MD Starting Points! (Kinda Long - All help appreciated)

[TheKiwiBoatman]

Hey all, thanks for clicking in! Really looking forward to all your shared wisdom! I’m primarily after anything you can offer regarding chances, strategy, perhaps school choice and whatever else might be helpful. Again, thank you in advance!!

Here’s a touch about me: I’ve always been very keen, but on the fence, about the idea of medical school. My undergrad GPA wasn’t super flashy (3.15, largely due to the intersection of the insane pressures that my varsity rowing threw at me, a tough major (biomedical eng.) and a massive concussion/back injury during my jr. year).

Two months ago, I completed my masters, also at Brown and in biomedical eng., with a 3.88, and have made up my mind to go after med school. I feel that the masters may have put me back on track to be a strong candidate for med school, but would love to get your thoughts.

As of now, my plan to to hop into a biotech-type job, and spend the next year winding up to tackle the MCAT (I recognize I need to do WELL on it), and the following year to apply, so there’s time!

I understand that in-state residency plays some role - my situation is a little weird - I’m a US/NZ dual citizen, grew up in NZ and moved to the US for college. Whilst both my parents currently live in the US, our financial situation is kind of crazy right now, and neither have their own housing. I’ve been using my aunt’s place in PA as my mailing address for the past 5 years, and may be able to claim RI residency at this point, but not entirely sure.

The below is a near-complete spread of my past and present endeavors - Again, I am so appreciative of any and all advice y’all could share with me - thank you so much!

-ML


Education:

High School: Saint Kentigern College - Auckland NZ

Undergrad: Brown University Class of ’17 - Biomedical Engineering, GPA ~3.15

Masters: Brown University ’18 - Biomedical Engineering, GPA 3.9

Thesis on “Method and Application of Deep Brain Stimulation in Nonhuman Primates” - developed and tested a new surgical procedure, and did a behavior study under closed-loop DBS.



Have had several teaching assistantships in the engineering department at Brown.



Research:

Masters Thesis and full time post-grad work in Neuroscience

Developed and performed a novel neurosurgical procedure for deep brain stimulation surgery in primates, wrote software to control behavioral tasks for said primates, presented our research at poster sessions, and will have a submission to J Neurosci Methods in the next few weeks.

Assisted in the Brown Neuroengineering and Neuromotion Lab doing motion capture for primates under spinal cord stimulation

Created and implemented MATLAB, SolidWorks and COMSOL models to optimize optical properties of a novel device to improve resolution of Computed Tomography (CT) scans.



Shadowing:

Rhode Island Hospital

Upper extremity procedures - Arnold-Peter Weiss M.D.

Shoulder surgery - Andrew Green M.D.

DBS Procedures: Wael Asaad M.D. Ph.D


Extra Curricular: Athletics & Music

Brown Univ. Men’s Rowing

• Success at highest levels of competition in New Zealand, United States, United Kingdom and China,

including an Ivy League Championship, Four National Championship medals, Three International

Universities Regatta Medals, and the current course record at the Head of the Charles Regatta



Brown Univ. Rugby Football Club

• 2017 & 2018 All-Ivy Academic Honors, 1st Team All-Ivy Nominee, Captain of 2018 Rugby Sevens Team



Music: Recording/Touring guitar player - have featured on recording projects for 3 bands and one soundtrack for a festival film, tour managed a Canadian rock band a couple of times, and run a concert booking agency in Providence.



(Pssst! Hey, you - thanks for reading this guy all the way to the end!)

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[JavaDocHopeful]

You seem to have the academics and research portions of the stereotypical checklist in the bag, and your ECs definitely show an interest outside of academics. I didn't see mention of volunteering, which is a killer for most schools. However, since you aren't planning on applying for at least another cycle you will have plenty of time to accrue some. Also you would likely want to accrue more shadowing (since your list has no indicator of hours, simply physician). Obviously I'm not an authority on this stuff, but I thought I'd give my two cents. Well done on the Masters, and enjoy the next year!

 

[TheKiwiBoatman]

You seem to have the academics and research portions of the stereotypical checklist in the bag, and your ECs definitely show an interest outside of academics. I didn't see mention of volunteering, which is a killer for most schools. However, since you aren't planning on applying for at least another cycle you will have plenty of time to accrue some. Obviously I'm not an authority on this stuff, but I thought I'd give my two cents. Well done on the Masters, and enjoy the next year!

Hey mate, thank you very much - really appreciate the feedback - all the best to you too. I should work on finding more volunteering opportunities - I haven't done zero, but definitely not enough to really make a case for myself. Cheers again!

 

[candbgirl]

You need clinical experience and nonclinical e perience-around 150 hours of both. When you look for more shadowing opportunities find a primary care doc and do hours in the office, clinic, hospital etc. You need about 50 hours total shadowing.