MD & DO What are my chances?

[joshuaseidman94]

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So I'm a Junior at CUNY right now and I plan to apply to medical school after I take a year off after college. I currently have a 3.61 GPA ( A's in bio I & II, A and A- in physics I & II, A- and B+ in Chem I & II, B+ & B in orgo I & II). I do research at my school during the year and I at NYU hospital during the summer. I also will be working for the lab at NYU for a year when I take a gap year ( doctor promised to publish me during this year). I have am the vice president of two clubs at my school and am very involved with other clubs. I will be taking my MCAT next year. I was wondering if people with experience could comment on my grades and if they think I have a decent shot at being accepted (assuming I do well on my MCAT). Also, are there any grades that I should worry about?

Thanks so much!

 

[SmurfingReviews]

In therms of grade I wouldn't be concerned - typically A+~B- even C+ is acceptable - your cGPA is 3.61 so it's where average matriculant cGPA is. I am also assuming your sGPA is comparable to your cGPA. I'm glad to hear you are going to get a publication during your gap year, that's great. Make sure you know what the publications about since the medical schools may/will ask you about that during your interview, if and when they invite you for one.

One concern that I have is while you work at the hospital for research purpose, are there any clinical experiences you have? For example, shadowing, volunteering at ER, EMT, etc.

What about non-medical volunteerism? Soup kitchen, habitat for humanity, outreach event for underserved populations.

The prospects are looking alright, just solely based on your grade. This is contingent on your other EC and also your MCAT.

In the future, you may want to not disclose your real name/something that will reveal your identity when posting on forums. Just for your sake.

Best of luck.

 

[joshuaseidman94]

In therms of grade I wouldn't be concerned - typically A+~B- even C+ is acceptable - your cGPA is 3.61 so it's where average matriculant cGPA is. I am also assuming your sGPA is comparable to your cGPA. I'm glad to hear you are going to get a publication during your gap year, that's great. Make sure you know what the publications about since the medical schools may/will ask you about that during your interview, if and when they invite you for one.

One concern that I have is while you work at the hospital for research purpose, are there any clinical experiences you have? For example, shadowing, volunteering at ER, EMT, etc.

What about non-medical volunteerism? Soup kitchen, habitat for humanity, outreach event for underserved populations.

The prospects are looking alright, just solely based on your grade. This is contingent on your other EC and also your MCAT.

In the future, you may want to not disclose your real name/something that will reveal your identity when posting on forums. Just for your sake.

Best of luck.

Thanks so much for the reply!

I do have a lot of shadowing under my belt. I have shadowed plastic surgery (Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center), oncological surgery ( Bellevue Hospital), neurosurgery ( Penn State Medical Center), oral surgery, and orthopedic surgery (Trinitas Hospital).

As far as volunteer work, I am in an honors program that requires it and so I have done over 100 hours of volunteer work with a non-profit called Bnai Zion. Additionally, I got funding to do a concert at my college to raise money for the COEXIST Foundation.

Also, I have herd that medical school is interested in applicants having a musical background. I do not know if this is true or not. I do play guitar and have been for about 5 years. I do not know if this is beneficial for medical school.

Thanks again!

 

[Goro]

So far, so good!

So I'm a Junior at CUNY right now and I plan to apply to medical school after I take a year off after college. I currently have a 3.61 GPA ( A's in bio I & II, A and A- in physics I & II, A- and B+ in Chem I & II, B+ & B in orgo I & II). I do research at my school during the year and I at NYU hospital during the summer. I also will be working for the lab at NYU for a year when I take a gap year ( doctor promised to publish me during this year). I have am the vice president of two clubs at my school and am very involved with other clubs. I will be taking my MCAT next year. I was wondering if people with experience could comment on my grades and if they think I have a decent shot at being accepted (assuming I do well on my MCAT). Also, are there any grades that I should worry about?

Thanks so much!

 

[SmurfingReviews]

That's good to hear, I think some adcom members on this forum said that while volunteerism is good, they want to make sure applicants go outside the campus/out of their comfort zone to help out. I am not sure if this is true for all medical schools, but I'm sure there are schools that look at EC outside of the school as one of the factors that they consider for II and admissions.

I think having hobbies and creative element for applicants would actually give you an advantage. Medical field in general I think puts enormous pressure on a professional working in the field to be on his/her "A game" all the time which may cause a lot of stress. I think schools look for people who can handle stress well, and do so in a constructive manner. I think it's something that you could address when you have an interview, and some secondary questions ask about hobbies, and any talent that you have that you'd like to share. In all, I think everything is helpful for medical school, just depends how you shine light on it, and what you do with it. For example, I know a friend who does Karv Maga, and she put that as one of her activities. One of the schools that she got invited to for MD/PhD interview had one interviewer who was an instructor for Karv Maga. My friend got accepted to that medical school, and she is now in her 2nd year. In short, you never know what could be helpful even if you think one thing is trivial to you 🙂

Hope this helps.