sGPA 3.85 cGPA 3.91, Possibly weak ECs.

[Vannen]

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Ok, here's the situation:

Major: Chemistry, minor in Biology and maybe Biochemistry
sGPA 3.85 cGPA 3.91, Haven't taken MCAT yet(5/20), but lets assume 33ish.

Potential Pluses: No direct family has a bachelors. Parents were literally bankrupt for a good portion of my childhood. Also from a rural area (graduated first out of <30 people) with high poverty rate.

ECs:

~50 hrs in therapy program using horses to help the mentally challenged
~50 hrs in a program that provides free rides to women after dark for safety reasons

~20 hrs in various thing such as help at a farm for abused/abandoned horses, volunteering at a large community haunted house, etc

Shadowing:
8 hrs in Diagnostic Imaging department, 8 hours with oncologist, 16 hours with family practice doctor in a rural area. I plan on shadowing him ~8 hours a day during spring break with the same Family practice doctor as before, bringing my combined shadowing hours up to ~70hrs.

I have been a TA for two years for freshman chemistry. Potentially a lot to talk about there 😎

Two years researching in a lab trying to develop cancer pharmaceuticals (primarily imaging agents), including two poster competitions, two conferences, one (maybe more by application time) papers. Would have more papers, but we are currently working closely with Bayer (the aspirin people), so a lot of our researched is hushhush right now 😉

One of the founding members of our schools first chapter of AED. Our first major action in this club was to create our schools FIRST MCAT Prep class ever, which we had never had before(~14k undergrads and no class 😵). I was secretary our first year, and I'm VP this year.

Also worth noting is that I was the only delegate from my state, WA, to go to the last Alpha Epsilon Delta national meeting. I can't say enough for what an amazing experience that was.

AMSA, active for 2.5 years, was secretary one year and the coerced into another minor office this year 😡

At this point, I think my major weakness is my lack of clinical volunteer hours. The reason for that is that I feel the local hospital literally abuses the local prehealth community. The have 20~30 openings to volunteer each semester for all of the premed, nursing, and prepharm students. There are literally hundreds of applicants turned away. Getting in is more of a crap shoot that based on any coherent system.

In light of that, I'm planning on volunteer weekly at a local nursing home/hospice, which I think will help offset my lack of other stats.

Here's my take on my position: my raw numbers might be enough to get me an interview, but it might get dicey from there. Being from WA, UWSOM would be the ideal situation. They, however, are heavily EC focused, and I think my lack of direct volunteering might hurt me. Their website calls for 40 hrs minimum shadowing, so I think 150% of that should suffice. I'm worried that I will get one of their famous ambiguous "not ready" notifications because of the clinical volunteering. I think a lot of other schools might reject me for similar reasons.

In your informed opinions where do you think I stand. Also, if it's not too much of a bother, could I get some suggestions of schools that I might have a good chance getting into with my credentials.

Thank you everyone in advance.

 

[bravofleet4]

great GPA, great research, decent leadership

the horse thing i see more as a hobby. did you work with the mentally challenged or just the horses? if you worked with the former you can count that as clinical experience. volunteer in the nursing home if you can't get into the hospital.

there's also something to be said about doing non-medically related community service.

 

[Vannen]

I'm generally working directly with kids/adults, as well as keeping the horses in check. There's a lot of interaction going on.

I'm thinking the nursing home will be a good idea, if nothing but a band-aid. In your opinion, what would you consider good community service for this application, or would anything work?

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that I marched in my schools Marching Band for two years and played in the basketball pep band for two years as well. Just to add some more flavor 😛

 

[Catalystik]

I think my lack of direct volunteering might hurt me. Their website calls for 40 hrs minimum shadowing, so I think 150% of that should suffice. I'm worried that I will get one of their famous ambiguous "not ready" notifications because of the clinical volunteering. I think a lot of other schools might reject me for similar reasons.

In your informed opinions where do you think I stand.

I agree that a lack of experience with sick people will hurt your application. A nursing home is a perfectly reasonable place to get this experience, and I'd try to work with the sickest folk they have there, rather than those who are fairly independent. Some adcomms may look at the therapeutic riding assistance as a form of clinical exposure and others won't, so planning accordingly is wise.

If all your stats are high, including the MCAT score, you might slip into a school with only 6 months of clinical experience, but you are far more likely to get in nowhere and end up reapplying. Considering that 1.5 years of clinical experience is average, you might plan the timing of your application accordingly.

The rest of your ECs look fine.

 

[wanderer]

I met a couple applicants on the interview trail with only 6 months clinical experience by application time. They had more than one interview, but I'd guess their other ECs were extra strong. If you get solid clinical experience starting now it MAY be worth it to apply in 2011, but otherwise you can wait a year and have a really productive cycle. Depends how risk averse you are.

Also, word of advice. Having to do this process twice is complete hell, so if you can avoid it you really should. It's more than just wasting a year and all that application money.

 

[Vannen]

Also, word of advice. Having to do this process twice is complete hell, so if you can avoid it you really should. It's more than just wasting a year and all that application money.

So, would it be worth my time to apply to only a few schools (my instate University of WA and a few closers ones, OSHS and maybe CO) and plan on doing nursing home activity, preferably hospice style stuff, this semester so that it's on my apps, but continue doing through the summer and next year, as well as (hopefully) pick up some hospital volunteering/more shadowing over the summer and next year, then plan on applying next cycle as well, or should I cut my losses this semester and gamble it all on the next cycle?


Do schools ever look poorly on re-applicants?

 

[bravofleet4]

So, would it be worth my time to apply to only a few schools (my instate University of WA and a few closers ones, OSHS and maybe CO) and plan on doing nursing home activity, preferably hospice style stuff, this semester so that it's on my apps, but continue doing through the summer and next year, as well as (hopefully) pick up some hospital volunteering/more shadowing over the summer and next year, then plan on applying next cycle as well, or should I cut my losses this semester and gamble it all on the next cycle?


Do schools ever look poorly on re-applicants?

you'll find the answer to this using the search button. alternatively think of it this way. would you really be happy knowing that you could've gone to a much better school (in terms of location, tuition, school atmosphere) and settled for something early on. don't make the same mistake a lot of applicants do and apply to schools you would never really consider going to.

 

[Vannen]

you'll find the answer to this using the search button. alternatively think of it this way. would you really be happy knowing that you could've gone to a much better school (in terms of location, tuition, school atmosphere) and settled for something early on. don't make the same mistake a lot of applicants do and apply to schools you would never really consider going to.

Honestly, location, prestige and such are mostly irrelevant to me. My major residency choices at this point are family practice and internal med, neither of which are very competitive. I think my major issue would be a financial one, but once you get out of state, the choices are all within the same range, give or take outliers.

Which I guess brings me to the other point I was asking about. Which medical schools would I have a better chance with, considering my application (ie, strong research and numbers but lackluster clinical volunteering)?

And thank you for all the answers that I've gotten up until now. I really do appreciate it.