Too little too late?

[hev]

I am a Biology major/Chem+Philosophy minor at a small, public liberal arts college that very rarely sends graduates to medical school (partially due to lack of interest--very small science department). I have a solid (I think?) GPA of a 3.8 cum and 3.84 science rounding out my sophomore year. I will take the MCAT late winter 2012/early spring 2013 and plan to begin applications in summer 2013. I am a strong test taker and expect to get medium-high scores (so assume 30-33 for the purpose of this post).

My major problem lies with extracurriculars. Though I have been very involved since entering college, I have not been involved in the typical 'mandatory' pre-med activities. Here is my full list of ECs:

-1 year internship in botany: worked in a greenhouse and focused mostly on greenhouse and plant management, though I gave weekly tours <--best part. Where I conclusively determined that I have no interest in working with plants/in a lab environment and want to be around people. (~5 hours/week)
-President of the Honors Student Association (sophomore year, continuing for next year)
-Assistant Sustainability Coordinator: planned various sustainability related campus events as well as managed recycling program
-Food Bank Volunteer (~3 hours/week, since freshman year)
-Vice President of Programming for sorority (for my upcoming junior year)
-Peer Mentor: runs freshman orientation and teaches a section of freshman seminar class
-Student Government Association: Senate member and VP of my class (continues all 4 years)
-EMT: just finished certification, (will be volunteering ~8 hours/week over this summer and ~6 hours/week once school starts and I hope to continue until graduation) *looking to start a student rescue squad group to help with local emergencies as it can take up to 2 hours for an ambulance to get to this rural area*
-Published philosophy paper, presenting the philosophy research at annual conference for Honors Colleges this fall


...So basically there is a HUGE hole in the science/research department. To be frank, I am uninterested in working with research. I am much more interested in (and passionate!) working with people and applying research. I really need to put in shadowing time and have that on my "to-do" list for this fall and over winter break, but my main patient experience will be with EMT. Also, my other involvements are so sporadically spread throughout different areas of study that I worry that they may be looked at as irrelevant by an adcomm.

So assuming that I put in the shadowing time...do I have a chance? Is it just not enough relevant EC's to make up for coming from a small, liberal arts school? Am I even close to being on track?

There is no pre-med advisor, mostly because there aren't any (or very few) pre-med candidates...so I am a little clueless.

Thanks for any advice or information you can share!

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[Catalystik]

I am a Biology major/Chem+Philosophy minor at a small, public liberal arts college that very rarely sends graduates to medical school (partially due to lack of interest--very small science department). I have a solid (I think?) GPA of a 3.8 cum and 3.84 science rounding out my sophomore year. I will take the MCAT late winter 2012/early spring 2013 and plan to begin applications in summer 2013. I am a strong test taker and expect to get medium-high scores (so assume 30-33 for the purpose of this post).

My major problem lies with extracurriculars. Though I have been very involved since entering college, I have not been involved in the typical 'mandatory' pre-med activities. Here is my full list of ECs:

-1 year internship in botany: worked in a greenhouse and focused mostly on greenhouse and plant management, though I gave weekly tours <--best part. Where I conclusively determined that I have no interest in working with plants/in a lab environment and want to be around people. (~5 hours/week)
-President of the Honors Student Association (sophomore year, continuing for next year)
-Assistant Sustainability Coordinator: planned various sustainability related campus events as well as managed recycling program
-Food Bank Volunteer (~3 hours/week, since freshman year)
-Vice President of Programming for sorority (for my upcoming junior year)
-Peer Mentor: runs freshman orientation and teaches a section of freshman seminar class
-Student Government Association: Senate member and VP of my class (continues all 4 years)
-EMT: just finished certification, (will be volunteering ~8 hours/week over this summer and ~6 hours/week once school starts and I hope to continue until graduation) *looking to start a student rescue squad group to help with local emergencies as it can take up to 2 hours for an ambulance to get to this rural area*
-Published philosophy paper, presenting the philosophy research at annual conference for Honors Colleges this fall


...So basically there is a HUGE hole in the science/research department. To be frank, I am uninterested in working with research. I am much more interested in (and passionate!) working with people and applying research. I really need to put in shadowing time and have that on my "to-do" list for this fall and over winter break, but my main patient experience will be with EMT. Also, my other involvements are so sporadically spread throughout different areas of study that I worry that they may be looked at as irrelevant by an adcomm.

So assuming that I put in the shadowing time...do I have a chance? Is it just not enough relevant EC's to make up for coming from a small, liberal arts school? Am I even close to being on track?

There is no pre-med advisor, mostly because there aren't any (or very few) pre-med candidates...so I am a little clueless.

Thanks for any advice or information you can share!

Your so-called "other involvements" show that you have people skills, leadership ability, care about others, and have the ability to impart information(teach), all of which translate into characteristics desirable in a future physician. They are not irrelevant and will help make your application stronger.

Research isn't required, but it need not be medically-related, or even in the sciences, so long as it is hypothesis-driven and adds to generalizable human knowledge. Maybe your philosophy project qualifies, or maybe it was more like a thesis project that gathered knowledge others had gained. You can decide.

Adcomms expect one to test medicine as a career with a variety of experiences that give an idea of what you're getting yourself into and test your ability to relate to patients. Ideally, through these experiences you'll be able to answer interview questions about problems facing physicians related to malpractice, insurance coverage, difficult patients, patient advocacy, ethics, privacy laws, infection control, etc.

Working or volunteering as an EMT gives you good clinical patient experience, but not much clinical facility experience. Is there a chance you could volunteer in a medical environment this summer (and maybe over future school breaks) fr 3-4 hours per week, like a skilled nursing home, hospice, clinic, hospital so as to have a broader experience on top of the EMT gig?

For shadowing, you might approach your own physician and those of parents (or even parents of friends) for an opportunity this summer. Otherwise, one usually gets shadowing opportunites from contacts while working or volunteering. Sometimes they are found by cold-calling a doc's office to ask. About 50 total hours are the average listed. A primary care doc should be included.