Sophomore looking for application advice

[pushingp_remed]

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[pushingp_remed]

Bump

 

[wysdoc]

@somath8124 your longterm planning and all the things you have done so far look great.
40-50 hours of shadowing is generally enough, so you don't need to add to that.
Getting a MA job will give you more face-to-face experience with patients & medical staff and this will fill in the hours you need in that category.
Wait to take the MCAT until you have finished biochem, Organic and Physics I
Good luck & keep up the good work

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Can I ask as a sophomore how much you have done as a Resident Assistant? I am sure it is most meaningful to you, but I don't know how your undergrad chooses RAs and promotes them.

Who is writing your letters?

Connections, huh? Why not go for an MBA? Student Government? You can get better longitudinal relationships with social work.

 

[haikuhero]

+1 on the "connections" narrative vagueness. Make sure that by the time you apply, you have that narrative tied into medicine.

For example, if my narrative is sports medicine/ortho/related, sure it make sense if I'm a division 1 athlete.
But I could also be a coach, athletic trainer, biomechanics PhD, PT, etc. to continue that sports narrative.

So then you add sports medicine research, shadowing some orthos, work in a sports medicine clinic, and now we have ourselves a narrative that might actually tie into medicine/doctoring

 

[haikuhero]

Gotcha. Out of curiosity, are there any themes or ideas that jump out to you from reading my application on first glance? I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I’d want to structure a narrative but haven’t came up with anything conclusive yet.

Not enough information to say there is a pattern of theme.
The theme right now is a smart extroverted student who is driven and involved in university.

If you want to take the comp sci angle, you need more information about the comp sci (the research, other projects, integration to medicine)
If you want the philanthropy angle, more in that + integration to medicine
If you want to take the connections farther, build a social network using your comp sci background for medical philanthropic goals

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My reaction takes into account the desire to apply for Flexmed, if that is the OP's intent.

 

[atriablack]

I’m definitely going to get a recommendation from a Professor I just took a CS-philosophy seminar class with this semester, and am taking a computational genomics class with next semester.

At the end of your second class with that Prof ask for a LOR and store it through Interfolio. Your performance and personality will still be fresh in their minds.
I started collecting letters back in sophomore year. When I applied, all I had to do was ask letter writers to login and redate the letter (some were over two years old). The letters transfer over to AMCAS in a day or two and is pretty seamless.
Just to note tho, Interfolio charged me for sending the letters. I don’t believe you need a subscription to store letters, but yea the year you are applying you would need a subscription. Still worth it for the convenience imo and it's one of the most well known confidential letter storage services.

 

[atriablack]

The theme right now is a smart extroverted student who is driven and involved in university.

I agree.

I'm hoping to create a narrative around building connections, whether through community service.....

biggest draw in medicine for me has always been the prospect of building deep, longitudinal connections with patients and other staff

You can lean into this narrative more by immersing yourself into communities outside your immediate circles. This can include community service and also working clinically at a family med practice where longitudinal connections with patients can be seen daily.
Non clinical volunteering outside your university circle (what's the population Red Cross is serving?) and geared towards community wellbeing (soup kitchens, H4H, community centers, etc) will help you better define what it means to build a connection with the communities you hope to serve (if one of your goals is to care for underserved communities).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yup. After talking with some previous applicants, I'm thinking my flex factor will be something along the lines of having more time to delve into music (music theory classes at school, acapella performances, setting up a music program at the hospice center/local hospital, etc.), or exploring CS and healthtech/swe. Still not completely sure though. Do you think my application is competitive metrics/EC wise?

I can't think of a reason why you couldn't send an application. I don't know what they allow for discussing meaningful experiences, as one example, as I need to be more familiar with their application prompts. In a similar program, I would want to know how mature you are, how much you are committed to medicine and going to our program, and why it is important to get you now versus through a regular decision application. We are very careful not to pick people who we felt could jump ship and try the open market with an ED or RD application.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Sounds good. By the way, I've been doing some more thinking – do you think something along the lines of "helping vulnerable communities" could be a better narrative? It still explains hospice, potentially MA depending on what type of clinic I join, Red Cross, RA, college tutoring, Orientation Leader, and the science experiments for underserved local elementary schools club. I could also join a Soup kitchen/Food pantry or something similar. For context, the urologist I was shadowing this summer explained that the reason he loves his speciality is because he's able to work through people's biggest vulnerabilities and give them their confidence and dignity back everyday, which is something that really struck me.

I definitely think you should understand that moral imperative for health care providers in general so doing many of the activities you list (specifically food distribution) are fine if you see how you help people similarly with maintaining their sense of self with dignity. So to that end, helping vulnerable people should be part of who you are regardless of profession since that's what everyone should do. Social work is especially rewarding.