Reapplying - need some advice

[DancinSarah]

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Hey everyone,

I'm on 5 waitlists at the moment but am planning to reapply just in case. I found out this week I am in the bottom tier at one school (which historically have never been accepted) so really I'm only waiting on 4. I'm hoping you guys can give me some advice on how to go about round 2, such as when I should reapply (more details on that later, which schools I should add/remove etc).

About me:
CA Resident
Top 25 school (graduated 2008)
3.34 cGPA and sGPA (<3.0 Freshman year, >3.45 next 3)
34Q MCAT (11 sciences 12 verbal)
Worked almost every summer during undergrad at parent's business
3+ years research full-time/paid after graduating (poster presentation)
2 quarters research in another lab
2 years hospital volunteering, which led to + 1 year leadership in the group
0.5 year community volunteering
TA'd a class for one quarter
One trip abroad for medical clinic (a weekend)
Shadowed 3 different doctors (oncologist, otolaryngologist, and interventional radiologist)
A very unique hobby which I've been doing since youth
Not URM

Letters: 2 science professors (one great letter, other was very generic and from a professor who I had no real contact with during the class itself), 2 research PIs (same lab, very strong letters).

I think, overall, I applied rather poorly last year. My application was complete at the end of August. Here is the list of schools I applied to:
Albert Einstein
Arizona (Interviewed at PHX)
Boston
Case Western/Cleveland Clinic
Cincinnati
Columbia
Drexel
Illinois
Iowa
Jefferson
Keck/USC
Loma Linda
Maryland
NYMC (Interview)
Penn State (Interview)
Pittsburgh
Rosalind Franklin ("small-pooled", but never received interview)
Toledo (Interview, low tier waitlist)
Tulane
UCDavis
UCIrvine (screened pre-secondary)
UCLA (screened pre-secondary)
UCSF (screened pre-secondary)
Vanderbilt (screened pre-secondary)
VCU (Interview)

My plan right now is to take some classes via the Extension program (one Science, one non-Science) to show I am able to do well in classwork now, and hopefully get some LORs from them. I want to continue to take a class or two during each quarter of the school year so I prove to my potential interviewers that I can score good grades. My question is - should I wait till mid September to submit, since I will have completed the classes by then (they end early September and grades should be posted) and my GPA will be slightly higher? Or should I apply early, and put the current classes as IN PROGRESS?

Also, I'm planning to get some interview coaching because I don't think I did so well on that end.

Where I'm planning to apply this year, anything I should add/remove?

Albany
Arizona
Boston
Cincinnati
Drexel
East Virginia
Georgetown
George Washington University
Jefferson
Michigan State
Minnesota
NYMC
Penn State
Rosalind Franklin
St. Loius U
Temple
Toledo
Tulane
UCDavis
UCLA
VCU
Vermont
Wake Forest
Medical College Wisconsin

Planned LORs:
2 science
1 non-science
1 volunteer/leadership coordinator (good personal relationship)
1-2 research PI


Whoa long thread. Admittedly, it was pretty therapeutic writing this all out 🙂 Thanks!

 

[MiniMoo]

My plan right now is to take some classes via the Extension program (one Science, one non-Science) to show I am able to do well in classwork now, and hopefully get some LORs from them. I want to continue to take a class or two during each quarter of the school year so I prove to my potential interviewers that I can score good grades. My question is - should I wait till mid September to submit, since I will have completed the classes by then (they end early September and grades should be posted) and my GPA will be slightly higher? Or should I apply early, and put the current classes as IN PROGRESS?

Honestly, neither scenario are ideal in your case. Have you been taking classes at all throughout the previous cycle? With your low GPA, that would have been the best course of action so that you could (1) update schools (especially ones where you're waitlisted now) with new course grades or (2) have a set of new courses to add to this cycle's AMCAS. Squeezing in classes now during the summer is extremely last minute. If I had to choose though, I would probably just submit as early as possible and put planned courses "In Progress". The new grades likely won't budge your GPA much and waiting until September would put your application on the very bottom of a huge pile. You'd be at a really large disadvantage, which you can't afford at the moment given your GPA and the fact that you have the misfortune of hailing from CA.

I would also try to get involved in some non-medical community service if possible. Your application looks like it has enough of everything else -- clinical experience, research, shadowing (assuming everything was obtained relatively recently and not years ago). But the 6 months of community service is a bit sparse.

Glancing over your revised school list really quickly, it looks okay - a few stretches but nothing too ridiculous. But why don't you apply to all the UC's again (assuming cost isn't an issue)? Just because you weren't given a secondary last year doesn't mean you won't get one this year. I know from personal experience with UCSD/UCSF. Also, I would add in USC as well. Some others you could possibly consider: Loyola, FIU, Rush, Creighton. If the waitlists don't pan out, I would also think about adding some DO schools if you're not against it. Not all require a DO letter and AACOMAS is pretty easy to fill out if you've done AMCAS (a lot of copy/paste).

 

[gman33]

So the gpa is the real problem, the only way to really overcome that in one year is to do a SMP. Taking a couple of ug courses will not improve it much and will do very little to improve your app.

At this point, I'm not sure you could even get into a SMP for August.
If you are going to apply this year, forget about CA schools and pick about 30-50 schools where you have a shot.

 

[Buzz Me]

Agreed that you need to either work on increasing your GPA with lots of post-bacc work, or take an SMP.

 

[dragonfly99]

It looks like you just need a better GPA. Your plan is OK I guess, but as others have pointed out, you're not going to be able to change your GPA much now. Ideally you would have started a year or two ago with trying to pull up the GPA. You can try again once, but if you don't get in you might need to do 1 year of courses...I'm not too familiar with the SMP's but if you're determined to get into a MD school you may end up having to go that route. Other option would be to change your state residency, but that's pretty hard to do and even that would be a gamble, as many other states only have 1 or 2 med schools and if the adcom doesn't take a liking to you you won't get in even with O.K. stats.