I agree the BS/MD applications are a no go.
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Agree and quite skeptical about the stated research accomplishments.
Rereading the list, are you telling us you perhaps observed eye exams in Kenya and helped dispense recycled glasses? Are you talking about helping family members who are in the medical Field?
I used the Ellyn Welch spot screener to get the eye prescriptions for children at schools and fitted them for glasses with the correct prescription
You do not have the training or licensing to do this HERE. And you are applying to programs HERE, not in Kenya. It is my strong opinion that including things for which you are NOT licensed or trained is a good way to jettison your applications.
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Please note that we are only trying to help. The statements above show that you are privileged, and some of the wording, while well intention, come across as overstating your accomplishments.
I would definitely leave out the part about being an āassistantā on surgeries. This requires the skill of a surgeon, nurse or some other medical professional. Not even medical students get to assist on surgeries because of liability reasons. So reading that a high school student was doing this will raise a lot of eyebrows.
Are your parents doctors?
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Back to your initial - with a 3.73 UG, unless you are comfortable with Ga State - you should find other schools.
UGA may or may not happen.
Good luck.
PS - you would lose cred (in my opinion) stating what you say you did. You might genericize it - assisted an Ophthalmologist in Kenya in areas including ā¦and list a fewā¦vs saying you did.
It sounds like it would be accurate at least.
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Nope. Parents arenāt doctors, but I have made tons of medical connections.
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I agree with @thumper1 here. Could you clarify this a bit so that we can better understand? How did this trip to Kenya come about? Was this an organized trip as part of a medical group? Did you arrange this independently? How did you get assigned to the clinic and who determined what your duties would be? Who was supervising and who was responsible for overseeing your work? Perhaps we can get a better handle on the nature and context of this activity and then can help you explain it in a way that wonāt set off alarm bells - which it currently does.
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https://www.aamc.org/media/23351/download
Guidelines for pre med and medical students providing medical service abroad
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Other relatives or friends of the family giving you these opportunities? Are you hearing what everyone is saying? Did you already describe your accomplishments in the way you did above on your applications? If so, they are, as all have said, huge red flags, and unless you get all Aās this semester and are able to submit these grades, agree that UGA may be questionable.
Excellent reference.
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I reached out to this anesthesiologist based in the LA area to do some research with. He told me to come with him to Kenya to do research on anemia and astigmatism. It was a team of medical professionals and volunteers who came to Kenya. While not at schools collecting data for the research projects, I was in the OR, shadowing surgery. Many of the doctors asked me to help them dab blood or clean a patient up due to the lack of medical professionals there.
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Excuse meā¦but that is VERY different than āassistingā with surgery.
Do not exaggerate what you have done. And please read the excellent link provided by @WayOutWestMom a few posts above this. It should provide you with some clarity.
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So to me this sounds quite different from āassisted in minor surgeries.ā Observing surgery is fine, cleaning up is probably fineā¦But that is not assisting in surgery, at least not how I would understand that phrase. Collecting data for a doctor doing research also seems OK to me, but helping collect data at schools is very different from " pediatric Anemia in Kenya (1st author)"
Observed surgeries and helped collect research data. Not assisted in surgery and lead author of research.
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Ok. To clear things upā¦ By assisting in surgeries, I assisted in surgeries like hydroceles, lipomas, hernia, spermatoceles, and small laceration repairs. I sutured patients, made incisions, and extracted the masses with my own two hands.
Pease listen to what everyone is telling you. They are right. Unlikely you LED thousands of eye screenings or PRESCRIBED eyewear. And if you are truly a first author on a paper submitted for publication, can you document this?
Ohā¦now youāre getting back into more concerning areas. Who assigned you these tasks, trained you to perform them, and assumed responsibility for your work? This seems highly, highly unethical to me, but will defer to @WayOutWestMom who is the med expert.
At any rate, I would avoid mentioning this is your application. It is alarming and I donāt think will help your case. This is my opinion only - I am not an AO.
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I will be clear. You are applying to schools in the U.S. where doing what you have listed would not be permitted. You arenāt trained, licensed or anything else to do these things HERE.
Againā¦I would strongly suggest you NOT include these things you did as an unlicensed and untrained medical person. This will not impress adcoms looking at your applicationā¦and in fact, you were practicing medicine without a licenseā¦which would be required here.
Maybe thatās allowed on Kenya, but not here.
You are portraying yourself as a medical professionalā¦and you are NOT one.
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Yes. I know it may be hard to believe, but I actually did these things. I measured 2793 hemoglobin levels with the masimo pronto and 12153 eye screenings with the ellyn welch spot screener. How do I reword these things without sounding like a privileged scumbag.