WAMC - 3.38/512 questioning MCAT retake?

[thackerybinx]

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1. cGPA - 3.38
sGPA (AMCAS) - 3.35
sGPA (AACOMAS) - 3.33
Weak upward trend? 3.9→3.3→2.7→3.6
Almost 2 gap years
2. 512 MCAT (126/130/128/128)
3. CT (grew up in MA so I believe I qualify in-state for both)
4. White female
5. Small low-tier private school, neuroscience major
6. Clinical experience: 1200 hrs as an EMT (paid), 70% at a large ambulance company in a busy city setting, 30% at a smaller company covering a suburban area with more opportunities to be partnered with a paramedic.
7. Gap years research: 4,000 hrs full-time research assistant at a moderate-high impact academic research institute. I have a project that I’m working on with ever-increasing independence and I’ve had 2 poster presentations at conferences. I’m working on wrapping up a publication (first author) that will hopefully be submitted to a journal by the time I apply.
Undergraduate research: 800 hrs working on a project in my school’s pharmacy lab, resulted in one poster presentation at an undergraduate level conference. I also had a “thesis defense” for my research to graduate with a "research intensive track" designation for my major.
8. Shadowing: 30 hrs in adolescent bleeding clinic and NICU. I plan to get more hours from willing folks in pediatric hem/onc and OBGYN.
I shadowed a primary care DO for the day in high school which helped pique my interests in medicine, is this worth mentioning or do I need a more recent primary care shadow?
9. Non-clinical volunteering: 40 hours tutoring an academically at-risk kiddo once a week at my town’s library. I understand this is a big weak point in my application, I plan to request another tutee now that I’ve gotten more comfortable. If I’m done studying for the MCAT, that finally frees up some time for me to take on some more people/service-centric volunteering.
10. Pre-health club president (restarted a dead club, organized Q&As with various healthcare professionals/students (PA, MD, PhD, MD/PhD, paramedic, optometrist)
Head resident advisor (I got very involved in this and I helped a lot with running trainings, was active in DEI and recognition committees, organized for RA staff to get trained in suicide prevention and mental health first aid).
Good amount of customer service-based employment before and throughout college to help pay for school - waitressing, office assistant, dining hall worker.
11. I received a school-specific award (and professional development grant) for my research project. I also wrote a successful grant application to my school’s alumni association for funds to purchase a cell line for my research.
12. Very first-gen (both parents did not complete high school)

I was aiming for a high MCAT score to offset my low GPA. I'm worried my 512 doesn't accomplish that, despite it being a decent score. I had a significant point drop from practice exams in chem/phys (I was definitely freaking out and overthinking at the start of the exam), and a smaller drop in my typical psych/soc score. Should I retake? I haven’t exhausted all of the AAMC prep material, which is good until April. Or should I keep this score and focus on increasing my volunteer involvement and writing the best possible personal statement/secondaries instead?

School list (I would love to go MD/PhD but I understand my stats are a huge barrier):
UMass
Tufts
BU
UConn
Quinnipiac
Yale (dream school, couldn’t forgive myself for not at least trying)
UVM
Dartmouth
Hofstra
SUNY Stony Brook
New York Medical College
Albany Medical College
Drexel
NYITCOM (DO/PhD-ish?)
UNECOM
MSU COM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums.

Focus on your volunteering hours, especially your service orientation activities, which I see little to none. Tutoring, teaching, and mentoring are academic activities most premeds do, so it doesn't help you stand out. You have a ton of research, so the obvious question is why you haven't pursued a research career, especially since you are involved more in teaching when it comes to serving underserved populations.

Service orientation activities include food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, and housing rehabilitation. With you taking two gap years, not having around 1000 hours in this bucket sets you back. You must have 150 hours at submission to avoid getting screened out at most schools, and your GPA already puts your application on shaky ground.

On metrics, your GPA is more of a concern than your MCAT. Your major is neuroscience, but it's unclear why you had trouble (since we don't have your transcript). What upper-level biomedical science courses did you take (with grades)? Why did you not consider taking on postbac courses or a SMP? What support did your prehealth advisors give you?

 

[thackerybinx]

Welcome to the forums.

Focus on your volunteering hours, especially your service orientation activities, which I see little to none. Tutoring, teaching, and mentoring are academic activities most premeds do, so it doesn't help you stand out. You have a ton of research, so the obvious question is why you haven't pursued a research career, especially since you are involved more in teaching when it comes to serving underserved populations.

Service orientation activities include food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, and housing rehabilitation. With you taking two gap years, not having around 1000 hours in this bucket sets you back. You must have 150 hours at submission to avoid getting screened out at most schools, and your GPA already puts your application on shaky ground.

On metrics, your GPA is more of a concern than your MCAT. Your major is neuroscience, but it's unclear why you had trouble (since we don't have your transcript). What upper-level biomedical science courses did you take (with grades)? Why did you not consider taking on postbac courses or a SMP? What support did your prehealth advisors give you?

Thank you for your reply! I certainly enjoy research but I don't see it as a sole career. I want to work with patients to figure out effective treatment plans, and ideally have patient experiences inform my research. My time in EMS and shadowing were very much enjoyed, but I can see how those hours pale in comparison to the research. I'm hoping to provide reassurance on my clinical interest in my personal statement and secondaries.

For courses: Neurobiology (A), Research methods in Neuroscience (B), Genetic and Molecular Neuroscience (A), Sensation and Perception (B-), Protein Folding and Misfolding (B), Neurodevelopment (B), Pathophysiology (grad course, B), Neuroendocrinology (A), Sport-induced Concussions (B-), and Principles of Pharmacology (grad course, B-). To attempt to explain the GPA drop in junior year, I had a combination of personal struggles including several family deaths that year. Academically, I struggled to recover motiviation and self-efficacy after my freshman and sophomore year PI left his role. I eventually connected with a new mentor, joined her lab, and got excited about my potential again (hence a GPA improvement senior year).

I definitely considered a postbac or SMP, but the cost deters me. My logic was to avoid taking out additional loans for those unless I have an unsuccessful application cycle. I have taken advantage of my job's tuition reimbursement to take a graduate course each semester (Molecular Basis of Disease (A), Medical Genetics and Pharmacogenomics (in progress)) but I'm not sure how helpful that is. My school doesn't have any prehealth advising.

 

[Faha]

Several of the schools on your list are unrealistic with your GPAs. Also, your non clinical volunteering hours are low. You should accumulate 150+ hours of activities such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. . Otherwise you will be screened out at many schools.
I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
UMass
UConn
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Albany
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
Belmont
NOVA MD
Alice Walton
TCU
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Roseman (when it opens)
Methodist (when it opens)
I suggest these DO schools:
UNECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
LECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
WVSOM
MU-COM
CCOM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your reply! I certainly enjoy research but I don't see it as a sole career. I want to work with patients to figure out effective treatment plans, and ideally have patient experiences inform my research. My time in EMS and shadowing were very much enjoyed, but I can see how those hours pale in comparison to the research. I'm hoping to provide reassurance on my clinical interest in my personal statement and secondaries.

Point out which experiences do you see doctors discussing effective treatment plans or how those experiences inform research. It's not obvious you have observed this from your described activities. How do you know this is what doctors do?

I definitely considered a postbac or SMP, but the cost deters me. My logic was to avoid taking out additional loans for those unless I have an unsuccessful application cycle. I have taken advantage of my job's tuition reimbursement to take a graduate course each semester (Molecular Basis of Disease (A), Medical Genetics and Pharmacogenomics (in progress)) but I'm not sure how helpful that is. My school doesn't have any prehealth advising.

I get that the cost for going to a postbac or an SMP is a barrier, but so would several application attempts that are unsuccessful (and you can't get loans for that). Coming in with a relatively low GPA, you should really have taken a proper critical view: had you enrolled in a strong postbac or SMP rather than throw in an application, you could have qualified for an articulation agreement admission with satisfactory grades. Sure you would have taken a 50K gamble on yourself, but it would have paid off rather than a second round of application fees and costs.

At any rate, as a reapplicant you must show significant improvement over your first attempt addressing as many of the red/yellow flags that were on your initial application. Do you feel you have done this satisfactorily, given your low GPA?

 

[thackerybinx]

Several of the schools on your list are unrealistic with your GPAs. Also, your non clinical volunteering hours are low. You should accumulate 150+ hours of activities such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. . Otherwise you will be screened out at many schools.
I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
UMass
UConn
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Tufts
Albany
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
Belmont
NOVA MD
Alice Walton
TCU
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Roseman (when it opens)
Methodist (when it opens)
I suggest these DO schools:
UNECOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
LECOM
PCOM
CUSOM
WVSOM
MU-COM
CCOM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
AZCOM

Thank you for the list! I'll look into these to make my list more realistic and work on getting more service-oriented volunteering.

 

[thackerybinx]

Point out which experiences do you see doctors discussing effective treatment plans or how those experiences inform research. It's not obvious you have observed this from your described activities. How do you know this is what doctors do?


I get that the cost for going to a postbac or an SMP is a barrier, but so would several application attempts that are unsuccessful (and you can't get loans for that). Coming in with a relatively low GPA, you should really have taken a proper critical view: had you enrolled in a strong postbac or SMP rather than throw in an application, you could have qualified for an articulation agreement admission with satisfactory grades. Sure you would have taken a 50K gamble on yourself, but it would have paid off rather than a second round of application fees and costs.

At any rate, as a reapplicant you must show significant improvement over your first attempt addressing as many of the red/yellow flags that were on your initial application. Do you feel you have done this satisfactorily, given your low GPA?

I appreciate this feedback. My PI and another mentor in my lab are physician-scientists, and they often bring in their experiences with patients when discussing future directions and implications of our lab's projects. Asking about treatment plans when I shadowed in the NICU and bleeding clinic also gave me some idea of how physicians use protocols based on previous research findings and work with patients and their families to come up with an effective plan. I'll ensure my application has specific examples to support my perception of a physician's role.

I've been doing some more research on postbac and SMP programs, and I'm drawn to the chance to show improvement in my academics. However, I'm still struggling to justify taking that 50k gamble when I haven't yet seen the outcome of the much-less-expensive gamble of an application cycle. I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding your question about reapplying, but I want to clarify that I'm preparing to apply for the first time this upcoming cycle. I'm not satisfied with my GPA, nor do I feel that it reflects what I'm capable of academically, but I do feel capable of handling medical school coursework on the basis of my improving performance in the couple grad classes I took senior year and now during my gap years.

I especially appreciate the advice on non-clinical volunteering hours, I'm making a plan for some strong involvement in volunteering now that my time outside work won't be dedicated to an MCAT retake. I'm planning to volunteer at a shelter after work on weekdays and joining some Habitat for Humanity build days on weekends to get me to about 200 hours before applying. If I reach this goal, do you think it would be worthwhile to apply this cycle without any postbac or SMP?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Great! Make sure you reflect on these experiences in your journal so you have baseline perspectives to build secondary/interview responses.

Can I ask you how much you have budgeted for an application cycle? I get the desire to take a shot first and then improve, but gameplay is very important to maximize your shot the first time. Reapplicants always have to overcome the problem of "why did you have a suboptimal application the first time?" when prompted in applications. It's always better to do it right the first time; medical schools aren't going away (despite NIH funding freezes).

You can ask SMP program directors about what they suggest you do. Sure, they likely want you as a student in their program (transactional, bottom-line thinking), but they also want to make sure you are ready (outcomes-driven, success-rate promotion). Get a number of opinions since it doesn't cost you anything to ask.

I would want you to shore up your experience deficits before committing to full-time postbac/SMP courses. You must find the focus to improve your learning skills and get the desired grade outcomes to give yourself a shot at medical school through that route. Maybe an articulation agreement admission helps.