PositivityRocks, your ECs sound awesome. You're making me feel insecure. Everything about your application seems great except for MCAT, but I think your grades would be enough to make up for that. The number of transcripts shouldn't matter, unless you took all of your pre-reqs at different community colleges or something. It sounds like the MCAT is all that's standing in the way of you having a top-20-med-school caliber app.
Thanks for the encouragement, GorgeousBorges -- its really nice of you to say that! I definitely feel similarly intimidated when reading some of the amazing things people here have posted about, and assume that its a pretty common feeling around here.
Also agree that my MCAT needs to be higher to be competitive at most schools. It was sort of a last minute thing for me with only a few weeks to prepare for a July test date. Lots of mistakes there on my part, unfortunately, but I've signed up for a prep course with TPR this time and am going over all my weak points with TBR
😀
Did you really only apply to one school? If you only apply to one school, you're gonna have a bad time. And how late did you apply?
Unfortunately, yes. I'm interested in MD/PhD and would have been eligible to sit for the comp. exam at the end of next quarter, so figured that would be cleanest way to go (not having to start over with coursework at another university). Also had been talking with former PI about a grant he received -- he said he thought it would be "perfect" for me, so I hoped that staying at my university would be a way to be able to be involved with that.
Unfortunately, I got completely intimidated about the MD/PhD application and ended up completing what I thought was the secondary only a few days before the deadline. Turns out it was only a preliminary secondary
🙁 I got a nice rejection letter soon after that seemed to say, "can't consider you this year because you missed the deadline, but reapply again next year if you don't get in elsewhere." Maybe I'm reading too much into it and everybody gets that response, but somehow it stung less than the other rejection (basically, "we won't be offering you an interview this year, but different schools look for different qualities in applicants, so don't take it too personally. Feel free to reapply again next year.").
The only post-bacc that you might want to consider is Temple ACMS. With Temple ACMS, you are automatically guaranteed entry into Temple med school upon completion of the program as long as you get a 3.5.
Thanks for this suggestion -- it seems pretty interesting, and something I'll definitely look into. It looks like they do have an MD/PhD program, which is appealing to me, and being close to CHOP would be pretty awesome.
To be completely honest though, I'm not feeling a huge rush to get into medical school right now. Of course, I'd love to be accepted and be able to start soon because it all seems very exciting and interesting. A guaranteed acceptance is certainly tempting and maybe it's crazy unwise to pass up that opportunity.
But, I really feel that there's a reason (or, more likely, many reasons) that I didn't get in this year and I want to make sure that I take time to learn from my past mistakes and continue to prepare myself for the road ahead. If Temple seems to offer the best preparation, then I'll certainly hope to get in there, but I just have to think about it all a bit more, I think
🙂
What sport did you play at an Olympic-caliber level (it doesn't really matter for med schools, just curious)?
The first time I was at the OTC for a martial art when I was quite a bit younger. Lots of pressure to drop out of school for that, but I'm really glad I didn't -- ended up getting injured at 16 and the program down there was kind of falling apart by that time anyway... I was lucky enough to have another opportunity to go back to OTC for cycling a while ago, but decided to stay more recreational for the time being. I don't really regret either decision too much because I think everything's turned out pretty awesome so far, but do sometimes wonder what things would be like if I had pursued it a bit more...
I hope your medical issues are resolved (feel better!).
Thanks!! It was a pretty scary time for me, but I'm feeling way better and keeping fingers crossed for good report back from follow-up MRI I had last weekend.
