WAMC - Texas Resident (3.83/513)

[dekudoctor]

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Hi all, I wanted to post my application on here and see what your thoughts are! I am a Texas resident and am only interested in applying TMDSAS MD. I know my MCAT is not that impressive. I got my score back yesterday and was a little disappointed as my FL avg was a 519, but I am not taking it a 3rd time, so I just have to roll with it. I want to get specific feedback on my chances at getting into schools like UTSW, BCM, and McGovern, as those are currently my top 3. I will be graduating in May and taking a gap year to round out my application and add more meaningful research to help with more research heavy schools such as UTSW and BCM. Here is a breakdown of my application:

Stats

• 3.83 cGPA, ~3.80 sGPA
• 1st MCAT - 507 (128/125/126/128)
• 2nd MCAT (retake) - 513 (128/127/128/130)
• Texas resident, White, and will be graduating in May from a large state school

Clinical Experience

• ~1100 hours: Medical scribe for Urology clinic (2 summers)
• No hours of clinical volunteering: I focused more of my time on non-clinical volunteering, will this hurt my application?

Research experience and productivity

• ~1000 hours: Undergraduate Research Assistant (no posters or pubs sadly)
• Currently planning to be working in a research lab during my gap year, and hopefully will yield more productivity than my undergrad position.

Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• 64 Hours: Pediatric Orthopedics
• 35 Hours: Orthopedic Surgery
• 20 Hours: Interventional Cardiology
• 26 Hours: Plastic Surgery
• 79 Hours: Emergency Medicine
• 30 Hours: Family Medicine

Non-clinical volunteering

• 200 Hours: Food bank volunteer (technically have more hours than this, but separated the volunteer coordinator hours into the extracurricular section)
• 53 Hours: Homeless shelter volunteer
• Planning to find another food bank/homeless shelter during gap year to regularly serve at

Other extracurricular activities

• 300+ Hours: Christian fraternity pledge trainer (spent 2 semesters leading and mentoring 100+ students)
• 400+ Hours: Christian fraternity member
• 200+ Hours: Food bank volunteer coordinator/service chair (was in charge of all service opportunities/volunteers for the christian fraternity and our associated philanthropy)
• ~150 Hours: Set and completed a goal to run a marathon within 6 months with no prior long distance running experience (thought this was a little unique, and I also have a story behind in concerning my health)
• ~200 Hours: Bible study/Life group leader
• ~100 Hours: Healthcare organization member

Relevant honors or awards

• Received community service scholarship my first semester of college (not sure if that is important or not)

School List

• UTSW
• BCM
• McGovern
• Texas A&M
• Dell
• UTMB
• University of Houston
• Long
• Texas Tech

 

[wysdoc]

Hi all, I wanted to post my application on here and see what your thoughts are! I am a Texas resident and am only interested in applying TMDSAS MD. I know my MCAT is not that impressive. I got my score back yesterday and was a little disappointed as my FL avg was a 519, but I am not taking it a 3rd time, so I just have to roll with it. I want to get specific feedback on my chances at getting into schools like UTSW, BCM, and McGovern, as those are currently my top 3. I will be graduating in May and taking a gap year to round out my application and add more meaningful research to help with more research heavy schools such as UTSW and BCM. Here is a breakdown of my application:

Stats

• 3.83 cGPA, ~3.80 sGPA
• 1st MCAT - 507 (128/125/126/128)
• 2nd MCAT (retake) - 513 (128/127/128/130)
• Texas resident, White, and will be graduating in May from a large state school

Clinical Experience

• ~1100 hours: Medical scribe for Urology clinic (2 summers)
• No hours of clinical volunteering: I focused more of my time on non-clinical volunteering, will this hurt my application?

Research experience and productivity

• ~1000 hours: Undergraduate Research Assistant (no posters or pubs sadly)
• Currently planning to be working in a research lab during my gap year, and hopefully will yield more productivity than my undergrad position.

Shadowing experience and specialties represented

• 64 Hours: Pediatric Orthopedics
• 35 Hours: Orthopedic Surgery
• 20 Hours: Interventional Cardiology
• 26 Hours: Plastic Surgery
• 79 Hours: Emergency Medicine
• 30 Hours: Family Medicine

Non-clinical volunteering

• 200 Hours: Food bank volunteer (technically have more hours than this, but separated the volunteer coordinator hours into the extracurricular section)
• 53 Hours: Homeless shelter volunteer
• Planning to find another food bank/homeless shelter during gap year to regularly serve at

Other extracurricular activities

• 300+ Hours: Christian fraternity pledge trainer (spent 2 semesters leading and mentoring 100+ students)
• 400+ Hours: Christian fraternity member
• 200+ Hours: Food bank volunteer coordinator/service chair (was in charge of all service opportunities/volunteers for the christian fraternity and our associated philanthropy)
• ~150 Hours: Set and completed a goal to run a marathon within 6 months with no prior long distance running experience (thought this was a little unique, and I also have a story behind in concerning my health)
• ~200 Hours: Bible study/Life group leader
• ~100 Hours: Healthcare organization member

Relevant honors or awards

• Received community service scholarship my first semester of college (not sure if that is important or not)

School List

• UTSW
• BCM
• McGovern
• Texas A&M
• Dell
• UTMB
• University of Houston
• Long
• Texas Tech

You were right to focus on community service volunteering to round out your application.
With as many clinical hours as you have (paid) you don’t need volunteer clinical hours too.
Apply to all the Texas MD schools plus TCOM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I agree. Experience hours look good overall.

Now you must articulate your purpose and mission fit. How should we look at the overall picture from the puzzle pieces?

 

[dekudoctor]

You were right to focus on community service volunteering to round out your application.
With as many clinical hours as you have (paid) you don’t need volunteer clinical hours too.
Apply to all the Texas MD schools plus TCOM

Ok sounds good, thanks for the input. Do you think a 513 will kill my chances for schools like BCM or UTSW? I know it obv does not look as good as a 517+, but my thought would be if my writing is good and my application is well rounded, it could make up for the lower MCAT score. Is this flawed thinking?

 

[dekudoctor]

I agree. Experience hours look good overall.

Now you must articulate your purpose and mission fit. How should we look at the overall picture from the puzzle pieces?

What is the best way to go about this when writing secondaries? Should I just look into the school's mission statement and stuff and use that to help show that I am a good fit for school X or school Y?

 

[wysdoc]

Ok sounds good, thanks for the input. Do you think a 513 will kill my chances for schools like BCM or UTSW? I know it obv does not look as good as a 517+, but my thought would be if my writing is good and my application is well rounded, it could make up for the lower MCAT score. Is this flawed thinking?

Median MCAT for matriculants to TMDSAS schools is between 511-512. The rest of your application is important, so don’t fixate on that one number or spend any time talking about it in your app.
Good luck !