<p>I was originally thinking to do MD/PhD program, and I still want to do that, but just in case if I decide to apply to med school ALONE, I wonder what are my chances of getting in if I don't take a gap year.</p>
<p>Let's say that at the end of my junior year (right now I am beginning my junior year) these would be my stats:
3.7 gpa
8 months biology research (I am just starting it now, and I am a junior right now)
8 months clinical research 2 hours per week
6 months emergency dept volunteer (4 hrs/wk)
1 year computer assistant paid job
1 year computer tutor paid job
some shadowing, like 40 hours or something.</p>
<p>and say I add an extra, I don't know, 8 months of some sort of non-clinical volunteering or whatever. There are some openings in the women's center of some sort of leadership team or whatnot. </p>
<p>And let's say I kill the MCAT, like let's say I get above a 40 on the MCAT. </p>
<p>Should I still wait a year and have a gap year so that I can get better stats, or should I apply after this year? </p>
<p>If I take a gap year, then I can raise my GPA to 3.8 by the end of senior year and I guess I would have a longer research time, longer volunteer time, etc.
So, gap year or no gap year, if I were to apply to med school?
Btw, I am only interested in two med schools, and they are OHSU and UW.</p>
<p>If UW stands for UDub, are you disadvantaged or have a record of working with underserved populations? As an OR resident, you should understand that UW adheres strictly to it’s policy for OOR applicants:</p>
<p>I think limiting to two med schools is odd. </p>
<p>Am I reading your post correctly? Will all of your ECs and research be done this year? I think that will look like, “I decided to go to med school so I squished all these things together this year so I’d have stuff to put on my resume.”</p>
<p>^I’m assuming the OP is an OR resident since their location shows Ptd. So, if UW does not stand for UWisc, then they need to meet the criteria I cited to even receive a secondary.</p>
<p>wrote the earlier one from my phone so couldn’t see the oregon thing. I read the link you posted and you’re right. Sounds like these two schools are two poor choices for an extremely strong oregon applicant, let alone this one.</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin would probably also be a bad choice for an oregon resident.</p>
<p>Over 4 years ago while on the tour at Yale our guide was a woman who earned her BS and MS in 4 years at Yale in a sub specialty of biology. She said she was in the process of flying all over the country since she applied to 24 medical schools to insure she got a placement.</p>
<p>I found out later she landed at a lower ivy medical school. She advised that Yale wanted it’s grads to go to other schools to have a different life experience. She was just not leaving anything to chance.</p>
<p>Applying to 24 schools is not particularly out of ordinary, especially if she was from California or possibly northeast.</p>
<p>DS was from an “easier” state, and his original list of schools might be close to 24 (only a couple of schools fewer, I think.)</p>
<p>
Interesting thought. I think it is often the case that YSM takes about the equal number of matriculated students from Harvard College and Yale College (like around 10 each school.) Since the yield for the students from Yale College tends to be higher, I did hear a rumor that YSM does not need to admit too many students from Yale College as compared to, say, Harvard College.</p>
<p>One physician told me recently that unlike many other med schools, YSM still tries to train medical scientists as a part of its mission. How successful it has achieved is another issue as its program is not totally an MD/PhD program except for a small number of students (Maybe 1-year-only Institution-funded MSTP-like program?) Wonder whether there is some truth in it.</p>
<p>Oops…my post was indeed confusing…when I wrote 1-year-only, I meant to write one extra year only, not one MSTP student per year. Specifically, I referred to its fifth tuition-free year there. Since it is one year only and tuition free but no stipend, it may be regarded as MSTP-super-light!</p>
<p>I am looking into University of Washington, not University of Wisconsin. I want to stay close to Oregon, or in Oregon, and I am an oregon resident.</p>
<p>"And let’s say I kill the MCAT, like let’s say I get above a 40 on the MCAT. "
-And let’s be on a ground and not in some kind of cloud and say that this is extremely unlikely. In fact, it is much, much easier to graduate at the top of your pre-med class (yes, being #1 pre-med in all aspects, not only in academics) than get MCAT>40. I am not saying that it does not happen, I am saying, it is wrong to assume this. It is much more realistic to assume 33+ (on a higher end)</p>
<p>From the parent of an OR resident who applied to both OHSU and UDub, unless you fulfill UDubs OOR requirements that I linked to, it would be a waste of the application fee. Even a sky high MCAT won’t make a difference as that’s not what they’re looking for from OOR applicants.</p>