What to do? Updated interest letters/reapplication

[futuredoctor242222]

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[LelouchLamperouge]

I applied to 22 MD schools in Jul-Sep and have only heard back from 2 of them (both pre-II rejections).

Stats:
MCAT 514, cGPA 3.81, sGPA 3.76, 2500+ hours cardiovascular clinical research, 120 shadowing hours, 120 non-clinical volunteering, 160 clinical volunteering, multiple conference acceptances including a 15-min oral presentation, two manuscripts planned on publishing, ORM, relatively prestigious private undergrad, impressive gap year research job

Should I plan on reapplying? Should I send continued interest letters yet? Since secondaries, I have heard back about both of my manuscripts being accepted for publication and have joined various committees at my job and planned initiatives for the staff. What should I do?

School list?

 

[futuredoctor242222]

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[LelouchLamperouge]

Your volunteering, both clinical and non-clinical, are on the lower end. Also, no clinical work experience? How have you conveyed (and showed proof) that you’re absolutely certain that want to work with people for the rest of your life, instead of being a researcher?

Also, why do you feel that your cycle isn’t shaping up to what it should be? How do you feel your writing is? I don’t think your school list is bad.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

A complete WAMC profile would help. We need details like residency (Minnesota, right?), experiences, and campus activities. Apparently you overvalue just how impressive your gap/growth year position is for your application.

I think your MCAT is low for some of the schools on your list (Harvard, Case, Northwestern, Michigan, Einstein; I suppose they're your reaches, but that's really stretching things). I think your non-clinical service orientation is too low for others (Loyola, Creighton, Georgetown, Tufts?). I don't know how well you articulate your purpose as a physician, but if you didn't get a shot at your in-state, you need to ask.

BU's rejection is a sign (not conclusive) you overestimate the value of your Massachusetts ties. Explain why you have connection to the state. Is it your college location? I also consider BU to also take a chance for mission-fit candidates, so you don't seem to have argued this well.

I do get a feeling you are putting all your chips in on your clinical research project to count as clinical experience. Have adcoms you talked with confirmed this as viable? Many will put this under "research" so you come across as being mostly "research rat" not "potential physician." Look at the hours; they tell me where you are truly passionate with your career. Without more details that refine my impression, that's what I'm seeing.

 

[futuredoctor242222]

Your volunteering, both clinical and non-clinical, are on the lower end. Also, no clinical work experience? How have you conveyed (and showed proof) that you’re absolutely certain that want to work with people for the rest of your life, instead of being a researcher?

Also, why do you feel that your cycle isn’t shaping up to what it should be? How do you feel your writing is? I don’t think your school list is bad.

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[sockscat19]

i agree with Butalbusaur that your non-clinical and clinical experience is on the lower end. i think for some of these schools, they want to see hundreds of hours dedicated specifically to true/traditional clinical work like MA, scribe, EMT, PCT, longitudinal community clinical volunteering etc. i interviewed w wake forest as an OOS with 0 connections and i got the feeling that they really valued this type of long-term clinical experience w gaps yrs. that being said, if you were able to write about your clinical research experience in a way that focused/highlighted the clinical aspect, then i dont necessarily think that that is a glaringly huge problem. same thing can be applied to non-clinical volunteering.

it might just be that you're falling through the cracks at the service heavy and clinical heavy schools due to the lack of hours, and while your research is impressive, the competition is really tough at the research heavy schools in general and they tend to have higher MCAT medians. i think Virginia Tech might have been one to add to your list because they really like research and their stat averages aren't as high as some of the other research powerhouse schools.

these are just my thoughts from what i have gathered over my cycle and seeing what others have said about their own. i hope things work out 🙂

 

[futuredoctor242222]

i agree with Butalbusaur that your non-clinical and clinical experience is on the lower end. i think for some of these schools, they want to see hundreds of hours dedicated specifically to true/traditional clinical work like MA, scribe, EMT, PCT, longitudinal community clinical volunteering etc. i interviewed w wake forest as an OOS with 0 connections and i got the feeling that they really valued this type of long-term clinical experience w gaps yrs. that being said, if you were able to write about your clinical research experience in a way that focused/highlighted the clinical aspect, then i dont necessarily think that that is a glaringly huge problem. same thing can be applied to non-clinical volunteering.

it might just be that you're falling through the cracks at the service heavy and clinical heavy schools due to the lack of hours, and while your research is impressive, the competition is really tough at the research heavy schools in general and they tend to have higher MCAT medians. i think Virginia Tech might have been one to add to your list because they really like research and their stat averages aren't as high as some of the other research powerhouse schools.

these are just my thoughts from what i have gathered over my cycle and seeing what others have said about their own. i hope things work out 🙂

so, does anyone have advice on what to do next? Should I start volunteering clinically/non-clinically outside of work and expect to reapply? Should I send interest letters to my schools?

 

[sockscat19]

so, does anyone have advice on what to do next? Should I start volunteering clinically/non-clinically outside of work and expect to reapply? Should I send interest letters to my schools?

i dont think its panic time just yet as we haven't hit thanksgiving yet. the cycle is long and there are still many months to go. that being said, its always good to continue working on your app in the event a re-app becomes necessary. starting to volunteering clinically and non-clinically is a great idea. see if you can join a food bank, houseless shelter etc. that way if you need to reapply you will hopefully have a lot more hours in that.

i wouldn't send letters of interest just yet. you could send update letters, but only after you have a huge change to your app (awards, publications, large accumulation of hours in a new volunteering position, new leadership etc). make sure the school accepts update letters pre-II. maybe someone else can chime in on this as i am not completely sure of the protocol on this.

 

[Goro]

Rutgers New Jersey
Einstein
Boston University
University of Virginia
Case Western Reserve
Northwestern
Michigan
Harvard

Bunch of donations there.

 

[LelouchLamperouge]

so, does anyone have advice on what to do next? Should I start volunteering clinically/non-clinically outside of work and expect to reapply? Should I send interest letters to my schools?

You should be continuing to doing things with the expectation that you’re going to have to re-apply. I think that you should get a clinical paid role where you work more intimately with patients. By reading through your ECs, I can’t find how they connect and how it tells/supports your story of why you want to be a physician.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

so, does anyone have advice on what to do next? Should I start volunteering clinically/non-clinically outside of work and expect to reapply? Should I send interest letters to my schools?

You should already be gaining more clinical and non-clinical experience during the cycle. I don't think letters of interest will help you until you get those hours up.

 

[candbgirl]

so, does anyone have advice on what to do next? Should I start volunteering clinically/non-clinically outside of work and expect to reapply? Should I send interest letters to my schools?

Some of the very wise ADCOMS on here always advise that until you have an A in your hand consider yourself rejected and keep building/refining your application in case you have to reapply.

 

[polymerization]

I think what I'd add to the advice you're getting (which is technically correct by the way) is that, yes, you do need more of the activities you're missing, but (and it's a BIG but) you are going to need to mind your narrative and figure out how you want to package all of the work you've done and are doing into an identity that is both cohesive and aligned with emerging problems in medicine. It's all about how you put the pieces together and talk about them.

This is hard to do, and it is rarely, if ever, expressed as a straightforward requirement of the application process. @Mr.Smile12 alluded to how adcoms will perceive you with intense research experiences and... not much else: a researcher.

If you want to be viewed as a physician, my guess is that more research or just indiscriminately working clinical jobs won't do it either. I know it can come across like changing the rules at the end of the game, but what I perceived as I was going through the application process was not only that activities had to "make sense" for you to do in isolation (yes, physicians in training do research, and volunteer, and work in medical settings, of course), but the themes around those activities should also rhyme and "make sense" as a whole. Your activities should say something about you in a very matter-of-fact, self-evident kind of way... and my guess is that adcoms have a tendency to read applications with that expectation.

What I mean here is NOT that you should present an application that comes across like you will single-handedly save the world, but rather that you envision yourself as someone with a role to play along a specific axis in medicine.

The goal is really for you to be able to grip a school's mission with your application and make the argument that admitting you would be the most affirming thing they could do in support of their own values all cycle.

 

[PickaGodnPray]

To second @polymerization I am evidence fitting everything into a cohesive narrative is crucial to having success in admissions. From last cycle to this one, my hours and experiences have remained mostly the same and I have thousands across the categories, but I just kinda laundry listed them last cycle. This year, I’ve found more success and gotten interviews at schools I did not last year because I tied my experiences to my initial pursuit of medicine and what I will do to change the field as a physician. They all fit under my mission umbrella and I have had interviewers compliment this narrative. This is how you can actually standout and I think gives applicants a better idea of what they want to do in medicine rather than stumbling to figure it out in medical school.