Applying to Medical School - How does my application look?

Pre-Med & Medical School Careers in Medicine
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I am junior in college (going to be a senior this coming fall) and am unsure about applying to medical school this cycle. I understand that it is preferable for apps to be sent in by late June (due to some schools' rolling admissions processes). However, I have yet to take my MCAT. I am planning on taking it mid-June and then sending in my apps as soon as the score comes in (so late August probably). Is this too late to apply? I am considering both M.D. and D.O. schools. I have included some other helpful information below in terms of my academics and extracurriculars. I would appreciate it if you could guide me in the right direction based on the information I have provided!</p>

<p>Major: Cell Biology
Minors: Public Health, Psychology
Extra studies in: Media, Communications, and Writing</p>

<p>The university I attend is ranked approximately 30th in the nation and is known to have many pre-medical students
Cum. GPA: 3.3
sGPA: 3.04</p>

<p>I have extensive experience with:
- campus activities (have held multiple E-board and chair positions in 2 organizations)
- medical/science related work (have shadowed many doctors, worked in labs, done independent research)
- volunteering (I have worked in many departments in 2 different hospitals)
- jobs, i.e. office assistant, lab tech assistant, tutor for multiple subjects, etc.</p>

<p>Hope this gives you an overall idea of me! Thank you in advance to all that answer!</p>

2

<p>1) What is your legal state of residence?</p>

<p>2) Have you applied for your committee letter at UR? (Deadline was mid-March. You may still be able to request one if you pay a extra fee, but your letter will be completed only after all other letter requests which were submitted on time. Last year committee letters didn’t go out until mid-August.) Med schools know UR uses a committee letter and it will raise questions about your application if you don’t submit one. </p>

<p>3) Have you computed your AACOMAS GPA/sGPA? What are they?</p>

<p>Comments:</p>

<p>UR is great school, but you will not get any slack for your GPA because of it. (Just sayin’–D2 graduated from UR and just finished her med school application cycle.)</p>

<p>Your GPA and sGPA are both very, very low for allopathic schools. Unless you have something very special, unique and compelling about your application, I’d say your chances at MD schools are poor even if your MCAT is spectacular.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/157998/mcat-gpa-grid-by-selected-race-ethnicity.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your chances at DO schools look better (esp once that D in physics gets replaced), but your chances will depend on your MCAT score. Do you have a LOR from a DO? A number of DO schools require them.</p>

<p>Submitting in late August is LATE. AMCAS verification will take up to 4-6 weeks after you submit. Allopathic schools close their applications between Oct 15 and Nov 1. By late August, some med schools are already interviewing students. AACOMAS was taking (I think) 4 weeks for verification, but DO schools have a longer interview season than do MD schools. Would you consider postponing your application for 1 year? It would give you time to improve your GPA/sGPA and you would be able to submit earlier.</p>

<p>Suggestions if you plan to apply this year:</p>

<p>1) Start filing out your AMCAS and AACOMAS applications NOW so that you can submit as soon you have a MCAT score. (IIRC, neither will process your application without a MCAT score.)</p>

<p>2) Once you’ve created AMCAS and AACOMAS accounts, order your transcripts. It will take UR about 3 weeks to process and send them. You want everything in place at AMCAS/AACOMAS so that once you do hit the submit button, your application can be placed immediately in the verification queue.</p>

<p>3) Check the school specific threads over at SDN and get the secondary questions. Start pre-writing your secondary essays so you can get them back to the schools as soon as you receive them.</p>

3

<p>With such a low GPA, having to wait for MCAT scores to come out in late august for your application to go through. The best bet for lower stat applicants is to apply as early as possible in the cycle, when you are competing with fewer people for interview spots. You would probably be best served by waiting a year and taking (and doing well in) some science classes this upcoming year to boost that sGPA</p>

4

<p>1) NJ
2) I have a committee letter already
3) The stated GPA’s were my AMCAS gpas without this semester’s grades in. Grades have been inputted and my most recent GPAs are Cumulative: 3.32 and science: 3.11</p>

<p>In the eyes of my university, I have a higher GPA, as I have retaken classes and those grades have been replaced for my university GPA. The GPAs I just stated are the actual AMCAS ones.</p>

<p>Also, you mentioned I had D in physics? I do not have a D, so I am not sure why you mentioned that.
If you don’t mind me asking, is your D2 taking a gap year? If so, what does she plan on doing?</p>

5

<p>D2 has finished her gap years. (She did 2 since her employment contract required a minimum of a 2 year commitment.) She worked FT as a clinical study coordinator/clinical research asst for a Top 10 med school. She also did some work (in influenza epidemiology) for the Dept of Public Health in the state where she was working. </p>

<p>She applied this current cycle (allopathic only) and received multiple acceptances. She’ll start med school this fall.</p>

<p>My bad, I assumed your bad grade (from your UR posts) was in physics. </p>

<p>Even with your new grades, your GPA is still low for allopathic medical schools. According to MSAR, for the 2012-13 cycle , the average GPA/sGPA for accepted applicants was 3.68; MCAT was 33. If your metrics are not in the 25-75 %ile range for your state med schools, you may be facing a rough cycle for allopathic schools. </p>

<p>AACOMAS calculates its GPAs differently than AMCAS**. Be sure you use their calculator to see what difference that makes in your GPA/sGPA.</p>

<p>** AACOMAS doesn’t include math in the sGPA, but will include all other sciences like astronomy or geology.</p>

6

<p>Thank you so much for the advice and input! I really appreciate it. I will start filling out the applications to see where I stand in terms of GPA and such.</p>

<p>Good luck to your daughter. Did she plan on taking gap years? If so, how early on in the process did she begin applying for clinical research coordinator jobs? If I do take a gap year, I was planning on holding such a position (or one that focused on research that focused on public health care or primary care, since I enjoy those fields).</p>

7

<p>D2 planned on taking gap years. She wanted a break between undergrad and med school.</p>

<p>She began looking in March of senior year, but she has a unique skill set that is in high demand. She had 3 different job offers (all doing basic or clinical research at med schools/NIH) by the end of the first week of April. (Note that this is NOT typical.)</p>