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[799747]

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Hello everyone,

So I am a nontraditional completing my last year of prerequisites. My time and energy are limited, and so I need help deciding what areas of my application should I focus on specifically and what goals would be worth pursuing. Thank you for your help in this:

-Academic: 3.96 cGPA, 4.00 sGPA (prior degree in Anthropology/Sociology). My adviser recommended that I take Cell Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacology as well as O Chem and Biochem that are required.

-Patient Exposure: Worked 1,024 hours as a psychiatric technician/psychosocial rehabilitation therapist at a elementary school for children with major mental health/behavioral disorders. I handled mainly crisis intervention, medication management, and helping to care for and build coping skills in the kids. All of the students had a behavioral intervention plan that was built by the child's physician, parents, and teachers. I am also working as a surgical aide at a dermatologist's office, taking care of patients, passing instruments, and maintaining a sterile environment.

-Volunteering: I have volunteered as a victim advocate for a domestic violence shelter (also was on the Board of Directors, off and on for 1 year) and a District Attorney's office (3 month period, 40 hours/week), at an emergency food bank (also on Board of Directors, off and on for 3 yeras), and currently volunteer on a crisis textline, with the Red Cross Disaster Action Team, and with Make-A-Wish as a wish granter. I have plans to also volunteer as a patient care attendant at the local VA emergency room.

-Leadership: Alongside the Board of Directors positions I listed, I was also a student senator at one of the colleges (for 1 year) I attended and was also an assistant Scoutmaster for a loop Boy Scout Troop (also 1 year).

-Research: was a research assistant for 2 experimental psychology projects (Internet Usage and Temporal Discounting, Color Conditioning and IQ Test Performance) and 1 meta-analysis project (Labeling and Academic Outcomes), was a research leader for a sociology project surveying pediatric mental health for a rural county, and was an intern for a CDC-grant research project surrounding public health education and outreach.

-Physician Shadowing: Currently I have 120 hours shadowing a Dermatologist, 3 Psychiatrists, ENT, Sleep Medicine, Neurosurgery, and Primary Care Physician.

-Letters of Recommendation: I have excellent letters that I can get from a MD Dermatologist, my mentor/research adviser (Sociology Professor), a Physics Professor, my supervisor at the psychiatric elementary school, and with a couple of my volunteer positions.

So, I will be applying in Summer 2018 and have started studying for the MCAT. I would just like input on potential weaknesses in my application/areas to work on and if you can answers to the following questions:

-Do I need more shadowing hours? I love shadowing, but I wasn't sure if it matters that much to admissions committees.

-Would you advise me taking those extra courses to show my academic ability?

Thank you so much! I want to find a way to be able to pay back anyone who can help. I don't know if it is in the rules of SDN or not, but I'll PM any replies.

elprez333

 

[NonTrad16]

Ace the mcat, take and ace the required courses, and post in the general WAMC forum (premed md -> what are my chances) when you have an MCAT.

-Other classes (beyond those required for matriculation) aren't needed -- your GPA is basically perfect, right?
-shadowing numbers are fine.
-volunteering seems broad
-paid clinical experience is good

What makes you a nontrad? How long have you been out of school? When did you decide you wanted to pursue medicine? Just curious, since you'll need to know as you craft your statement, and this seems like a real go-getters med school application...

Main issue I'd see is your LORs... MD letters aren't really necessary (assuming it's a shadow letter and not a boss), and academic letters may be more necessary then others. Look up schools of interest and you'll see the requirements, but it is usually 2-3 professors (in science and non science courses). At most you'd want 5-7 letters total, but any one school should probably only receive 5ish.... more is not always better. Academic + top volunteer + long term employer = pretty solid scope.

 

[799747]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm a quasi-nontraditional. I'm mid 20's, got a previous Bachelors, worked for a year, and then started my prereqs. Yeah the science LORs are hard to come by because I have classes with 100+ students and don't have enough experience to volunteer as a research assistant in labs.

 

[aformerstudent]

MCAT score will make or break you. A previous pre-med adviser had told me MCAT is more important than GPA.

Your post is a little vague. You're completing your last year of pre-req's? Well what courses have you taken and what have you yet to take and what are the grades?

All the EC stuff is useless for a discussion unless you have your final GPA and an MCAT score on the table.

As to what courses to take in addition to the pre-req's, I would say cell bio is a must as well as biochem, genetics, embryo, and immuno.

cell bio is covered in a lot of early courses, genetics is covered in biochem, embryo never made sense to me and I'd recommend you understand embryo before starting anatomy. Immuno combines memorization with some critical thinking. The other courses fall into place when you master these.

So get back to us on the courses taken, courses remaining, and an MCAT and you'll get much better advice.

 

[longhaul3]

I'm also confused about where you are right now—have you taken many of the courses you listed? I don't see a reason for you to take the non-required classes. Lots of people major in whatever and apply to med school having taken the prereqs and no more science. If you do well in your classes and on the MCAT you are golden in my estimation.