Why didn't my application pan out and should I apply again?

[Hestabbedbasil]

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Hey all,

This round of applications didn't go all that well for me and I'm at something of a loss concerning what I should do. I've been accepted to a couple of schools that I honestly didn't like too much. My options right now are to scramble something for next year (work abroad, something of that sort) or accept one of the acceptances which came my way. This past cycle, I applied to 15 schools and heard back from 4 of them. My stats look like this:

-GPA 3.6, science GPA 3.6
-MCAT: 37R, 13 verbal 13 bio 11 physical
-Graduating with honors from the U of I at Urbana-Champaign
-Have a total of 2 and a half years of work at one lab (microbiology) and 2 and a half years of work at another (environmental science)
-Submitted an honors thesis in microbiology, waiting to see if it gets picked up for graduation with distinction
-~200 hours of hospital volunteering
-One summer volunteering at the World Health Org. in Geneva
-Four rec letters, one from microbiology research PI, one from my biology program director, one from my WHO supervisor, and one from an English teacher I had a couple of years ago


I'm wondering if these sorts of stats aren't really competitive anymore or if I need something else to sort of push me up a little bit. I'm not sure whether I should commit 4 years and 250k to a school I don't love or if it'd be worth it to reapply. Thanks!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Your stats are fine, so it's probably something else in your app bringing you down such as poor essays or mediocre/negative LOR's. That said, you would have to be absolutely 100% insane to not take one of the acceptances you already have. I'll spare you the diatribe. Go to med school.

 

[GoSpursGo]

For cases like yours, it seems like 90% of the time the problem is that you applied late. When did you submit?

Regardless, I agree you'd have to be crazy not to go to med school. Kick butt at whatever school you go to and you'll still match well.

 

[drizzt3117]

attend one of the schools you got into.

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Lets see...we have no idea what schools you applied to. A 3.6 is below aerage at pretty much every school in the nation..but honestly if you applied to only top schools you were pretty average...sorry.

Go with one of your 4 accepted schools.

 

[flip26]

I just looked at the thread you started last June, asking how your list looked. Somebody warned you it was too top heavy, but I guess you didn't listen:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=6824171#post6824171

If you applied to that list of schools, which ones exactly are you not willing to attend?

And when you say you "heard back" from 4 of them, wtf does that mean? Were you accepted to 4 of 15?

 

[scarletgirl777]

Hey all,

This round of applications didn't go all that well for me and I'm at something of a loss concerning what I should do. I've been accepted to a couple of schools that I honestly didn't like too much. My options right now are to scramble something for next year (work abroad, something of that sort) or accept one of the acceptances which came my way. This past cycle, I applied to 15 schools and heard back from 4 of them. My stats look like this:

-GPA 3.6, science GPA 3.6
-MCAT: 37R, 13 verbal 13 bio 11 physical
-Graduating with honors from the U of I at Urbana-Champaign
-Have a total of 2 and a half years of work at one lab (microbiology) and 2 and a half years of work at another (environmental science)
-Submitted an honors thesis in microbiology, waiting to see if it gets picked up for graduation with distinction
-~200 hours of hospital volunteering
-One summer volunteering at the World Health Org. in Geneva
-Four rec letters, one from microbiology research PI, one from my biology program director, one from my WHO supervisor, and one from an English teacher I had a couple of years ago


I'm wondering if these sorts of stats aren't really competitive anymore or if I need something else to sort of push me up a little bit. I'm not sure whether I should commit 4 years and 250k to a school I don't love or if it'd be worth it to reapply. Thanks!

You DID, get in, so this isn't a "problem." The outcome is maybe not what you hoped for, but you did what you needed to do to be competitive to med school and now you're in! So congratulations! Do NOT reapply.

 

[scarletgirl777]

I just looked at the thread you started last June, asking how your list looked. Somebody warned you it was too top heavy, but I guess you didn't listen:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=6824171#post6824171

Um, how did you know that he didn't listen? Is that just an assumption you're making?

 

[flip26]

Um, how did you know that he didn't listen? Is that just an assumption you're making?

Um, I wrote that I "guess" he didn't listen given his poor results this cycle. He didn't offer his list to us, but he has had a poor cycle according to him...without knowing where he applied, it is merely a guess that he did not apply well.

If he had "listened" he might have included more schools where he would have been more competitive AND that he might have liked more than the ones he got into.

OP has 14 posts in over 2.5 years on SDN, and he didn't come back to this thread for any further comment, so why should anyone care?

 

[Van Chowder]

point, op is for sure not coming back to this thread. Well question for if he/she does.

Why would you apply to schools you would never attend? I thought the point behind a safety school was going there if you didnt get into any reach / with in reach schools?

 

[LiveUninhibited]

He said he had a LOR from a WHO supervisor. If I assume that person is a US-trained doctor, then there's no problem there, but I've often heard not having a LOR from a doctor can be a huge disadvantage.

All that said, I can't imagine why somebody wouldn't take an acceptance. The application process is extremely long and unpleasant, and getting accepted later is rarely a sure thing.

 

[amine2086]

Your stats are great and ECs look excellent. But regardless of which school you got accepted to, you should just take one of these acceptances and run with it. About half of the students fail to get accepted to any schools. So you should be proud of yourself. 🙂

 

[drizzt3117]

He said he had a LOR from a WHO supervisor. If I assume that person is a US-trained doctor, then there's no problem there, but I've often heard not having a LOR from a doctor can be a huge disadvantage.

I didn't have a MD letter and did absolutely fine (25+ interviews) <shrug>

 

[LiveUninhibited]

I didn't have a MD letter and did absolutely fine (25+ interviews) <shrug>

Yeah there's no perfect correlation for any single factor, so maybe I shouldn't have said "huge disadvantage." Not everybody with a 40 MCAT gets in. If that was a weakness for you, your amazing stats more than made up for it. Be nice to see data on the intercorrelation values. My guess is it's not as strong as, say, the MCAT, but it's probably relatively robust.

In any case, it sounds like the OP did way better than most applicants but doesn't have perspective on how fortunate they are. Which is surprising if they spend any time at all on this forum.

 

[Hestabbedbasil]

Hey thread, sorry I have been completely absent from this discussion. Thanks a lot for all your input. I just kinda figured that after a couple responses, this thing would sink and sink.

Reading all these responses really put things in perspective. I'm absolutely going to attend next year and just work myself to the bone wherever I decide to go. Thanks again for all your support, guys and girls.

 

[258881]

37 MCAT and ~3.6 gpa... I don't get it...

 

[JJMrK]

37 MCAT and ~3.6 gpa... I don't get it...

What's not to get? He had good numbers and collected a few acceptances.

 

[drizzt3117]

Yeah there's no perfect correlation for any single factor, so maybe I shouldn't have said "huge disadvantage." Not everybody with a 40 MCAT gets in. If that was a weakness for you, your amazing stats more than made up for it. Be nice to see data on the intercorrelation values. My guess is it's not as strong as, say, the MCAT, but it's probably relatively robust.

In any case, it sounds like the OP did way better than most applicants but doesn't have perspective on how fortunate they are. Which is surprising if they spend any time at all on this forum.

I think PI (PhD) letters have just as much value as MD letters, given that it's likely that half the adcom is going to be made up of PhDs in any case. Most medical schools do have research as one of their primary missions.