Hello,
I have been recently introduced to SDN and I would appreciate any help on deciding what to improve on my application for this upcoming year. I did apply last cycle but I ended up submitting most of my apps around sept-oct. I did receive one interview invite from a state school but I have not heard back from them yet. I know that one of the biggest things that probably killed my app was a lack of clinical experience (had about 50 hours volunteering) and a lack of true non-clinical volunteering. This past year, I have been working as medical assistant as well as helping out at my local food bank as much as I can.
Stats:
ORM, 22, VA resident
GPA: sGPA:3.83 & cGPA: 3.88
MCAT: 513 (129,128,127,129) *took only one time
Clinical Experience:
- About 800 hours working as a medical assistant for my gap year (did also volunteer about 50 hours here from time to time during college)
Shadowing:
- About 100 hours shadowing 3-4 physicians (trying to shadow another doctor but unsure because of COVID)
Research:
- About 100 hours to get a first author pub on a Math Bio Project
- About 150 hours working as research assistant for 2 summers
Non-Clinical Experience:
- About 100 hours so far volunteering at my local food bank for my gap year I plan on definitely continuing this and hope to get around 200hours
- 50 hours hospital volunteering ( was working in the waiting room)
LOR:
- 1 from my professor who I worked under for my publication (Science)
- 1 from my O.Chem professor (Science)
- 1 from my engineering professor who oversaw my capstone project *submitted this super late too
- 1 from the physician where I was working as a medical assistant *submitted this super late
- 1 from my P.I who who I did research over the summer with
So as I look to apply, I am thinking to continue working as a medical assistant during my gap year because it has been tough in my area to find clinical/research opportunities. I did sign up to be a crisis text counselor (not sure how long it will take to hear back from them because of COVID), and I am going to volunteer at my local vaccination sites (I think that's clinical volunteering??). I am hoping to get into an M.D school but I will most likely apply D.O as well. I will also definitely be applying day 1, so my main question is:
1. What should I look to improve for my competitiveness this cycle/what should I be doing during this gap year?
I just wanna thank anyone who takes the time to read all this and reply, I really appreciate it!
P.S please feel free to ask for anymore info I might have left out
