Reapplication Guidance (3.98/518)

[megthedaisy]

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Residence: CA and ORM (Asian)

GPA/MCAT: 3.985/518

Major/minor: Human bio major + stats minor

Shadowing: 100 ish hours

Clinical paid: 700 hours as an MA at a private IVF clinic (almost 3 years)

Clinical volunteering: quarter long internship at cardiac rehabilitation dept in hospital (50 hours)

Non-clinical volunteering:
- Student Alumni Association Traditions Commitee Executive Director (~400 hours, mentorship organization, on the board, over 3 years)
- learning assistant for anatomy class
- volunteer at the senior center kitchen and my university pantry (200 hours)
- teach meditation in spanish and english (500 hours)

Research: 1000+ hours, 2 pubs (one more pending right now), 4 presentations (1 when I applied)
- research passion project: i created a program through my lab that uses funding from an NIH grant through which i taught educationally underserved (special needs and underrepresented in medicine) high school students elementary statistics, and now mentor them as theyre doing their own independent research project - they're making a research poster that they will be presenting to the community soon

Awards: competitive corporate scholarship for all 4 years of college

Personal Statement: theme was mentorship, health education

Notes: I applied with no gap years. The publications were in AMCAS as "in review" and I only had 1 poster presentation. The research "passion project" was also not talked about at all in the primary app (it came about after I applied). Now, I'm facing the decision of whether I should apply this cycle or take a year off and apply.

I was hoping for some feedback to boost my app and have a better cycle the next time I apply. Thank you!

 

[Faha]

Which schools did you apply to? Any interviews or waitlist?

 

[megthedaisy]

I applied to:
Kaiser
U of M
Albert Einstein
Albany
SLU
WashU
Rochester
uchicago
cornell
dartmouth
icahn
Georgetown
Wayne State
Stanford
Drexel
Tufts
MCW
Harvard
UCSD
UVA
Stony Brook
Cincinatti
Pitt
Temple
Mayo Clinic
UCLA
UC Davis
Emory
Case Western
UNC
ucr
ohsu
JHU
BU
GW
CU Boulder
brown
duke
USC
Western Michigan
UA - Phoenix
uc irvine
VCU
Quinnipiac
UCSF

I received 4 interviews from UC Davis, UCSD, Stanford, and Einstein. I was waitlisted at all of them.

 

[Faha]

I would be surprised if you did not receive an acceptance with 4 waitlist schools. Have your application ready to submit if no acceptance by mid June.
You should reapply to all your waitlist schools and consider adding these:
USF Morsani
Miami
Tulane
TCU
Iowa
Western Michigan
Hofstra
Jefferson
Hackensack
New York Medical College
California University
California Northstate
Vermont

 

[Mr.Smile12]

If you have to reapply, please rewrite your personal statement. The theme as you describe it makes me wonder why you didn't just apply to be a teacher. Maybe the schools expected you to be more interested in academic medicine, but I don't know what you wrote in your secondaries.

 

[megthedaisy]

I have been a part of a lab for most of undergrad and the major things I did with them can be broken up into 3 parts:

1. pure research (falls into research category)
2. created a mentorship program through research for under-served high school students (falls into non-clinical volunteering)
3. volunteering at community health fairs to do health screenings with under-served communities and recruit for our clinical study (falls into clinical volunteering)

I'm marking my lab experience as MME... but I don't think I'll have enough space to talk about all 3 well in one slot.

I was thinking of having MME only talk about research and 1 more slot for the mentorship and health screenings (because I work with the same people for 2) and 3)). But idk how to combine non-clinical and clinical volunteering into one... I also don't have enough slots to have al 3 separate. Thank you!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Were you hired to do all three things for your lab? I don't understand how the lab PI would underwrite your other activities. What type of grant is this?

If you created a mentorship program, that should be a separate teaching/tutoring/mentoring entry.

Volunteering at community health fairs is volunteering. Now if you say you are recruiting for a clinical study, that should be an explicit responsibility under your research description. Do not double-dip.

The worst thing you can do is try to fit "everything" into a personal statement, a work description, or any other application essay.

 

[wysdoc]

@megthedaisy I merged your activity question with your previous reapplicant thread.

I don't know what all the things are you have "filled" your 15 activity spots with on the AMCAS application,
but I think it would be really important to have one of those 15 be a clearly separate entry for community service.
Sometimes an applicant with a research-heavy profile will end up reapplying because a different area, like non-medical volunteering, is low or absent.
Make it clear by putting it in a separate listing. It makes no sense to me to lump it in with your research entry.

 

[megthedaisy]

Were you hired to do all three things for your lab? I don't understand how the lab PI would underwrite your other activities. What type of grant is this?

If you created a mentorship program, that should be a separate teaching/tutoring/mentoring entry.

Volunteering at community health fairs is volunteering. Now if you say you are recruiting for a clinical study, that should be an explicit responsibility under your research description. Do not double-dip.

The worst thing you can do is try to fit "everything" into a personal statement, a work description, or any other application essay.

i dont get paid for my work in the lab! got it, ty!