Reapplication Guidance (3.74 cum, 3.63 BCPM; 510 )

[Prototype.]

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Hello everybody, this is my first post to SDN so im not quite sure how it exactly works. I am currently preparing for my reapplication for medical schools after my first cycle did not go well at all (24 schools applied to: 0 II ). Im trying to understand my drawbacks to apply stronger than last time, and I have been keeping busy to strengthen clinical hours and any doubts in grades (planned MCAT retake). All feedback will be greatly appreciated ! Thank you in advance!

Background:

• 23 yo male, California resident
• Son of refugees, grew up disadvantaged while my parents pursued education; however after my mother had gotten into residency our situation improved significantly
• Strong ties to Central valley and Sacramento Area
• Community college transfer

Stats:

• GPA: 3.63 sGPA / 3.74 cGPA (strong upward trend after a rough Junior year due to personal/family stuff)
  • Had a 4.0 all through college, but my GPA tanked during 2023-2024 (3.12 GPA) because of the war and ethnic cleansing in Artsakh affecting my family and mental health. I rebounded Senior year (3.66), but I'm worried the "blemish" is too loud.
  • On top of this, protests and fires significantly hindered and affected my university classes as well as research
• MCAT: 510 (126/128/127/129)
  • Preparing for a retake MCAT in the coming month, and am aiming for at the very least a 515+
• Major: B.S. in Biochemistry (UCLA )
  
  
• PREview: 4
• Casper: 2nd quartile

Activity hours:

• Research/Lab - 1,110
  • trail blazed my college's very first research lab (dry lab)
  • spent 3 years working on independent research with help from mentors and completed 2x posters (first author)
  • presented/defended research at inaugural research symposium at college, selected to represent college at symposium at Stanford.
  • worked ~4 months in a research assistant at a metabolism lab in UCLA (this was cut short due to protests blocking access to the facilities and generally making the environment feel unsafe)
• Teaching/Tutoring - 1,020
  • Worked as a tutor at my community college for all STEM subjects along side history
• Clinical Volunteer/Medical Mission - 740
  • Participated in 2x medical missions to Armenia with a group of physicians to aid displaced people after the ethnic cleansing of the region my parents were from. Directly provided care for displaced refugees, vitals, wound care, and triage
  • Worked weekends as a volunteer at a Ketamine clinic where I managed patient experience and clinic operations.
• Non-Clinical Volunteer - 1,672
  • Spent a significant amount of time as a camp counselor over 5 years
  • During covid I acted as an in home caretaker for grandparents
• Physician Shadowing - 435
  • Shadowed both locally and overseas (Italy) across many specialties ( both in clinic as well as in OR)
• Leadership/Passion Projects - 138
  • Lead a quality improvement project aimed at social determinants of health at one of the hospitals I shadowed at which yielded tangible results in patient populations in the central valley (n=112)
• Hobbies - 3,000
  • 4 years of powerlifting

In hindsight I could have been more strategic in my labeling

I am currently in EMT school and am expected to graduate in the coming month (looking to work part time as an EMT-b with a potential for 600+ hours by October
I am also working as a medical scribe in an Orthopedic clinic with ~ 600+ hours projected by October


I submitted my primary by early July and was verified in August, submitted secondaries from August through September (majority sent in August).

I have reached out with letters of continued interest and update. I have since only heard silence up until February after which the rejections started coming in.
Im open to answer any clarifying questions if need be. Thank you !

 

[Dral]

California's tough. Your school list might help some of us give some additional advice.

Your non-clinical volunteering could be bolstered. Try to get in some volunteering that involves disadvantaged populations - think soup kitchens, women's shelters, things like that. Home caretaker during COVID for family members likely does not quite count as volunteerism in many people's minds. It wouldn't count if I was reviewing your app. No offense, that is very good of you to do it, but it's not the type of volunteer work that is expected on apps. Camp counselor is nice, but it likely didn't get you out of any major comfort zones.

For clinical volunteering, some folks do not view medical missions in a totally positive light - it is often viewed as 'voluntourism'. I'm not saying that was your intent. I'm just trying to throw things out there that may have been viewed as being suboptimal on your app.

 

[Faha]

Which schools did you apply to? How many hours do you have in the Ketamine clinic?

 

[Prototype.]

California's tough. Your school list might help some of us give some additional advice.

Your non-clinical volunteering could be bolstered. Try to get in some volunteering that involves disadvantaged populations - think soup kitchens, women's shelters, things like that. Home caretaker during COVID for family members likely does not quite count as volunteerism in many people's minds. It wouldn't count if I was reviewing your app. No offense, that is very good of you to do it, but it's not the type of volunteer work that is expected on apps. Camp counselor is nice, but it likely didn't get you out of any major comfort zones.

For clinical volunteering, some folks do not view medical missions in a totally positive light - it is often viewed as 'voluntourism'. I'm not saying that was your intent. I'm just trying to throw things out there that may have been viewed as being suboptimal on your app.

In hindsight I definitely think that my list was top heavy, as I primarily applied to California MD and a few out of state.

1. Albany Medical College
2. California Northstate University College of Medicine
3. California University of Science and Medicine
4. Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
5. Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
6. Loma Linda University School of Medicine
7. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
8. Morehouse School of Medicine
9. New York Medical College
10. Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
11. Saint Louis University School of Medicine
12. Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
13. Stanford University School of Medicine
14. Tufts University School of Medicine
15. University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix
16. University of California, Davis, School of Medicine
17. University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
18. University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
19. University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
20. University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
21. University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine
22. University of Michigan Medical School
23. University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
24. Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine

And, I appreciate the feedback on the activities. For my upcoming cycle, I was planning on replacing the in-home care experience with my experience as a medical scribe, and combining shadowing experiences for additional space to mention my EMT experience.

 

[Prototype.]

Which schools did you apply to? How many hours do you have in the Ketamine clinic?

I primarily applied instate California, and a few out of state schools.

I have 340 hours working in the Ketamine clinic

 

[Faha]

Some of the schools you applied to were unrealistic with your stats. I suggest these schools when your reapply in June:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
,Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
Methodist
NOVA MD
Belmont
Tulane
TCU
Alice Walton
Creighton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Roseman
California Northstate
California University
Loma Linda
UC Riverside (only if you are from that region)
UC Davis
Kaiser
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
UIWSOM
CUSOM
PCOM
LECOM
MU-COM
NYITCOM
Post your new MCAT score here when available and you may be able to add more MD schools.

 

[Med Ed]

Agree with @Dral on everything.

Be cautious claiming so many hours of a hobby. The math works out to 750 hours/year of power lifting. That's 40 hours/week for almost 19 weeks. If accurate, such a massive time investment only looks good if the rest of your extracurriculars are solid (which yours are not). Put another way, discipline doesn't work if it's severely misallocated.

 

[Prototype.]

Agree with @Dral on everything.

Be cautious claiming so many hours of a hobby. The math works out to 750 hours/year of power lifting. That's 40 hours/week for almost 19 weeks. If accurate, such a massive time investment only looks good if the rest of your extracurriculars are solid (which yours are not). Put another way, discipline doesn't work if it's severely misallocated.

How might I better describe my sports extracurricular in such a case, simply put I dedicated on average 2-3 hours a day to weightlifting for ~5 days a week, over the course of 4 years. Of course with some instances of shorter or longer sessions, as well as breaks. What could I improve to make my extracurriculars more solid, Im currently engaging in both EMT and Medical Scribing work.

Some of the schools you applied to were unrealistic with your stats. I suggest these schools when your reapply in June:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
,Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
Methodist
NOVA MD
Belmont
Tulane
TCU
Alice Walton
Creighton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Roseman
California Northstate
California University
Loma Linda
UC Riverside (only if you are from that region)
UC Davis
Kaiser
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
UIWSOM
CUSOM
PCOM
LECOM
MU-COM
NYITCOM
Post your new MCAT score here when available and you may be able to add more MD schools.

Thank you so very much, I will add these to my school list. As for my MCAT, I will update this thread once I get my second official MCAT score. So far my AAMC practice testing average is about 516 but am trying to push it into the 517+ zone. Given a gpa drop in my junior year, would this amend any fears the Medical school committee would have over this 'red flag' in my application?

 

[Faha]

Many schools average MCAT scores, but a 517+ would improve your chances for interviews.

 

[Med Ed]

How might I better describe my sports extracurricular in such a case, simply put I dedicated on average 2-3 hours a day to weightlifting for ~5 days a week, over the course of 4 years. Of course with some instances of shorter or longer sessions, as well as breaks. What could I improve to make my extracurriculars more solid, Im currently engaging in both EMT and Medical Scribing work.

Medical mission trips are somewhat controversial. Ketamine clinics don't carry the greatest connotation. Using these items raises the question as to why you did not find more traditional opportunities for clinical exposure. EMT and scribing will help.

The SDN consensus on non-clinical volunteering is that you need 150 hours of quality service hours to make this element a non-issue at the majority of schools. Quality service experiences are things like homeless shelter and soup kitchen volunteering, where you are working with people in need but not in the capacity of an expert. You currently have 0 hours. Camp counselor is fine, but it won't fill this gap. Being a caretaker is contaminated by familial obligation, and it also depends on what you actually did.

Hobbies are optional. If you are adding new clinical (and presumably non-clinical) experiences you could chose to simply not include powerlifting. You've got plenty of hours doing other things.

 

[PickaGodnPray]

How might I better describe my sports extracurricular in such a case, simply put I dedicated on average 2-3 hours a day to weightlifting for ~5 days a week, over the course of 4 years. Of course with some instances of shorter or longer sessions, as well as breaks.

You described it fine. The problem isn't that you had those high hours, it was that you had those high hours in sports but low hours in other volunteering capacities. There are plenty of other intercollegiate athletes that balance those high hours and also racked up significant hours in shelters and clinics, which is who you will be compared to. I do think your missionary work being tied closely to your identity helps avoid a lot of negative stigma surrounding these experiences, but I think your issue lies more with your hours spread. 435 shadowing hours is way too much. Adcoms want to see you interacting with and serving patients, which you are also not getting as a medical scribe. Your EMT service is going to help fill that gap, so I would dedicate more time there than scribing. Additionally, I understand the time commitment involved in caring for family members, but you do need to have non-clinical experiences that serve those less fortunate and get you out of your comfort zone. Others have already mentioned it, but it was something that has come up for me as well when talking with adcoms at schools.
Overall, your application is on the right track and you definitely got unlucky being from California. Adding those non-clinical hours and working as an EMT alone will help you get more success the next time you apply, but if you also perform better on your MCAT it'll open a lot more doors, too. Pulling for ya.

 

[Prototype.]

Medical mission trips are somewhat controversial. Ketamine clinics don't carry the greatest connotation. Using these items raises the question as to why you did not find more traditional opportunities for clinical exposure. EMT and scribing will help.

The SDN consensus on non-clinical volunteering is that you need 150 hours of quality service hours to make this element a non-issue at the majority of schools. Quality service experiences are things like homeless shelter and soup kitchen volunteering, where you are working with people in need but not in the capacity of an expert. You currently have 0 hours. Camp counselor is fine, but it won't fill this gap. Being a caretaker is contaminated by familial obligation, and it also depends on what you actually did.

Hobbies are optional. If you are adding new clinical (and presumably non-clinical) experiences you could chose to simply not include powerlifting. You've got plenty of hours doing other things.

For my new volunteering experience at my local homeless shelter, how would admissions committees view a more recent activity that has a relatively low amount of hours, compared to other experiences, with more projected hours throughout the cycle? So far it is around maybe 20 hours volunteered at the shelter, while I anticipate to continue through the rest of the year.

For my EMT, as a newly certified EMT I anticipate to get hired in ~3 months, and begin working 48 hour weeks on top of my current Scribing job ~20 hr weekly. I currently have only 24 hours working on an Ambulance through my training clerkship hours.
What would be a 'safe' way to frame these activities ?

 

[Med Ed]

You list what you have, list what you anticipate (without embellishment), and then send an update later in the cycle when the hours are done.

Of course it is always better to apply with the hours already done. The experiences can inform your personal narrative and help your application survive the screens. But if you are applying this cycle then you just have to go with what you have.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

For my new volunteering experience at my local homeless shelter, how would admissions committees view a more recent activity that has a relatively low amount of hours, compared to other experiences, with more projected hours throughout the cycle? So far it is around maybe 20 hours volunteered at the shelter, while I anticipate to continue through the rest of the year.

For my EMT, as a newly certified EMT I anticipate to get hired in ~3 months, and begin working 48 hour weeks on top of my current Scribing job ~20 hr weekly. I currently have only 24 hours working on an Ambulance through my training clerkship hours.
What would be a 'safe' way to frame these activities ?

I agree with @meded.