Which School Friendly to Reapplicants?

[WhalesAreCool]

Hi everyone!

I'm a long time lurker on this forum and applied to MD schools within the US this closing application cycle as a CA resident. My primary app was submitted late June and my secondaries were generally July-early August. I currently have 1 WL but in all likelihood, will be reapplying in June. I applied broadly with LizM of 69 without a gap year and got 3 interviews. In choosing schools for my next application cycle I'm not sure which ones are more or less friendly for reapplicants. I know some schools pride themselves on the number of reapplicants and see them as being committed while others require significant changes in their application. If someone could please look over my school list and help me decide which to take off, keep, or add on for this application cycle that would be amazing. If there is any more information I could provide to be helpful just let me know! I will also be applying DO this upcoming cycle.

Here's my school list for the past cycle:
University of California, San Diego School of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine at Pheonix
Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Albany Medical College
Rush University
University of California, Riverside School of Medicine
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
University of Massachusetts
Frank H Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University
University of California, Irvine School of Medicine
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
University of Vermont College of Medicine
University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago
Tulane University School of Medicine
The Commonwealth Medical College
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
Geisel School of medicine at Dartmouth
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Den
Western Michigan University Homer Stryker MD School of Medicine
Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine at Tuscon
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine
Sidney Kimmel medical College at Thomas Jefferson University
New York Medical College
Drexel University College of Medicine
Chicago medical school at Rosalind Franklin University
Cal northstate university school of medicine

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[DrHart]

would help to know mcat/gpa/ec's/volunteering/what schools you interviewed at. i don't think any schools are unfriendly to reapplicants so long as you have made significant progress in whatever shortcomings prevented you from getting an acceptance in the first place.

 

[WhalesAreCool]

Sure thing! My GPA was 3.65 with a MCAT of 512. I interviewed at Rutgers New Jersey School of Medicine, UoArizona, Tucson, and Virginia Tech. I'll lump my EC's together included in my past app to avoid boring you guys too much:

Research - 1250 hours of 3 summer internships at the same translational research lab, 1 third author publication, 1 paper publication in a prominent science journal deep in author listings, 3 poster presentations. 1 summer was volunteering, 1 summer was funded by the lab, and 1 summer was externally funded with a grant I applied for in that order.

Clinical Volunteering - 3 summers totaling 220 hours at an urgent care being an extra hand on deck to help with patient flow and communication directly with a physician.

Club Sports - Intercollegiate club sports involvement for 3 years finishing with being captain of the team. It wasn't NCAA but still competitive at the intercollegiate level. Totaling 1000 hours.

Student Club Co-Director - International aid organization chapter at my college totaling 250 hours. We organize a medical volunteer trip every year to a Latin American country bringing medical supplies and help them with personnel shortages for a week.

Physician shadowing - 50 hours of outpatient consultations with a surgeon. I'm sure everyone knows how these go.

Olympic Weightlifting - hobby I listed as 300 hours total, nothing competitive or with an organization.


I hope that helps clear some things up! I figured I could have done more volunteering so I focused on that within this last year. Also, I picked up some more community involvement and leadership activities I can describe but didn't make it onto my primary application.

 

[DrHart]

You look good in my opinion. The only thing holding you back from some of those schools would be your stats.
I would drop U of Washington (not WWAMI). If you haven't done anything too radically new over the last year that wasn't included in this past cycle's application, I would drop some of the schools that are LizM 72+

Change your PS and secondaries, run them by an advisor, and hit submit as soon as you can. If you can get in touch with the three schools that you interviewed with and ask them for feedback, that might help for future interviews. For the two schools you interviewed with and were rejected from, this would be especially important.

If you can, shadow a DO before putting your AACOMAS application through. Your stats an ECs make you a great applicant for DO schools, so long as you know what you'd be getting into.

 

[radioactive15]

Which school waitlisted you? Contact schools to see if they will help you understand what went wrong this cycle and make sure it's fully addressed before reapplying.

 

[WhalesAreCool]

Thanks for your advice! Unfortunately, both the schools I was rejected post interview have general reapplication advice they give to everyone and wasn't very helpful fo my specific case. I guess my real question is which schools do I reapply to vs seeking new schools to add to my list? I've heard a few things like "there's a reason you were rejected for the first time" like for deficiency in some part of the app or just being a bad fit all together. Another way to phrase that would be would I rather have schools compare two copies of my app or only see my recent (improved) app?

I've contacted all the schools that rejected me and only a couple were able to provide specific feedback, but they both qualified that by saying that their feedback was only in regards to their school.

 

[ciucia53]

Hmm, I wonder if it might be a little helpful to take a year off and do some more volunteering, perhaps non-clinical with underserved communities in your local area. You could even use the year to boost your clinical hours.

 

[NucleusO]

Many medical schools offer specific pages of advice for reapplicants, something I find few students look into. This would be true whether or not you are a specific reapplicant to that school. Below are links to a few and please note most say the most common mistake among reapplicants is applying again too soon
Also attached is a lengthy reapplicant document from Ohio State University Medical School
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...ear-wamc-advice-please.1191695/#post-17595427

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Reapplicants - Miller School of Medicine Admissions
Roughly 20% of the students who apply to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in any given year are reapplicants. Data that we have collected indicate they have a lower acceptance rate than do first time applicants

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Heath
http://www.med.wisc.edu/education/md/admissions/reapplying/31716
(emphasis in the original)
There should be significant improvements in your application before reapplying. This might mean not reapplying the very next year. The most common error made by reapplicants is that they submit their next application too soon.

The Ohio State University College of Medicine
http://medicine.osu.edu/admissions/md/tips-and-advice/pages/index.aspx
To maximize the chances of giving off this perception, you must allow enough time before reapplying. This will undoubtedly be the hardest part of the process, but be patient; if you rush it, you may join the ranks of those who are applying for a third time.

University of Minnesota Medical School
Re-Applicant
Though you can submit a second application immediately after your first application, you may want to consider waiting a year if you feel you need more experiences that help you demonstrate the essential and desired qualities of an ideal medical student.

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Reapplicants — admit
Our Ideal Candidate — admit

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Advice for Re-Applicants | research.vtc.vt.edu

LSU Health Shreveport
Re-Applicants

University of Missouri
Non-Traditional & Re-Applicants | Admissions | University of Missouri School of Medicine

East Carolina University, Brody School of Medicine
whatif

Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNTHSC)
Common Mistakes Made by Applicants - Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine

Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Reapplication - College of Osteopathic Medicine - Michigan State University

Totally agree with this...the second time I applied way too early and didn't get any interview invites. Finally after the third cycle and with significant improvements to my app I was lucky enough to snag 5 MD IIs and I was accepted to 4 schools this cycle.

If you can try to gain feedback from the schools that you applied to and spend another year improving your app before applying, you'll be a lot more successful. Best of luck fellow CA applicant