WAMC 518/3.92 cGPA/3.87 sGPA

[ladylysa]

What is the best way to improve my application for the 2022-2023 in the next six months?

I’m applying as a Canadian student from a top Canadian university, so I know that the process is much more competitive for me.

Stats: 3.92 cGPA/3.87 sGPA (2021 grad in neuroscience and psychology with rhetoric minor) MCAT 518 (129/127/130/132)

ECs (all hours by time of app)

1. Honours: Deans List + 3 academic scholarships
2. 2 publications + 2 undergraduate conferences
3. Research: Psych Lab 1 (720 hrs + 1 pub)
4. Research: Psych Lab 2 (240 hrs + undergrad thesis)
5. Research: Nephrology lab (2000 hrs + 1 pub)
6. Clinical experience: Clinical research assistant (full time employment 1300 hrs)
7. Leadership: Student research team lead + mentor (200 hrs)
8. Leadership: 3 homelessness clubs exec team (75, 200, 150)
9. Leadership: First Aid society exec (150 hrs)
10. Volunteering: homelessness nonprofit (150 hrs)
11. Volunteering: emotional support text line (240 hrs)
12. Volunteering: COVID 19 drives (120 hrs)
13. Volunteering: Tutoring kids, undergrads, adult literacy learners (80, 100, 128 hrs)
14. Shadowing: 100 hrs (4 specialities)
15. Hobby: creative writing
16. Leadership: scientific writing club (128 hrs)
17. Employment: transcriptionist and video editor (150 hrs)
18. Hobby: coding (I’ve made a few very simple apps. I’m not naturally good at coding and learn very slowly. My goal is to make my own app in the next six months, but it’ll be pretty simple and just for my own interest)

LORs
1. Neuroscience prof (strong relationship)
2. Neuroscience/psychology prof (my PI + pretty strong relationship)
3. Neuroscience prof (pretty good relationship, although I don’t know them super well)
4. Writing prof (very strong relationship)
5. Nephrology lab PI (strong relationship I think but it’s hard to tell with them lol)
6. (Hopeful) Clinical research lab PI (starting to get to know them?)
7. (Hopeful) Research lab manager (pretty good relationship)
8. (Hopeful) transcriptionist job employer (I know for a fact they will ask me to write the draft reference and then sign it without reading because that’s what they did when I asked for an employment reference lol)

I’m planning on retaking my MCAT because my CARS score is low for Canadian med schools (literally, there are schools that have a cutoff of 128/129), but I worry that my score might decrease for US medical schools, so I’m only going to retake if my AAMC FL’s score is average 524+, which ofc is a very tall order lmao.

Additionally, my LORs are very one note with my science LORs all being from neuroscience profs. The problem is that my other BCPM prerequisites were taken earlier in my undergrad in classes of 1000+ students in which office hours were regularly 50+ people. I could try to email some of my profs since I did pretty well in those courses, but I doubt they would write me a strong letter.

Other than that, I feel like non clinical volunteering is a weak point on my app. Most of my experiences are 8-16 months only. I also feel like I don’t have a “narrative thread” running through my app, which I’ve gathered from reading the premed subreddit and SDN is very important for US medical schools?

I also don’t feel like I have an “X factor” which seems to be required for international students? Given that there are only about 7 months until the application cycle, is it even possible to get an X factor by then? I will say that I’m learning coding and working on some creative writing projects, but obviously getting published by a major publication house takes ridiculous luck and talent and I’m obviously not setting my hopes on such a thing lol

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[MyOdyssey]

What are you doing differently for your planned MCAT retake?

How would you improve your CARS score?

 

[ladylysa]

What are you doing differently for your planned MCAT retake?

How would you improve your CARS score?

Mostly doing more practice questions and tests, as well as more focus on C/P.

For CARS, just practicing. I got 131/132 on CARS on all of my FL’s, so I think I just had test anxiety on the actual test date. Working on doing more questions so I feel more confident.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Mostly doing more practice questions and tests, as well as more focus on C/P.

For CARS, just practicing. I got 131/132 on CARS on all of my FL’s, so I think I just had test anxiety on the actual test date. Working on doing more questions so I feel more confident.

There's an old pinned thread on the SDN MCAT sub forum where a 526 scorer with a 132 CARS suggested using old released LSAT reading sections as practice. Official LSAT Sample Tests | The Law School Admission Council

Testing Solutions has good sample CARS passages.

Have you tried UWorld? A lot of SDNers like it best.

Duplicating the 132 P/S score will be challenging on a retake.

 

[ladylysa]

There's an old pinned thread on the SDN MCAT sub forum where a 526 scorer with a 132 CARS suggested using old released LSAT reading sections as practice. Official LSAT Sample Tests | The Law School Admission Council

Testing Solutions has good sample CARS passages.

Have you tried UWorld? A lot of SDNers like it best.

Duplicating the 132 P/S score will be challenging on a retake.

Yea, I know I would prefer not to retake, but my CARS score is just no bueno for CANMD. Still, I’m only going to retake if my FLs average 524+, otherwise I’m not going to risk it and apply with my 518.

 

[MyOdyssey]

One potential weakness is that you're relying entirely on your clinical research experience to check the clinical experience box. There is a split among SDN adcoms as to whether clinical research experience counts as bona fide clinical experience.

Did you interact with people who were seeking medical treatment in a health care facility or did you interact strictly with potential test subjects?

Were you mostly keeping track of clinical research results?

I suggest getting some unambiguous clinical experience - such as what you might get at a public hospital where you will encounter a diverse patient population and an understaffed situation where you'll get more responsibility. Stay away from things like hospital cafeteria work, staffing the hospital gift shop and changing the bedsheets experiences where you never encounter patients in a setting where they're receiving treatment.

These are informative threads on what counts as "clinical":

Is this clinical?

Like many others, I'm still finding it hard to find face to face clinical volunteering opportunities. Are any of the following "clinical"? 1. greeting hospital visitors/patients as a hospital "ambassador" 2. changing bedsheets in the hospital 3. doing hospital paperwork

forums.studentdoctor.net

Is this clinical?

Hi everyone, I am currently a clinical research coordinator at a big name hospital under a big name PI. My day to day responsibilities include pre-screening patients for our studies (collecting medical histories), running their actual study visits, monitoring patient conditions throughout the...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Your nonclinical volunteering is insufficient to meet the requirements of more service oriented schools like Georgetown and Rush.

 

[MyOdyssey]

Yea, I know I would prefer not to retake, but my CARS score is just no bueno for CANMD. Still, I’m only going to retake if my FLs average 524+, otherwise I’m not going to risk it and apply with my 518.

What was the secret to your success on the P/S section?

 

[ladylysa]

One potential weakness is that you're relying entirely on your clinical research experience to check the clinical experience box. There is a split among SDN adcoms as to whether clinical research experience counts as bona fide clinical experience.

Did you interact with people who were seeking medical treatment in a health care facility or did you interact strictly with potential test subjects?

Were you mostly keeping track of clinical research results?

I suggest getting some unambiguous clinical experience - such as what you might get at a public hospital where you will encounter a diverse patient population and an understaffed situation where you'll get more responsibility. Stay away from things like hospital cafeteria work, staffing the hospital gift shop and changing the bedsheets experiences where you never encounter patients in a setting where they're receiving treatment.

These are informative threads on what counts as "clinical":

Is this clinical?

Like many others, I'm still finding it hard to find face to face clinical volunteering opportunities. Are any of the following "clinical"? 1. greeting hospital visitors/patients as a hospital "ambassador" 2. changing bedsheets in the hospital 3. doing hospital paperwork

forums.studentdoctor.net

Is this clinical?

Hi everyone, I am currently a clinical research coordinator at a big name hospital under a big name PI. My day to day responsibilities include pre-screening patients for our studies (collecting medical histories), running their actual study visits, monitoring patient conditions throughout the...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Your nonclinical volunteering is insufficient to meet the requirements of more service oriented schools like Georgetown and Rush.

As a clinical research assistant, most of my work is patient facing. I assist doctors with seizure therapy, such as taking vitals, EKGs, and adding treatment notes. I also conduct clinical assessments with patients for depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Additionally, I conduct TMS and EEG sessions with patient participants in clinical trials.

Does this count as legit clinical experience?

In terms of non clinical volunteering, I don’t know what else I can do in the next six months to add on to it since it’s such a short time period.

 

[ladylysa]

What was the secret to your success on the P/S section?

I was a psychology major, so I didn’t really need to study for that section.

 

[MyOdyssey]

As a clinical research assistant, most of my work is patient facing. I assist doctors with seizure therapy, such as taking vitals, EKGs, and adding treatment notes. I also conduct clinical assessments with patients for depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Additionally, I conduct TMS and EEG sessions with patient participants in clinical trials.

Does this count as legit clinical experience?

In terms of non clinical volunteering, I don’t know what else I can do in the next six months to add on to it since it’s such a short time period.

In my opinion yes. Check out the helpful advice by @JanetSnakehole in one of the threads I linked where she advises that applicants reliant on clinical research as their "clinical" experience write strong essays illustrating the clinical nature of their experience.

My comment on Georgetown and other service schools like Rush is basically more of a comment on the kinds of school you might have to leave off your list bc you don't fit their profile.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

As a clinical research assistant, most of my work is patient facing. I assist doctors with seizure therapy, such as taking vitals, EKGs, and adding treatment notes. I also conduct clinical assessments with patients for depression, anxiety, and psychosis. Additionally, I conduct TMS and EEG sessions with patient participants in clinical trials.

Does this count as legit clinical experience?

In terms of non clinical volunteering, I don’t know what else I can do in the next six months to add on to it since it’s such a short time period.

If you are a clinical research assistant, you should be able to tell people what clinical trials you assisted with (in terms of patient populations). Your generalization makes it sound more like you were a typical medical assistant (which can be an American vs. Canadian nomenclature issue). Do you actually put the electrodes on patients for EEG sessions? If so, that's a different level of involvement than we are used to in the United States.

 

[ladylysa]

If you are a clinical research assistant, you should be able to tell people what clinical trials you assisted with (in terms of patient populations). Your generalization makes it sound more like you were a typical medical assistant (which can be an American vs. Canadian nomenclature issue). Do you actually put the electrodes on patients for EEG sessions? If so, that's a different level of involvement than we are used to in the United States.

Yes, I directly put electrodes on patients and conduct TMS sessions and clinical assessments independently, in addition to helping physicians with seizure therapy procedures. The patients have treatment resistant depression and are taking part in clinical trials for experimental therapies and drugs.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes, I directly put electrodes on patients and conduct TMS sessions and clinical assessments independently, in addition to helping physicians with seizure therapy procedures. The patients have treatment resistant depression and are taking part in clinical trials for experimental therapies and drugs.

Thank you for confirming. I can't speak for everyone who is involved with admissions screening or decisions, but as long as you are supervised by physicians and can clearly discuss the doctor-patient relationship (and caregiver relationship), it would satisfy my desire to see "clinical experience."

If I can summarize the split from my perspective, many people who claim to be clinical research assistants take part in registering patients for trials and some survey follow-up. That's much more hands off, but that's what is going to be allowed for many US applicants. What you describe involves much more training and must be under physician supervision.

 

[ladylysa]

Thank you for confirming. I can't speak for everyone who is involved with admissions screening or decisions, but as long as you are supervised by physicians and can clearly discuss the doctor-patient relationship (and caregiver relationship), it would satisfy my desire to see "clinical experience."

If I can summarize the split from my perspective, many people who claim to be clinical research assistants take part in registering patients for trials and some survey follow-up. That's much more hands off, but that's what is going to be allowed for many US applicants. What you describe involves much more training and must be under physician supervision.

Yes, I had pretty extensive training in TMS/EEG and clinical assessments.

Based on my application, do you think I have a decent chance in the upcoming cycle as a Canadian applicant to USMD? What are the areas I can best improve in the next six months?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Yes, I had pretty extensive training in TMS/EEG and clinical assessments.

Based on my application, do you think I have a decent chance in the upcoming cycle as a Canadian applicant to USMD? What are the areas I can best improve in the next six months?

What are your ties to the United States? Are you going to be a permanent resident by the time you submit your application in May/June? As a Canadian applicant, you need to do your homework now on which schools are international-applicant or Canadian-friendly because most US schools are not. You may also have to search for the international-friendly DO schools. (It's not that hard as it is a common topic that you'll see posted by many admissions consultant websites.)

After you narrow your list down, find some alumni of those programs who may be practicing in Canada and find a way to connect with them about their experience. You need to know what your choice of going to the US would mean when it comes to your residency training and any licensure barriers upon returning to Canada.

 

[ladylysa]

What are your ties to the United States? Are you going to be a permanent resident by the time you submit your application in May/June? As a Canadian applicant, you need to do your homework now on which schools are international-applicant or Canadian-friendly because most US schools are not. You may also have to search for the international-friendly DO schools. (It's not that hard as it is a common topic that you'll see posted by many admissions consultant websites.)

After you narrow your list down, find some alumni of those programs who may be practicing in Canada and find a way to connect with them about their experience. You need to know what your choice of going to the US would mean when it comes to your residency training and any licensure barriers upon returning to Canada.

My entire family lives in the US, and I went to middle and high school in Texas (which I know isn’t much help without a green card). My family has applied for green cards and will hopefully sponsor me for a family green card. I won’t have one by the time I apply though. If I get into a US medical school, I would most likely choose to stay in the US for residency as my family lives there (I have family in Texas, California, Arizona, Michigan, and New York).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

My entire family lives in the US, and I went to middle and high school in Texas (which I know isn’t much help without a green card). My family has applied for green cards and will hopefully sponsor me for a family green card. I won’t have one by the time I apply though. If I get into a US medical school, I would most likely choose to stay in the US for residency as my family lives there (I have family in Texas, California, Arizona, Michigan, and New York).

If you want to be closer to family, why not spend a year in Texas so you can get that green card AND qualify for Texas domicility (and getting more community service and perhaps some clinical experience in free clinics or low-income clinics)? That way you can maximize your chances on getting accepted. Med schools are not going anywhere.

 

[ladylysa]

If you want to be closer to family, why not spend a year in Texas so you can get that green card AND qualify for Texas domicility (and getting more community service and perhaps some clinical experience in free clinics or low-income clinics)? That way you can maximize your chances on getting accepted. Med schools are not going anywhere.

I only have a US visitors visa, so I don’t think I can spend sufficient time to establish domicile. It’s pretty hard to get an employee visa with only a life sciences BSc or else I would definitely do that

It’s unfortunate because quite a few of my shadowing and volunteering hours were done in TX. I also came home for summers and vacations during my undergrad, so it still feels like home to me. But of course, medical schools don’t take our feelings into account lol

 

[MyOdyssey]

I only have a US visitors visa, so I don’t think I can spend sufficient time to establish domicile. It’s pretty hard to get an employee visa with only a life sciences BSc or else I would definitely do that

Try applying for a research assistant position at Baylor or MD Anderson or Baylor. They’re constantly looking to hire.

You can find their job listings on Indeed.

MD Anderson Cancer Center Careers and Employment

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www.indeed.com

https://www.indeed.com/m/jobs?q=Baylor+College+of+Medicine

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I only have a US visitors visa, so I don’t think I can spend sufficient time to establish domicile. It’s pretty hard to get an employee visa with only a life sciences BSc or else I would definitely do that

It’s unfortunate because quite a few of my shadowing and volunteering hours were done in TX. I also came home for summers and vacations during my undergrad, so it still feels like home to me. But of course, medical schools don’t take our feelings into account lol

I did suggest that you do this as a gap year opportunity to give you more time to get US status and Texas residency. If you want to give yourself the best shot at an acceptance, this is an option and you have time.

I'll also disagree a little with my colleague who suggested a research position for the reasons you noted (specifically employee visa issues). Now if they have positions that allow for some flexibility, then it is an issue with your visa and eligibility to work. Now, I don't know if you could volunteer for an international patient services office in the big Houston hospital complex somewhere, especially if you speak a non-English language fluently.

 

[MyOdyssey]

I did suggest that you do this as a gap year opportunity to give you more time to get US status and Texas residency. If you want to give yourself the best shot at an acceptance, this is an option and you have time.

I'll also disagree a little with my colleague who suggested a research position for the reasons you noted (specifically employee visa issues). Now if they have positions that allow for some flexibility, then it is an issue with your visa and eligibility to work. Now, I don't know if you could volunteer for an international patient services office in the big Houston hospital complex somewhere, especially if you speak a non-English language fluently.

To establish residency in TX under the TMDSAS system, OP would have to establish that OP has "gainful employment" in TX. As I read the rules, volunteering might qualify as gainful employment as long as OP had other means of support including living off OP's savings. Note that being self-employed is deemed "gainful employment":

Texas Residency Overview

Determining Texas residency for medical school applicants.

www.tmdsas.com