When is it time to reboot your application?

[PlsLetMeIn21]

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I'm feeling a but depressed about this process so please bear with me. It's the middle of November and I am on hold for interviews, but have yet to be granted an interview. I have a 3.53 sGPA and 516 (132/122/132/130) MCAT. I have worked in my research lab for over a year and have 200 volunteer hours at a hospital. I'm pretty sure that 122 is holding me back. My GPA isn't the greatest, but I have an upward trend.

For anyone who has been through this before, when is it time to give up on this year and start planning for next year? I dread taking the MCAT again, but realize that I might have to. I'm afraid I won't be able to repeat my C/P and B/B scores. How much will it hurt me if I drop 2 points in those two sections but raise my CARS at least 4 point?

 

[LizzyM]

Enter the Thanksgiving Rule. If you don't have an interview by Thanksgiving Day it is time to start assessing the situation and planning for another cycle. The "easiest" thing to fix on your MCAT is the 122 (although it is not easy to fix it is easier than raising your GPA which will move very little given that you've already earned >119 credits and have already graduated college.

Start making a plan to prep for and retake the MCAT. When you take it and how you do will dictate whether you should plan on a reapplication in 2020 or if you should wait until 2021.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Thank you LizzyM! In my heart I already knew what you wrote, but I had to read it to have it sink in. I doubt I'll be getting an interview.

I know what you mean that 122 in CARS is the 'easiest' spot to boost my chances, but there's a reason that score was low in the first place. I'm afraid I can't break 125. I'm in my senior year now and have nearly 150 credits, so any chance of getting my sGPA above 3.6 seems low.

I just have to find a way to get that CARS up without sacrificing the other sections.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God!!!!! This is the greatest thing ever posted at SDN. From the bottom of my heart, thank you Gonnif!

I have only read through a few of the links and they are soooooooo helpful. I greatly appreciate what you do. I've said it before and I'll say it again, SDN is a treasure.

 

[candbgirl]

Do you have any shadowing? How about nonclinical volunteering with the unserved/underserved in your community? Did you apply MD,DO or both? Public or private? When did you apply? Can you share your list of schools?

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

No shadowing. I 'volunteered' at a hospital close to campus for year. I say 'volunteering' in quotes because we have to pay a third party to take part. It's four hours per week and I did a full year to earn my certificate.

My biggest nonclinical volunteer experience is the community center/shelter where I grew up. I have been volunteering there since middle school, but cut back once I started college. I've done anything from translation for people filling out their taxes to serving meals on the weekends to struggling people in the community. I did not list any of my church activities on my application.

I only applied MD. I have no experience working with a DO, but if I must reapply, I plan to shadow a DO and expand my applications to include DO and MD next time.

I applied to 19 privates and 7 publics.

I submitted June 14.

I'd rather not list my schools if that's okay. I did my homework and picked schools where my numbers fit.

 

[Goro]

No shadowing. I 'volunteered' at a hospital close to campus for year. I say 'volunteering' in quotes because we have to pay a third party to take part. It's four hours per week and I did a full year to earn my certificate.

My biggest nonclinical volunteer experience is the community center/shelter where I grew up. I have been volunteering there since middle school, but cut back once I started college. I've done anything from translation for people filling out their taxes to serving meals on the weekends to struggling people in the community. I did not list any of my church activities on my application.

I only applied MD. I have no experience working with a DO, but if I must reapply, I plan to shadow a DO and expand my applications to include DO and MD next time.

I applied to 19 privates and 7 publics.

I submitted June 14.

I'd rather not list my schools if that's okay. I did my homework and picked schools where my numbers fit.

You should NOT have to pay for a volunteering experience. One of our objectives is to see evidence of your altruism.

We're also not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.

I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.

And get in the shadowing. You need to know what a doctor's day is like and how different doctors approach Medicine.

 

[LizzyM]

Hold on... you lived in a shelter? Did you include that in your personal statement or check the "disadvantaged" box?

What kind of "certificate" did you earn and what kind of "third party" collects a fee for volunteers to help out in a hospital?

You need shadowing as well as needing to improve your CARS score. Are you a non-native speaker of English? Did you complete your k-12 education in English or were you in non-English speaking school or in bilingual classroom in the US for a portion of your education?

I'm just trying to better flesh out your story as it may be something important that is being overlooked.

 

[Zen Arcade]

.

 

[deleted804295]

Thank you LizzyM! In my heart I already knew what you wrote, but I had to read it to have it sink in. I doubt I'll be getting an interview.

I know what you mean that 122 in CARS is the 'easiest' spot to boost my chances, but there's a reason that score was low in the first place. I'm afraid I can't break 125. I'm in my senior year now and have nearly 150 credits, so any chance of getting my sGPA above 3.6 seems low.

I just have to find a way to get that CARS up without sacrificing the other sections.

If English being a second language is the reason you can't break 125 in CARS; you really need to put that on your primary application. From the little you have disclosed I suspect you're a disadvantaged applicant and I feel like you're selling yourself short by not disclosing your entire story in your primary application. A disadvantaged student with a 516 ideally would've received several IIs by now even with a sub 125 had they molded their story correctly in the primary application.

Many schools automatically screen scores beneath a 125 so your best bet is adding schools that have more lenient screens ('low' tiers) if you have to reapply. These schools also prefer students who are service oriented so it would behoove you to start volunteering with the disadvantaged a lot more.

Could you share why you're not able to break a 125 in CARS?

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

Hold on... you lived in a shelter? Did you include that in your personal statement or check the "disadvantaged" box?

What kind of "certificate" did you earn and what kind of "third party" collects a fee for volunteers to help out in a hospital?

You need shadowing as well as needing to improve your CARS score. Are you a non-native speaker of English? Did you complete your k-12 education in English or were you in non-English speaking school or in bilingual classroom in the US for a portion of your education?

I'm just trying to better flesh out your story as it may be something important that is being overlooked.

I didn't live there myself. Sorry if it sounded that way. It was volunteering at the community center in town, both as part of the church and with my mom and brother.

The volunteer program at the hospital was run through a private company. Most students at my school join that program. If you complete all of the hours, they give you a certificate at the end to verify the hours.

 

[candbgirl]

So this company manages All of the volunteers for the hospital?

 

[LizzyM]

So this company manages All of the volunteers for the hospital?

I can see this happening, particularly at a for-profit hospital. Farm out the volunteer stuff to a company, let them deal with HIPPA, TB screens, background checks, scheduling, record keeping etc and leave the hospital out of it. Company pays a fee to the hospital so volunteers become a source of income rather than an expense.

It sucks. There should be other places one can volunteer to work side-by-side with physicians.

That you served people in a shelter/community center from middle school (so ~12 years old) but cut back once you reached college (adulthood, so to speak) does not speak well to your commitment to community service if you only did it when a parent dragged you along. You need to beef up that aspect, get shadowing, and study your a55 off for the CARS section. I wouldn't care if you dropped one point in every other section if you could get cars to 125.

 

[deleted804295]

I didn't live there myself. Sorry if it sounded that way. It was volunteering at the community center in town, both as part of the church and with my mom and brother.

The volunteer program at the hospital was run through a private company. Most students at my school join that program. If you complete all of the hours, they give you a certificate at the end to verify the hours.

A volunteer certificate means nothing. Does the hospital volunteering office not have a computerized system where you log in hours? If not, you need to begin logging your hours on your own.

 

[LizzyM]

A volunteer certificate means nothing. Does the hospital volunteering office not have a computerized system where you log in hours? If not, you need to begin logging your hours on your own.

I disagree. If an entity that keeps track of volunteer hours and issues a certificate for completion of 200 hours and the applicant writes that they volunteered for 200 hours and that the contact is xyz and the contact email is [email protected] then there is no issue at all with this.

 

[PlsLetMeIn21]

I can see this happening, particularly at a for-profit hospital. Farm out the volunteer stuff to a company, let them deal with HIPPA, TB screens, background checks, scheduling, record keeping etc and leave the hospital out of it. Company pays a fee to the hospital so volunteers become a source of income rather than an expense.

It sucks. There should be other places one can volunteer to work side-by-side with physicians.

That you served people in a shelter/community center from middle school (so ~12 years old) but cut back once you reached college (adulthood, so to speak) does not speak well to your commitment to community service if you only did it when a parent dragged you along. You need to beef up that aspect, get shadowing, and study your a55 off for the CARS section. I wouldn't care if you dropped one point in every other section if you could get cars to 125.

I have no idea if the hospitals are non-profit or for-profit, but we have a large selection of hospitals where we can volunteer. I think the hospital pays the company to run the program, but I don't know for sure.

I couldn't agree more that it sucks. People complain all the time about this.

I don't mean to take this personally, but it wasn't because my parent drug me a long. If anything, she came along to make sure my brother and I were safe. I think shelter might be the wrong word here, as it was a community center that offered outreach of all kinds. I sometimes helped with tax returns, I sometimes worked doing weekend meals, I sometimes helped at the day care center. You helped wherever there was need. I stopped going once I got to college because home is 120 miles away and I had no car.

I will work my a$$ off to improve my CARS score. I'm thinking I need to take a gap year to get more clinical experience.

I really appreciate your input and can't thank you enough. The premed advisors at school are good, but hard to make appointments with. It's unfair how overworked and understaffed they are. But our campus has really nice hedges, so I guess that's where they think money is better spent.

 

[LizzyM]

I really appreciate your input and can't thank you enough. The premed advisors at school are good, but hard to make appointments with. It's unfair how overworked and understaffed they are. But our campus has really nice hedges, so I guess that's where they think money is better spent.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. I feel you. At my undergrad it was saving the old trees that were so bad off they needed IVs.