Medical Should I reapply third time or change careers?

[TheBoneDoctah]

Hi, thank you for answering our questions. This is my second time applying. At the moment, I have 3 II's (2 from T10 and 1 from T50) -> 1 R and 2 WL. At this point, I'm facing the reality that I probably won't be accepted. Conventional wisdom says that I should prepare to reapply, but considering that I already went in with my best foot forward (applied early, 3.9+ GPA, 515+ MCAT, solid EC's, a few pubs, great letters) is this really a good practical option for me?

The pandemic changed a lot of my professional growth opportunities, so I have nothing impactful to really add for a potential third reapplication. Besides being marked as a third-time reapplicant, I'm afraid that I won't get in again if I don't have anything new to my application. Is it over for me? I have had many people go over my application and they've told me that there's nothing really wrong with my app, so I don't think it can be easily "fixed". I'm facing a really big cognitive dissonance-I've prepared for a career in medicine ever since I was young and I'm having to face the reality that I might have to have a career change. I'm not sure what I would do to grow while waiting to apply a third time anyways. Maybe try to be an EMT. Personally, I don't think a post-bacc or research or masters or PhD or extra volunteering would be useful in helping me grow more than I have already while I was in undergrad.

My last ditch effort is to continue a research project and getting it published while starting a med-tech non-profit that I have always wanted to do. I was personally interested in these things anyways. I'm hoping that this will help my with potential letters of interests / intent in March / April.

What should I do? Should I be worried? Should I panic? Should I reapply? Should I take a few years off? Career change? Any advice or things I should be considering would be amazing. Thanks.

If you actually have solid ECs like you said, you likely either:

1. Have a red flag somewhere in your app (bad LOR, bad secondaries, IA).

2. Have a horribly top-heavy school list and/or didn’t apply to enough schools. The fact that you said you had interviews from T10 schools makes me think your list is extremely top-heavy.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yeah I agree, I know this is a frustrating place to be but if you're interviewing with top 10 schools then you should be able to be accepted SOMEWHERE. Either you are applying to a very top-heavy list of schools, or you have loaded up on the kinds of ECs that are attractive to the top tier schools (like research) but less meaningful to other schools while skimping on the bread and butter clinical experience.

If you applied to a very top heavy list of schools, that's easily and immediately fixable by applying to more schools. If you already applied to a wide array of schools and you don't think you have meaningfully improved you application this year, then take a year to be a scribe or EMT or something that will solidify your clinical experience. If you can find that position sometime in the next couple of months and start it by the time apps open in June then I see no reason that you can't apply this year. If you're just feeling beaten down from 2 years of no success, or feel you need more time to address your deficiencies, then there's no shame in sitting a year out.

Regardless, I can't believe that someone with a 3.9+/515+ has a problem in their application that can't be rectified unless it's a true red flag for something like professionalism.

 

[Goro]

If you don't get any love this cycle, try DO schools in the next one.