Mountainman121
Full Member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2019
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 49
Hi everyone,
Hope you are all safe and healthy. I am posting today to get advice on whether or not I should apply this cycle as well as to get a realistic sense of my chances. I am a current junior, and while I think some aspects of my app appear to be solid, I am extremely worried that my lack of nonclinical volunteering will be an app killer. I essentially procrastinated on this front until early in this past semester, and my position was obviously cancelled shortly after I started due to COVID. I am not sure how medical schools will view this during this cycle, but I do understand there will be plenty of applicants who were ahead of the game and will have great nonclinical extracurriculars. Anyway, here is my information:
GPA:
cGPA: 3.57 with a good upward trend: 3.17 (including a 2.8 my first semester) -> 3.46 -> 3.57 (individual years were 3.17, 3.7, 3.85, with a 4.0 this semester)
sGPA: 3.7 -lots of A-s, decent amount of As, only 2 Bs
MCAT: Not taken (May 15th date cancelled). Goal: 515+
Practice FL Scores: NS Diagnostic = 502, Kaplan 1 = 501, Kaplan 2 = 505, Kaplan 3 = 511. Began studying full time early January. Read through Kaplan books, completed UWorld (doing a second pass currently), been doing Anki consistently. Waiting until I am about 5 weeks out to start AAMC material. Hoping to get a June 28th date, which should be doable as I am in a small area that has not been. badly affected by COVID. For what its worth, I am confident in my ability to hit my target score, especially with my most recent Kaplan test and the amount of studying I have done.
Residence:
West Virginia
Race:
White
Undergraduate:
Top 30 Private School
Clinical Experience:
180 Hours at an Outpatient Surgery Center starting last summer. Responsibilities included taking vitals, helping patients to the restroom after surgery, bringing them up from the waiting room, wheeling them out to their rides, changing sheets, bringing patients liquids, making IV bags, etc.
Research: None
Was never interested in research to be honest. However, I will be doing research with a biology professor this coming semester to satisfy a degree requirement. Expected to have around 150-200 hours by the end of the fall semester. Not sure if there is any way to incorporate/update this in my app?
Shadowing:
30 Hours with a general surgeon.
20 Hours with an ENT.
10 hours at a free clinic in my hometown with several specialties.
Nonclinical Volunteering:
- 15 hours as a tutor/teacher's assistant at a dual-immersion grade school (lots of students are native Spanish speakers) with a low income population. Was really enjoying my time here, but made the mistake of waiting until early February to start, and of course it was cancelled due to COVID shortly after. Will be continuing next semester assuming school is in session. Is there any way to project/update my app with next semester's hours? Will it make any difference?
- Waiting to be matched with a high school student as a virtual tutor through my undergrad. Will probably have 10-15 hours by early June.
- Applied to work at a food pantry in my hometown, which just started accepting volunteers again. Might be able to get around 30 hours by mid June.
Employment:
6 summers lifeguarding, around 1300 hours. Held the position "Head Life Guard" for the last 3 summers. Basically was in charge of the life guard staff underneath the manager of the pool. Ran the facility on days when the manager was not present.
Other Extracurricular activities:
- Member of a social fraternity and current Community Service Chair. Not sure if I will include this as all of our planned community service projects were cancelled due to COVID along with the negative stigma fraternities tend to have.
- 5 Summers as a counselor at a summer church camp beginning summer before high school. Most recent was the summer before 1st year undergrad (had to skip the previous 2 summers for summer school, upcoming summer has been cancelled). Not sure if I should include this since I have not done it for so long and it was mostly a high school activity. That being said, it is really important to me and I plan on continuing next summer.
- Play the guitar, just a hobby.
Honors/Awards:
- Deans list for the previous 5 semesters
LOR's:
Expecting very strong LORs from my English professor and 2 physicians I have shadowed. LOR from my biochemistry teacher should be okay but not strong. I am also anticipating at least a solid cover letter from my PHC as my advisor is encouraging me to apply this cycle.
Immediate Family Member in medicine: Yes
Specialty of Interest: None in particular, but have grown to like surgery.
Interest in rural medicine? Yes
Other Information:
- Received 2 alcohol related IA's within the first month of my freshman year. Was seen by an RA with alcohol in my possession. Stupid, I know. Have not been in any kind of trouble since. Not sure if this will be on my transcript or not.
School List
I was encouraged to apply ED to WVU by my adviser, although I do understand that is not a good idea for most people. I was considering it due to my close ties to the school, but have been mostly scared off at this point. That being said, WVU is honestly my top choice. I want to come back to West Virginia for school, have family and friends in Morgantown, like what I have found on the school's website, know current and upcoming students who speak very highly of the school, etc. If anyone can speak to this/offer advice about early decision here, I would really appreciate it as well.
Current School List:
WVU
Marshall
Wake Forest
LSU (some ties)
Louisville (some ties)
Drexel
VCU
Cincinnati
Wayne State
Eastern Virginia
Central Florida
Toledo
Maryland
Vermont
UVA
Ohio State
Not a finalized list and I am looking to add more schools and am not opposed to cutting any that are out of reach. Would love any suggestions if you have them.
That is about everything I can think of that will be in my application. I think my sGPA can make me competitive assuming I hit my target MCAT score, and my clinical volunteering was a great experience. I'm mainly worried because my nonclinical volunteering is a mess, but I am not sure if it is bad enough to be an app killer or not.
My only other question is in regards to the timeline for submitting my application. Would it be better to submit early or wait until early July when I will theoretically have my score? The only other benefit I see to waiting is the chance to bump up my volunteering hours.
Would really appreciate advice on this, school list/ED, and my application in general. Thank you!
Hope you are all safe and healthy. I am posting today to get advice on whether or not I should apply this cycle as well as to get a realistic sense of my chances. I am a current junior, and while I think some aspects of my app appear to be solid, I am extremely worried that my lack of nonclinical volunteering will be an app killer. I essentially procrastinated on this front until early in this past semester, and my position was obviously cancelled shortly after I started due to COVID. I am not sure how medical schools will view this during this cycle, but I do understand there will be plenty of applicants who were ahead of the game and will have great nonclinical extracurriculars. Anyway, here is my information:
GPA:
cGPA: 3.57 with a good upward trend: 3.17 (including a 2.8 my first semester) -> 3.46 -> 3.57 (individual years were 3.17, 3.7, 3.85, with a 4.0 this semester)
sGPA: 3.7 -lots of A-s, decent amount of As, only 2 Bs
MCAT: Not taken (May 15th date cancelled). Goal: 515+
Practice FL Scores: NS Diagnostic = 502, Kaplan 1 = 501, Kaplan 2 = 505, Kaplan 3 = 511. Began studying full time early January. Read through Kaplan books, completed UWorld (doing a second pass currently), been doing Anki consistently. Waiting until I am about 5 weeks out to start AAMC material. Hoping to get a June 28th date, which should be doable as I am in a small area that has not been. badly affected by COVID. For what its worth, I am confident in my ability to hit my target score, especially with my most recent Kaplan test and the amount of studying I have done.
Residence:
West Virginia
Race:
White
Undergraduate:
Top 30 Private School
Clinical Experience:
180 Hours at an Outpatient Surgery Center starting last summer. Responsibilities included taking vitals, helping patients to the restroom after surgery, bringing them up from the waiting room, wheeling them out to their rides, changing sheets, bringing patients liquids, making IV bags, etc.
Research: None
Was never interested in research to be honest. However, I will be doing research with a biology professor this coming semester to satisfy a degree requirement. Expected to have around 150-200 hours by the end of the fall semester. Not sure if there is any way to incorporate/update this in my app?
Shadowing:
30 Hours with a general surgeon.
20 Hours with an ENT.
10 hours at a free clinic in my hometown with several specialties.
Nonclinical Volunteering:
- 15 hours as a tutor/teacher's assistant at a dual-immersion grade school (lots of students are native Spanish speakers) with a low income population. Was really enjoying my time here, but made the mistake of waiting until early February to start, and of course it was cancelled due to COVID shortly after. Will be continuing next semester assuming school is in session. Is there any way to project/update my app with next semester's hours? Will it make any difference?
- Waiting to be matched with a high school student as a virtual tutor through my undergrad. Will probably have 10-15 hours by early June.
- Applied to work at a food pantry in my hometown, which just started accepting volunteers again. Might be able to get around 30 hours by mid June.
Employment:
6 summers lifeguarding, around 1300 hours. Held the position "Head Life Guard" for the last 3 summers. Basically was in charge of the life guard staff underneath the manager of the pool. Ran the facility on days when the manager was not present.
Other Extracurricular activities:
- Member of a social fraternity and current Community Service Chair. Not sure if I will include this as all of our planned community service projects were cancelled due to COVID along with the negative stigma fraternities tend to have.
- 5 Summers as a counselor at a summer church camp beginning summer before high school. Most recent was the summer before 1st year undergrad (had to skip the previous 2 summers for summer school, upcoming summer has been cancelled). Not sure if I should include this since I have not done it for so long and it was mostly a high school activity. That being said, it is really important to me and I plan on continuing next summer.
- Play the guitar, just a hobby.
Honors/Awards:
- Deans list for the previous 5 semesters
LOR's:
Expecting very strong LORs from my English professor and 2 physicians I have shadowed. LOR from my biochemistry teacher should be okay but not strong. I am also anticipating at least a solid cover letter from my PHC as my advisor is encouraging me to apply this cycle.
Immediate Family Member in medicine: Yes
Specialty of Interest: None in particular, but have grown to like surgery.
Interest in rural medicine? Yes
Other Information:
- Received 2 alcohol related IA's within the first month of my freshman year. Was seen by an RA with alcohol in my possession. Stupid, I know. Have not been in any kind of trouble since. Not sure if this will be on my transcript or not.
School List
I was encouraged to apply ED to WVU by my adviser, although I do understand that is not a good idea for most people. I was considering it due to my close ties to the school, but have been mostly scared off at this point. That being said, WVU is honestly my top choice. I want to come back to West Virginia for school, have family and friends in Morgantown, like what I have found on the school's website, know current and upcoming students who speak very highly of the school, etc. If anyone can speak to this/offer advice about early decision here, I would really appreciate it as well.
Current School List:
WVU
Marshall
Wake Forest
LSU (some ties)
Louisville (some ties)
Drexel
VCU
Cincinnati
Wayne State
Eastern Virginia
Central Florida
Toledo
Maryland
Vermont
UVA
Ohio State
Not a finalized list and I am looking to add more schools and am not opposed to cutting any that are out of reach. Would love any suggestions if you have them.
That is about everything I can think of that will be in my application. I think my sGPA can make me competitive assuming I hit my target MCAT score, and my clinical volunteering was a great experience. I'm mainly worried because my nonclinical volunteering is a mess, but I am not sure if it is bad enough to be an app killer or not.
My only other question is in regards to the timeline for submitting my application. Would it be better to submit early or wait until early July when I will theoretically have my score? The only other benefit I see to waiting is the chance to bump up my volunteering hours.
Would really appreciate advice on this, school list/ED, and my application in general. Thank you!
