Seeking support + advice for reapplication

[Malignwine]

Hi everyone! I applied this current cycle and I got 7 II and 6 WL, 1 Post II R, but no acceptance so far, so I am preparing to reapply. (I know it's late and I should have seriously started throwing together an app a lot earlier. Honestly I haven't been drinking a lot of courage lately).

Given how many interviews I received, I want to say it was due to my interview performance? For reference, one II was a T10, 2 were CA schools, 1 was an OOS public school, which is *sort of* friendly? the last three were T100s who seemed to be more community-focused rather than research, which makes me wonder if I couldn't get them to believe my story given how damn research-heavy my app is? I am really worried about how much to change essay-wise, given that I received a lot of IIs this cycle. Would love *any* advice on how I should go about changing essays and PS, as well as general advice for the upcoming cycle. or just good vibes. or really anything.

Current Details:
GPA: 3.7
MCAT: 515
Casper: 4 Q
Preview: 8
Residency: CA. Family from IL.
Ethnicity: White
Self-Identify Disadvantaged (No FAP, tho I will be FAP this year)
Undergrad: T5
Clinical experience: 245 hrs hospice (vigiling as well as meeting with pts and their families), 130 hrs inpatient hospital volunteer, 30 hrs art therapy activity with patients @ bedside
Research experience: 3440 hrs basic/translational brain cancer where I also lead a tissue navigation team, leading to 2 CNS pubs; 1700 hours industry @ gene therapy company developing treatments for orphan diseases; nearly 3000 hrs in undergrad across 2 labs, one international, leading to two other publications and 2 posters. ( I didnt put the posters on there lmao I had no space)
Shadowing experience: 50ish hours, including primary care, GI, Surgery, Anesthesia
Non-clinical volunteering: 80 hours Ronald McDonald house + 75 tutoring underserved youth
Leadership: 1800 hrs leading my dance group. 600 hrs RA in dorm
Other Activities: Powerlifting/Marathon running. Dancing Singing in top choir where we would tour and submit things for Grammys. I also published poetry in palliative care

My PS doesn't read like a thematically cohesive story.

Starts with I tore my ACL and lost my identity, which was able to be regained with the help of my surgeon. I talk about how trust in the medical community was hard to come by in my own community growing up (unvaccinated, other medical problems worsening due to putting off seeking treatment) but that as a member of both communities and knowing the importance of health literacy and education is power, wanting to be the one able to build relationships with patients to bridge that gap. I further talk about this through a shadowing experience I had where the Dr. was able to build trust with the pt and leave them feeling empowered about their care. I then talk about an instance I had during hospital volunteering where I had a deep convo w. a pt about uncertainty and dying where I realized I wanted to bear witness to life's defining moments, having the privilege to lead pts care with compassion. To provide healing-- in many instances hopefully allowing them live a life in accord with their identities, but in cases where that isnt possible, to help pts navigate the complexities of their experience in the face of their illness.

In my gap year, I continued in the cancer lab (my full-time job), went to a conference, currently have a paper in revision and am submitting another to a medical humanities journal, and am continuing my hospice, hospital, and RMDH volunteering.

Schools I applied to this cycle: (38)
Einstein
Boston
Case Western (both programs)
Creighton
Emory
Netter
Geisinger
Hackensack
Quinnipiac
Dartmouth
Sinai
Temple
Loyola
Mayo
MCW
Northwestern
OUWB
Vermont
Jefferson
Stanford
Tulane
UCDavis
UCIrvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UChicago
Cincinnati
Colorado
Iowa
UMich
Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
WUSTL
Western Michigan
Yale

Average 2* turnaround was within 2 weeks, turned in all 2*. 1* submitted first week of June.

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[chilly_md]

If you received 7 interviews, it is likely interview performance that held you back if you do not end up getting off WL's over the next month or so. It is late, but hopefully you were able to increase your hours substantially at Ronald McDonald while waiting for this cycle. Getting to a final total of 150 or 200 there would help.

 

[Dr.Freedman MedEdits]

You have exceptional experiences and strong academics. While your narrative probably could have been stronger, with so many interviews, it is also possible that you could have worked on interview skills. Have you practiced with anyone at your undergraduate college and received feedback? Before considering a reapplication, prioritize those waitlists. Do your schools allow communications, and have you expressed continued interest? Based on the data, you should receive an acceptance this cycle.

 

[Malignwine]

You have exceptional experiences and strong academics. While your narrative probably could have been stronger, with so many interviews, it is also possible that you could have worked on interview skills. Have you practiced with anyone at your undergraduate college and received feedback? Before considering reapplication, prioritize those waitlists. Do your schools allow communications, and have you expressed continued interest? Based on the data, you should receive an acceptance this cycle.

Unfortunately, the premed advising at my school does not offer interview practice for students or alumni. Any practice I had done leading up to each interview day would consist of researching the interview style/type (most of them were MMI), asking Claude3 to generate different questions that I would record my response to. Any practice done with humans was done either with fellow applicants or folks outside of medicine. So, in hindsight, it could have been the blind leading the blind.

A lot of them don't allow update letters/LOIs or are on strictly ranked waitlists. For the ones that do (especially the one I would send a LOI to) I was hoping to wait until I had something more substantial, such as more of my research being accepted and at least in press. However, considering most of my work is basic, the turnaround time is a lot slower than most clinical work, and I wasn't sure if it would be frivolous to send an update letter explaining that we have a piece in revision in nature neuroscience, as well as another article I currently have submitted (albeit not yet accepted) in a medical humanities journal.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hi everyone! I applied this current cycle and I got 7 II and 6 WL, 1 Post II R, but no acceptance so far, so I am preparing to reapply. (I know it's late and I should have seriously started throwing together an app a lot earlier. Honestly I haven't been drinking a lot of courage lately).

Given how many interviews I received, I want to say it was due to my interview performance? For reference, one II was a T10, 2 were CA schools, 1 was an OOS public school, which is *sort of* friendly? the last three were T100s who seemed to be more community-focused rather than research, which makes me wonder if I couldn't get them to believe my story given how damn research-heavy my app is? I am really worried about how much to change essay-wise, given that I received a lot of IIs this cycle. Would love *any* advice on how I should go about changing essays and PS, as well as general advice for the upcoming cycle. or just good vibes. or really anything.

Current Details:
GPA: 3.7
MCAT: 515
Casper: 4 Q
Preview: 8
Residency: CA. Family from IL.
Ethnicity: White
Self-Identify Disadvantaged (No FAP, tho I will be FAP this year)
Undergrad: T5
Clinical experience: 245 hrs hospice (vigiling as well as meeting with pts and their families), 130 hrs inpatient hospital volunteer, 30 hrs art therapy activity with patients @ bedside
Research experience: 3440 hrs basic/translational brain cancer where I also lead a tissue navigation team, leading to 2 CNS pubs; 1700 hours industry @ gene therapy company developing treatments for orphan diseases; nearly 3000 hrs in undergrad across 2 labs, one international, leading to two other publications and 2 posters. ( I didnt put the posters on there lmao I had no space)
Shadowing experience: 50ish hours, including primary care, GI, Surgery, Anesthesia
Non-clinical volunteering: 80 hours Ronald McDonald house + 75 tutoring underserved youth
Leadership: 1800 hrs leading my dance group. 600 hrs RA in dorm
Other Activities: Powerlifting/Marathon running. Dancing Singing in top choir where we would tour and submit things for Grammys. I also published poetry in palliative care

My PS doesn't read like a thematically cohesive story.

Starts with I tore my ACL and lost my identity, which was able to be regained with the help of my surgeon. I talk about how trust in the medical community was hard to come by in my own community growing up (unvaccinated, other medical problems worsening due to putting off seeking treatment) but that as a member of both communities and knowing the importance of health literacy and education is power, wanting to be the one able to build relationships with patients to bridge that gap. I further talk about this through a shadowing experience I had where the Dr. was able to build trust with the pt and leave them feeling empowered about their care. I then talk about an instance I had during hospital volunteering where I had a deep convo w. a pt about uncertainty and dying where I realized I wanted to bear witness to life's defining moments, having the privilege to lead pts care with compassion. To provide healing-- in many instances hopefully allowing them live a life in accord with their identities, but in cases where that isnt possible, to help pts navigate the complexities of their experience in the face of their illness.

In my gap year, I continued in the cancer lab (my full-time job), went to a conference, currently have a paper in revision and am submitting another to a medical humanities journal, and am continuing my hospice, hospital, and RMDH volunteering.

Schools I applied to this cycle: (38)
Einstein
Boston
Case Western (both programs)
Creighton
Emory
Netter
Geisinger
Hackensack
Quinnipiac
Dartmouth
Sinai
Temple
Loyola
Mayo
MCW
Northwestern
OUWB
Vermont
Jefferson
Stanford
Tulane
UCDavis
UCIrvine
UCLA
UCSD
UCSF
UChicago
Cincinnati
Colorado
Iowa
UMich
Pittsburgh
Vanderbilt
Wake Forest
WUSTL
Western Michigan
Yale

Average 2* turnaround was within 2 weeks, turned in all 2*. 1* submitted first week of June.

If you do not receive an acceptance from the waitlist, I would strongly suspect poor interview skills and encourage you to do mock interviews with admissions professionals next time around. But hopefully you'll still get accepted.

I don't think the written parts of your app were the problem because you did get 7 IIs. At the same time, as a reapplicant you should spotlight the improvement in your qualifications that took place this year. Don't just submit what you submitted last cycle.

Finally, I think some of the programs you aimed at were probably a little unrealistic like Yale, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Mayo . I realize I'm going out on a limb here because you could now say they're among the schools that waitlisted you. 🙂

 

[Malignwine]

If you do not received an acceptance from the waitlist, I would strongly suspect poor interview skills and encourage you to do mock interviews with admissions professionals next time around. But hopefully you'll still get accepted.

I don't think the written parts of your app were the problem because you did get 7 IIs. At the same time, as a reapplicant you should spotlight the improvement in your qualifications that took place this year. Don't just submit what you submitted last cycle.

Finally, I think some of the programs you aimed at were probably a little unrealistic like Yale, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Mayo . I realize I'm going out on a limb here because you could now say they're among the schools that waitlisted you. 🙂

I appreciate it! It's tricky because while my writing was successful at securing interviews, the back of my mind is worried that re-writing too much could hurt me. Although I guess with time it could go the other way, and my narrative can only become more cohesive and stronger. I'd rewrite my personal statement and edit a lot of my activities, change a lot of my secondaries, after a whole application cycle of practicing writing even more.

And yes, I realize that with my GPA and MCAT, programs like those were unrealistic. A huge reason as to why I added a lot of those reaches was due to how research-heavy I am. For the research-heavy schools, my MCAT was still within the 10th percentile of their accepted students or above. Surprisingly, the school I ended up getting the interview at, my GPA and MCAT were well below their 10th percentile. (not that I advocate for students such as myself to think that programs such as these will necessarily give them the time of day, given how saturated the pool is with 4.0 520+ incredibly impressive applicants)

 

[Dr.Freedman MedEdits]

Unfortunately, the premed advising at my school does not offer interview practice for students or alumni. Any practice I had done leading up to each interview day would consist of researching the interview style/type (most of them were MMI), asking Claude3 to generate different questions that I would record my response to. Any practice done with humans was done either with fellow applicants or folks outside of medicine. So, in hindsight, it could have been the blind leading the blind.

A lot of them don't allow update letters/LOIs or are on strictly ranked waitlists. For the ones that do (especially the one I would send a LOI to) I was hoping to wait until I had something more substantial, such as more of my research being accepted and at least in press. However, considering most of my work is basic, the turnaround time is a lot slower than most clinical work, and I wasn't sure if it would be frivolous to send an update letter explaining that we have a piece in revision in nature neuroscience, as well as another article I currently have submitted (albeit not yet accepted) in a medical humanities journal.

A letter stating that you will attend the school if accepted can have impact. Do any of your waitlist schools allow these communications? If so, consider sending a letter ASAP.

 

[LindaAccepted]

I appreciate it! It's tricky because while my writing was successful at securing interviews, the back of my mind is worried that re-writing too much could hurt me. Although I guess with time it could go the other way, and my narrative can only become more cohesive and stronger. I'd rewrite my personal statement and edit a lot of my activities, change a lot of my secondaries, after a whole application cycle of practicing writing even more.

And yes, I realize that with my GPA and MCAT, programs like those were unrealistic. A huge reason as to why I added a lot of those reaches was due to how research-heavy I am. For the research-heavy schools, my MCAT was still within the 10th percentile of their accepted students or above. Surprisingly, the school I ended up getting the interview at, my GPA and MCAT were well below their 10th percentile. (not that I advocate for students such as myself to think that programs such as these will necessarily give them the time of day, given how saturated the pool is with 4.0 520+ incredibly impressive applicants)

Regarding how much writing or re-writing is appropriate, I really can't give you a number or any advice other than you don't want to submit what you submitted last year. Sorry.

Regarding the 10% number, unless you have some unusual achievement or something truly distinctive in your background, I recommend you stay above the 25%, unless you're talking about IS schools with major preference for IS students.

And again, hopefully you'll post soon about an acceptance. 🙂