MD WAMC for MD? Lower-than-optimal sGPA, 516 MCAT

[wecandoitifwetry]

Removed. Thank you to all for your advice.

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[ihoop24]

Do not retake the MCAT. 516 is a great score. Keep up the good work with that upward trend and you will be a competitive at many schools. Get more non-clinical volunteering (>150 hours) and try to do another clinical activity such as hospital or free clinic volunteering with actual patients. Some may not consider volunteering at a nursing home clinical.

 

[wecandoitifwetry]

Thank you for the advice. Forgot to mention some non-clinical volunteering I did during two spring breaks--of course it's possible they wouldn't think much of this because of the short time spans? But since it was essentially a full time job within that period I think that would add about 70 hours total, for both, to my original estimate.

 

[ihoop24]

Thank you for the advice. Forgot to mention some non-clinical volunteering I did during two spring breaks--of course it's possible they wouldn't think much of this because of the short time spans? But since it was essentially a full time job within that period I think that would add about 70 hours total, for both, to my original estimate.

What kind of non-clinical volunteering did you do?

Definitely try to pick one activity and do it over a long period of time. Short spurts can be beneficial, but can also show a lack of commitment.

 

[Faha]

You do not need to retake the MCAT. You should receive several interviews from your list. You could add any of these schools:
Brown
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Case Western
Cincinnati
Duke
Miami
Kaiser

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Assuming you do well senior year, you’ve got a strong application. Apply to as many top-20s as midtiers, plus your state schools and HBCUs. Good luck!

 

[wecandoitifwetry]

What kind of non-clinical volunteering did you do?

Definitely try to pick one activity and do it over a long period of time. Short spurts can be beneficial, but can also show a lack of commitment.

The first one was Habitat for Humanity. Second was mentoring students in an urban charter high school about college.

Yeah, I realize short-term stuff is not optimal. I am not sure what I can do at this point, though, because I am doing a ton of clinical volunteering this year with the mobile medical clinic and not sure how much non-clinical volunteering (save the nursing home, if I call that non-clinical volunteering) that I can fit into my schedule. Plus, if I added a new activity, wouldn't med schools see that for what it is: desperately back-loading service hours?

 

[wecandoitifwetry]

You do not need to retake the MCAT. You should receive several interviews from your list. You could add any of these schools:
Brown
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
NYU
Rochester
Pittsburgh
Case Western
Cincinnati
Duke
Miami
Kaiser

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I will look into these.