<p>Sophmore </p>
<p>3.64 uw (Just wasn't focused a lot of stupid s*** going on freshmen year)
30 ACT Practice
Taking next year AP: (junior year)Gov, English, Bio, Physhcology, then (senior year) AP Calc</p>
<p>Volunteer at Hospital
Involved in research
Red Cross
NYLF nominee</p>
<p>Student Senate Class Prez
Class Council
Leadership CLub
Ecology Club
NHS
Freshmen Mentor Program Officer
Youth Board</p>
<p>Swim Team Captain-Varsity</p>
<p>What kind of research are you involved in?</p>
<p>Also, I dont see too much inclination towards medicine (besides the hospital volunteering, which EVERYONE has). You definetly want to work on beefing up your medically related ECs, or you’ll fall short of the combined-med cutoff.</p>
<p>Your GPA seems low to me as well. Most of the people I met at the interviews had GPA > 3.9 uw, so that is defiently something you want to work on.</p>
<p>Same thing with your ACT score, but I assure that you are going to take some classes or something for that, so you should be fine. Just raise it to about 34-35 and you should be fine.</p>
<p>Being in “leadership club” and “ecology club” doesn’t count for jack squat, unless you hold important leadership positions in those clubs.</p>
<p>So, unless you beef up your grades, ACT score, and Med-related ECs, I would say that you have an extremely slim chance of making it into a combined med program. But I see that you are still a sophomore, so you have all of next year. I would suggest getting involved with some job shadowing for your med-related EC, and some real science research (if you can get your hands on it).</p>
<p>Definitely agree with angad19.</p>
<p>From my experience, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, and a random list of ECs might get you an interview for some combined programs, but they’re not likely to get you into the program. </p>
<p>I had 4.0 unweighted, 2280 SAT, 35 ACT, and pointless ECs, so I got the interview at 3 (OSU EAP, Case PPSP, Pitt med guarantee) out of 4 (rejected REMS, probably because they actually asked for a list of medically related extracurriculars). However, when I got to the interview and heard what everyone else had already done, I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to get into any, which is turning out to be quite true. Everybody at my interviews had top of the line grades and test scores, but they also had meaningful clinical/research work. However, you’re starting early, so you still have time.</p>
<p>Also, if I’m reading this correctly your 30 ACT is on a practice test. Don’t read too much into that, and go take it for real. You only have to send in one ACT score. I took it four times to get to 35 my junior year, and I remember even just the week or so before that test, I was scoring upper 20s in English, and I got a 34 English on the real thing. Definitely take the ACT as many times as you want. Good luck.</p>
<p>angad, what other med-related activities are there or that u wud recommend?</p>
<p>Paki786:</p>
<p>I’d definetly recommed Job Shadowing, since it is easy to combe by, and it REALLY exposes you to medicine.</p>
<p>Community clinics often need help with state-funded research ventures, so ask around there for any research experience you may want (private clinics are usually not open to random volunteers).</p>
<p>If you have any community health faires (i know a LOT of churches/places of worship host them for the benefit of the community), go there and offer to help run the BP test or something. Even if you are just signing people in, it still counts as “assisted at local community run health faires.”</p>
<p>You could also get REALLY involved with hospital volunteering. Most people just go and do some clerical work for a while. if you can get recognized for examptional work, that’s good, or if you can get youself working with the actual patients in the DOU or something (ICU is really hard for students to get into) that would be good. You could also do some hospice volunteering, which would demonstrate your compassion for the terminally ill, as well as your exposure to and ability to deal with terminal diseases and those affected by them.</p>
<p>^Where do you write that stuff on your application/resume?</p>
<p>Under Extracurricular Activities section or Meidcally Related ECs section. If there are NO sections like that, just talk about it in your essay, or put it in any “Additional Information” section.</p>
<p>Also, if you draw up a basic resume (with your name and vita info, test scores and GPA, awards/honors won, and ECs) and send it to the college(s) you are applying to, they will usually conisder it in your application. When I say send it, I mean like mail it (snail mail) not email.</p>
<p>I disagree (somewhat) with the posts above. You don’t NEED medically-related ECs. But get ready to write some damn good essays that intertwine your other ECs.</p>
<p>I have a resume that has-
All my clubs
awards won
ec activities- Should I put it here?</p>
<p>And if i send this to a college, they will accept it right?</p>
<p>It depends. My college counselor used to be an admissions counselor at a prominent university and she said some schools will not look over them and/or get annoyed that you’re sending them extra paperwork. Call ahead and ask first.</p>
<p>cal and ask first… yes.</p>
<p>and YES, put your ECs on there. Esp your med-realted ones. They are generally more important than the plethora of clubs you are in (clubs are usually considered inconsequential unless you are involved in club administration)</p>
<p>One last question guys. If I brung my GPA upto a 3.9 and at least got a 34 on the ACT how would you guys like my chances then? ALso considering that I will be doing extensive research during the summer months…Thanks</p>
<p>thanks angad. </p>
<p>i will definitely look into that.
about the clinic researches, where do u find em?
like do u have any links? i remember reading ur resume in another post…where did u go to find out about them?</p>
<p>Comparing your application to others who have successfully been admitted to these programs, you would need to:</p>
<p>Bring up that GPA significantly, most programs like 3.8+, same goes for your act score 32+. Also, take the SAT and score 2200+ to be considered competitive. Take SAT 2’s in Math II, Chemistry, Biology</p>
<p>Narrow your list of E.C’s a little but, make sure that you are in leadership roles. Also, realize that volunteering is useless unless you have experiences that can aid you in your essays.</p>
<p>Some medical programs like to see clinical e.c’s, so look to shadow some physicians and research. If you shadow a physician, make sure you see a lot, and can draw from those experiences in your essays. Similarly, with research, it is not enough to just go in a lab and wash test tubes, you have to actually get published/win competitions for it to be worth while.</p>
<p>Lastly, when you apply, make sure that you visit and would go to the school even if the ba/md program didn’t exist at the school. If you wouldn’t go there if it didn’t have the ba/md program, then don’t bother applying, no point to make yourself go 8 years to a school you don’t even want to be at.</p>
<p>PAKI786:</p>
<p>I dont have any links to clinical research programs, but as i stated earlier, go to community clinics near your home (idk where you live… you might not even have community clinics near you house, if you live in a rich city/area). Comm. clinics usually need volunteers to help with state-funded research ventures. Usually, you’ll be doing data entry or clerical work, because they don’t want their salaried workers wasting time on that, but it still counts as clinical work, because you’re helping with a SPECIFIC research project. </p>
<p>btw, community clinics = nonprofit = government funded = NOT private clinics.</p>
<p>my only piece of advice is to NOT post on chances threads, NOT obsessivly read stats of other people, NOT try to figure it out . . . because you cant.</p>
<p>just apply where you want to go. try your best. do it with your heart. you have to have faith in your admissions/interview people</p>
<p>True that. I can tell you right now I had a gut feeling when I applied to all of these programs that I was going to get into one of them, but only one. I didn’t know which one, but it was this weird inner vibe. And it ended up all working out. Just keep the faith.</p>
<p>That is some really good advice ppenguin757 and lilshamz. I really appreciate all this. Thanks and ppenguin757 what program did you get accepted into?..Congrats</p>
<p>Originally, I had my heart set on the HPME. I was like, I know this is where I want to go, I’m going here, etc.</p>
<p>Then I got invited to go to USC and I fell in love and that became my number one; I ended up getting into the Bacc/MD. Things have a funny way of working out :).</p>
<p>Nice congrats… you have some great stats</p>