Should I apply now or take a post bacc?

[j0ji]

I'd like some advice on what to do! Really torn between getting a post-bacc, or applying this cycle and maybe scribing it during my gap year. Or Scribing it for 2 years and applying the next cycle.

• Year in school: 4th
  
  
• Country/state of residence: CA
  
  
• Schools to which you are applying: Need help with this one, looking at USC, UC Davis, UCI, BU, NYMC, VCU, UCLA. Would like more suggestions, and i havent done research on DO schools
  
  
• Cumulative GPA 3.5
  
  
• Science GPA 3.4
  
  
• MCAT: 515 (131/126/130/128)
  
  
• Research: 3 years in a clinical exercise lab. No publications, but several poster presentations, including an annual convention in sports medicine
  
  
• Volunteering (clinical) no clinical volunteering
  
  
• Physician shadowing: 30 hours ER, 50 hours orthopedics
  
  
• Non Clinical Volunteering: volunteer tutor in english to campus faculty workers. Volunteer tutor to children in underserved community. I don't log hours, but estimate around 100
  
  
• Extracurricular activities: Orchestra ensemble for 2 years. Competitive martial art team for 3 years. Board member of social-cultural organization for 3 years. Producer of a large student run stage production
  
  
• Employment history: Worked as an assistant to a professor emeritus in neuroscience. Simultaneously worked in dorms as security
  
  
• Immediate family in medicine? No
  
  
• Specialty of interest: Emergency, PM&R, Orthopedics. Open to most things
  
  
• interest in rural health: Maybe
  

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[WedgeDawg]

AMCAS Table 24 shows that ~60% of people with similar stats to you were accepted to medical school.

However, your lack of clinical volunteering or exposure beyond shadowing is going to make it an order of magnitude more challenging. If you're going to scribe, you should be scribing before you submit your application.

I think your GPA is right on the border of where you should or shouldn't do a postbac, but you absolutely need to have some sort of active clinical exposure (shadowing is passive) to be a competitive applicant.

The best course of action might be to do a year of postbac work and volunteer in hospice/emergency/etc during your spare time over the course of that year (even just like 4-6 hours a week will add up very quickly - even more if you start now).

 

[GrapesofRath]

Well first off I hope you mean by applying this cycle you really mean applying next cycle. Because this cycle ain't happening for MD's.

What's your recent grade trend from your last 3-4 semesters? If it's good, forget about a post-bacc. Even if it isn't the greatest, I still would give it an app cycle before doing a post-bacc. Even being from CA, a smart list and a smart application with a 3.5/34 can certainly give you a shot. And your still in school also it looks like; just do well this year and then there is absolutely no reason to do any post-bacc if you can get that sGPA up to around 3.5.

What you need though is to boost your volunteering experience and clinical exposure badly. Demonstrate altruism, demonstrate service to the less fortunate/those in need, get some clinical volunteering. Scribing is all well and good, but service to others and to the less fortunate is really a good path to standing out. Your stats are fine, but given the CA status, it's not unreasonable to call a 3.5/34 a borderline applicant. You want to distinguish yourself as a borderline and you are weak in the areas that will allow you to distinguish yourself.

Again I don't think your stats are the issue here; I think the better use of your time is to address your EC's and distinguish yourself through there because right now you have weaknesses in very important areas that are costly for borderline applicants.

 

[Goro]

This not the application of a person who dearly wants to be a physician. It is the application of someone who wants to be a doctor as long as it is convenient.


Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanism side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.

Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??

What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!

We're not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.

I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities.

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.

I'd like some advice on what to do! Really torn between getting a post-bacc, or applying this cycle and maybe scribing it during my gap year. Or Scribing it for 2 years and applying the next cycle.

• Year in school: 4th
  
  
• Country/state of residence: CA
  
  
• Schools to which you are applying: Need help with this one, looking at USC, UC Davis, UCI, BU, NYMC, VCU, UCLA. Would like more suggestions, and i havent done research on DO schools
  
  
• Cumulative GPA 3.5
  
  
• Science GPA 3.4
  
  
• MCAT: 515 (131/126/130/128)
  
  
• Research: 3 years in a clinical exercise lab. No publications, but several poster presentations, including an annual convention in sports medicine
  
  
• Volunteering (clinical) no clinical volunteering
  
  
• Physician shadowing: 30 hours ER, 50 hours orthopedics
  
  
• Non Clinical Volunteering: volunteer tutor in english to campus faculty workers. Volunteer tutor to children in underserved community. I don't log hours, but estimate around 100
  
  
• Extracurricular activities: Orchestra ensemble for 2 years. Competitive martial art team for 3 years. Board member of social-cultural organization for 3 years. Producer of a large student run stage production
  
  
• Employment history: Worked as an assistant to a professor emeritus in neuroscience. Simultaneously worked in dorms as security
  
  
• Immediate family in medicine? No
  
  
• Specialty of interest: Emergency, PM&R, Orthopedics. Open to most things
  
  
• interest in rural health: Maybe

 

[j0ji]

This not the application of a person who dearly wants to be a physician. It is the application of someone who wants to be a doctor as long as it is convenient.


Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanism side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.

Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??

What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!

We're not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.

I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities.

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.

Thank you for your honest response. I'm not sure if you missed my bullet on my volunteer experience with tutoring children in an after school program in an undeserved community, as well as my work with english learning faculty at my university. Are you saying this experience is not enough? In any case, I'll look into more opportunities with getting involved with tougher crowds and projects.

 

[j0ji]

Well first off I hope you mean by applying this cycle you really mean applying next cycle. Because this cycle ain't happening for MD's.

What's your recent grade trend from your last 3-4 semesters? If it's good, forget about a post-bacc. Even if it isn't the greatest, I still would give it an app cycle before doing a post-bacc. Even being from CA, a smart list and a smart application with a 3.5/34 can certainly give you a shot. And your still in school also it looks like; just do well this year and then there is absolutely no reason to do any post-bacc if you can get that sGPA up to around 3.5.

What you need though is to boost your volunteering experience and clinical exposure badly. Demonstrate altruism, demonstrate service to the less fortunate/those in need, get some clinical volunteering. Scribing is all well and good, but service to others and to the less fortunate is really a good path to standing out. Your stats are fine, but given the CA status, it's not unreasonable to call a 3.5/34 a borderline applicant. You want to distinguish yourself as a borderline and you are weak in the areas that will allow you to distinguish yourself.

Again I don't think your stats are the issue here; I think the better use of your time is to address your EC's and distinguish yourself through there because right now you have weaknesses in very important areas that are costly for borderline applicants.

Thank you for your insight. Apologies, I did mean the upcoming cycle, not the current cycle. My grades have had a slight upward trend over the past years of about .2 to .3 points and expected to increase by the time I graduate in 2016.

Just one follow up question. The reason why I have no clinical volunteering is because in my area, the clinical volunteer opportunities offered are very limited, generally students do nothing but greet patients as they walk in the doors (similar to walmart greeters) or maybe direct patrons to different wings of the hospital, but have almost no interaction with physicians. A lot of students do this to log hundreds of clinical volunteer hours but I felt like although it was a good way to build points for an application, the activity itself wasn't very rewarding or meaningful. Someone had advised me that as long as I got clinical experience through other means (shadowing, and research) I could volunteer in anything that interested me. So I joined a clinic lab, and shadowed while volunteering through teaching in under served communities. So this was my mindset when I decided to scribe: I would use the scribe position to gain more clinical exposure, while continuing to volunteer in other projects. This does of course mean, that I wouldn't have specifically volunteered in a clinical setting, unless you count some stuff I did before undergraduate (I probably have about 50-100 hours volunteering in a nursing home). Should I change my approach to trying to find more clinic based volunteer work, or is it still okay to delineate clinical exposure and volunteer? Thank you

 

[Goro]

Nope. Not enough. No don't need to go work in Compton or East St Louis, but just do work with others less fortunate than yourself. And the clinical volunteering has to start, and start soon. My student interviewers would eat you alive.

Thank you for your honest response. I'm not sure if you missed my bullet on my volunteer experience with tutoring children in an after school program in an undeserved community, as well as my work with english learning faculty at my university. Are you saying this experience is not enough? In any case, I'll look into more opportunities with getting involved with tougher crowds and projects.