WAMC? ORM, 3.6 cGPA and sGPA, 512 MCAT. May need to reapply

[mdog31415]

WAMC? ORM, 3.6 cGPA and sGPA, 512 MCAT

Well, here I am. 2 II’s so far, one of them resulting in a WL, no response from the other. 7 holds/under review, 5 Rs. I’m a mid-20s ORM male living in the northeast.

3.6 cGPA and sGPA, 512 MCAT (128, 125, 130, 129), CASPER 3rd quartile, ORM, northeast state resident without any IS schools, small liberal arts school for undergrad.

Major activities (let me know if you want me to divulge more on them):

• EMT/Paramedic in both an urban and rural setting, working with a diverse patient population in both the 911 EMS and interfacility patient transfer setting (bringing patients from hospital A to hospital B). Worked with a lot of patients who were on ventilators and had to be transferred or had multiple medication infusions running. In the field, I cared for victims of drug and alcohol addiction, particularly during the opioid epidemic. Also worked with COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic. 15,000 hours over 7 years (yes, I was often working 70-80 hrs/week for a while).
• 1,000 hours as a volunteer EMT/paramedic at another EMS agency. Worked in a rural community with limited access to healthcare and with extended transport times to the hospital. One of only a dozen paramedics in the region. EMS Provider of the Year Award.
• 1,500 from paramedic school, during which I had ~500 additional hours of patient contact in the field, ED, ICU, OR, OB, and cath lab.
• COVID-19 vaccinator (200 hours). Provided the COVID-19 vaccine to members of the community in both rural and urban settings. Also worked provided the vaccine in a large Hispanic community, using the Spanish I learned in HS and college to help convey vaccine information and screen Spanish-speaking participants before administering the shot.

• I only did 100 hours of research during undergrad in a cell biology lab without any publications. I did contribute to a review piece in one EMS journal, but that was limited too (100 hours).

• Only 50 hours of shadowing. 10 in family medicine, 10 in surgery, 20 in the ED, and 10 in anesthesiology.
• Chem TA for 50 hours

A few notes

• There may be a red flag with LORs. My committee letter was dated for 2020 even though I applied in spring of 2021. The committee would not update the letter, citing the it was designed to solely be reflective of my undergraduate performance. Also, I’m not 100% certain of the quality of my committee letter. I was given a “very good, but not the best rating” from my committee interview. I backed it up with other LORs from work supervisors, my clinical volunteer head, my med director, and other science professors.
• C in biochem and C+ in Ochem II. I took an upper-level organic chemistry course and retook Biochem with a lab component, getting an A in both. I have an upward trend with a 3.7 over the last 40 credits, with a 4.0 in my last 20 credits.
• May not have done enough non-clinical volunteering. Only 30 hours at a homeless shelter while in college. I believed that the >1000 hours of clinical volunteering I did in an underserved community would balance out. Seems that may be a problem.
• Used a lot of resources from Med School HQ and MAPPD to help write PS and activities. Utilized a lot of anecdotes. PS focused on not only wanting to work with underserved patients and those experiencing traumatic events, but also my desire to be a leader in healthcare and the responsibility associated with it. One anecdote did address my experience with one patient who died. Feedback was that it was an impactful anecdote, though two colleagues expressed concerns it might have been “a bit much” and “a bit of a put-off.” Another colleague was concerned that I was applying to be a paramedic and not a physician when reading the app due to most of my work being in EMS (not well-rounded enough).

School list:


OHSU

Rochester

Brown

Florida

Maryland

Stony Brook

UMASS

NJMS Rutgers

Hofstra

Dartmouth

Uconn

Jefferson

Penn state

Tufts

Wayne state

Georgetown

GW

Temple

Geisinger

Drexel

FIU

Wake Forest

Michigan State

Rosalind Franklin

Albany

NYMC

Rush

Wright State

• If I have to re-apply, I will definitely take a gap-year and do it in the spring of 2023 (unless anyone can convince me eitherwise). My only plan so far would be re-locating to another state. Should I take more courses (retake Ochem II)? Retake the MCAT? Do more volunteering? Do more research? Find another healthcare job?
• Also, if I reapply, what should I do about the committee letter?
• I did not apply DO this cycle. If I have to re-apply, I will consider DO, though there are many factors that are keeping me on the fence (would be happy to discuss, but might be a better discussion for another thread).

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[Mr.Smile12]

Can I get more details on where you are considered IS and which schools have replied to you to date?

 

[mdog31415]

Can I get more details on where you are considered IS and which schools have replied to you to date?

Unfortunately I did not have any IS schools to choose from (hence part of the reason for a gap year and move should I have to reapply). Lived between MA, NY, and ME over the past 7 years. Rush and CMS have II’s, with Rush being a WL 😕. Dartmouth, Wake, Georgetown, MSU, and Hofstra were pre-II R’s. GW, UR, Maryland, PSU, NYMC, and Drexel are pre-II holds/reviews.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I do agree you have a ton of hours as an EMT and not a lot of shadowing in other areas of medicine. You'll be doing rotations other than emergency med. That said, I am not sure you are leveraging your work in remote, rural communities if that is indeed your motivation to pursue medicine.

Your feedback from your essays is interesting and informative; being a physician isn't always about dealing with the fight against death. There's a lot in medicine where the diagnoses are less obvious when it comes to people's struggles. Are your shadowing experiences in rural healthcare facilities?

I do think that you may not have a lot of community service non-clinical hours, but your extensive experience interacting with various populations as an EMT and a COVID-19 vaccine administrator is a positive.

I don't think your LOR's or committee letter is a big issue, but I do think your ability to articulate your motivation for medicine might not match well with the schools that rejected you already. If you are really interested in working with underserved communities, you need to choose schools with a very strong track record helping students who are interested in primary care.

In the end I don't know how you pitched your vision as a future leader and how you connected it to the stories you gave. Certainly your essays need to be reviewed a little bit. That said, you still haven't been rejected from the schools you have interviewed at, so hopefully one of them will eventually bring you good news.

 

[mdog31415]

I do agree you have a ton of hours as an EMT and not a lot of shadowing in other areas of medicine. You'll be doing rotations other than emergency med. That said, I am not sure you are leveraging your work in remote, rural communities if that is indeed your motivation to pursue medicine.

Your feedback from your essays is interesting and informative; being a physician isn't always about dealing with the fight against death. There's a lot in medicine where the diagnoses are less obvious when it comes to people's struggles. Are your shadowing experiences in rural healthcare facilities?

I do think that you may not have a lot of community service non-clinical hours, but your extensive experience interacting with various populations as an EMT and a COVID-19 vaccine administrator is a positive.

I don't think your LOR's or committee letter is a big issue, but I do think your ability to articulate your motivation for medicine might not match well with the schools that rejected you already. If you are really interested in working with underserved communities, you need to choose schools with a very strong track record helping students who are interested in primary care.

In the end I don't know how you pitched your vision as a future leader and how you connected it to the stories you gave. Certainly your essays need to be reviewed a little bit. That said, you still haven't been rejected from the schools you have interviewed at, so hopefully one of them will eventually bring you good news.

My family medicine, anesthesiology, and part of my ER shadowing was in rural areas. While I do find value working in rural regions, it wasn’t necessarily my biggest motivation to become a physician (leadership and having a passion for handling difficult patient and societal affairs were the big ones). Rather, it was part of my goal to work with a diverse patient population in a variety of settings. I didn’t seem to stress that sentiment much until I got to secondaries, which may too be a point of concern. Still, I’ll probably go to a 3rd party to review my written items to get a fresh perspective.

One of the schools that I thought was a good fit from a leadership, public health, and health policy perspective was GW (though I admit my
work in policy may have not been enough). That said, assuming that was something I really dug deep on during a gap year, do you have any suggested schools with a similar mission? GW is admittedly a low-yield since the have >17k apps annually and I’m below their MCAT and GPA medians.