MD Seeking Advice and Guidance

[Mystery505]

Hello all, thank you very much for taking the time to read my post! I am a new member of the SDN community, so I hope I can learn from everyone and contribute productively to the forum in the future! Speaking of the future, I was wondering if you all could help me paint that picture?

1) Major: Biology & Current Standing: Senior - cGPA = 3.95 & sGPA = 3.98
2) I have not taken a formal MCAT yet, but I did take a practice test (TPR) last year and received a 513 without any prior studying or having taken a course in Genetics (my weakest section was CARS, but that is to be expected).
3) MI resident
4) Arab-American
5) I attend a small private university in Michigan with very limited resources (more than a 3/4th acceptance rate; status wise, about as esoteric as you can get).
6) I have no clinical experience as either a volunteer or non-volunteer.
7) I have no formal research experience either.
8) I spent eight hours with an Oral and Maxiolfacial surgeon; four with a private-Psychiatry practice; and over twenty hours at a private practice for Internal Medicine (so far my favorite). I want to get at least another 70-100 hours of experience across IM, Neurology, Pediatrics, Radiology, and OB/GYN.
9) Ten hours of nonclinical volunteering; educated fourth and fifth graders about neuroscience.
10) Realtor, Model, Brand Ambassador, and Marketing Assistant
11) AP Scholar Awards, Department Awards for Chemistry, and a top 10% finish in a National Modeling show.
12) On top of my undergraduate endeavors of Biology, I am also a musician who specializes in his vocal instrument (Basso Profundo; in case you were wondering). Aside from that, I am also enrolled in Stanford's online program for Graduate Business because the healthcare system is not going to change itself. Thirdly, I suffer from anosmia and ageusia, which helped to push me in the direction of a Neurosurgeon.

As far as the actual MCAT is concerned, I am not too worried since I know what my capabilities are and also because I have six months to properly prepare for it. That being said, I expect to achieve a score of 520 or higher in my final performance. And that value is not based alone on confidence, but also hard-work and dedication; so please reference this score for your analyses (because I do not think a seven point increase would be ridiculous, especially considering that I had no prior knowledge of Genetics when I first took the practice version). To be frank, I do not know where I stand in juxtaposition to the other applicants and so it is hard for me to produce a comprehensive list. Thus far, this is what I have constructed:

Current School List:
- Stanford (I love its culture, faculty members, and their collective dedication to ground-breaking research)
- John Hopkins (Snyder is what got me into Neuroscience and specifically, my speciality of Neuropharmacology)
- Penn State (One of my references is best-friends with the head of admissions who is also a distinguished member of the faculty)
- NYU (I am an admirer of Fenton's work on PKM-Zeta)
- Einstein (I like the rigor of their program)
- UCLA
- Columbia
- UCSF
- UCSD
- Baylor

Please let me know what you all think and what other schools should I add to the list. Also, do not be afraid to ground my expectations in reason; I am used to that stimulus and so I will not become discouraged it. Rather, I will take your criticisms with an open heart and leverage them as motivation. Thank you!

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[candbgirl]

When are you planning to apply?
We can’t really tell you anything without your MCAT.
You don’t need hundreds of hours of shadowing. You probably have enough now since you have a good bit in IM.
The rest of your application is woefully lacking. Don’t worry about lacking research . It’s only slightly beneficial really. But your lack of clinical experience (not shadowing but face to face interaction with patients) and your lack of nonclinical volunteering to those less fortunate than yourself will most likely sink your application. It would be fool hardy to apply without 150+ hours in each of those areas..

 

[Kardio]

1) Major: Biology & Current Standing: Senior - cGPA = 3.95 & sGPA = 3.98

Great

2) I have not taken a formal MCAT yet, but I did take a practice test (TPR) last year and received a 513 without any prior studying or having taken a course in Genetics (my weakest section was CARS, but that is to be expected).

Very good

3) MI resident
4) Arab-American

OK

5) I attend a small private university in Michigan with very limited resources (more than a 3/4th acceptance rate; status wise, about as esoteric as you can get).

OK

6) I have no clinical experience as either a volunteer or non-volunteer.

Fix that ASAP - #1 priority right now

7) Keeping true to the theme of a bad applicant, I have no formal research experience either. It sucks because I put so much time and effort into my Sophomore and Junior REU applications only to not get invited by any of them. Furthermore, my school is not known for research and our limited funding is definitely not an appealing feature. However, that being said, I am currently working on a few pieces of research. The first of which, is a new renewable energy source and the construction of a device to sustainably harvest it. Another is twofold, pertaining to both the mechanisms of prion propagation and also the utilization of natural history to produce pharmacological interventions (this effort has taken over three years and I will hopefully be submitting this for publication next semester; fingers crossed). Lastly, I love math and so I am constructing an influencer index of Instagram to be used by marketers to hedge the potential volatility in their investments of such inbound tactics. For the purposes of your advice and guidance, let us just assume that I have no research experience.

???

8) Back to the theme of struggling, I made exactly 70 cold calls just to get three shadowing positions... I spent eight hours with an Oral and Maxiolfacial surgeon; four with a private-Psychiatry practice; and over twenty hours at a private practice for Internal Medicine (so far my favorite). Since I have a habit of leaving decent impressions, I have been invited back to all and the latter doctor in particular (who is also a surgeon) has extended his generosity to also allow me to shadow some of his other surgical friends. Tentatively, that is my plan and I want to get at least another 70-100 hours of experience across IM, Neurology, Pediatrics, Radiology, and OB/GYN.

Good effort, shadowing can be hard to do. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the extra hour, but I believe SDN consensus is 50 as sufficient.

9) I wish I could say that my non-clinical volunteering was astonishing like so many of the other forum participants, but if anything it is shamefully woeful and lackluster. At most, I would say that I have ten hours in total. And these are all derived from two Neuroscience Awareness events that my Psychology club held (we went to two elementary schools and educated over 400 fourth and fifth graders).

Unless you have extenuating circumstances, do some non clinical volunteering.

10) Again, nothing special with the extracurriculars either. However, this is because I have had to deal with the repercussions of my parent's choices of smoking. This year, my father narrowly dodged his third manifestation of cancer. When you are presented with a scenario like this and the stress of perfection, you ultimately have a choice to make. And so I did, but that meant I had to assume a considerable proportion of our family's financial burden to alleviate my parent's anguish. This is why I became a listened Realtor and because sales is often inconsistent, I also took my first steps on the runway. As far as the latter pursuit is concerned, I am currently working for an agency in Italy and I have worked for two others in Canada and Michigan. On the side, I work as a Brand Ambassador/Marketing Assistant for a local Michigan beverage company and absolutely love it.

???

11) Advanced Placement Scholar Awards, Best of Department Award for Chemistry, and a top 10% finish in a National Modeling Exhibition.

???

12) On top of my undergraduate endeavors of Biology, I am also a musician who specializes in his vocal instrument (Basso Profundo; in case you were wondering). Aside from that, I am also enrolled in Stanford's online program for Graduate Business because the healthcare system is not going to change itself. Thirdly, I suffer from anosmia and ageusia, which helped to push me in the direction of a Neurosurgeon. One last thing I would like to mention is that I am trying to apply for M.D./PhD programs and I know that my lack of research is a severe hinderance, but I will hopefully have something to show when I send my applications; sometimes quality is more important than quantity.

Cool hobbies but how can you know if you want MD/PhD without research?

As far as the actual MCAT is concerned, I am not too worried since I know what my capabilities are and also because I have six months to properly prepare for it. That being said, I expect to achieve a score of 520 or higher in my final performance. And that value is not based alone on confidence, but also hard-work and dedication; so please reference this score for your analyses (because I do not think a seven point increase would be ridiculous, especially considering that I had no prior knowledge of Genetics when I first took the practice version). To be frank, I do not know where I stand in juxtaposition to the other applicants and so it is hard for me to produce a comprehensive list. Thus far, this is what I have constructed:

Current School List:
- Stanford (I love its culture, faculty members, and their collective dedication to ground-breaking research)
- John Hopkins (Snyder is what got me into Neuroscience and specifically, my speciality of Neuropharmacology)
- Penn State (One of my references is best-friends with the head of admissions who is also a distinguished member of the faculty)
- NYU (I am an admirer of Fenton's work on PKM-Zeta)
- Einstein (I like the rigor of their program)
- UCLA
- Columbia
- UCSF
- UCSD
- Baylor

Just do the best you can now and make the school list when you’re ready to apply.

 

[Mystery505]

When are you planning to apply?
We can’t really tell you anything without your MCAT.
You don’t need hundreds of hours of shadowing. You probably have enough now since you have a good bit in IM.
The rest of your application is woefully lacking. Don’t worry about lacking research . It’s only slightly beneficial really. But your lack of clinical experience (not shadowing but face to face interaction with patients) and your lack of nonclinical volunteering to those less fortunate than yourself will most likely sink your application. It would be fool hardy to apply without 150+ hours in each of those areas..

1) I plan to apply for the 2020/2021 cycle.
2) Fair enough
3) Agreed
4) Agreed with all points, however, I also believe research is a necessity in my case because the goal is to apply for a competitive M.D./PhD program.

Thanks for your input!

 

[Mystery505]

Great



Very good



OK



OK



Fix that ASAP - #1 priority right now



???



Good effort, shadowing can be hard to do. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the extra hour, but I believe SDN consensus is 50 as sufficient.



Unless you have extenuating circumstances, do some non clinical volunteering.



???



???



Cool hobbies but how can you know if you want MD/PhD without research?




Just do the best you can now and make the school list when you’re ready to apply.

6) I will try and find some opportunities to do hospice care.
7) Fixed
8) Thank you for the insight!
9) I am a first generation student and so neither of my parents have college or professional degrees, which means we live paycheck to paycheck in the realm of the working class. I am not sure if you would also consider this an 'extenuating circumstance', but in conjunction with what I have said, my father had laryngeal cancer a few years back and an adenocarcinoma this year as well. That being said, I am fortunate for many things, however, I am a bit discouraged by what candbgirl said about having 150 hours in each. I work three jobs to help cover my parent's financial responsibilities and I am a full time student, so I am not sure where I can find the time to do either. But what do you suggest? I also don't want to come across as someone whose 'resume was boosted,' especially when volunteering hasn't historically been my developmental focus. Nonetheless, I am still going to try to get some experience!
10) Fixed. My extracurriculars are all work related and I have done a lot in my three years as both a Realtor and Model. Also, for the last six months, I have been working as a Brand Ambassador and Marketing Assistant for a beverage company.
11) AP Scholar Awards (High School achievements), Departmental Chemistry Awards (Undergraduate achievements), and a top ten percent (10th place) finish in a National Modeling competition (Professional achievement).
12) Research is a broad term and I only defined it in the sense of the biochemical sciences, but as a Marketer and self-proclaimed Growth Hacker, I conduct statistical-based research everyday because that is an integral part of my job. Back to the medicinal sciences, my school does not offer any such research opportunities and I even made the effort to apply to over thirty REU programs, but to no avail. Research is in my blood and I do not need a formal institution to guide me along that process, especially when the Internet makes such resources readily available to anyone's disposal (I do have academic mentors on my side as well). I am currenly working on two primary publications. One is mathematical as well as neurological in nature and pertains to the relatively new topic of Conscious Agents, however, I do not think I will be able to finish this research by the end of my undergrad education. On the other hand, my second endeavor pertains to prion propagation and leveraging natural history to develop pharmacological interventions (which I will be publishing next semester). I hope all this adds a bit of clarity!

In General:

Thank you very much for your time and consideration, I will try my best to amend my deficits!

 

[Kardio]

9) I am a first generation student and so neither of my parents have college or professional degrees, which means we live paycheck to paycheck in the realm of the working class. I am not sure if you would also consider this an 'extenuating circumstance', but in conjunction with what I have said, my father had laryngeal cancer a few years back and an adenocarcinoma this year as well. That being said, I am fortunate for many things, however, I am a bit discouraged by what candbgirl said about having 150 hours in each. I work three jobs to help cover my parent's financial responsibilities and I am a full time student, so I am not sure where I can find the time to do either. But what do you suggest? I also don't want to come across as someone whose 'resume was boosted,' especially when volunteering hasn't historically been my developmental focus. Nonetheless, I am still going to try to get some experience!

You might get cut some slack in this area for those circumstances. I was, by DO programs at least.

Research is in my blood and I do not need a formal institution to guide me along that process, especially when the Internet makes such resources readily available to anyone's disposal (I do have academic mentors on my side as well).

It helps to have an academic association to legitimize yourself. Otherwise it sounds more like a hobby to me. I don’t know anything about MD/PhD, anyway.

 

[candbgirl]

So you plan to apply MD/PhD. with self reported no Clinical exposure and no research?

 

[bluepeony]

So you plan to apply MD/PhD. with self reported no Clinical exposure and no research?

It's OP's dream...that no adcoms will take seriously

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

OP’s lack of clinical experience will be lethal; they work three jobs and that is a big load, to be sure. However, the absolute lack of clinical exposure is deadly. Would it be possible to get your degree, live with your parents, and get some clinical and nonclinical volunteering in while working a full time job? You might even kill two birds with one stone and work as a scribe, CNA, or EMT while volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or something.

Other than that lethal flaw, the rest of your app looks good. Get at least 150 and preferably 300+ hours each of clinical and nonclinical volunteering before you apply. Good luck.

 

[imbesrs]

150+ hrs of clin vol
150+ hrs of nonclin vol

youll go where you want with a 3.9x/3.9x/520 (513 tpr diag is insane lmao)

you seem to have some research...not in like bio or something but that doesnt matter.

dont put ap scholar on your app lmao

if youre going for mdphd you need ALOT more research hours with awesome LORs from those pi's