MD What are my chances?

[TommyRxGenPlastics]

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I am on my 4th year of undergrad and will graduate next spring (total undergrad 5 years)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA: 2.7
MCAT: Taking it in the summer (mock MCAT practice test scores avg. 500 with about 3 months until actual MCAT)
Recommendation letters: 4 MD's, 1 DO, 1 university professor.
Clinical experience:
2000+ hours with a reconstructive surgeon.
1 year of being a medical scribe (Emergency Department)
4 medical mission trips (around 150+ hours)
Observed roughly 200 surgeries

Currently trying to improve my GPA and getting the highest possible MCAT score that I am capable of. I am aware that even if I get straight A's for the rest of my college career it wont improve significantly, but I am aiming for an upward trend in my last year.

I'll appreciate any comments on how to improve my application for med school.

 

[bricktwelve]

With a GPA of 2.7, you will get pre-screened out of nearly every (if not every) MD school. It is doubtful you will be able to bring your total GPA above a 3.0 given how many credits you already have, in which case MD in out of the question without a 98+ percentile MCAT and some pretty extraordinary circumstances/extracurriculars.

And in regards to extracurriculars: your medical mission trips will be largely useless for the application and seen as voluntourism. Having observed 200 surgeries is nice, but not going to impress anyone - the utility for your application goes away after maybe 4 or 5. I'm not sure what "2000+ hours with a reconstructive surgeon" means as a description for your clinical experiences - please explain. If this was just shadowing, ditto like the 200 surgeries observed. Your scribing is good. Your lack of any type of volunteering stateside is lethal for the application.

In summary: unless you are URM, have an incredible life story, significantly improve your ECs, AND kill the MCAT, I don't think you have a shot at MD. You might be good for DO schools if you take some time off to bolster your ECs and do very well on the MCAT.

 

[TommyRxGenPlastics]

With a GPA of 2.7, you will get pre-screened out of nearly every (if not every) MD school. It is doubtful you will be able to bring your total GPA above a 3.0 given how many credits you already have, in which case MD in out of the question without a 98+ percentile MCAT and some pretty extraordinary circumstances/extracurriculars.

And in regards to extracurriculars: your medical mission trips will be largely useless for the application and seen as voluntourism. Having observed 200 surgeries is nice, but not going to impress anyone - the utility for your application goes away after maybe 4 or 5. I'm not sure what "2000+ hours with a reconstructive surgeon" means as a description for your clinical experiences - please explain. If this was just shadowing, ditto like the 200 surgeries observed. Your scribing is good. Your lack of any type of volunteering stateside is lethal for the application.

In summary: unless you are URM, have an incredible life story, significantly improve your ECs, AND kill the MCAT, I don't think you have a shot at MD. You might be good for DO schools if you take some time off to bolster your ECs and do very well on the MCAT.

I am a hispanic in FL which is fairly common so I don't see the benefit of being a URM. For the mission trips I can understand how they could see it as "voluntourism", but at the same time its hard to believe they wouldn't even consider it clinical experience, especially if I was to go into detail on what I learned and did. As far as my 2000+ hours spent with a reconstructive surgeon basically I worked in his office shadowing and pretty much learning about the practice. My mission work and shadowing are what I would describe as clinical experience, however, now I'm curious as to what else is considered quality clinical experience.

As far as my EC's all I have is about 20 hours volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, as well as, participating in a couple of clubs. The rest of my time has been spent working...and the only thing that has come out of that was that I was offered a job to manage the #1 moving company in FL where I was offered a significant amount of $$$, yet I still decided to pursue this noble profession. Hope that clarifies some of your concerns. I do appreciate the criticism though.

One last thing... do you think a post bacc program would significantly improve my chances or would I be wasting my time?

Thank you.

 

[Goro]

As of right now, your chances are lethal. I wouldn't bother with MCAT until you can at least ace everything from now on, and ace a year at a post-bac or SMP, and then ace MCAT as well.

No med school in the world will do you any favors by admitting you when you're at such a high risk to fail out.

The medical mission trips will be treated as medical tourism.

I am on my 4th year of undergrad and will graduate next spring (total undergrad 5 years)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA: 2.7
MCAT: Taking it in the summer (mock MCAT practice test scores avg. 500 with about 3 months until actual MCAT)
Recommendation letters: 4 MD's, 1 DO, 1 university professor.
Clinical experience:
2000+ hours with a reconstructive surgeon.
1 year of being a medical scribe (Emergency Department)
4 medical mission trips (around 150+ hours)
Observed roughly 200 surgeries

Currently trying to improve my GPA and getting the highest possible MCAT score that I am capable of. I am aware that even if I get straight A's for the rest of my college career it wont improve significantly, but I am aiming for an upward trend in my last year.

I'll appreciate any comments on how to improve my application for med school.

 

[MareNostrummm]

I am on my 4th year of undergrad and will graduate next spring (total undergrad 5 years)
Major: Biochemistry
GPA: 2.7
MCAT: Taking it in the summer (mock MCAT practice test scores avg. 500 with about 3 months until actual MCAT)
Recommendation letters: 4 MD's, 1 DO, 1 university professor.
Clinical experience:
2000+ hours with a reconstructive surgeon.
1 year of being a medical scribe (Emergency Department)
4 medical mission trips (around 150+ hours)
Observed roughly 200 surgeries

Currently trying to improve my GPA and getting the highest possible MCAT score that I am capable of. I am aware that even if I get straight A's for the rest of my college career it wont improve significantly, but I am aiming for an upward trend in my last year.

I'll appreciate any comments on how to improve my application for med school.

Wouldn't the multiple MD letters be redundant? I mean... you probably aren't going to send all of them to the same school obviously but you should still get another university professor or two.

 

[gyngyn]

My mission work and shadowing are what I would describe as clinical experience, however, now I'm curious as to what else is considered quality clinical experience.

As far as my EC's all I have is about 20 hours volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, as well as, participating in a couple of clubs. The rest of my time has been spent working...and the only thing that has come out of that was that I was offered a job to manage the #1 moving company in FL where I was offered a significant amount of $$$, yet I still decided to pursue this noble profession. Hope that clarifies some of your concerns. I do appreciate the criticism though.

One last thing... do you think a post bacc program would significantly improve my chances or would I be wasting my time?

Thank you.

This is not what we consider useful. Much of it is actually viewed askance: https://www.aamc.org/download/474346/data/clinicalexperiencesshadowingsurvey.pdf