Situation Specific Advice

[JakeXOg]

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Hello all,

I am a non-traditional student getting ready to finish my senior year at a university.

My (shortened) story. I graduated highschool 2013 and took a year off to explore career paths. Eventually, I became passionate about the medical field and began taking part time classes at my local community college. In 2016 I had completed around 60 credits and applied to transfer to one of the top public institutions in the US, which I was accepted into. I will be completing my final semester here in the fall with around a 3.4 cGPA (3.8 at my cc) with a cell and molecular biology degree. I have been doing research in an immunology lab since 2016 and am currently working in the lab full time over the summer.

I've known for a while that I have wanted to apply for medical school, but have been extremely overwhelmed with research work and course work here. With that being said, I have yet to take my MCAT.

I am struggling to set up a timelined plan of attack as to how I should schedule in my MCAT Prep and exam date and also, given the timescale of my courses, if I am at a disadvantage. I could register now and attempt to prep for an exam by the end of summer, but as stated I am working full time 40hrs a week and also taking a spring course (ends in June).

The alternative is that I wait until after my graduation and take my MCAT. However, I do not know how this will look as some of these classes will be quite old.

Any advice?

 

[DSM_302.0]

My advice is to take your time. Classes are valid at least 5 years after you took them. If some are 'expired', more recent and upper-division science courses prove you 'still got it'. You do *not* want to have to retake the MCAT. Study your face off when you have some dedicated time to do so. I took 2 months off of everything to do nothing but prep.

Better to take your time and be a bit late than rush it and have your grades or MCAT suffer. It's hard to recover from poor grades or a bad MCAT score.

Good luck!!

 

[califlipboy92]

I agree with DSM_302.0. Taking your time is probably the best thing to do in your scenario.

Assuming that your ECs (clinical exposure, non-clinical volunteering, leadership, and research) are all good to go, you definitely should focus on raising your GPA during your last semester. You have the following winter and spring quarters/semesters to focus on the MCAT, as well as prepare for the application cycle.

 

[JakeXOg]

Thanks for the response! Trying to get my GPA up a little higher but this school is tough (3.4 is considered Honors).

One last question. Do you have any insight as to if it is better to have a diversity of EC’s or show commitment to one? For example, I have hundreds of hours of research, presentations, etc, but not much clinical exposure. I have volunteered for a non-clinical organization (Habitat for humanity) over the summer but not very frequently, due to research). Should I work on diversifying my EC’s in the time leading up to MCAT prep? If so what type of EC would you suggest?


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[DSM_302.0]

Thanks for the response! Trying to get my GPA up a little higher but this school is tough (3.4 is considered Honors).

One last question. Do you have any insight as to if it is better to have a diversity of EC’s or show commitment to one? For example, I have hundreds of hours of research, presentations, etc, but not much clinical exposure. I have volunteered for a non-clinical organization (Habitat for humanity) over the summer but not very frequently, due to research). Should I work on diversifying my EC’s in the time leading up to MCAT prep? If so what type of EC would you suggest?


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clinical exposure is important! as LizzyM or gyngyn says, if you're close enough to smell patients, it's considered clinical exposure. this is important because it's confirmation to adcoms that you're ready to work with sick people all the time.

 

[califlipboy92]

In my opinion, the four categories (clinical exposure, non-clinical volunteering, leadership, and research) make up the diversity in ECs admissions committees are looking for. I would actually add in a 5th category of "unique experience," which is something that is more personal and might not necessarily fit in the traditional path to an MD/DO (music, sports, travel, hobbies, etc.).

Most of the applicants I met on the interview trail were well-rounded, meaning they showed commitment in at least 3 of the 5 categories. That's not to say if you're someone who is research focused you don't have a chance of receiving interviews, because there are definitely applicants who are carried through the application process by the quality of their research.

So to answer your question on "what type of EC would you suggest?" You should look at your application/experiences and see what is lacking. You mentioned that you don't have that much clinical exposure, so definitely consider finding a physician to shadow AND volunteer in a clinical setting - hospital or clinic. The importance of clinical exposure is to show that you have explored the field and determined that it's where you want to be for the rest of your life.

 

[curbsideconsult]

As califlipboy said, you need clinical experience and volunteering. However, I don't think you necessarily need "non-clinical" volunteering experience. With your volunteer work, it needs to be a worthwhile cause where you directly help people in need. So it can be in the clinical setting like being a hospice volunteer or something like what you've done with HfH already. HfH is great if you keep with it consistently. If you've done it just sporadically, it looks like box checking. If you truly love HfH then stick with it and do more hours there. If you hate it, find some other volunteering activity that you enjoy and do that a few hours a week. I think the best bang for your buck would be to find a clinical volunteering experience. As just mentioned, hospice is great because it's clinical and helping those in need. But there are other activities you can do as well. Look into idealist.org and volunteermatch.org.

I also agree with DSM that your coursework will not be old by the time you apply to med school. Take your time, take all the classes you need to, and take the MCAT only when you're ready. This will also give you time to beef up your application by getting in more EC hours.

 

[JakeXOg]

Thank you all for the great advice!


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