volunteering experience

[PhantomfanMD]

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Ok folks here the deal with my volunteering.

Over my Christmas break I am planning on volunteering for the entire month or so I will be home. I will be returning to school after that and taking the MCAT in May after my Kaplan course. During that month of break I'll also be shadowing a family practice physician and a pulmonologist. I'll be submitting AMCAS in June, 2007. Will this volunteer experience be "enough"? Also my GPA will be (by my feeling) 3.40 overall and very close behind for BCPM. But my upward trend in grades will be something on the order of 3.72 overall and 3.68 BCPM (last 60 credit hours). I have a feeling I'm going to own on the MCAT so my question becomes, should I apply with those stats or wait to apply for the 2009 entering class?

 

[PhantomfanMD]

mmmk...

 

[drizzt3117]

Most med schools just want you to have some exposure to volunteering/shadowing, I imagine you'll be fine, especially if you continue to volunteer over the summer (probably a good idea) Do you have any research exp?

 

[LizzyM]

It sounds like a very short volunteer experience (at best it will look like 2 mos. f/t in your senior year of college). Some admissions committees may wonder why you didn't test your interest in medicine sooner. Do you have research experience? significant work experience or varsity sport participation that kept you from volunteering 2 hrs/wk during the past 3 years?

You are going to need at least a 33 on the MCAT given your grades & depending on where you want to go. With the June MCAT date you are going to be slightly behind the pack in getting your application in. You might want to consider applying for '09.

 

[PhantomfanMD]

It sounds like a very short volunteer experience (at best it will look like 2 mos. f/t in your senior year of college). Some admissions committees may wonder why you didn't test your interest in medicine sooner. Do you have research experience? significant work experience or varsity sport participation that kept you from volunteering 2 hrs/wk during the past 3 years?

You are going to need at least a 33 on the MCAT given your grades & depending on where you want to go. With the June MCAT date you are going to be slightly behind the pack in getting your application in. You might want to consider applying for '09.

well let's see here... I wasn't interested in medicine until this last spring (spring 2006) semester and I figured it was more important to get my grades back on track before anything else. I am not someone that wanted to be a doctor since I was 2 years old like you obviously are...If I was I would have been involved during high school with clinical experiences. Also, over the summer no one in my town was accepting volunteer candidates. And this semester I don't have a car to get back and forth between hospital and campus. So I am going to start this christmas break. Also who are you to tell me that i will need a 33 mcat? have you ever sat on an adcom or is this just more SDN rhetoric and unrealistic ideas of what it takes to get into med school? I also can't believe an adcom wouldn't look at my grades increasing, since I got serious about medical school, as a positive thing.

 

[twohearted]

Also who are you to tell me that i will need a 33 mcat? have you ever sat on an adcom or is this just more SDN rhetoric and unrealistic ideas of what it takes to get into med school? I also can't believe an adcom wouldn't look at my grades increasing, since I got serious about medical school, as a positive thing.

Whoa there, she's only trying to help - which is what you were asking for isn't it? If you ask for an honest opinion don't get defensive when it isn't what you want to hear. As for her not being an adcom - many of us here at sdn are very familiar with what particular schools are looking for, what is neccessary to get in, etc. You don't need to be an adcom to give advice.

 

[somemaybedoc]

well let's see here... I wasn't interested in medicine until this last spring (spring 2006) semester and I figured it was more important to get my grades back on track before anything else. I am not someone that wanted to be a doctor since I was 2 years old like you obviously are...If I was I would have been involved during high school with clinical experiences. Also, over the summer no one in my town was accepting volunteer candidates. And this semester I don't have a car to get back and forth between hospital and campus. So I am going to start this christmas break. Also who are you to tell me that i will need a 33 mcat? have you ever sat on an adcom or is this just more SDN rhetoric and unrealistic ideas of what it takes to get into med school? I also can't believe an adcom wouldn't look at my grades increasing, since I got serious about medical school, as a positive thing.

She is an adcom.

 

[PhantomfanMD]

well it was a bit condescending what she said...Plus, I am not interested in going to Hopkins or other schools that want tons of research experience. I am really just trying to get into schools like NYMC, Wayne State, Mich. State (MD), Drexel, Loma Linda, Rosalind Franklin, Rush, Albany Medical College, etc. I guess had I buckled down more in my first 1.5 years when I had no ideas/plans of going to medical school, I could be more competitive at snooty schools like that.

 

[estairella]

She is an adcom.

Phantom got pwned hard.

 

[PhantomfanMD]

Phantom got pwned hard.

yeah like I could have possibly known she sits on some elitist school adcom.

 

[tdd340]

yeah like I could have possibly known she sits on some elitist school adcom.

For all you know she could sit on an adcom at one of the schools you listed. You asked for advice and when you get a response that is not to your liking you attack the poster. I think you might consider applying for 2009 because judging from your posts you could use some more maturity.

 

[estairella]

yeah like I could have possibly known she sits on some elitist school adcom.

2002 - average matriculant
MCAT: 29.7
GPA total: 3.61

Your GPA is below average, so she suggests you get an MCAT score above average.

This is "elitist" because....?

Unless you consider the average medical school to be elitist. Then you'll have lots of fun in residency I'm sure.

 

[LizzyM]

I've been an adcom member since you were in high school.

I was asking about research and other activities to see if there was some mitigating factor for your lack of participation in volunteer activities earlier than the winter of your senior year in college. Had you mentioned at the outset that you just became interested in a career in medicine some 6-8 months ago that would have been helpful information.

There are over 35,000 applicants to medical school each year and less than half of the applicants in a cycle get into medical school in that cycle. So, my advice on this board is always aimed at giving you the best odds at getting admitted.

Not volunteering because "no one was taking volunteer candidates"??? (Where is this utopia where no one has unmet needs that could be helped with volunteer services?) You didn't have a car?? Is there public transportation from your campus? Can you carpool? Did you ever think that you could get clinical experience somewhere other than a hospital?

Go ahead and apply in summer '07. Good luck.

 

[PhantomfanMD]

ok i'm sorry...kinda stressed right now and I do agree that my GPA isn't stellar by any means for medical school...to answer your question, public transportation here would be a waste of time as most of the travel time would be waiting for the bus and my class schedule doesn't really allow for me to wait around for a bus with their schedules. In all seriousness, where else could I get clinical experience? I'm just a junior right now so it's not a big deal if I would wait another year however, i'd find that to be just annoying if I could have gotten in for '08 instead of '09