Where could I have gone wrong?

[814965]

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I'm not having any luck with interviews, and as it increasingly looks like I'm going to have to reapply next year I'm wondering where I could have gone wrong with my application. Here's a short overview of my application:
- Year in school: Post-bacc

- Country/state of residence: MI

LizzyM score of 68 (509 MCAT, 127/127/127/128)

- Schools applied to: All Michigan MD schools, MCW, Penn State, Wake Forest, George Washington, Brown, Cincinatti, Albany, Albert Einstein, West Virginia, U of Vermont, Quinnipiac, Tulane, Drexel

- Paid Clinical Experience: Currently work as a phlebotomist with around 1200 hours and counting

- Research: 800 hours paid research experience in a biochemistry lab with a few poster publications and 1 conference attended

- Volunteering (clinical): 300 hours ER volunteering, 70 hours clinical research volunteering

- Physician shadowing: none

- Non-clinical volunteering: 25 hours on an independent volunteering project

- Extracurricular activities: Leadership positions in a social fraternity (100 hours), played on an intercollegiate sports team for 1.5 years, 1.5 years as a TA for my school's anatomy lab

- Immediate family members in medicine?: Yes

- Interest in rural health: Yes, I have a rural background

The biggest holes in my application are my lack of community service (currently fixing that) and the fact that I didn't complete most of my secondaries until mid to late August, and I'm sure that my lack of shadowing hasn't helped either, but I'm curious to know if someone else sees something wrong with my application that I might not be seeing. Thanks!

 

[Gurkhali]

Lack of shadowing, low non-clinical volunteering and weak LizzyM score probably. You can improve the first two, which is the good news. School list looks decent but I would definitely add 5 or more schools to up the odds since 17ish schools might not be enough with your stats.

 

[814965]

On a side note, here are some things I've begun doing to improve my app in case I do have to reapply:

- I got a very poor grade in Precalculus 5 years ago and never retook it, so I'll either retake it or study it on my own and do well in Calculus if I can

- Fixing my lack of service hours by regularly volunteering ESL tutor

- I'll soon begin shadowing a physician that I know regularly

- Learning Spanish has become a full-time hobby for me and I hope to be proficient or fluent in it by next June

- I'm going to gradually rewrite all of my primary and secondary essays over the next few months and get a lot more people to read them

- I'll apply to a few new schools, as well as DO schools, and I'm going to have everything ready to submit the minute the application process begins on June 1st

- Open to suggestions. 🙂

 

[Frogger27]

Agreed with above.. I would get involved in some sort of non-clinical volunteering that you are passionate about. I had a lot of these (~800 hrs) and much less clinical work (~200 hours) and schools only seemed to ask about non-clinical volunteering. After a certain threshold of clinical/research, schools do not care anymore. They want to find altruistic people

Add more schools next time also.. still surprised you did not hear from the Michigan schools yet

 

[Frogger27]

On a side note, here are some things I've begun doing to improve my app in case I do have to reapply:

- I got a very poor grade in Precalculus 5 years ago and never retook it, so I'll either retake it or study it on my own and do well in Calculus if I can

- Fixing my lack of service hours by regularly volunteering ESL tutor

- I'll soon begin shadowing a physician that I know regularly

- Learning Spanish has become a full-time hobby for me and I hope to be proficient or fluent in it by next June

- I'm going to gradually rewrite all of my primary and secondary essays over the next few months and get a lot more people to read them

- I'll apply to a few new schools, as well as DO schools, and I'm going to have everything ready to submit the minute the application process begins on June 1st

- Open to suggestions. 🙂

You are being very proactive.. good job.. Tutoring for ESL is great, but I think you should find something where you are working with a more underserved population (hospice, disabled, homeless, etc)

 

[814965]

.

 

[macbookproretina]

Your cycle isn't over yet. Seems like you know exactly what you need to do in order to strengthen your application for next year, but keep the hope for this cycle alive!

 

[ScottTenorman54]

- Learning Spanish has become a full-time hobby for me and I hope to be proficient or fluent in it by next June

Just be careful with how you present it, you don't want to claim fluency unless you know you could comfortably do your whole interview in spanish with a native speaker if it comes to that.

 

[libertyyne]

I would look towards essays and loRs. You should have received some love from CMU, msuchm . That being said you should probably get a minimal amount of shadowing and some solid serving underserved communities.

Increase number of schools to about 25ish, apply early, and don't rule out do.

I wouldn't be surprised if you got an interview either. Are there any red flags you aren't telling us about ? Did you have your primary app and essay read over by an impartial person?

 

[814965]

You are being very proactive.. good job.. Tutoring for ESL is great, but I think you should find something where you are working with a more underserved population (hospice, disabled, homeless, etc)

I would look towards essays and loRs. You should have received some love from CMU, msuchm . That being said you should probably get a minimal amount of shadowing and some solid serving underserved communities.

Increase number of schools to about 25ish, apply early, and don't rule out do.

I wouldn't be surprised if you got an interview either. Are there any red flags you aren't telling us about ? Did you have your primary app and essay read over by an impartial person?

My primaries were fine, but in hindsight my secondaries might not have been as good as they could have been because I woke up to 20 of them in my inbox on August 1st and was in a mad rush to get them done for four weeks after that. But besides that no, I don't have any IAs or a criminal record or anything like that.

 

[814965]

Agreed with above.. I would get involved in some sort of non-clinical volunteering that you are passionate about. I had a lot of these (~800 hrs) and much less clinical work (~200 hours) and schools only seemed to ask about non-clinical volunteering. After a certain threshold of clinical/research, schools do not care anymore. They want to find altruistic people

Add more schools next time also.. still surprised you did not hear from the Michigan schools yet

I'm on hold with MSU right now and I've been under review with CMU since August, which is discouraging since I was born and raised in northern MI and have a rural background, and they supposedly give preference to applicants like me.

 

[814965]

Your cycle isn't over yet. Seems like you know exactly what you need to do in order to strengthen your application for next year, but keep the hope for this cycle alive!

Thanks. I was just curious to see if someone else would see something wrong that I didn't.

 

[BlessUp]

I am also from MI and applied to all in state MD schools among others (20 MD total). LM of 72 and have 3 II at low-mid tier MD, but have not yet heard back from any in state public schools, where supposedly I should have my best chances. Is this unusual?
OP, here's to hoping that MI schools still have a good amount of IIs left to give out.

 

[efle]

OK this actually strikes me as pretty bizarre. A 3.7/31 with tons of clinic time, volunteerism, research and a rural MI background should not have total silence from that list. August is not late to hit complete.

I think I glimpsed it mentioned above - I feel like there is some sort of big weakness in the things we can't see (statement, letters, activity descriptions)

 

[814965]

OK this actually strikes me as pretty bizarre. A 3.7/31 with tons of clinic time, volunteerism, research and a rural MI background should not have total silence from that list. August is not late to hit complete.

I think I glimpsed it mentioned above - I feel like there is some sort of big weakness in the things we can't see (statement, letters, activity descriptions)

Probably my essays. I rushed pretty fast to get them done. And not total silence. Just rejections.

 

[Goro]

I think that you have assessed your weaknesses quite well. The rushed essays probably might be the biggest hit, even more than the lack of shadowing. The lack of non-clinical ECs has probably also hurt badly.

Strongly suggest that get in service to others less fortunate than yourself.

Note: just because you're from, say, Owosso, doesn't mean that you want to stay in Owosso as a clinician. So walk the walk, and don't merely talk the talk.

The biggest holes in my application are my lack of community service (currently fixing that) and the fact that I didn't complete most of my secondaries until mid to late August, and I'm sure that my lack of shadowing hasn't helped either, but I'm curious to know if someone else sees something wrong with my application that I might not be seeing. Thanks!

 

[kraskadva]

You are being very proactive.. good job.. Tutoring for ESL is great, but I think you should find something where you are working with a more underserved population (hospice, disabled, homeless, etc)

Tutoring ESL, as a volunteer activity not as a job, is working with underserved populations - typically low-income, recent immigrants.
To say OP needs to work with even further underserved populations is either splitting hairs to an unnecessary degree or means you don't know really know anything about ESL tutoring.
This is maybe just nitpicking a bit, but I do this and there are no privileged folks looking for a free ESL tutor. Privileged folks who need these services pay for a tutor.

 

[Frogger27]

Tutoring ESL, as a volunteer activity not as a job, is working with underserved populations - typically low-income, recent immigrants.
To say OP needs to work with even further underserved populations is either splitting hairs to an unnecessary degree or means you don't know really know anything about ESL tutoring.
This is maybe just nitpicking a bit, but I do this and there are no privileged folks looking for a free ESL tutor. Privileged folks who need these services pay for a tutor.

I understand your point but (IMO) tutoring is not seen in the same light as some other activities that one can get involved with in a community. But it definitely is just me splitting hairs about it

 

[purplefrog13]

In addition to what others have said above: lack of shadowing, ECs, rushed essays...I recommend buying MSAR and looking for schools that match your MCAT and GPA.I think a few of your schools might be a bit out of your range--that's not an issue, everyone applies to a few reach schools. but I think there might be schools that you haven't found yet that could be a good fit.

 

[kraskadva]

I understand your point but (IMO) tutoring is not seen in the same light as some other activities that one can get involved with in a community. But it definitely is just me splitting hairs about it

I think it would depend on who you asked.
Teaching as a skill is always valued, since you'll be teaching patients for the rest of your career. Interacting with people in a different socioeconomic class is valued, because ditto plus service. And helping someone develop the language skills they need to do their job, talk to their doctor or their kids teacher, and otherwise function in society is no small thing. Maybe it happens one on one instead of larger scale, but it is still pretty impactful, for that person and for their family.

 

[814965]

Tutoring ESL, as a volunteer activity not as a job, is working with underserved populations - typically low-income, recent immigrants.
To say OP needs to work with even further underserved populations is either splitting hairs to an unnecessary degree or means you don't know really know anything about ESL tutoring.
This is maybe just nitpicking a bit, but I do this and there are no privileged folks looking for a free ESL tutor. Privileged folks who need these services pay for a tutor.

Most of the people I work with are poor, recent immigrants in a low-SES area who work hard, undesirable jobs or are unemployed, and some are undocumented.

 

[814965]

In addition to what others have said above: lack of shadowing, ECs, rushed essays...I recommend buying MSAR and looking for schools that match your MCAT and GPA.I think a few of your schools might be a bit out of your range--that's not an issue, everyone applies to a few reach schools. but I think there might be schools that you haven't found yet that could be a good fit.

Yeah, I know that I don't have a chance in hell at some schools like UMich, but since I'm a MI resident I went for it anyway.

 

[kraskadva]

Most of the people I work with are poor, recent immigrants in a low-SES area who work hard, undesirable jobs or are unemployed, and some are undocumented.

I figured as much. It's the same situation in my neck of the woods and every other place I've seen.
I say keep on with it. I've never heard anything but positive feedback when listing this on an app and it gives you a lot to talk about in secondaries/interviews. On top of the warm fuzzies of knowing you really helped change someones life.