What to prioritize in next 6 months

[Tennisgirl92]

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Hey everyone

I am a 26 year old white female aiming to apply in the 2019-2020 cycle (next June). I want to do MD. I am in NC. I need help deciding how to best use this time to better my application by next summer. In a small summary, this is where I'm at.

• My undergrad gpa was a 3.1 with a 2.8 science gpa. My father was sick and passed away at the time from cancer. Combine that with not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, my gpa suffered.
• I worked for 2 years after graduation as a nurse for an oncological surgeon. I have plenty of clinical experience and this is where I learned I wanted to pursue medicine. Why not nursing and an NP is a long explanation, but it's there.
• I am currently in a master's program in physiology at my state school with a 3.9 (of 20 credits so far) all BCPM gpa. These were upper level science courses in physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and biology. I will graduate in May 2019 with 36 hours of graduate science coursework.
• I have an additional 16 hours of post-bacc science courses at the undergrad level I took while working. This is at a 3.8 GPA.
• I took the MCAT this past summer. 506 with a 125/127/126/128.
• I currently volunteer once a week tutoring refugees in English and helping school children with homework. ~150 hours so far and will be up to 300 by application.

My main question is how to fill my time alongside my graduate work. I currently have a position doing research at the EPA. The lab studies the effects of various environmental exposures like ozone on the HPA axis. I just started in September, and most of the work has been scattered on various tasks. A lot is menial tasks like labeling tissues. I do not have research apart from a research project I conducted during college, and that will be 5 years ago by application time. The problem is I am not really interested in environmental work. I am more interested in clinical research, where I can more directly affect patients and not just suggest government business regulations like at the EPA. I am worried that during an interview this might be a red flag. I got this position through a friend connection, as I had no luck finding a part time position at an academic research institution.

1) Will this research opportunity mean much on my application? Will it enhance it enough to continue? Is 9 months enough to qualify as research experience?
2) Do I continue on and learn as much as I can/make the most of it? Is it ok to admit that I tried research for a year and realized I prefer more clinical research in an interview?
3) Would I be better off using this time to volunteer more? ~20 hours/week? I was looking into hospice volunteering.

On a side note, I have about 500 hours of volunteer work I accrued during college working at a free medical clinic. Do I write this in my application even though I graduated in 2015? As someone that far off from college, can I put in any college experiences?

Also, do I need to retake the MCAT? If so, that will probably happen in June so I can study without the distraction of classwork.

Thank you for any help-I know that is a lot!

 

[LizzyM]

You absolutely can put anything on your application. In particular, anything that you did after HS graduation is appropriate for the experience section of the AMCAS application.

9 months is long enough to get an idea about the scientific method and is a fine length of time for a research experience, particularly if you aren't looking at the top research schools.

Your MCAT is okay (each section is above 50th percentile) but it isn't great. How long did you prep? Did you take as many practice tests as possible under test conditions? Did you study the strategies for approaching the questions or only the content of the exams? Do you think you could do better on the MCAT? If so, it might be a good idea to retake not later than May 30. In fact, in addition to what you are already doing, adding 10 hours of MCAT prep/wk might be the best use of your time over the next 7 months.

 

[Med Ed]

Hey everyone

I am a 26 year old white female aiming to apply in the 2019-2020 cycle (next June). I want to do MD. I am in NC. I need help deciding how to best use this time to better my application by next summer. In a small summary, this is where I'm at.

• My undergrad gpa was a 3.1 with a 2.8 science gpa. My father was sick and passed away at the time from cancer. Combine that with not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, my gpa suffered.
• I worked for 2 years after graduation as a nurse for an oncological surgeon. I have plenty of clinical experience and this is where I learned I wanted to pursue medicine. Why not nursing and an NP is a long explanation, but it's there.
• I am currently in a master's program in physiology at my state school with a 3.9 (of 20 credits so far) all BCPM gpa. These were upper level science courses in physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, and biology. I will graduate in May 2019 with 36 hours of graduate science coursework.
• I have an additional 16 hours of post-bacc science courses at the undergrad level I took while working. This is at a 3.8 GPA.
• I took the MCAT this past summer. 506 with a 125/127/126/128.
• I currently volunteer once a week tutoring refugees in English and helping school children with homework. ~150 hours so far and will be up to 300 by application.

My main question is how to fill my time alongside my graduate work. I currently have a position doing research at the EPA. The lab studies the effects of various environmental exposures like ozone on the HPA axis. I just started in September, and most of the work has been scattered on various tasks. A lot is menial tasks like labeling tissues. I do not have research apart from a research project I conducted during college, and that will be 5 years ago by application time. The problem is I am not really interested in environmental work. I am more interested in clinical research, where I can more directly affect patients and not just suggest government business regulations like at the EPA. I am worried that during an interview this might be a red flag. I got this position through a friend connection, as I had no luck finding a part time position at an academic research institution.

1) Will this research opportunity mean much on my application? Will it enhance it enough to continue? Is 9 months enough to qualify as research experience?
2) Do I continue on and learn as much as I can/make the most of it? Is it ok to admit that I tried research for a year and realized I prefer more clinical research in an interview?
3) Would I be better off using this time to volunteer more? ~20 hours/week? I was looking into hospice volunteering.

On a side note, I have about 500 hours of volunteer work I accrued during college working at a free medical clinic. Do I write this in my application even though I graduated in 2015? As someone that far off from college, can I put in any college experiences?

Also, do I need to retake the MCAT? If so, that will probably happen in June so I can study without the distraction of classwork.

Thank you for any help-I know that is a lot!

Agree with @LizzyM that an MCAT bump would be helpful. If I were in your shoes I would set my sights on one school above all others: Brody. Your clinical and research experience is fine, try buffing up your primary care cred.