Should I apply this cycle or wait?

[f4l]

My freshman year at university (2007), had no direction and undiagnosed ADHD. Needless to say I dropped out of school and continued to take classes at community college (my parents wanted me to keep going to school). I continued to have very mediocre performance with lots of C's, a few D's, a few B's and lots of W's.

I was then diagnosed with ADHD and started taking meds. I was finally able to focus on the uninteresting parts of classes and do all my coursework. I reapplied to the university and graduated with a degree in chemistry with a 3.9 (last 2 years all As). However my GPA for med school is still really poor and no amount of post-bac course work will raise my GPA at this point realistically:

cGPA: 3.0
sGPA: 3.35
MCAT: 516

I was supposed to shadow 3 different MDs this summer, but COVID happened so i have zero clinical experience (I feel like I shouldn't even apply because of this). I have 2 years of undergraduate research in analytical chemistry and a year of volunteering at a community garden focused on public health.

I get 20 free applications from FAP, is it worth applying this cycle or should i improve my ECs and apply next cycle?

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[GreenDuck12]

Without any clinical experience, my guess is you are DOA at any school. To be competitive, you need to shoot for 150+ hours each of clinical and non clinical volunteering, and 50 hours of shadowing.

 

[f4l]

That's what I thought, thanks.

 

[ScrubswithnoSleeves]

Maybe only apply to your state school?

I had a story relatively similar to yours and had some clinical experience, but not enough, and I had a pretty unsuccessful cycle.

my story was: depression/family issues = real ****ty first year, dropped out went to community college and transferred to a better university and got straight A's, cGPA 3.55, scGPA 3.65, MCAT 514. I applied with 60 volunteer hours and 30 shadowing hours. I got 2 Interviews, and murdered them actually, and came out empty-handed.

So def take this year to grind out some clinical experience wherever possible. It is going to be hard with covid, but do your best. Colleges appreciate sustained service so try to get involved in something right away and keep it going up until you apply next cycle at least. If you can get a job as a scribe, that's probably your best bet. Its one of the best clinical positions you can squeeze into for the least amount of prep time (and you'll probably get a physician LOR out of it).

I did EMT, but you have to take a 3-6 month training course that can get pretty pricey (just FYI).

 

[Goro]

My freshman year at university (2007), had no direction and undiagnosed ADHD. Needless to say I dropped out of school and continued to take classes at community college (my parents wanted me to keep going to school). I continued to have very mediocre performance with lots of C's, a few D's, a few B's and lots of W's.

I was then diagnosed with ADHD and started taking meds. I was finally able to focus on the uninteresting parts of classes and do all my coursework. I reapplied to the university and graduated with a degree in chemistry with a 3.9 (last 2 years all As). However my GPA for med school is still really poor and no amount of post-bac course work will raise my GPA at this point realistically:

cGPA: 3.0
sGPA: 3.35
MCAT: 516

I was supposed to shadow 3 different MDs this summer, but COVID happened so i have zero clinical experience (I feel like I shouldn't even apply because of this). I have 2 years of undergraduate research in analytical chemistry and a year of volunteering at a community garden focused on public health.

I get 20 free applications from FAP, is it worth applying this cycle or should i improve my ECs and apply next cycle?

I suggest taking a gap year to fill in the holes, like shadowing. Perhaps find a scribing job. That's glorified shadowing. Do you have the other ECs? As a non-trad, research won't be that important.

When you're ready to apply, target these schools. It's NOT about the GPAs, but that the you of now ids not the you of then.

Columbia

Vandy

Dartmouth

BU

Duke

Pitt

Mayo

Mt Sinai

Keck

UCSF

EVMS

U Miami

Hofstra

Emory

Jefferson

Drexel

Albany

Tufts

NYMC

Your state schools

Rush

Loyola

Rosy Franklin

Tulane

Wake

MCW

SLU

Creighton

Wayne State

Netter

NYU.LI

Any DO program. I can't recommend Nova, Wm Carey, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CUHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites. UIW refuses to post their Boards scores, which is fishy.