What are my chances at reapplying?

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HoopsBhoy

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Hi everyone, I'm new here, but I've started reading some of the posts on this forum and it's been really helpful so far!

I am in somewhat of a dilemma :confused:. I applied last year to med school and was waitlisted at Michigan and VCU. I just found out that I was admitted off of VCU's waitlist.

I received the news with mixed feelings. On one hand I was happy to be accepted, but on the other hand, I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to go to school in Richmond (I'm from CA).

I know one thing for sure: I applied rather stupidly last year. Too many reach schools, very few safeties, and I hadn't volunteered AT ALL.

So, I'm faced with the dilemma of saying "no" to VCU or saying "yes". If I say no, I feel I'd be a stronger applicant this next time around. I'm volunteering now, my GPA has gone up since then, and I have a much more realistic idea of where to apply.

My profile is this: 32S mcat, good GPA, some research (no papers or presentations though), and a fair amount of ECs. That said, I know that with the poor economy, more and more people will be applying to med school, and mcat scores will also probably go up as a result (they did last year!)

Any advice would be SUPREMELY helpful! I've only got a week or so to think about it!

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Would you be happy going to VCU? Something made you apply there in the first place, right?

Personally, I'd go with the "bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" saying...but ultimately it's up to you. What don't you like about VCU, besides the fact that it's in Richmond?
 
I guess being in CA really presents several issues.

I'd be closer to my family here, and with a younger sister going through a tough time in college (in state), I feel I'd be better equipped to help her out if I was nearby (relatively speaking of course).

Also, I love it in CA, and I want to do residency here eventually, if possible. I'm not sure how much that will be affected by my attending school in Virginia...

A friend suggested I try out VCU for a year, and if it doesn't work out, I can always transfer to a school in CA. For some reason I heard that was not really done.
 
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I don't know what your stats are and therefore its hard to judge what your chances are this round. However, California schools (all of them) are very tough to get into. I've heard good things about Virginia schools.
If i was in your situation, I'd take my acceptance and run with it. But that's coming from me (no interviews last year, reapplicant this year). So, there you go.

Congrats on being accepted though! That's a huge thing to have accomplished!
 
Well, my original from-the-gut advice was to tell you to go to VCU for a "second visit" of sorts to see if you can bear a place like Richmond. But your second post makes it sound less about how VCU is a bad fit for you, but more an issue of California being too good a fit for you to leave.

If this is the case, the first assumption I'll make is that you applied to a number of schools in California this round. Did you get interviews? Did you feel like there was any reason why you didn't get in? If so, then applying next year ONLY to schools you'd want to go to may make sense, so long as you can improve your chances of getting into UC schools (without guidance from a dean or adcomm member, however, this road is fraught with challenges). I'd also highly suggest calling the adcomms to the schools you got interviews at to see what your chances might be for next year.

Now, if you didn't get any interviews at the UCs you did apply to, you should think carefully about dropping one acceptance to ultimately come up empty-handed for 2009. As someone said, the UCs are notoriously difficult to get into. I'm not convinced volunteering is the reason you didn't get into your schools of choice.

I commend your want of being close to family but you have to be brutally honest with yourself about what your priorities are in life. If family is more important than med school AND you want to take the risk of trying to get into a local school, then do that. If you truly are passionate about medicine, my suggestion is to take that VCU offer and run with it. Four years may seem long, but if you work your butt off, you can be back in California right after that (heck, check the match lists to see how many make it to Cali - my recollection is their match list is solid). And supporting a little sister remotely is not impossible in this day. Sure it's not ideal, but if done right, there can be little dropoff in support.
 
Thanks for everyone's advice so far! It's been helpful.

To respond to a few things:

I applied all the UCs last year. I received secondaries from Irvine, SD, and Davis.
Here's where the stupidity factors in:

I didn't complete Davis' or SD's secondaries because I felt "burned out" from writing the secondaries to other schools - schools that, in painful retrospect, I had no business applying to in the first place (e.g. Harvard, Yale, etc.).

I completed Irvine's secondary in due time over the summer and thought I was all done. Months later, the day before their secondary deadline, I receive an e-mail from them, saying I had yet to complete their app. I was shocked, checked the site, and found out that lo and behold, I had forgotten to click "submit". I was, I'm sure you can all guess, pretty damn annoyed with myself.

UCLA and UCSF didn't send me secondaries.

I think this time around I'm really only shooting for Davis and Irvine. I think that a lack of volunteer experience was my biggest "hole" in my app, and also, clearly, actually applying to Davis in the first place would be helpful compared to last time. With Irvine, I think that my not turning in my secondary until the last minute effectively put me at the bottom of the barrel.

A bit more detail on my stats:
- MCAT: 9 PS, 11 VR, 12 BS, S = 32S
- GPA: Science = 3.64, Overall = 3.82
- Shadowed physicians (plan on doing more of that)
- Researched at Stanford for a summer and did some at my undergrad (Pomona) during a semester and over a summer
- A few solid extra curriculars: soph. equivalent of an R.A. was the biggest
- Unofficially tutored during my soph. year
- Had no volunteer experience during college (just started that now)

Again, any other help would be so appreciated! Thanks again!
 
Thanks for everyone's advice so far! It's been helpful.

To respond to a few things:

I applied all the UCs last year. I received secondaries from Irvine, SD, and Davis.
Here's where the stupidity factors in:

I didn't complete Davis' or SD's secondaries because I felt "burned out" from writing the secondaries to other schools - schools that, in painful retrospect, I had no business applying to in the first place (e.g. Harvard, Yale, etc.).

I completed Irvine's secondary in due time over the summer and thought I was all done. Months later, the day before their secondary deadline, I receive an e-mail from them, saying I had yet to complete their app. I was shocked, checked the site, and found out that lo and behold, I had forgotten to click "submit". I was, I'm sure you can all guess, pretty damn annoyed with myself.

UCLA and UCSF didn't send me secondaries.

I think this time around I'm really only shooting for Davis and Irvine. I think that a lack of volunteer experience was my biggest "hole" in my app, and also, clearly, actually applying to Davis in the first place would be helpful compared to last time. With Irvine, I think that my not turning in my secondary until the last minute effectively put me at the bottom of the barrel.

A bit more detail on my stats:
- MCAT: 9 PS, 11 VR, 12 BS, S = 32S
- GPA: Science = 3.64, Overall = 3.82
- Shadowed physicians (plan on doing more of that)
- Researched at Stanford for a summer and did some at my undergrad (Pomona) during a semester and over a summer
- A few solid extra curriculars: soph. equivalent of an R.A. was the biggest
- Unofficially tutored during my soph. year
- Had no volunteer experience during college (just started that now)

Again, any other help would be so appreciated! Thanks again!

Personally i would go to VCU, because there is no guarantee that you will get into a CA med school. Schools are getting harder and harder to get into, and CA is arguably the hardest state to get into a state schools to get into. You don't want to be in a position where you applied again and didn't get into any CA schools again. You future will be fine at VCU, as long as you do well.
 
I think my only advice would be to consider where you will be happiest. If you are homesick, far away from your family and friends, and lacking a support group in Richmond, especially if your sister needs you in CA, I'm not sure how happy you would be (only you can know this). But in my experience (attended freshman year of college 3000 miles from home), it is hard to be focused and successful with your schoolwork if you are unhappy and half your heart is somewhere else. If it were me, I would reapply to places I knew I would be happy. It is four years of your life and, especially if you want to do a residency in CA, you will need to do well academically. There will always be the "What if?" question, but this is a huge, life-changing decision. I ended up transferring back home for sophmore year and it made a huge difference for me. Good luck and congrats!! :)
 
I think most schools seeing you turned down a medical school the previous year would question your motivation of becoming a doctor. Go to VCU and if you hate it, look into trying to transfer somewhere
 
Personally i would go to VCU, because there is no guarantee that you will get into a CA med school. Schools are getting harder and harder to get into, and CA is arguably the hardest state to get into a state schools to get into. You don't want to be in a position where you applied again and didn't get into any CA schools again. You future will be fine at VCU, as long as you do well.

I tend to agree with this. If the aforementioned reasons for staying in California are truly non-negotiable, then you know what you have to do. But if you can somehow balance your family life with school, I'd take the guaranteed acceptance - especially knowing how darn competitive those California schools are. You're right in that transferring schools is rarely done - and then usually only for one of two reasons - spouse's job, or family illness.

My $0.02. Either way, best of luck.
 
I tend to agree with this. If the aforementioned reasons for staying in California are truly non-negotiable, then you know what you have to do. But if you can somehow balance your family life with school, I'd take the guaranteed acceptance - especially knowing how darn competitive those California schools are. You're right in that transferring schools is rarely done - and then usually only for one of two reasons - spouse's job, or family illness.

My $0.02. Either way, best of luck.

VCU matched 3 people into integrated plastics in 2008, 2 in California (USC and Stanford). If you do well at that medical school you should have no trouble coming back to California for any residency for which you personally are competitive.

I'm with Blade. Beggars can't be choosers. Why trade a sure thing now for another year in limbo and no guarantees? Take your ticket and run with it--come back home when you've got the M.D.
 
Thanks to everyone for the help and advice.

I'm feeling pretty good about my decision now: VCU, here I come!
 
Another thing- when it comes to your sister, even if you were in the same state, you wouldn't necessarily have time to see her to help her out. Unless you were actually in the same town, and even then it would be difficult. In state or out of state, realistically, most of your contact will be via phone and email with visits on Thanksgiving/ Xmas/ or other times if there's an actual emergency.

I actually live very close to my family and probably see them as often as I would if I were living in another state. The good thing about having them close is that I know that I "could" theoretically get to their house in an hour. It's psychological comfort.
 
I'm really glad you've decided to go to VCU. Just in case you still doubt your decision, please go! Schools TALK, and if you say no to one, and reapply elsewhere, you are likely to find that no school is willing to take a chance that you'll say no to them too. Anyhow, I'm glad you made the smart choice.

I was waitlisted at VCU and two other schools the first time I applied. And I was applying as a California resident. I totally understand your misgivings. But it's four years, and who knows--maybe you'll end up being the big fish in the pond, get a really high class rank, and be a more competitive applicant for residency programs! Best of luck, and congratulations on your acceptance--you're gonna be a doctor!
 
But it's four years, and who knows--maybe you'll end up being the big fish in the pond, get a really high class rank, and be a more competitive applicant for residency programs!

In the end, no matter what school you attend, you're still going to have to work hard and rock Step 1 and your MS-III rotations to get into a competitive residency. So in that sense, it's all on you anyway!
 
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