WAMC - ORM - 3.4 uGPA - 3.7 sGPA - 513 MCAT - 4.0 PhD GPA

[no_username_ever]

Grades:
3.4 uGPA (non-science degree, completed 6 years ago)
3.7 post-bacc science GPA
4.0 PhD GPA
513 MCAT

ECs:
20 first author publications, some in high impact journals (JAMA and Science)
60+ publications total as co-author (Lancet and Nature)
Co-author on consensus clinical document publication for a psychiatric disease
1000 ish hours clinical experience
Fairly extensive physician shadowing across multiple disciplines
High quality LORs from 5 MDs and one science professor
Forbes 30 under 30, and several other high-profile international awards for my research contributions
Extracurricular: musician for 10 years
Very little volunteering
20 ish posters, 5 oral presentations at international conferences

Overall a weak uGPA (completed 6 years ago), the MCAT is "okay". I applied to top20 schools, but now I'm thinking I was overconfident because my GPA and MCAT might not get me to the gate. What do you think?

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[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? Which schools did you apply to ?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Why is medicine your endgame? You are seemingly successful in other aspects of your young life to date.

With a lot of your highly personal information redacted voluntarily, it's hard to say though I suspect you could have a shot at some top 20 program who wants to pick up someone who made the Forbes list. You must have done something there.

 

[no_username_ever]

Where is your state of residence ? Which schools did you apply to ?

I'm Canadian
And I applied to 25 schools, so I won't list them all, but it corresponds very closely to established top 25 lists (minus a few where I'm ineligible as a non-US citizen/resident)

 

[no_username_ever]

Why is medicine your endgame? You are seemingly successful in other aspects of your young life to date.

With a lot of your highly personal information redacted voluntarily, it's hard to say though I suspect you could have a shot at some top 20 program who wants to pick up someone who made the Forbes list. You must have done something there.

For most of my life, I didn't want to be a doctor. However, I did a PhD in biomedicine, where I spent every day in the clinic working with patients with difficult-to-diagnose diseases. My supervisor, a physician-scientist, inspired me to study medicine so that I could also bring cutting-edge advances to my patients (of course, I wrote about this during my essays). I became very passionate about medicine during my clinical experiences.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

For most of my life, I didn't want to be a doctor. However, I did a PhD in biomedicine, where I spent every day in the clinic working with patients with difficult-to-diagnose diseases. My supervisor, a physician-scientist, inspired me to study medicine so that I could also bring cutting-edge advances to my patients (of course, I wrote about this during my essays). I became very passionate about medicine during my clinical experiences.

I say this because obviously MSTP is going to be off the board, so volunteering may become a real sticky point with your application. The problem I also see is that you can also bring cutting-edge advances in industry, not necessarily in a bench role. Granted, those industry roles will have you working more closely with physicians and pharmacists and other clinical trials-trained professionals.

 

[no_username_ever]

I say this because obviously MSTP is going to be off the board, so volunteering may become a real sticky point with your application. The problem I also see is that you can also bring cutting-edge advances in industry, not necessarily in a bench role. Granted, those industry roles will have you working more closely with physicians and pharmacists and other clinical trials-trained professionals.

Thanks for your reply - this is helpful!
Do you mean that programs will be less excited about my research / scientific contributions given I won't be doing a PhD at their institution?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for your reply - this is helpful!
Do you mean that programs will be less excited about my research / scientific contributions given I won't be doing a PhD at their institution?

I can't speak for every single medical school. I'm sure those that have strong research infrastructure might be a bit more excited, but you aren't going there as a postdoc for them to be really excited. There are a few instances where as a Ph.D., you're going to have to relearn how to learn in medical school classes because you have to learn quickly a lot of items without necessarily going into the depth you are accustomed to. A lot of Ph.D.'s, and especially those who have very strong track records in research, have some difficulty adjusting to this.

 

[no_username_ever]

I can't speak for every single medical school. I'm sure those that have strong research infrastructure might be a bit more excited, but you aren't going there as a postdoc for them to be really excited. There are a few instances where as a Ph.D., you're going to have to relearn how to learn in medical school classes because you have to learn quickly a lot of items without necessarily going into the depth you are accustomed to. A lot of Ph.D.'s, and especially those who have very strong track records in research, have some difficulty adjusting to this.

Thank you for this reply, I agree. I did my science prerequisites as a night student (while doing the PhD during the day) and I agree it took some re-learning

 

[Faha]

As an international applicant, your stats are not competitive for many top 25 schools but your extensive publication history may attract attention at some schools. I suggest including these schools if you wish to maximize your chances at a US MD school:
Dartmouth
Georgetown
George Washington
Jefferson
Medical College Wisconsin
Michigan State
New York Medical College
Temple
Virginia Commonwealth
Wayne State

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Yeah. However, your rock star publication record plus the solid reinvention might lead some top schools to bite. On the other hand, your MCAT is very low for them. Columbia, Dartmouth, and Vanderbilt come to mind; ask @Goro and @LizzyM about specifics. Consider a retake if and only if you think you can get a 517 or better on the MCAT and are shooting for a top American school.

 

[LizzyM]

Low volunteering tells me you aren't really interesting in helping people who need help in ways that you are, at the moment, qualified to provide (tutoring low income kids, visiting the sick and dying, cooking and serving food, etc).

Four years of medical school will cause atrophy of your research skills unless you can do some research "on the side" while in medical school but 10 hours/week may not be enough to keep you in the game. So, 4 years later you are a scientist with atrophied skills who is looking to start a residency (three year minimum) before being ready to work as a physician scientist. It might not seem like a good trade off for many schools. And they are sponsoring you as an international student and figuring out how you pay for medical school without US-backed loans.

I'm not good at picking schools so I'll leave that to the experts here.

 

[no_username_ever]

Low volunteering tells me you aren't really interesting in helping people who need help in ways that you are, at the moment, qualified to provide (tutoring low income kids, visiting the sick and dying, cooking and serving food, etc).

Four years of medical school will cause atrophy of your research skills unless you can do some research "on the side" while in medical school but 10 hours/week may not be enough to keep you in the game. So, 4 years later you are a scientist with atrophied skills who is looking to start a residency (three year minimum) before being ready to work as a physician scientist. It might not seem like a good trade off for many schools. And they are sponsoring you as an international student and figuring out how you pay for medical school without US-backed loans.

I'm not good at picking schools so I'll leave that to the experts here.

Thank you for your honesty! (Although I disagree with your claim of not being interested in helping people who need it, I appreciate the perspective)
My volunteering hours are low because I am a full time PhD student + night student in basic sciences (total roughly 60 hours/week, and paying my own way through both). Would you advise taking a year off after I graduate to fix this part of the application? In your view, what are other important weaknesses?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your honesty! (Although I disagree with your claim of not being interested in helping people who need it, I appreciate the perspective)
My volunteering hours are low because I am a full time PhD student + night student in basic sciences (total roughly 60 hours/week, and paying my own way through both). Would you advise taking a year off after I graduate to fix this part of the application? In your view, what are other important weaknesses?

You are not the first applicant who is a research star to apply to medical school nor will you be the last. The lack of volunteering is a weakness that sabotaged many of those applicants at a lot of schools. I have fielded a lot of complaints about admitting applicants who are research powerhouses before medical school who can't adjust to the service orientation of medical education. In other words, we can differ from your opinion, but there are enough people who share this opinion to block you from getting admitted.

I know that you may be busy as a full-time PhD student, but not so busy that you cannot participate in community service on a regular basis. Any basic science faculty member on a committee will wonder why you want to leave a very successful career to go to Medicine. It can't be to do research because you are already doing it. Perhaps even some clinically relevant research with clinicians. You need a very convincing application that shows them --people like your PI or department chair who think you could be a good postdoc and research professor-- that you can enjoy going back to the beginning as a medical student and slaving through training and residency. Community service is part of that picture to show us. Given your research track record, you need to convince the basic science faculty that you will throw away a record of accomplishment that they may envy just to be a medical student.

 

[no_username_ever]

You are not the first applicant who is a research star to apply to medical school nor will you be the last. The lack of volunteering is a weakness that sabotaged many of those applicants at a lot of schools. I have fielded a lot of complaints about admitting applicants who are research powerhouses before medical school who can't adjust to the service orientation of medical education. In other words, we can differ from your opinion, but there are enough people who share this opinion to block you from getting admitted.

I know that you may be busy as a full-time PhD student, but not so busy that you cannot participate in community service on a regular basis. Any basic science faculty member on a committee will wonder why you want to leave a very successful career to go to Medicine. It can't be to do research because you are already doing it. Perhaps even some clinically relevant research with clinicians. You need a very convincing application that shows them --people like your PI or department chair who think you could be a good postdoc and research professor-- that you can enjoy going back to the beginning as a medical student and slaving through training and residency. Community service is part of that picture to show us. Given your research track record, you need to convince the basic science faculty that you will throw away a record of accomplishment that they may envy just to be a medical student.

This is super helpful, thank you!