What went wrong here? Diagnosis?

[canadanon]

Here are the numbers:
3.86 cGPA by the AMCAS standard.

MCAT
34M ( 11VR, 11PS, 12BS)
36M ( 10VR, 13PS, 13BS) *Recent

I have a lot of extracurricular things on my application (hospital volunteering, student government, own business started, employment, research etc. ). There is no shadowing of a doctor. Additionally, my personal statement was not as good as it could be.

I applied to 9 American Schools. Was complete at these schools by the 3rd week of October. Got 1 interview, 4 holds which turned into a rejection and 4 rejections. Last week received a rejection letter from the schools I had an interview. I am a Canadian citizen.

I am graduating this year and planning on taking a year off to catch up on many things I have not done.Planning on getting some more volunteering experience/ doctor shadowing as well. Good idea?
Do I rewrite the MCAT?
For people with some knowledge on this, What is the problem?
How should I fix it?

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[cliffhuxtableDO]

Do not retake the MCAT.

Apply to more than 9 schools.

Get help with your essays.

Improve clinical exposure.

Apply a lot earlier.

 

[Long Way to Go]

Here are the numbers:
3.86 cGPA by the AMCAS standard.

MCAT
34M ( 11VR, 11PS, 12BS)
36M ( 10VR, 13PS, 13BS) *Recent

I have a lot of extracurricular things on my application (hospital volunteering, student government, own business started, employment, research etc. ). There is no shadowing of a doctor. Additionally, my personal statement was not as good as it could be.

I applied to 9 American Schools. Was complete at these schools by the 3rd week of October. Got 1 interview, 4 holds which turned into a rejection and 4 rejections. Last week received a rejection letter from the schools I had an interview. I am a Canadian citizen[b/].

I am graduating this year and planning on taking a year off to catch up on many things I have not done.Planning on getting some more volunteering experience/ doctor shadowing as well. Good idea?
Do I rewrite the MCAT?
For people with some knowledge on this, What is the problem?
How should I fix it?

9 is a fairly low number. Late October is very late to be complete. And being Canadian certainly doesn't help. There are what, 15-20 Canadian medical schools? Why didn't you apply to those?

 

[whoknows2012]

Here are the numbers:
3.86 cGPA by the AMCAS standard.

MCAT
34M ( 11VR, 11PS, 12BS)
36M ( 10VR, 13PS, 13BS) *Recent

I have a lot of extracurricular things on my application (hospital volunteering, student government, own business started, employment, research etc. ). There is no shadowing of a doctor. Additionally, my personal statement was not as good as it could be.

I applied to 9 American Schools. Was complete at these schools by the 3rd week of October. Got 1 interview, 4 holds which turned into a rejection and 4 rejections. Last week received a rejection letter from the schools I had an interview. I am a Canadian citizen.

I am graduating this year and planning on taking a year off to catch up on many things I have not done.Planning on getting some more volunteering experience/ doctor shadowing as well. Good idea?
Do I rewrite the MCAT?
For people with some knowledge on this, What is the problem?
How should I fix it?

why did you retake a 34? and you would seriously consider retaking a 36?

 

[waterpolo480586]

My two guesses are that you applied late in the cycle and that you applied to only highly ranked schools (may be totally wrong). What schools did you apply to? Oh, also the lack of shadowing was an issue.

 

[canadanon]

The only reason I retook the MCAT was to be eligible for Candian Schools. Most don't look at your application with an M.
At this point, I do not care about getting into an Canadian School.

Here are the 9 schools :
Wayne State
NYU
SUNY
Yale
Maryland
Boston
Jefferson
George Washinton
Vanderbilt

 

[mafunk]

You said you have no clinical exp, I think that def could be an issue, as well as having a weak personal statement. Are any of the others potential issues

1. Only applied to the most competitive (hard to get in) schools?
2. Didn't dress appropriately for interview? and/or used too much slang, jivey talk in interview?
3. Past criminal or academic probation issues?
4. Too many Ws on transcript without a good explanation as to why?
5. Neglected to put ALL schools you attended on the app?
6. Weak/negative letters of recc?

 

[mastermix]

I applied to 9 American Schools. Was complete at these schools by the 3rd week of October.

Those two things together comprise probably 95% of the problem. If you double the number of schools and try to be complete 2 months earlier, you will likely find better results with even the same application (although you always want to improve what you already have). In fact, the biggest cause for concern I notice is that your reaction all of this is to propose retaking the MCAT after scoring a 34 and 36. An M on writing is a bit suspect, but presumably a coherent personal statement would allay most of those concerns. And please don't do shadowing just because it seems like something you "should" have.

 

[justaregularmed]

The only reason I retook the MCAT was to be eligible for Candian Schools. Most don't look at your application with an M.
At this point, I do not care about getting into an Canadian School.

Here are the 9 schools :
Wayne State
NYU
SUNY
Yale
Maryland
Boston
Jefferson
George Washinton
Vanderbilt

Unless your ESL I wasn't aware anyone really cared about the essay score. Curious. Next time just grab an MSAR and carpet bomb the primaries and hope for the best like everyone else does. And your Canadian schools are stupid for not looking at a 36 regardless of the verbal score, I mean really.

Reading further down I infer you may be a Quebecer. Yeah that M may hold you up.

 

[canadanon]

You said you have no clinical exp, I think that def could be an issue, as well as having a weak personal statement. Are any of the others potential issues

1. Only applied to the most competitive (hard to get in) schools?
2. Didn't dress appropriately for interview? and/or used too much slang, jivey talk in interview?
3. Past criminal or academic probation issues?
4. Too many Ws on transcript without a good explanation as to why?
5. Neglected to put ALL schools you attended on the app?
6. Weak/negative letters of recc?

I only had one interview so did not get a chance to make all these errors. My family moved to Canada when I was pretty young but I feel I had a pretty good grasp of English ( i.e. verbal reasoning score ). I have just never been good at essays.

 

[Aaln]

Don't forget the fact that you're Canadian and even the Canadian-friendly schools accept a very low number.

 

[estradiol9]

Where did you go wrong? IMO, I think you should have applied earlier, more broadly, and included some "safety" schools. Don't retake your MCAT. Do shadow a physician.

 

[WeAreNotRobots]

Important factors
1. Timing: very late.
2. Citizenship: Canadians applying to US schools have to be all-around stellar.
3. Number and selection of schools: apply to more, keep a broad range, and try to find Canadian-friendly schools (search SDN).

NOT important factors
1. MCAT: yours is STRONG. it's probably what got you that one interview. do not retake.
2. shadowing: go ahead and do some, but that in itself won't improve your chances.
3. Personal statement: you got an interview, so it couldn't be that bad. there's always stuff to improve, but likely not high impact.

 

[gravitywave]

don't rewrite the MCAT. apply earlier, to more schools, with better essays.

the personal statement matters. make sure it's good. secondary prompts matter too - it's not enough to say that you aren't good at essays, you have to put in the effort to make them good.

lastly, get a copy of the MSAR and research the schools that are friendly to international applicants. many will require a green card. target your application so that you are hitting the schools that are most likely to show interest in you.

 

[torshi]

Do not retake the MCAT.

Apply to more than 9 schools.

Get help with your essays.

Improve clinical exposure.

Apply a lot earlier.

 

[alyxvance]

Oh my gosh. This post is so horrifying! Your stats are excellent so I agree that retaking the MCAT is just madness. Are you sure that your LORs are ok? No vengeful professors serving as letter writers?

 

[boobelle]

Important factors
1. Timing: very late.
2. Citizenship: Canadians applying to US schools have to be all-around stellar.
3. Number and selection of schools: apply to more, keep a broad range, and try to find Canadian-friendly schools (search SDN).

NOT important factors
1. MCAT: yours is STRONG. it's probably what got you that one interview. do not retake.
2. shadowing: go ahead and do some, but that in itself won't improve your chances.
3. Personal statement: you got an interview, so it couldn't be that bad. there's always stuff to improve, but likely not high impact.

I agree with the first half of this: apply to more schools and apply much earlier. Your MCAT is fine.

That said, having solid clinical exposure IS an important factor...what's important is both the quality and quantity of in-depth exposure to the profession and patient care, not the technicalities of how you did it (volunteering vs shadowing vs employment). So if your volunteer work would satisfy this, I wouldn't get hung up about "shadowing"...but that said, now that you have an extra year it would be worth taking on some sort of clinical exposure opportunity to provide continuity of interest (and this should be something you want to be doing anyway).

Also (and I say this as someone who has been involved in both undergrad and med school admissions), people always underestimate the value of 1. personal statements and 2. LORs. These are what help the adcom pick you out of the sea of other applicants with a 3.85 and 36 on the MCAT as someone they want to first interview and then accept. The scores and GPA get you through the door, but when it comes down to deciding who to accept, adcoms are asking whether this applicant will add contribute something special to the student body and ultimately the profession of medicine....and that comes from the PS, LORs and interviews.

It's important to revise/refresh your PS if you're reapplying (even if the old one WAS a great PS). Also, you didn't mention your LORs. Are you confident that they are strong and enthusiastic? Who are your LOR writers--professors from classes, research, employers, MD/coordinators from your clinical volunteering?

 

[Aaln]

Are you sure that your LORs are ok? No vengeful professors serving as letter writers?

Possible. I don't think it's likely though since he did get an interview somewhere.

 

[gravitywave]

Possible. I don't think it's likely though since he did get an interview somewhere.

it's really unlikely, esp. since as you say an interview invite was offered. It's very difficult to be admitted as an international w/ no green card, and being late didn't help matters. those two issues are at the heart of the matter.

 

[boobelle]

.

 

[CougarMD]

Moving to WAMC. Good luck

 

[Boston12345]

http://www.wakehealth.edu/School/MD-Program/International-Applicants.htm
Applications are accepted only from US citizens and permanent residents

https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/international-students
In most cases, students who have attended universities exclusively outside
the United States have chosen to supplement their studies with at least
a year of course work at an accredited university in the United States.

http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/ome/admission/admission_faq.htm
All applicants must be US citizens, or permanent residents of the United States with a green card.
Canadian citizens who are not permanent residents are ineligible to apply.