What now?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

christinehiki

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2012
Messages
60
Reaction score
29
Hi there,
I was wondering if I could pick your guys' brains on what to do to strengthen my application for next year.
- 3.69 GPA, 33 MCAT (11 VR, 12 PS, 10 BS)
- Applied 7/1/13, Complete 8/14/13
- Applied to 21 schools through AMCAS, Secondaries from all but 1 (UW, what was I thinking)
- 1 interview invite (pending decision, EDIT: waitlisted on 3/17), 9 silences, 11 rejections
- ECs: 200 clinical volunteer hours, miscellaneous other volunteer experience, 6 months working experience, some shadowing
- LOR: 2 science, 1 research
- The theme of my personal statement was that I became interested in medicine because of my brother who was diagnosed with autism. I explained my research and work experience related to that.

Since applying, I've gotten more shadowing hours as an ED scribe (I had just gotten hired when I applied) and more work experience (Behavior Therapy for kids with autism). At this point, I feel comfortable asking for both a clinical LOR and work related LOR.

I'm just not sure if there are enough changes in my application to warrant another application this time around. Maybe I should take another year off doing stuff to improve my application. But even then I'm not sure what to add. I feel like my numbers are pretty competitive. I'm just at a loss.

Please let me know if there are any red flags I'm totally missing.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Last edited:
Did you have a LOR from a doctor you shadowed? Schools usually ask for a rec letter from a non-science professor too.

I hope you get in this year but if you do have to reapply, try to get you app submitted in early June. That helps a LOT!
 
Numbers aren't the problem. Not getting interviews with those stats means you have a red flag. Maybe your essays are a mess, maybe you have a bad LOR.

If you have access to grumpy, not-nice faculty who can review your app and be honest, great, get in there and use them. Otherwise you probably need to hire a consultant to work with you. Under no circumstances should you trust whoever helped you this year, and under no circumstances should you have your friends or family help you.

The only thing I would do before June is go get 1-2 new LORs from faculty you KNOW will recommend you highly. If you are out of LOR options, then you have to do academic work with new faculty, such as a regular thesis masters. Or maybe just another class or two.

Best of luck to you.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
It's also possible you made the common mistake of applying to too many reach (or unrealstic schools, like OOS public).

Strongly suggest you contact some Admissions deans and ask for feedback (not advice) on your rejections.

You're fine for any DO program, including mine.

Numbers aren't the problem. Not getting interviews with those stats means you have a red flag. Maybe your essays are a mess, maybe you have a bad LOR.

If you have access to grumpy, not-nice faculty who can review your app and be honest, great, get in there and use them. Otherwise you probably need to hire a consultant to work with you. Under no circumstances should you trust whoever helped you this year, and under no circumstances should you have your friends or family help you.

The only thing I would do before June is go get 1-2 new LORs from faculty you KNOW will recommend you highly. If you are out of LOR options, then you have to do academic work with new faculty, such as a regular thesis masters. Or maybe just another class or two.

Best of luck to you.
 
Did you have a LOR from a doctor you shadowed? Schools usually ask for a rec letter from a non-science professor too.

I hope you get in this year but if you do have to reapply, try to get you app submitted in early June. That helps a LOT!

I did not have any LOR's from doctors which I feel could have hurt my application. I have multiple docs willing to write me an LOR this time around though.

I will DEFINITELY submit the first day possible next time around. I though July 1st was early but guess not. And my secondary turn around is also something I can improve so I'll try tweaking that too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Numbers aren't the problem. Not getting interviews with those stats means you have a red flag. Maybe your essays are a mess, maybe you have a bad LOR.

If you have access to grumpy, not-nice faculty who can review your app and be honest, great, get in there and use them. Otherwise you probably need to hire a consultant to work with you. Under no circumstances should you trust whoever helped you this year, and under no circumstances should you have your friends or family help you.

The only thing I would do before June is go get 1-2 new LORs from faculty you KNOW will recommend you highly. If you are out of LOR options, then you have to do academic work with new faculty, such as a regular thesis masters. Or maybe just another class or two.

Best of luck to you.

Wow. Thanks for your tough advice. I think that's something I needed to hear. I don't have any faculty to review my app (my university was a huge public school in Cali). Even if I'm brutally honest with myself, I can't see that my LORs hurt me so much. I know for sure two of them were strong. Maybe I can replace the third with a strong clinical LOR for next round.
 
How was your personal statement? As a former reviewer/editor of multiple years applicant essays... I can say MANY people here (yes, this self-selected, gunner SDN crowd) have terrible terrible terrible writing skills - to the point that it could wreck your applications. Not to say that you have terrible writing skills, but might be helpful having a second set of eyes look it over - especially if you say no one has really helped you review your app. Message me and I can help (if you're ready to start early) -- as I'm just sitting around twiddling thumbs and waiting for match day.
 
Your essay should be vibrant so when the reader finishes it they say, "wow, I really need to meet this person." Does yours do that? Or is it flat?
 
Maybe it's just the way you presented it, but your ECs seem very blase. Combine that with an average applicant's stats (no offense), and it becomes a game of chance really.

Should target the very few OOS-friendly schools in the West + a healthy dose of Midwestern/Northeast schools/Tulane/Miami/Wake.
 
Wow. Thanks for your tough advice. I think that's something I needed to hear. I don't have any faculty to review my app (my university was a huge public school in Cali). Even if I'm brutally honest with myself, I can't see that my LORs hurt me so much. I know for sure two of them were strong. Maybe I can replace the third with a strong clinical LOR for next round.
MD schools don't put much stock in physician LOR's. They seem to love everybody.
 
With your stats, I can tell you right off the bat that your personal statement must have been very weak. If you want, PM me your personal statement that you used for the last cycle and I can provide you with better insight. Most people will not write a negative LOR for a prospective med school applicant so I am not convinced that had anything to do with your situation. However, I know from first-hand experience, that a horrible personal statement will make most adcom quickly put an application into the rejection pile.
 
Just in case someone is in the same/similar boat as I am, I contacted several several schools for feedback on my application. To be honest, most schools were not willing to provide feedback (and with the volume of applicants I totally understand). However, I did have a feedback interview with UCI. Some suggestions I received were to take a few more science courses (my sGPA is a 3.5 compared to cGPA of almost 3.7) and rewrite my activities/experience descriptions.

If anyone would be so kind to offer feedback, this is my plan of action for the 2015 cycle:
1. Rewriting everything
2. 2 additional LOR's
3. Taking an upper division science course over the summer
4. Applying more broadly
5. Submitting on June 3rd
6. Continuing my current activities (scribe and behavior therapist)
 
Top