MD WAMC: 4.0 515, horrific ECs, radio silence expected right?

[Mian97]

Ideally I’d love to take another year and boost my app but it’s not looking like that’s possible. I know what people are going to say but frankly there’s nothing I can do about this. If i take another year off my dad will disown me, there’s no reasoning and no way out so I don’t want any advice on that. I have to deal with the consequences that’ll come with applying with such a poor application. Only question is; should I head into this application expecting radio silence given the 50 clinical hours?


What I’ll be apply with:

Mcat of 515

4.00 cumulative GPA

Texas resident

Disadvantaged status possibly?

Fam of 4 has income of less than 50k so I qualify for AAMC fap dk if that means anything but I thought to mention

Clinical volunteering; 50 hours since 2020 (will continue thru app year for another 50-100 hours)

Shadowing: 50 hours really close to application submission (like a month earlier close)

Research: 950 hours over 5.5 months in mice research

Nonclinical:

Hospice administrative volunteer helping organize medical supplies for patients 113 hours since 2019

Food bank volunteer since 2020
90 hours


———-
Activities I just started now that I’ll be continuing thru app cycle so I can add them as projected hours in tmdsas


Free clinic patient volunteer : 2 hours a week so in a year I’ll have 100 clin volunteer hours

Afghan refugee food pantry and zakat help:

Help create, distribute, and delivery food boxes to local afghan refugees who don’t have government assistance and are new to country so they need help with this. Roughly 6 hours a month so 72 hours by next year

Nursing home patient volunteer: basically being a companion and spending time talking playing games etc, 1 hour a week so 50 hours

———

Planned activities not yet started: (not on tmdsas app, will send as email updates)

Some sort of clinical job like scribing or medical assistant full time. Won’t be on my app at time of submission since tmdsas doesn’t allow u to add stuff that you haven’t started but this will be sent to schools as updates.

I know I know, if I waited a year I’ll be a much better position. Is there any slim slim slim chance I can clutch an a anywhere? Literally anywhere? I want to do FM so I don’t care what school I end up at as long as it’s in the US lol
Any tips appreciated

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[voxveritatisetlucis]

Apply broadly. Should be fine

 

[Mian97]

Apply broadly. Should be fine

Seriously? I thought 50 clinical is a death sentence lol

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

it’s not ideal but given the low socioeconomic status, I’m sure schools will understand to some extent. Try to get some more from now until you start interviewing

 

[Mian97]

it’s not ideal but given the low socioeconomic status, I’m sure schools will understand to some extent. Try to get some more from now until you start interviewing

No doubt, I’ve started 2 gigs already. 1 new one in the free clinic 2 hours a week and the other is my hospice gig. The way it works is until you have a patient available you don’t have much chance to volunteer so I finally have an available patient so I’ll volunteer 2 hours with them weekly as well

 

[chilly_md]

Can you do more hours than that? I’m sure they could use you for a little longer than 2 hours. And you can interact with the patients at hospice instead of doing administrative work.

I am unsure why you ask if you there is even a slim chance to get accepted. You will likely receive very few interviews. Chances best at TMDAS, apply to their DO schools as well such as TCOM. Maybe UIWSOM too. Based on what you mentioned, it might be wise to think about living independently as it seems unpredictable how your father would react if you do not get accepted after this cycle.

 

[Mian97]

Can you do more hours than that? I’m sure they could use you for a little longer than 2 hours. And you can interact with the patients at hospice instead of doing administrative work.

I am unsure why you ask if you there is even a slim chance to get accepted. You will likely receive very few interviews. Chances best at TMDAS, apply to their DO schools as well such as TCOM. Maybe UIWSOM too. Based on what you mentioned, it might be wise to think about living independently as it seems unpredictable how your father would react if you do not get accepted after this cycle.

I appreciate the honesty and will keep my expectations low. I can do more hours but I figured rushing hours right at the application time would do no benefit but I guess more hours can’t hurt right?

Also a big part of why I did admin vs patient volunteering is that it’s based on availability. Sometimes when a patient I was with passes away, I have to wait weeks to months before I’m able to volunteer with another patient, especially during covid when facilities didn’t accept volunteers

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Have you been involved connecting with schools and students over the past year before applying? If not, you should be doing that now through recruitment events and pay attention to the TMDSAS webinars. No guarantees because 50 hours is low, and there will be moments of silence and frustration.

Will your father choose your school for you? You should plan to be independent over the next year anyway. You are an adult after all.

Edit: 50 hours (autofill)

 

[The Med-Peds Dude]

Honestly, I don't see how this is a terrible app. Not everyone has the opportunity (for a variety of reasons) to do 100's of hours of medical (or any other) volunteering.

 

[Mian97]

Honestly, I don't see how this is a terrible app. Not everyone has the opportunity (for a variety of reasons) to do 100's of hours of medical (or any other) volunteering.

I can see where they’re coming from, I have asked a few people and they all echoed the same thing; that schools will have a hard time understanding why I want to pursue medicine if I have such few hours. Frankly all of this was a misjudgment on my end. I enjoined my shadowing, and the 50 hours of clinical volunteering I did have were pure patient companion and I did enjoy spending time making an impact on patients. Also my why medicine was strongly linked to my mothers illness and how psychiatric treatment literally turned her life around and my families life around, and she suffered with cancer so for like a year I was her primary caretaker; like changing her colostomy bag, helping her use bathroom, cook for her. Thru all this I really enjoyed caring for her and could see myself at the service of patients at their time of most need. But I failed to realize schools still care about actual patient hours and 50 is horrifically low. At this point, I will just put my head down and get as much clinical experience I can this year so my reapplication next cycle will have this gaping holes fixed

 

[The Med-Peds Dude]

Your story makes for a great narrative and is probably worth more than a superficial clinical experience. With your GPA, your app should get a second look where it is actually read. Don't underestimate your value.

 

[deleted314957]

Being “disowned “ as an adult is kinda a big shrug. Do YOU want to do what it takes be a physician or not? This is your decision and you know what you need to do to seal any application gaps.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

Get some clinical hours in May, June, July and shoot your shot.

 

[ujsc]

Get some clinical hours and I know you have a shot. Volunteer in the ER. The nonclinical hours may lead to a clinical hours shadowing opportunity and help build up 2 aspects of your application. Please have someone read over your narratives in your app for improvements, as you have an excellent story to tell

 

[Mian97]

Get some clinical hours in May, June, July and shoot your shot.

My thought exactly. There is a free clinic associated with my mosque that I will reach out to see if I can get started ASAP. If I can, I’ll be able to get 60 hours in 2 months so my total clinical hours will be 100, although I’m afraid this will be a red flag as they’ll see it as box checking?

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

My thought exactly. There is a free clinic associated with my mosque that I will reach out to see if I can get started ASAP. If I can, I’ll be able to get 60 hours in 2 months so my total clinical hours will be 100, although I’m afraid this will be a red flag as they’ll see it as box checking?

Are you working or can you get something close to full time for 2-3 months ? That will net you hundreds of hours and really give you assurances that you want to go into this field.

 

[cranberrylimeade]

Apply broadly, but go watch Dr. Gray's recent video on youtube of the 528 4.0 guy who didn't get in bc of low clinical.