What are my chances, and what should I work on?

[Minagami]

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Hello, I am a new member

I am currently a senior in college (Bio major, psychology minor) looking to go into medicine. My gpa at best is looking to be a 3.65, and I am currently preparing to take the MCATs after I finish the Kaplan course. Assuming I have a good score on the MCATs (perhaps a 510+), what are my chances of getting into medical school? What schools would be a good place to apply?

I also work part time, do volunteering, neurobiology research with a professor, and am applying for a nursing position in the summer.

As for what kind of doctor I want to become, I'm not sure right now. I wanted to become an anesthesiologist but who knows what could change.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can give me!

 

[Forever Geebs]

Please elaborate on your ECs such as volunteering, research, shadowing, etc.


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[Minagami]

Please elaborate on your ECs such as volunteering, research, shadowing, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am researching at a lab conducting research on mice, their brains (currently circadian rhythm). I conduct tasks such as preparing solutions, cage checks, and is training to conduct surgeries to inject virus into their brains to knock out genes. I've already done my first brain extraction and sliced samples.

For volunteering I have 100+ hrs since I volunteer on break from school at a local hospital near my home. It was mainly tasks with greeting, directions, talking with them as we bring them down for surgery.

Shadowing I have done in the Anesthesiology department at the same hospital, I watched procedures and followed several doctors around over the day

work: host at japanese steak house+tutoring intro biology for freshmen (2 semesters so far). I'm also looking to tutor more after I graduate.
Special occasions: studied abroad in Japan (before college)

 

[curbsideconsult]

Can't give you what your chances would be without an MCAT, but here are some comments on other parts of your app:

• Hospital volunteering is nice, but it's not enough to get you to med school. Hospital volunteering is a very comfortable gig and adcoms know that. You need to find something more worthwhile in terms of serving the needy.
  
• Your application might benefit from shadowing PCPs, but it's not necessary and you don't need anymore shadowing aside from that. You need clinical experience so hopefully you'll get that nursing job and accumulate some hours there.
• Your ECs are weak. You need to find some other ECs or really do a lot more volunteering.
• You should plan on taking a gap year to accumulate the volunteer hours if you haven't already planned on doing so.

 

[Minagami]

Can't give you what your chances would be without an MCAT, but here are some comments on other parts of your app:

• Hospital volunteering is nice, but it's not enough to get you to med school. Hospital volunteering is a very comfortable gig and adcoms know that. You need to find something more worthwhile in terms of serving the needy.
  
• Your application might benefit from shadowing PCPs, but it's not necessary and you don't need anymore shadowing aside from that. You need clinical experience so hopefully you'll get that nursing job and accumulate some hours there.
• Your ECs are weak. You need to find some other ECs or really do a lot more volunteering.
• You should plan on taking a gap year to accumulate the volunteer hours if you haven't already planned on doing so.

Thank you very much!
Yes I will be taking a gap year, I will look to strengthen my ECs. Would they need to be health related or can it be just helping people out like food bank etc. I have also done other volunteering such as raising awareness for alzheimer's, family restaurant (which I'm not sure if it counts but I volunteered there for over 8 years), several english learning camps, and was a student speaker at a kumamoto red cross event.

what would be good volunteering events to do? I will have much time to help at various events after graduation.

 

[curbsideconsult]

Volunteering is one thing and ECs are another. Yes, they can overlap, but the way I've viewed it is that volunteering is the thing you do to help people and ECs are what make you interesting. If you get that nursing job, you don't need health-related volunteer experience.

The volunteering activities you listed are pretty good, except for the family restaurant (you absolutely cannot list that as a volunteer activity no matter how much free labor your family got from you, but you can probably list it as work). Make sure you have enough interest in them that you can talk about them in interviews. If you're passionate about those things, you should continue with those. If not, I suggest looking through VolunteerMatch - Where Volunteering Begins and Idealist for volunteering activities. If you're looking for new opportunities you should apply to them now so you can start immediately after graduation because, as I'm sure you've learned, sometimes it takes a while for your application to get processed.

For ECs, what if you took lessons in learning how to do hibachi and/or be a sushi chef? That would be interesting and if you're a female, then even more interesting.

I just realized you didn't specify whether the 3.65 was s or c or both.

 

[Minagami]

Volunteering is one thing and ECs are another. Yes, they can overlap, but the way I've viewed it is that volunteering is the thing you do to help people and ECs are what make you interesting. If you get that nursing job, you don't need health-related volunteer experience.

The volunteering activities you listed are pretty good, except for the family restaurant (you absolutely cannot list that as a volunteer activity no matter how much free labor your family got from you, but you can probably list it as work). Make sure you have enough interest in them that you can talk about them in interviews. If you're passionate about those things, you should continue with those. If not, I suggest looking through

I just realized you didn't specify whether the 3.65 was s or c or both.

The 3.65 is my cumulative
my major (bio) gpa was a 3.53 but I think it is a little higher since I took so many science classes last semester, Ill need to check on that.
Thank you for the sites, it is very helpful! I've already seen a few opportunities that I am interested in, perhaps red cross/alzheimer's association/food bank

Another question about the EC's, can those include hobbies+skills? I enjoy learning languages but I do not take classes for them, I typically learned on my own (like learning japanese before I went to japan)
I also enjoy tutoring and working with international students

Thanks so much for clarifying about the family business, I didn't consider it but my professor said I could put that in there

 

[curbsideconsult]

3.53 is a little low depending on where you want to apply, but if you have a good upward trend you're fine there.

Yes, your ECs can include hobbies and skills. AMCAS, if it's still the same as when I applied, will ask you for a contact person and info and you can just use yourself as the contact. A search through SDN will verify this. The EC I had (I had a lot of other stuff on my app so I really didn't need to add a lot of ECs) was some place that could verify my hours so I never ran into your particular situation. If learning languages on your own is a fun hobby for you, then absolutely put it down as an EC. It's even better that you were able to learn enough on your own that it helped you while you were in Japan. That shows that you're well-rounded and have a good work ethic when it comes to learning. If you have another hobby, you should list that. Tutoring and working with international students shouldn't be listed as an extracurriculars.

 

[candbgirl]

Are you a nurse?

 

[sixersfan]

If you do sports not part of a group or organization like playing basketball for fun, skiing, etc on your own considered an EC?

 

[curbsideconsult]

If you do sports not part of a group or organization like playing basketball for fun, skiing, etc on your own considered an EC?

Yup, but don't just say something like, "I play basketball with friends to relieve stress" and leave it at that. You get several hundred characters of space so use them. Say something like, "I played in basketball leagues when I was young and I thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie and working together as a team to achieve one goal. Unfortunately, I didn't have time play in high school and beyond due to school work and volunteering activities, but I always made sure to play a game or two each week with my friends. It provided an outlet for my stress relief, I got to spend time with my friends, and the competitive spirit of the game rejuvenated my motivation to work and study the rest of the week." Etc. etc.

Adcoms may not read very carefully word for word each of each of your activities (you still get up to 15, right?) but they'll see at glance whether or not you put in an effort. They'll also see if you're a well-rounded person or not. You have to have a balanced activities section. If all they see is work, research, and volunteering, they'll sink you're a basket case waiting to implode. But if they see all that AND see one or two hobbies like being part of a spelunking group or whatever you do, they'll find you interesting and want you as part of their incoming class.

 

[sixersfan]

@curbsideconsult thank you that was really helpful!

 

[Minagami]

3.53 is a little low depending on where you want to apply, but if you have a good upward trend you're fine there.

Yes, your ECs can include hobbies and skills. AMCAS, if it's still the same as when I applied, will ask you for a contact person and info and you can just use yourself as the contact. A search through SDN will verify this. The EC I had (I had a lot of other stuff on my app so I really didn't need to add a lot of ECs) was some place that could verify my hours so I never ran into your particular situation. If learning languages on your own is a fun hobby for you, then absolutely put it down as an EC. It's even better that you were able to learn enough on your own that it helped you while you were in Japan. That shows that you're well-rounded and have a good work ethic when it comes to learning. If you have another hobby, you should list that. Tutoring and working with international students shouldn't be listed as an extracurriculars.

Yeah I had a rough junior year but I made sure to try and show an upward trend by taking 16 upper level bio credits, and working part time for two jobs last semester. Good thing everything went well and I handled the workload.

What ECs did you do? It would be helpful to get me thinking outside the box!

 

[curbsideconsult]

Yeah I had a rough junior year but I made sure to try and show an upward trend by taking 16 upper level bio credits, and working part time for two jobs last semester. Good thing everything went well and I handled the workload.

What ECs did you do? It would be helpful to get me thinking outside the box!

You need to find what interests you and go from there. It's very good to try out new things, but what someone else does isn't necessarily going to resonate with you. Aside from languages, what else do you enjoy? If there is nothing else you enjoy, then stick with that theme. Maybe delve into calligraphy and learn how to do hiragana and kanji calligraphy. Do you like working with the elderly? Maybe look into starting up a language club at your local nursing home and teach the residents there a little bit of Japanese. There are so many things you can do to show adcoms that you're an excellent student and a well-rounded human being.