WAMC + School List Advice (3.5/510)

[deleted1230072]

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1. cGPA (TMDSAS and AMCAS): 3.5, sGPA: 3.43
2. MCAT Score 1: 504 (125, 127, 125, 127), MCAT Score 2: 510 (128, 126, 127, 129)

3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
TX Resident
4. Ethnicity and Race: ORM Asian Female
5. Undergrad: T30
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
1000 Hours total, split between 2 hospital volunteering stints (both ophthalmological care units), 1 clinical research opportunity (in ophthalmology, two projects, received publication and poster from this work, all of the work for this was patient-facing+chart review), MA trained
7. Research Experience
2500 hours total, split between two labs. Resulted in 4 conference posters, one publication (co-first author), one publication in process (second author). All are optho papers.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
Shadowing at Ophthalmological clinic (50 hrs), shadowing at general ICU (50 hrs), shadowing at blindness center (30 hrs), resulting in two LORs from MDs.
9. Non-clinical volunteering
300 hours, including food bank (100 hrs), fundraising for charity through woodwind performances (110 hours), teaching underserved populations in the city biology lessons (150 hours)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
TAed for three classes, president of college nonprofit, student lecturer for conference
11. Relevant honors or awards
5 scientific research awards.

I applied this cycle but did not hear anything back from any school (no II). I applied to all of the TMDSAS schools and TCU. I did not apply DO.
I would like some help creating a new school list, and figuring out what to do during my gap year. Right now, options are complete a postbacc/do a masters (expensive option for my family, will have to take out loans), retake the MCAT (my MCAT was right around my practice ranges, but if I take the time to study I feel I can bump up 3-5 points), or pursue a MA job. Right now, my weaknesses are in my GPA, but I am not sure if my GPA warrants a whole year of postbacc, especially since I have passed all of my prereqs. Any opinions are appreciated!

 

[Faha]

If you end up reapplying include these AMCAS schools:
TCU
Tulane
Roseman
Alice Walton
Belmont
Methodist
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
TCOM
SAM HOUSTON STATE
UIWSOM
OSU-COM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
CUSOM
VCOM (all schools)
PCOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
Also accumulate another 50 hours at the food bank since some schools screen at 150 hours (fundraising and teaching are separate).

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I see you like ophthalmology... a lot.

Do you have an equal number of experience hours in primary care? Your profile leans research, which is fine but not sufficient to show us you can serve others who make you uncomfortable.

 

[Med Ed]

Question: how badly do you want to be an ophthalmologist?

 

[deleted1230072]

I see you like ophthalmology... a lot.

Do you have an equal number of experience hours in primary care? Your profile leans research, which is fine but not sufficient to show us you can serve others who make you uncomfortable.

Thanks for the reply! I am going to start work as a medical assistant in a low-income primary care facility in a couple of weeks. I plan to apply next cycle as well, so these hours will be included in my next app. Because I am working full time, I hope to gain at least 500 hours in the primary care setting before my application is submitted. Hopefully by doing so I will have more things to write about that are not necessarily optho related XD. Would you recommend anything else I should be doing?

 

[deleted1230072]

Question: how badly do you want to be an ophthalmologist?

Haha pretty badly. Couple of family members suffered from glaucoma, mom and aunt both had detached retinas. Kind of stems from growing up around those who are visually impaired, so I wanted as much of my activities to be focused around optho. Kind of niche, but I'm hoping it works out. Reason I did not feel optometry was for me was because there isnt too much clinical research opportunities for optometrists, and optho research is a big part of what I spent my time on in undergrad and something I really enjoyed.

 

[deleted1230072]

If you end up reapplying include these AMCAS schools:
TCU
Tulane
Roseman
Alice Walton
Belmont
Methodist
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
TCOM
SAM HOUSTON STATE
UIWSOM
OSU-COM
AZCOM
TUNCOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
CUSOM
VCOM (all schools)
PCOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
Also accumulate another 50 hours at the food bank since some schools screen at 150 hours (fundraising and teaching are separate).

Will do. Thank you for the reply!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Haha pretty badly. Couple of family members suffered from glaucoma, mom and aunt both had detached retinas. Kind of stems from growing up around those who are visually impaired, so I wanted as much of my activities to be focused around optho. Kind of niche, but I'm hoping it works out. Reason I did not feel optometry was for me was because there isnt too much clinical research opportunities for optometrists, and optho research is a big part of what I spent my time on in undergrad and something I really enjoyed.

Are you sure there are few clinical research opportunities for optometrists?

Graduate Education and Research – ASCO

optometriceducation.org

Not that your metrics are predictors, but ophthalmology is still one of the most desired specialties, and thus one of the most competitive. You need a strong mentor and a peer circle in medical school to get your grades and USMLE scores competitive enough to set you up for a shot at ophthalmology. I presume the docs you work for can tell you this. Your current metrics don't give me confidence until I know you're picking schools that will support you. Plus you have to go through the other rotations with highly recommended evaluations (I would think).

 

[Med Ed]

Haha pretty badly. Couple of family members suffered from glaucoma, mom and aunt both had detached retinas. Kind of stems from growing up around those who are visually impaired, so I wanted as much of my activities to be focused around optho. Kind of niche, but I'm hoping it works out. Reason I did not feel optometry was for me was because there isnt too much clinical research opportunities for optometrists, and optho research is a big part of what I spent my time on in undergrad and something I really enjoyed.

I asked this question for a specific reason, and @Mr.Smile12 beat me to the reply. If you were graduating from Yale with a 3.95/523 and a parent who is the chair of ophthalmology at a sizable east coast medical school, then adcoms would indulge your career plans.

But that isn't the case. You are bringing numbers to the table that do not support* matching into a highly competitive specialty. And adcoms are reluctant to give seats to candidates who they feel will likely fail and then be permanently unhappy.

So you need to make the case that your goal is to become a physician first for and foremost, and leave the specialty pursuit until later. This pivot is going to be challenging, but I would start by shadowing a primary care doctor. How you approach your PS is also going to be very important.


*In my experience GPA/MCAT are less predictive of medical school success than many assume. You may very well perform at the top of your class and match ophtho. But my opinion on this is in the minority.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

To the OP: also, many Texas schools are focused on regional mission, so they want to make sure you have a strong interest in working with people in their training region beyond medical school clerkships. Obviously, the schools in the Texas cities are likely your targets, but check about their general GPA/MCAT metrics. I agree, the important part is getting in as GPA/MCAT doesn't predict how well you will be in any specialty (your engagement in clinics and specialty/shelf exams and evaluations do). The med school forum documents many anxious students who are worried about their chances with suboptimal references/experiences in the specialty they want to go into.

Do your homework with TMDSAS programs. They are very good with sharing information about the process and what programs seek.

 

[polymerization]

Absolutely brutal. I'm sorry.

From my own experience, I realized that you can spin your wheels and improve relentlessly in many directions for the rest of your life and find yourself losing the plot. I would recommend rescuing your future self from the "tyranny of the shoulds" and apply DO now.

By that I mean that you can spend quite a long time self-flagellating and slowly growing to hate yourself in the process. You can take the MCAT, get a new job, do more research, get another degree, cure cancer and it will still not earn you any guarantees. You might spend a few more years around ophthalmologists, learning quite a lot about the eye, and still make minimum wage checking patients in and running basic scans/tonometry forever. I imagine this is not the ground-shifting work you imagine yourself doing.

Because we stake our identities on this one goal (because that is what the goal requires), every day you are not a medical student, you will resent yourself a little more for your continued effort and lose respect for yourself because you clearly tried hard at something and failed. It's demoralizing and self-defeating.

What's worse is that, as a reapplicant, you are tasked with showing schools a substantively improved application within a few months, which is not possible—you'll need more time. And no matter how much you do improve, there are always going to be superstars who outshine you in specific areas. An MPH is no longer impressive because people apply with PhDs; an MA job is no longer impressive because people boast years working as PAs/NPs, etc. It's not like the magical MA job that will get you in easy peasy lemon squeezey actually exists. On the contrary, the juice is often not worth the squeeze when you zoom out and consider that you still have at least another 8 years of education to go after you get in.

Life gets hard in the gap. Because it's expensive to apply, and you know that every time you apply your chances get a little worse, you are encouraged to push it off... and push it off... and hedge, and take caution, because if you do this again, you want to optimize your chances. This is a trick. Tomorrow never comes.

I don't think it's wrong to want the best case scenario, but consider expanding your perspective. Ophtho is not the only specialty to diagnose and treat disorders of the eye. Family medicine does, too. Or, you might fall in love with the visual pathway from the perspective of neurology. There are plenty of ways to honor your core experiences and interests that do not involve becoming an ophthalmologist in particular.

I think my biggest fear for you is that you will insist on MD and burn yourself out trying to get in. You will have taken your MCAT three times and applied more than once... I don't like those odds. I suspect you'll end up applying DO anyway, if you do make it back to the process.

Better to get to school now, rather than waste your time trying to optimize your application in 5 different directions and contribute even more to the sunk-cost fallacy. Right now, your best chance at becoming an ophthalmologist is going down the DO route where you are competitive today.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So back to the OP's question: is your GPA so low that you must do a postbac? Hard to say without knowing what courses you took, but upward trend as you take on more senior-level biomedical science course schedules helps to determine if a postbac is right for you. I think your science GPA suggests a postbac is fine as long as you know what courses you have left. I don't think you need an SMP unless you had a smattering of C's, which your overall GPA doesn't suggest. Read the SDN How to Choose a Postbac or SMP guide.

You probably know this already: job searching is horrible out there. You could find an MA job, but you could be viewed as overqualified (finishing college with a bachelor's) or just a "temporary fix" (you intend to apply to medical school in less than a year). Research jobs are possible, but you have to find the right investigator who understands your circumstances and desires not to stay in the position for more than a year. And has funding.