, NYU, UPenn, Mt Sinai, maybe Stanford)
- Reach (Cornell, Duke, Emory, UW, U of Rochester, U of Pitts, Brown, Dartmouth, Keck, +maybe few more)
- Safe (Drexel, SUNY, SLU, Tufts, GWashington, Georgetown, Einstein, Temple)

Also, more information about my app this cycle that I forgot to mention:
- State: Washington
- GPA: 3.73 (it is a little bit on the low side, unfortunately)
- Other ECs: I am Vietnamese (just came to the US abt 6 years ago) so I spent a lot of time organizing activities for this community. Currently, I am a teacher assistant for an afterschool program that teaches VNmese. Another thing is origami. I have close to 15 years of experiences in origami but did not mention in my app since I did not do anything earth-shattering with his hobby. Also, it is kinda tricky to guestimate how much time I spend on this cause I dont do origami every week or every month. Typically, I pick up a new project every few months and that can last from a week to a month. (Maybe I can write about this in PS instead of putting it in the EC portion)

I think the schools you've listed in your top category are donations to those schools, even with the research because of the GPA. Those kids have 3.9s and 516+ MCAT scores if not higher; Georgetown, GWU are not "safe" schools they are considered very low yield; Georgetown tends to be very interested in volunteer hours (1000s)...

Have you used the WARS or LizzyM model to help you with school choices?

I would not put origami in your PS unless it specifically relates to medical school and why; keep it in the extra curriculars

Did you have many people read your PS that would be willing to say, "Hey, this doesn't make sense" and to ensure it answers the question "Why medicine?"

Also, is your bachelor's degree from a US institution? and are you a permanent resident or citizen of the US? I ask because many schools will not accept an international BA and many schools will also not admit students who are not perm residents or citizens of the US.

 

[Ex3]

I think the schools you've listed in your top category are donations to those schools, even with the research because of the GPA. Those kids have 3.9s and 516+ MCAT scores if not higher; Georgetown, GWU are not "safe" schools they are considered very low yield; Georgetown tends to be very interested in volunteer hours (1000s)...

Have you used the WARS or LizzyM model to help you with school choices?

I would not put origami in your PS unless it specifically relates to medical school and why; keep it in the extra curriculars

Did you have many people read your PS that would be willing to say, "Hey, this doesn't make sense" and to ensure it answers the question "Why medicine?"

Also, is your bachelor's degree from a US institution? and are you a permanent resident or citizen of the US? I ask because many schools will not accept an international BA and many schools will also not admit students who are not perm residents or citizens of the US.

Thanks for the reply,
I graduated from U of Washington with BA and currently a perm resident though not a citizen. Will take the citizenship test at the end of this year.

Could you clarify what do you mean by using LizzyM to make a school list? I only use MCAT and GPA range on MSAR to gauge my chance, which seems to be a very bad method. Do you have any other advice on which school I should apply to?

Regarding my PS, I had my bioengineer prof and my research advisor read it. They said it was good but I honestly don't mind rewriting.

I think (maybe) the main problem with my application was that I finished my application kinda late - Late August, early Sept. I should have pre-written all the secondaries.

 

[Ad2b]

No problem - here to help

Congrats on getting citizenship next year!!

Here is the link to Wedgedawg's school calculator guide

WedgeDawg's Applicant Rating System (Updated Jan 2017)

Here is the LizzyM

LizzyM Score Calculator - What are my chances for medical school?

LizzyM came up with the model a few years ago, is an adcom as some stratospheric medical school on the east coast, NY area, I think

Wedgie (hahaha) put together his model and I am pretty sure 90% of the people using it got into one of the schools on their list from it... it's pretty good and gives an idea of how many "Hopkins" vs "Michs" vs "State Schools" for someone given their particular stats

Use both of those as a better guide to what schools you should apply to than the MSAR; use the MSAR to refine your schools (OOS v IS, fit for you, etc.)

As for your PS, the 2 you had read it are fine but not really focused on the purpose of the application cycle. In about a month, there will be a thread for PS readers who will review it at no cost and in private and give you feedback. PLEASE use that service (I used to read and edit and send back; think everyone I did that for is now in medical school; think to date, maybe 50+ or so? not that I had anything to do with that - seriously, nothing to do with their acceptance - but I think the more people that provided feedback improved the PS)

I think the main problems were too late for those schools and not high enough stats for those schools...

 

[JSReed]

I would not put origami in your PS unless it specifically relates to medical school and why; keep it in the extra curriculars

Did you have many people read your PS that would be willing to say, "Hey, this doesn't make sense" and to ensure it answers the question "Why medicine?"

Also, is your bachelor's degree from a US institution? and are you a permanent resident or citizen of the US? I ask because many schools will not accept an international BA and many schools will also not admit students who are not perm residents or citizens of the US.

I think putting origami in your PS could be really cool-- outside the box and shows a passion for something that isn't cut-and-dry medical. However, you need to depict it in a way that shows a) why you want to go into medicine and b) what skills you have that are important to medicine. Basically youre just using origami to show why you would be a good doctor-- if you can't logically and clearly do that, drop it. Had a friend who wrote about making thanksgiving dinner, very well done and she's now an intern.

Yea citizenship is a big thing. I'd say maybe wait until that comes through and then apply, unfortunately US institutions aren't into educating intl docs.

 

[Ex3]

Thank you so much for the advice,
I will definitely spend the next few months to plan for my PS.
The WARS method also seems really cool and robust. I will utilize this for my initial school list and then refine it later.

I have heard mixed opinions about citizenship status and medical application. Majority of those I asked said that applying as a permanent resident is no different than as a US citizen. Other said that it matters a lot. I am still a little bit unsure about this but maybe I can email an ask the schools directly.