- Joined
- Aug 24, 2018
- Messages
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Hi SDN, thanks for any help you can give me!
Degree: Biomedical Sciences @ local FL university
Cumulative GPA: 3.82 Science GPA: 3.81
MCAT Score: 508 (127:124:127:130) Cars killed me if I need to retake I plan to invest in cars tutoring, and build more stamina was exhausted during bio
Background: Female, White, FL resident, 23, 1st gen, disadvantaged
Research: 230 hours (Biomedical research with tissue culture and DNA work + project design) + 1 poster
Clinical Volunteering: 150 hours of hospital volunteer (ER, ICU, Nurses Station)
Paid Clinical: Easter Seals: 600 Hours as a camp counselor providing personal care, and support to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.
Physician shadowing: 65 hr Pediatric Cardiology, 12 hr ENT, 10hr Family Practice, 20hr Rheumatology, 4 hr Cardiology
Non-clinical volunteering/Employment: 1650 Hours Volunteer + 1800 Hours Paid as a Camp Counselor through the Serious Fun Network (SFN). (Working with children with life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Providing care, support, helping facilitate activities and friendships between kids, helping them grow in confidence, mentoring teenagers, being responsible for kid’s safety and well-being.)
Extracurricular activities: Art ~1000 hours Something that gives me great peace of mind. I have led and facilitated with kids and other counselors, have been commissioned to make various projects for people.
Leadership & Teaching:
-vTA Human Anatomy 88 hours + uTA Quantitative Biological Methods 45 hours
-Supplemental Instruction Leader for Biochemistry and Microbiology: 260 hours
-Program Assistant at SFN 800 Hours (Helping train 60+ volunteers, run programming, supporting the parents and their children living with chronic illness, continuously looking out for and supporting the emotional and physical safety of families and volunteers, helping a multi-million dollar fundraiser team, creating and leading activities, promoting of camp, etc)
LOR: 1 MD, 1 my SFN boss, 1 non-science (close adviser), science #1 (tutored for class), science #2 (was also my research PI).
Other: Also was a full-time caregiver for my grandmother with Parkinson's a few months and had a restaurant job for a bit while MCAT prepping.
GAP Year #2 Plans: Teaching High School Bio and Anatomy! (Will give me enough money to save for proper prep materials if I need to retake the MCAT, plus kiddos and science). I plan to continue volunteering with serious fun, hoping to visit some of the other camps across the nation to gain more perspective on programs.
My Why/Interests: - I was sick as a kid, never received a diagnosis, and decided to pursue medicine.
-I want to go into pediatrics and I am leaning towards sub-specializing and going into academic medicine.
-I would also like to continue my non-for-profit work. This is reflected in my PS and other aspects of my app.
List thought process: When choosing schools, I tried to find schools with my MCAT at least in the 10% range that also were geographically close to an SNF camp, so I could continue my work with the organization. I also attempted to find schools with associated residency and fellowship programs that match my current interests (child neuro, peds onco/hema, & peds rheumatology).
Potential School List
State Schools: (all are close enough to home, have friends near all of them or at all of them, and near an SNF camp)
Am I overestimating my competitiveness of my extracurriculars and story?
Do I need to retake the MCAT? (I know the 124 doesn't look good, and 508 is still a bit low)
I know I want to go to an MD school, so I will take the time necessary to be competitive for MD schools. And I do have plans for a third gap year if needed (continue teaching, apply to NIH post-bac, or apply for year-round SNF jobs). However, I would love to continue with my application this cycle if there is a reasonable chance.
Sorry, this is so long, and thanks for any help you can give! It means a lot!
Degree: Biomedical Sciences @ local FL university
Cumulative GPA: 3.82 Science GPA: 3.81
MCAT Score: 508 (127:124:127:130) Cars killed me if I need to retake I plan to invest in cars tutoring, and build more stamina was exhausted during bio
Background: Female, White, FL resident, 23, 1st gen, disadvantaged
Research: 230 hours (Biomedical research with tissue culture and DNA work + project design) + 1 poster
Clinical Volunteering: 150 hours of hospital volunteer (ER, ICU, Nurses Station)
Paid Clinical: Easter Seals: 600 Hours as a camp counselor providing personal care, and support to children and adults with physical and mental disabilities.
Physician shadowing: 65 hr Pediatric Cardiology, 12 hr ENT, 10hr Family Practice, 20hr Rheumatology, 4 hr Cardiology
Non-clinical volunteering/Employment: 1650 Hours Volunteer + 1800 Hours Paid as a Camp Counselor through the Serious Fun Network (SFN). (Working with children with life-threatening and chronic illnesses. Providing care, support, helping facilitate activities and friendships between kids, helping them grow in confidence, mentoring teenagers, being responsible for kid’s safety and well-being.)
Extracurricular activities: Art ~1000 hours Something that gives me great peace of mind. I have led and facilitated with kids and other counselors, have been commissioned to make various projects for people.
Leadership & Teaching:
-vTA Human Anatomy 88 hours + uTA Quantitative Biological Methods 45 hours
-Supplemental Instruction Leader for Biochemistry and Microbiology: 260 hours
-Program Assistant at SFN 800 Hours (Helping train 60+ volunteers, run programming, supporting the parents and their children living with chronic illness, continuously looking out for and supporting the emotional and physical safety of families and volunteers, helping a multi-million dollar fundraiser team, creating and leading activities, promoting of camp, etc)
LOR: 1 MD, 1 my SFN boss, 1 non-science (close adviser), science #1 (tutored for class), science #2 (was also my research PI).
Other: Also was a full-time caregiver for my grandmother with Parkinson's a few months and had a restaurant job for a bit while MCAT prepping.
GAP Year #2 Plans: Teaching High School Bio and Anatomy!
(Will give me enough money to save for proper prep materials if I need to retake the MCAT, plus kiddos and science). I plan to continue volunteering with serious fun, hoping to visit some of the other camps across the nation to gain more perspective on programs.My Why/Interests: - I was sick as a kid, never received a diagnosis, and decided to pursue medicine.
-I want to go into pediatrics and I am leaning towards sub-specializing and going into academic medicine.
-I would also like to continue my non-for-profit work. This is reflected in my PS and other aspects of my app.
List thought process: When choosing schools, I tried to find schools with my MCAT at least in the 10% range that also were geographically close to an SNF camp, so I could continue my work with the organization. I also attempted to find schools with associated residency and fellowship programs that match my current interests (child neuro, peds onco/hema, & peds rheumatology).
Potential School List
State Schools: (all are close enough to home, have friends near all of them or at all of them, and near an SNF camp)
- UF (They have residencies in everything I'm currently interested in, really like the docs I know from here)
- UCF (FIRE project, has a different vibe from UF docs but has a more flexible atmosphere that is exciting)
- USF (I still make their bottom 10% matriculated MCAT, seem to have a lot of research opportunities)
- FSU (MCAT range, service friendly)
- NOVA MD
- FIU
- FAU (scripts institute seems awesome) (sent my primary application here, the only school I have applied to thus far)
- UM (has a larger res selection, I have liked the docs I have met from here)
- Other Schools (realize some of these are on the reach side)
- Temple (Works with SFN, MCAT range)
- Drexel (Mcat range)
- Jefferson (Mcat range)
- Tufts (SFN camp 1 hr away, would love to end up in Boston for various reasons)
- Georgetown (Would be interested to learn more about policy, have had issues getting access to health insurance myself, MCAT range)
- George Washington University (ditto above)
- Kaiser (1 hr away from an SFN camp, new so a bit of a wild card, however with free tuition unsure if this is even worth it)
- Wake Forest (1 hr from family and SFN camp)
- Netter (1 hr SFN camp, MCAT range)
- New York Medical College
(MCAT score range, near SFN) - University of Vermont (MCAT, near SFN camp)
- Rush (MCAT range)
- Rosalind Franklin (MCAT range)
- Loyola (MCAT range)
Am I overestimating my competitiveness of my extracurriculars and story?
Do I need to retake the MCAT? (I know the 124 doesn't look good, and 508 is still a bit low)
I know I want to go to an MD school, so I will take the time necessary to be competitive for MD schools. And I do have plans for a third gap year if needed (continue teaching, apply to NIH post-bac, or apply for year-round SNF jobs). However, I would love to continue with my application this cycle if there is a reasonable chance.
Sorry, this is so long, and thanks for any help you can give! It means a lot!
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