Tough Choice.. Should I wait?

[yellowpens]

I spent my first two years at a community college, working full time and not doing pre-req's because I had no idea what I wanted to do.
3.25 gpa

I then transferred to a university and quit my job. This helped a ton.. I was taking physics and gen chem because I thought I would do PT. I switched to medicine in the late winter. This is my second year there.
3.89 gpa

I will be there, full time, for the rest of this year and 1/2 time for next year. This year I will finish orgo and bio. Next year I will take anatomy (for my degree), genetics, biochem, a few other random classes to fulfill graduation requirements.
cgpa: 3.55

sGPA = 3.74
(3,24 at the community college which is mostly math courses plus a 100 level intro to physics course- and 3.92 at the university- this is all of physics and chem plus the beginning of o-chem and bio.)

-I am taking the MCAT in May.
-I have volunteer research experience of 9 months, my most valuable experience thus far.
-I have a few other random and not terribly helpful experiences with volunteering (hospice, rehab.) One minor non-hospital based volunteering that isn't really worth mentioning in AMCAS.
-I have excellent LOR's.
-Shadowing is limited (2 weeks with a family doc and another afternoon with a specialist next week.... I have had a really tough time finding people but feel like I am starting to open up a pool of possible experiences right now. I don't want it to appear that I'm shoving it all in to "check off the boxes" though.)
-Leadership experience in limited- I am hoping to do something with this over the next school year (leading a workshop for physics students.. I was going to do it this year, but the professor had enough people.)
-I was just hired on as an EPIC tutor, which will give me good experience, and I will be moving into scribing next year when my pre-req's are done.



I am torn as to whether or not to apply this year. I am going into the experience hoping to get in the first year, but not counting on it. My stat's, despite being great so far at the university, don't feel very competitive to me because of the cGPA.
I don't have as much money this year as I would like, so I'm only going to apply to 6-7 schools this year (Texas and the one school in my home state.)

I worry about my lack of leadership and shadowing experiences. I feel that, through this new job, I will gain a ton of experience in the hospital. I will be interacting with physicians constantly. This won't be "shadowing" but I feel that it is similar, if not better, experience. Leading a workshop next year would help, but not something I could put into AMCAS this year.

On the other hand, I worry that if I don't get in the first time I apply, I will have to take 2 years off after a 5 year undergrad. I really don't want to do that. I also had to live off loans throughout the last 2 years of the university, and all of my tuition as payed with loans. Not being in school would mean I would need a decent job to make payments on these, which is intimidating.

Advice? Thanks to everyone for reading.

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[Catalystik]

I spent my first two years at a community college, working full time and not doing pre-req's because I had no idea what I wanted to do.
3.25 gpa

I then transferred to a university and quit my job. This helped a ton.. I was taking physics and gen chem because I thought I would do PT. I switched to medicine in the late winter. This is my second year there.
3.89 gpa

I will be there, full time, for the rest of this year and 1/2 time for next year. This year I will finish orgo and bio. Next year I will take anatomy (for my degree), genetics, biochem, a few other random classes to fulfill graduation requirements.
cgpa: 3.55

sGPA = 3.74
(3,24 at the community college which is mostly math courses plus a 100 level intro to physics course- and 3.92 at the university- this is all of physics and chem plus the beginning of o-chem and bio.)

-I am taking the MCAT in May.
-I have volunteer research experience of 9 months, my most valuable experience thus far.
-I have a few other random and not terribly helpful experiences with volunteering (hospice, rehab.) One minor non-hospital based volunteering that isn't really worth mentioning in AMCAS.
-I have excellent LOR's.
-Shadowing is limited (2 weeks with a family doc and another afternoon with a specialist next week.... I have had a really tough time finding people but feel like I am starting to open up a pool of possible experiences right now. I don't want it to appear that I'm shoving it all in to "check off the boxes" though.)
-Leadership experience in limited- I am hoping to do something with this over the next school year (leading a workshop for physics students.. I was going to do it this year, but the professor had enough people.)
-I was just hired on as an EPIC tutor, which will give me good experience, and I will be moving into scribing next year when my pre-req's are done.



I am torn as to whether or not to apply this year. I am going into the experience hoping to get in the first year, but not counting on it. My stat's, despite being great so far at the university, don't feel very competitive to me because of the cGPA.
I don't have as much money this year as I would like, so I'm only going to apply to 6-7 schools this year (Texas and the one school in my home state.)

I worry about my lack of leadership and shadowing experiences. I feel that, through this new job, I will gain a ton of experience in the hospital. I will be interacting with physicians constantly. This won't be "shadowing" but I feel that it is similar, if not better, experience. Leading a workshop next year would help, but not something I could put into AMCAS this year.

On the other hand, I worry that if I don't get in the first time I apply, I will have to take 2 years off after a 5 year undergrad. I really don't want to do that. I also had to live off loans throughout the last 2 years of the university, and all of my tuition as payed with loans. Not being in school would mean I would need a decent job to make payments on these, which is intimidating.

Advice? Thanks to everyone for reading.

It would be helpful if you could calculate your overall BCPM GPA and cGPA as you project they would be at the time you'd apply summer 2012 and again for summer 2013, merging all grades earned from both schools.

This might help:
AMCAS GPA calculator: a modifiable version/also calc BCPM:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=590424
And in case you need it: AMCAS grade conversion guide: https://www.aamc.org/students/download/181676/data/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

You might consider doing the same calculations for TMDSAS, as their rules are a bit different: http://www.utsystem.edu/tmdsas/frwqAskedQ/03-AppProcessing.html

Let us know what you come up with.

Also, what clinical experience would you list on a summer 2012 application and how many shadowing hours do you have so far? Some Texas schools highly value nonmedical community service. how many hours could you have by June?

Teaching EPIC to docs is NOT physician shadowing. In a sense, it is the physician who is shadowing you to learn a new computer program. I'd look at this as a Teaching experience.

 

[yellowpens]

By June 2012 I project my cGPA will be 3.59 - 3.6
BCPM GPA will be 3.64 (<--- I calculated it wrong earlier, it's currently at 3.62)

I looked through the TMDSAS guidelines and it should be the same.

~50 hours shadow
~Clinical experience through a research program in the ED ( around 250 hours)

I wasn't thinking that EPIC tutoring was anything like shadowing a physician- I was thinking that scribing might give similar experience.

 

[Catalystik]

The shadowing is about the average listed, and the hours of interacting directly with patients through your research is above average.

There is no question that scribing would be a high quality experience with embedded shadowing, but it sounds like it would not be on the Primary application, unless you wait to apply until after that job starts.

Whether your cGPA will hold you back depends on your MCAT score, too, but at least your BCPM/sGPA will be above the acceptee average of 3.61, and your steep upward, consistent grade trend would help you too.

I'd be concerned about a lack of nonmedical community service, but perhaps you could start attending to this deficit before applying and continue it through the application year.

Leadership is not a requirement, of course, but if you can manage something, it does make you more appealing.

 

[yellowpens]

Thank you for your insight.

I wasn't sure if the lack of leadership/ non-med volunteering would kill my application or not. I can definitely get something going with volunteering, but I'm still working on the leadership bit.

I likely will not be able to put scribing on my primaries.. I'm not sure exactly when I will start that, but probably not until late summer. It might be able to go on secondaries, though.

I think I'm going to go ahead and go through with it this year and see what happens.

 

[Catalystik]

If I thought your chances were exceptionally low, I would discourage you, but as your ECs are in the ballpark, your stats are going in the right direction, your application will continue to improve through the cycle, and you understand that reapplication may be necessary, then go for it.