Trying again...How to improve my app. in 3 months?

[SnowShoes]

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Hi, I applied for 2009-2010 cycle but have received only 2 interviews and just been waitlisted for both last week. I am trying to re-evaluate myself and improve my application to re-apply but I am not sure where to start. I was hoping I'd hear from my "safety" schools but no luck... I applied to several reach schools with 2 safeties (13 total) in October.

BCPM: 3.92
Total: 3.94
MCAT: V8, P13, B13, Q
EC:
- 4 days of shadowing exp.
- research for 1.5 yrs (honors project + getting ready to submit a paper but not sure if it'll be before June)
- Very little clinical experience: volunteered at children's hospital for a summer

Since graduating, I worked at the research lab mentioned above until December but have been out of work for 3 months now (hard to find a job when you're not sure you'll work for more than 6 months while waiting to hear from med school)

Questions:
1. I am planning on re-taking MCAT May or June. Should I submit my AMCAS app. before the score is released? I feel that the V8 really hurt my chances of getting in.
2. I have been trying to gain more volunteering exp. at the same hospital, but health clearance became an issue (Born in an Asian country, I tested positive for the second TB skin test and now taking meds although chest x-ray came back neg). If I start volunteering now, would that make any difference?

Any additional advices appreciated!!🙂

Thank you for any feedback!

 

[Karen12345]

Lack of clinical experience probably hurt you more than 8V.

At this point, you have enough time to address this shortcoming. It could hurt you if your MCAT goes down when you retake. I would carefully think about this risk before sitting for another test. 8V isn't horrible. Better to have 8-13-13 than 10-10-10.

 

[mazber]

hi!

i would like to retake the mcat in may and i am hoping one of you can help me. i am currently signed up for may 22 in PA. i REALLY want to take it on may 28 pretty much anywhere within driving distance! furthermore worst case scenario if you are giving up a spot closer than 2.5 hours from dc (where mine is) on may 22 that would be better than what i have now. bottom line if anyone here is cancelling a time may 22 or may 28 anywhere near dc (even a 2 hour radius is better), please let me know!!! i appreciate so much your listening to my plead, and if you can help me at all please let me know, either here or by pm. thanks!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dragonfly99]

snowshoes,
your major problem is lack of clinical experience. Med schools don't like taking people without it, because they need to know that you have a clue about what it might be like to take care of patients. You need to get on that now.

The 8 verbal score isn't too great, but if you are not a native English speaker I would think that some schools will forgive that, especially given your 13/13 on the other parts and the essay score which was good. Do not fixate on the MCAT. If you think you can improve, then it's OK to retake, and might help your application a little, but I don't think you'll get into med school without quite a bit more clinical experience.

Having a +PPD but clear CXR and no signs/symptoms of tb. like a cough means that you were exposed to tb. but don't have active tb. disease. If the 1st hospital isn't letting you volunteer, I would go to a different one ASAP. If that fails, then a private clinic. It's good to take the recommended medication, but there isn't evidence that you have active tb., so really it wouldn't be putting patients at risk if you did volunteer. You have to be persistent in finding yourself some clinical exposure, because the hospitals don't care about what you need - they are just covering their a-- and it's probably just easier for them to ban all volunteers with a +PPD than to deal with it any other way.

You should try to get yourself a job as well. Think about what the admissions committees would want...they don't want you just sitting around doing nothing. I think you should look for either a research job or a job in a hospital (the latter may be harder to get since you aren't a certified patient care tech, LPN, etc.). You don't need to tell people you are planning on bailing out later to go to med school...just tell them you are contemplating grad school vs. being a lab tech vs. med school or something. If you start now, you have >1 year to work before you could possibly go to med school...it is hard to get people to hire you for that length of time, but it can be done.

 

[SnowShoes]

snowshoes,
your major problem is lack of clinical experience. Med schools don't like taking people without it, because they need to know that you have a clue about what it might be like to take care of patients. You need to get on that now.

The 8 verbal score isn't too great, but if you are not a native English speaker I would think that some schools will forgive that, especially given your 13/13 on the other parts and the essay score which was good. Do not fixate on the MCAT. If you think you can improve, then it's OK to retake, and might help your application a little, but I don't think you'll get into med school without quite a bit more clinical experience.

Having a +PPD but clear CXR and no signs/symptoms of tb. like a cough means that you were exposed to tb. but don't have active tb. disease. If the 1st hospital isn't letting you volunteer, I would go to a different one ASAP. If that fails, then a private clinic. It's good to take the recommended medication, but there isn't evidence that you have active tb., so really it wouldn't be putting patients at risk if you did volunteer. You have to be persistent in finding yourself some clinical exposure, because the hospitals don't care about what you need - they are just covering their a-- and it's probably just easier for them to ban all volunteers with a +PPD than to deal with it any other way.

You should try to get yourself a job as well. Think about what the admissions committees would want...they don't want you just sitting around doing nothing. I think you should look for either a research job or a job in a hospital (the latter may be harder to get since you aren't a certified patient care tech, LPN, etc.). You don't need to tell people you are planning on bailing out later to go to med school...just tell them you are contemplating grad school vs. being a lab tech vs. med school or something. If you start now, you have >1 year to work before you could possibly go to med school...it is hard to get people to hire you for that length of time, but it can be done.

Thank you for your advice! I have started working as a tutor for underserved middle/highschool students early this month, but it's only for about 6 hours a week. It's very hard to find a job with the current state of economy, but yes it can be done and I am going to put more effort in searching. I also started contacting multiple clinics to get a volunteering position, so I hope I can start soon. 👍

 

[LaTortuga]

One more thought. Since your time table is limited, and you only have 3 months to change your application, you may want to carefully consider which schools you will re-apply to.

Schools will be able to see your first application vs. second application, and if there isn not a significant, sizable difference, your application may be frowned upon. And if you are applying to schools with a 2 strikes rule, you may blow a good chance at a school where you might get an acceptance ... if you put in the time, and take a year off before re-applying and really kick your application up many notches with a significant increase in clinical experience.

Not to sound like a broken record, but be careful not to limit your clinical experience to only volunteering activities. Yes, volunteering is great, but shadowing is also very important. I did ER volunteering for over a year and while it was great in some respects ... your ability to see the full patient-doctor interaction can be limited. Shadowing on the other hand lets you get up close and personal and see the entire interaction from intake to physical exam, figuring out the issue, ordering tests and coming up with an appropriate therapy.

Good luck to you.

 

[SnowShoes]

What state are you in?
I would
-not retake MCAT
-get LOTS of clinical experience ASAP, do whatever it takes
-apply more broadly (if I'm reading you right you had ~11 reaches out of 13 total? try for 25+, sounds ridiculous with your stats sure, but you don't want to have to apply a third time).

I am a CA resident. I applied to about 3 reach schools and other 8 were matched by LizzyM score. 🙂 I now feel that I really should hav waited another year and built upon my clinical experience instead of spending so much time/energy last cycle.

I heard back from the hospital mentioned above. The director is putting me in a position!

Also, shadowing sounds like a great idea (doesn't require too much commitment and can learn a lot in short period of time)! Any suggestion for finding a doctor to shadow?

 

[Law2Doc]

One more thought. Since your time table is limited, and you only have 3 months to change your application, you may want to carefully consider which schools you will re-apply to.
...

This is the flaw in this thread. Med school isn't going to disappear in 3 months. If you can't make yourself appreciably more competitive in 3 months, then you need to focus on the next cycle. Rushing things is the biggest mistake premeds make in this process. You really truly need to have all your ducks in a row before pulling the trigger. That was probably part of your issue when you applied the first time (you needed more clinical experience at a minimum, and who knows what else), and you are liking heading into the same problem now. Take a year off, do some compelling ECs, maybe up the MCAT, and do what you can to find out where else you went wrong. And A YEAR and 3 months from now reapply. That's really the only way you ensure you are significantly more competitive than you are today. 3 months probably won't cut it, and if you go down on the MCAT because you rush to take it, or even if you score exactly the same, you probably end up applying with worse odds, not better. So take the time you need to fix what's broke. Don't rush to shoot out another set of apps without being able to show substantial improvement. Because that's what places are going to expect to see -- what did you do since last time we rejected you. If it's just retook the MCAT with similar results, then you are SOL. And seeking a shadowing experience that "doesn't require too much commitment" is probably the wrong approach when you are desperate to build up your app. If in fact your issue was a lack of clinical experience, a few months might not do it, and a non-extensive shadowing stint really won't do it.

 

[surgs]

Although there is some great advise, i disagree with the MCAT comment. Studies have shown that the Verbal score on your MCAT correlates with how well you will do in your USMLE Step1...
However, as they said already, don't retake it. Your scores are pretty solid.

I do recommend some clinical experience and the best advise I can give you is that you should try to shadow somebody in an academic institution. They can certainly guide you better in what they think you should do and some of them might even be able to help you.

 

[dragonfly99]

snowshoes,
I think shadowing would be a good idea in your situation. Any and all clinical experience you can get can only help you. It doesn't replace doing volunteer work and it doesn't necessarily make you competitive with someone who has been a hospital volunteer for years, but it will help you in your future career and it can't hurt your application. With the 13/13 MCAT and the high GPA, you have some solid academic credentials to back you up so you may be able to get in next year.

 

[SnowShoes]

I have been re-evaluating my situation very carefully the last week... trying to see if I have made significant improvements since the last cycle.... and I have not. I should have prepared for the second cycle earlier, but I just wasn't being very realistic. I was hoping to hear good news.

I rushed my through my first cycle due to research/school, which was a big mistake, and I really do not want to do that again.

I am probably going to take another year off before applying (I am waitlisted at 2 schools but not very optimistic given that they are very competitive schools) and make sure I get a chance to enjoy working as a volunteer instead of doing it as a quick fix to my application. After all, being able to help patients is what drew me to medicine in the first place! I think this is the best solution for my lack of clinical experience while improving the MCAT score! 👍 Thanks all!

 

[t33sg1rl]

Don't forget that you're a pretty good applicant already... you got interviews, and you got waitlisted. Schools would be happy to have you (even if perhaps they were happier to have someone else). I would vote against making major changes in your application. Also, be sure to make an appointment at both the waitlist schools (if neither turns into an acceptance-there's still time left, I got unwaitlisted in July) and find out what they thought. When I applied, I thought my undergrad GPA was my biggest problem, since it was just over 3, definitely way below average. But after going to the closest top 20 school that first waitlisted then rejected me, they told me that they didn't care, since I had done a year of graduate level coursework with a 3.8. They told me that the reason I'd been rejected was basically my personal statement. The committee felt that my PS was not humble enough (I didn't really address the low GPA in detail, just basically said I was young and not committed). In the meeting about me, apparently someone said that my application sounded like I was trying to use a high MCAT as a free pass to make up for low undergrad GPA. The woman I met with also told me that she expected me to be accepted the following year if I re-applied (since I would have eaten my humble pie).

I ended up re-applying with a far more humble PS that went into more detail about how I decided to straighten up and study harder... and a month after submitting my re-app, got off the waitlist at my top choice school. I had three weeks to quit my job and move to a new city, but it was definitely worth it!

 

[SnowShoes]

Don't forget that you're a pretty good applicant already... you got interviews, and you got waitlisted. Schools would be happy to have you (even if perhaps they were happier to have someone else). I would vote against making major changes in your application. Also, be sure to make an appointment at both the waitlist schools (if neither turns into an acceptance-there's still time left, I got unwaitlisted in July) and find out what they thought. When I applied, I thought my undergrad GPA was my biggest problem, since it was just over 3, definitely way below average. But after going to the closest top 20 school that first waitlisted then rejected me, they told me that they didn't care, since I had done a year of graduate level coursework with a 3.8. They told me that the reason I'd been rejected was basically my personal statement. The committee felt that my PS was not humble enough (I didn't really address the low GPA in detail, just basically said I was young and not committed). In the meeting about me, apparently someone said that my application sounded like I was trying to use a high MCAT as a free pass to make up for low undergrad GPA. The woman I met with also told me that she expected me to be accepted the following year if I re-applied (since I would have eaten my humble pie).

I ended up re-applying with a far more humble PS that went into more detail about how I decided to straighten up and study harder... and a month after submitting my re-app, got off the waitlist at my top choice school. I had three weeks to quit my job and move to a new city, but it was definitely worth it!

I just read your post after 2 months! Thank you for such a positive response. I am still waiting to hear back from the schools I've been waitlisted and will definitely ask for some feedback if I don't get accepted.

Lately I've been volunteering at a hospital and working as a tutor and as a translator for a Cancer Detection Program. I love my activities and feel that they will help me to be a stronger applicant next cycle.

I am very happy that I chose to wait a year before re-applying. It made me realize how much I want to become a doctor while being much more informed about the health care system in general. 🙂

Is there anything else that I should do to improve my chances next time?

 

[Krisss17]

I just read your post after 2 months! Thank you for such a positive response. I am still waiting to hear back from the schools I've been waitlisted and will definitely ask for some feedback if I don't get accepted.

Lately I've been volunteering at a hospital and working as a tutor and as a translator for a Cancer Detection Program. I love my activities and feel that they will help me to be a stronger applicant next cycle.

I am very happy that I chose to wait a year before re-applying. It made me realize how much I want to become a doctor while being much more informed about the health care system in general. 🙂

Is there anything else that I should do to improve my chances next time?

I think that you are on the right track! The only thing you might want to edit is your PS...I'm sure that by the time you reapply next year, you'll have a lot more to share. But, of course, it is only June 8th and since you are on two waitlists...you never know! Wishing you good luck

 

[dragonfly99]

I don't know that the OP needs to wait another year to reapply....if he/she wants to, and has a way to financially support himself/herself, then OK. However, I think being on 2 wait lists shows that the OP is/was already in the range that med schools accept. I think that since it generally takes a few months for schools to go through applications and invite people for interviews, the OP would have time to get some more good clinical experience in before the interview, even if the OP reapplies this year.

I think there is something about the MCAT score "expiring" after a few years with some of the schools too...OP might want to check on that b/c I wouldn't want the OP to be stuck retaking the MCAT just because it expired.