reapplying advice

[tinar21]

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hi
i'm writing because i'm confused as to what i should do.
i applied for the 2005-2006 cycle and got waitlisted without any acceptance. my mcat is 27Q and gpa is a 3.9 in chemistry. i only applied to my state school. they told me i applied quite late (amcas completed november and secondaries in by december) and that my mcat wasn't very competitive.
1. can i reapply at a school i'm waitlisted at and will they reject me for this cycle because they'll think i can wait a year?
2. if i get rejected, i plan to take the mcat this august, but if i apply in july will they wait till august scores come out to interview me, thus delaying my application?
3. should i apply for any master's programs or just find a job? i want to reapply for the 2006-07 cycle and most master's programs are 1.5 to 2 years, so im not sure how thats going to work. or should i work at getting a second bachelors?
i plan to continue on my extra curriculars, take up additional ones and have additional LORs ready, so that shouldn't be a problem. any other advice also is appreciated greatly.
thank you for your time.

 

[imrep1972]

hi
i'm writing because i'm confused as to what i should do.
i applied for the 2005-2006 cycle and got waitlisted without any acceptance. my mcat is 27Q and gpa is a 3.9 in chemistry. i only applied to my state school. they told me i applied quite late (amcas completed november and secondaries in by december) and that my mcat wasn't very competitive.
1. can i reapply at a school i'm waitlisted at and will they reject me for this cycle because they'll think i can wait a year?
2. if i get rejected, i plan to take the mcat this august, but if i apply in july will they wait till august scores come out to interview me, thus delaying my application?
3. should i apply for any master's programs or just find a job? i want to reapply for the 2006-07 cycle and most master's programs are 1.5 to 2 years, so im not sure how thats going to work. or should i work at getting a second bachelors?
i plan to continue on my extra curriculars, take up additional ones and have additional LORs ready, so that shouldn't be a problem. any other advice also is appreciated greatly.
thank you for your time.

Tinar - will try my best to answer your questions, based on my limited knowlege 🙂

1. You can reapply, although some schools will place a limit on how many times you can reapply, I believe. Also, many times if you reapply, schools will want extra information on your next application: essentially, why should we take you this time if we didn't last time. I do not know for certain about whether the school will reject you this cycle if you reapply, but I don't think you can submit your next AMCAS until summer, right? If so, this year's cycle will be over before then.

2. Yes. Most schools will not consider your application complete until you have received your scores from the August MCAT. This is one of the primary disadvantages of taking the August MCAT. If you do go that route, make sure you have everything else completed (app, letters, etc) ASAP, so that the day your scores do come in, you are complete.

3. That depends on you. If you can find a job that you like, but also gives you experience for Med School (I have been working in a lab at Loma Linda U), that may be more valuable to you than classes. You don't really need to improve your grades, based on what you said your GPA is, so I don't see the value of going to a master's program. The only reason to do so would be to keep "sharp" mentally, but there are other ways to do that. Keep in mind, also, that many Med schools, if they know you are in a Master's program, (or 2nd bachelors) will want to wait until you have completed that program. As such, you would be forcing yourself to wait 2-4 years before you got another shot at med school. If you do decide you want to go that route, however, there are several one year Master's programs that help you for med school. Check out the "Post-Baccalaureate" folder for info on them.

You don't mention what state you live in, but depending on that, only applying to a state school may be a mistake (for instance, here in CA, the state schools are notoriously impossible to gain admittance into). I think that, based on what you have said, that was probably where you erred. If you do re-cycle next year, I would recommend applying to a variety of schools. Even with a 27Q (which is fairly average - not bad) you should be competitive somewhere with a 3.9, good EC and LOR's.

 

[ntmed]

I agree with imrep1972. I think the good news is that, based on the information you provided, you should be able to get into medical school somewhere. But let me emphasize a few things you did wrong, and which can be easily corrected.

1. You applied to 1 school. The average applicant applies to 11 programs. Because you have a borderline MCAT of 27, should probably apply to more.

2. You applied late. Most schools select the marjority of the people they will interview sometime around September. Those who are considered after this point have a significantly reduced chance of getting in. When you reapply, send your transcripts to AMCAS in April (check with them to see how to do this), have your application received by AMCAS on June 1st, and return all of your secondaries within a couple days of receiving them.

3. Keep in close contact with your premedical advisor. A good advisor should be able to steer you away from these mistakes.

An impoved MCAT will help, but taking it in August will cause you to repeat some of the same mistakes you made this year. See if you can reappy now to 18 schools, maybe as many as 24. Get everything in the first day possible.

And as a back-up, consider retaking the MCAT this August or next April. If you take the exam this August, you may want to specify on your AMCAS application that they not wait for these scores before processing your application. To be on the safe side, run this by your premed advisor.

 

[tinar21]

Cool thanks. I'll have all my stuff in at Amcas on the first day to submit. Hopefully Ill be fine.
I live in NJ.
P.S. do schools that you didn't apply to get to see your old amcas application? also do they know you are a re-applicant?
thanks.

 

[ntmed]

Cool thanks. I'll have all my stuff in at Amcas on the first day to submit. Hopefully Ill be fine.
I live in NJ.
P.S. do schools that you didn't apply to get to see your old amcas application? also do they know you are a re-applicant?
thanks.

I don't believe they will see your old application. But I believe they will know that you are a reapplicant.

(Of course, the schools you previously applied will likely have kept your old application, and will likely review it again, along with your updated application.)

 

[PTPoeny]

AMCAS will show them that you have taken the MCAT twice. The really good thing for you is that your application can be complete, and you can even interview before your scores come in and then your new, and better, MCAT scores will still be factored into your final decisions, but you won't be behind in the application cycle.

Your grades are high enough that taking more classes won't help much. My advice would be to find a job in some health related area that way you are making money to go on interviews and also it is a completely different kind of experience to write down on your application.

I worked for my State Health and Human Services System on West Nile Virus surveillance because I am interested in going into infectious diseases. Find something that interests you and that you can translate into helping you define you interest in medicine or something like that.

Pre-med advisors are very helpful, they might even have some advice on what kinds of jobs you could find locally that would help your appliation. And start working over the summer so that you can discuss it in your interviews, you don't want to be like, well I am planning on doing this and I think it will help me do this. You want to be able to say "At my job the other day I did this and it helped me realise that"

 

[tinar21]

Thanks for all your advice.