MD WAMC + school list help

[sereiin]

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removed for privacy- thanks everyone for their opinions

 

[Faha]

Virtual scribing has minimal value. Since you have only 70 hours of clinical volunteering and no non clinical volunteering, you are not competitive for MD schools with your lack of clinical and non clinical hours. In the coming year you should accumulate another 200+ hours of clinical volunteering and 200+ hours of non clinical volunteering (food bank, homeless shelter, etc.)

 

[candbgirl]

You really aren’t ready to apply MD for the following reasons:
-your GPAs are well below average for MD acceptances(cGPA-3.72 and sGPA-3.6+)
-your ECs are kind of hobbled together
-skip Rush and Loyola, they expect and get hundreds if not thousands of service hours from their applicants
- 50+ hours of clinical experience is very low; projected hours are just that-projected and really don’t count for much; clinical experience can be either employment or volunteer); why are you a virtual scribe- that was okay during the pandemic but it is so much better to do face to face activities, experiencing the interaction between physicians and patients is such a good experience, you miss out on that when things are virtual;
- you really need nonclinical volunteering before applying
-your attitude about shadowing needs tweaking and please find a primary care doc to shadow for some hours; this is important despite what you think; again this should be in person.
-Meharry and Charles Drew focus mainly on African American students;
-you should have DO schools on your list for sure
-University of Illinois is outlandishly expensive, you might want to rethink that school
-have you checked instate/out of state statistics for schools on your list?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I’ve got a school list but I keep finding more info and having to revise it and or finding new schools and overall I’m just kind of uncertain and confused. I was hoping I could get some advice as to where to apply

You don't have a purpose. Without an anchor, you will easily drift according to whims and could capsize. If you don't know what you want, you will spend excessively for little return.

Charting Your Purpose by Writing Your Professional Oath | Student Doctor Network | SDN

Premeds dream of reciting the Hippocratic Oath dressed in their new white coat embroidered with the crest of their medical school. The White Coat

www.studentdoctor.net

 

[sereiin]

You really aren’t ready to apply MD for the following reasons:
-your GPAs are well below average for MD acceptances(cGPA-3.72 and sGPA-3.6+)
-your ECs are kind of hobbled together
-skip Rush and Loyola, they expect and get hundreds if not thousands of service hours from their applicants
- 50+ hours of clinical experience is very low; projected hours are just that-projected and really don’t count for much; clinical experience can be either employment or volunteer); why are you a virtual scribe- that was okay during the pandemic but it is so much better to do face to face activities, experiencing the interaction between physicians and patients is such a good experience, you miss out on that when things are virtual;
- you really need nonclinical volunteering before applying
-your attitude about shadowing needs tweaking and please find a primary care doc to shadow for some hours; this is important despite what you think; again this should be in person.
-Meharry and Charles Drew focus mainly on African American students;
-you should have DO schools on your list for sure
-University of Illinois is outlandishly expensive, you might want to rethink that school
-have you checked instate/out of state statistics for schools on your list?

Thank you for your reply and your insight. I am a little confused as to your thoughts about clinical experience. I started scribing because I thought it would count as clinical experience; however, an advisor told me that some schools see this as equivalent to shadowing and this is why I thought I didn’t need too many further shadowing hours. I was a virtual scribe because I didn’t have the means to travel to an in-person job. It seems you don’t consider scribing to be clinical experience or shadowing— is this because it is virtual? Despite this, it’s been a really valuable experience for me. The doctor I work with does a lot of TeleHealth and I sit it on Zoom visits with patients with the same physician-patient interactions as his in-person visits. Another doctor I work with additionally has me sit in to watch in-person visits as well. I made this clear in my primary.

 

[sereiin]

You don't have a purpose. Without an anchor, you will easily drift according to whims and could capsize. If you don't know what you want, you will spend excessively for little return.

Charting Your Purpose by Writing Your Professional Oath | Student Doctor Network | SDN

Premeds dream of reciting the Hippocratic Oath dressed in their new white coat embroidered with the crest of their medical school. The White Coat

www.studentdoctor.net

Thank you. I am really confident in wanting to go to medical school and becoming an oncologist— I know you must hear this from everyone but this is my passion and it’s been for many many years. I’m sorry, but I would strongly reject the idea that I don’t have a purpose. Of course I have some thoughts on what kind of school I would ideally want to go to, but at this point my main goal is to go to medical school and I am not too concerned about where as long as I can go. I would love to go to a school focused on research, but I honestly don’t care where I end up living.

 

[Goro]

You really aren’t ready to apply MD for the following reasons:
-your GPAs are well below average for MD acceptances(cGPA-3.72 and sGPA-3.6+)
-your ECs are kind of hobbled together
-skip Rush and Loyola, they expect and get hundreds if not thousands of service hours from their applicants
- 50+ hours of clinical experience is very low; projected hours are just that-projected and really don’t count for much; clinical experience can be either employment or volunteer); why are you a virtual scribe- that was okay during the pandemic but it is so much better to do face to face activities, experiencing the interaction between physicians and patients is such a good experience, you miss out on that when things are virtual;
- you really need nonclinical volunteering before applying
-your attitude about shadowing needs tweaking and please find a primary care doc to shadow for some hours; this is important despite what you think; again this should be in person.
-Meharry and Charles Drew focus mainly on African American students;
-you should have DO schools on your list for sure
-University of Illinois is outlandishly expensive, you might want to rethink that school
-have you checked instate/out of state statistics for schools on your list?

Ditto, ditto, ditto.
Sorry, OP, but you're not ready MD schools.

U VA and UCSF would be donations anyway. They don't need the money, so take your SO out for dinner instead.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you. I am really confident in wanting to go to medical school and becoming an oncologist— I know you must hear this from everyone but this is my passion and it’s been for many many years. I’m sorry, but I would strongly reject the idea that I don’t have a purpose. Of course I have some thoughts on what kind of school I would ideally want to go to, but at this point my main goal is to go to medical school and I am not too concerned about where as long as I can go. I would love to go to a school focused on research, but I honestly don’t care where I end up living.

Finding Your Purpose as a Health Professional | Student Doctor Network | SDN

In the 2004 Tony-award-winning musical Avenue Q, Princeton, a recent college graduate (with an English degree from a prestigious university), searches to

www.studentdoctor.net

As others have mentioned, your milestones do not align with your school list for medical school.

You have been to AACR, so I have no doubt you have an idea of what you want to do as an oncologist.

You haven't started EMT, right? Have worked in chronic pain management or hospice? You don't say how many hours you have scribed in person for your oncology department, but I'd check out GI, Obgyn or peds.

Yes, oncology is relevant in rural places, underserved urban areas, and in every body system... they will teach you the material you need in DO schools too. But med school doesn't teach you to become an oncologist... that's what fellowship is for. You know how long it will take you.

You may have a purpose but your record shows you aren't as close to your goal (brand MD or bust, you dont care where) as you want to be, and you admit it by asking for school list opinions.

You are ready now for a very strong research career in oncology, much more than the long haul of medical training. You have a lot of potential with research accomplishments to be a cancer biologist and expert, so it is reasonable to continue until you get more insight and experience in why you want to be a doctor.

Go to grad school at the Hutch, MD Anderson, Sinai GSK, Dana Farber:

Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences

The Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers the next generation of basic scientists a program to study the biological sciences through the lens of cancer

www.sloankettering.edu

 

[sereiin]

@Faha @candbgirl @Goro @Mr.Smile12 Thank you everyone for your advice. As you can imagine it’s tough to digest but I appreciate the reality check. My question now is considering I’ve already applied to some schools, would it make a difference if I were to boost my clinical hours in the next 1-2 months? I will gain 50 hours of direct patient care (EMT clinical) and if I torture myself a little I might be able to get about a 100 hours in volunteering at the ED. I think I might do this anyway because it will be helpful to re-apply with next year, but would you feel it would make a difference in my current application? Thank you.

 

[chilly_md]

@Faha @candbgirl @Goro @Mr.Smile12 Thank you everyone for your advice. As you can imagine it’s tough to digest but I appreciate the reality check. My question now is considering I’ve already applied to some schools, would it make a difference if I were to boost my clinical hours in the next 1-2 months? I will gain 50 hours of direct patient care (EMT clinical) and if I torture myself a little I might be able to get about a 100 hours in volunteering at the ED. I think I might do this anyway because it will be helpful to re-apply with next year, but would you feel it would make a difference in my current application? Thank you.

No, if you've already submitted, they will make their decision off what is on your application. Some applicants put projected hours, which are of little to no value.

 

[candbgirl]

@Faha @candbgirl @Goro @Mr.Smile12 Thank you everyone for your advice. As you can imagine it’s tough to digest but I appreciate the reality check. My question now is considering I’ve already applied to some schools, would it make a difference if I were to boost my clinical hours in the next 1-2 months? I will gain 50 hours of direct patient care (EMT clinical) and if I torture myself a little I might be able to get about a 100 hours in volunteering at the ED. I think I might do this anyway because it will be helpful to re-apply with next year, but would you feel it would make a difference in my current application? Thank you.

What @chilly_md said. Schools will make decisions based on what is on your secondaries. It also wouldn’t make any difference because you still need a couple hundred hours of nonclinical volunteering and some primary care shadowing, at the very least.
Take your time. Build a competitive application , an application that schools will want to interview you. You can’t do this overnight and you really only want to apply one time. So do it right the first time.

 

[sereiin]

What @chilly_md said. Schools will make decisions based on what is on your secondaries. It also wouldn’t make any difference because you still need a couple hundred hours of nonclinical volunteering and some primary care shadowing, at the very least.
Take your time. Build a competitive application , an application that schools will want to interview you. You can’t do this overnight and you really only want to apply one time. So do it right the first time.

I understand. I was hoping to get these hours in prior to secondaries but fair enough. Do you really feel non-clinical volunteering is so important? I’m honestly not very interested or passionate about that and I would rather do service that I’m engaged by. I am leaning towards MA’ing for a primary care practice so I think I will get a decent amount of shadowing-equivalent exposure to those physicians.

 

[Goro]

I understand. I was hoping to get these hours in prior to secondaries but fair enough. Do you really feel non-clinical volunteering is so important? I’m honestly not very interested or passionate about that and I would rather do service that I’m engaged by.

Medicine is a service profession.

From the wise LizzyM: I am always reminded of a certain frequent poster of a few years ago. He was adamant about not volunteering as he did not want to give his services for free and he was busy and helping others was inconvenient. He matriculated to a medical school and lasted less than one year. He's now in school to become an accountant.

Service need not be "unique"; it can be anything that helps people unable to help themselves and that is outside of a patient-care setting. If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients.

Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching literacy or ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Meals on Wheels, mentoring immigrant/refugee adults, being a friendly visitor to shut-ins, adaptive sports program coach or Special Olympics.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Everyone should have some future hours. But if they counted for anything, we would have insane embellishments that we would have to consider.