Medical School

You guys might have noticed my low forum activity as of late. Between my job, taking the MCAT, and working on my medical school applications, time has been a little short.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody else on the forum is/is thinking of applying or has already applied to medical school. Any advice or general comments on the process? I just got my MCAT scores and my primary application is more or less complete - but I still need to figure out actually where to apply.

This is the most intense thing I've ever done in my life so far. AHHHHHHHH.

 

What specific branch are you thinking of? Like dentistry, orthopedics, etc?

 

The basic M.D. I was thinking of becoming a surgeon, but I'm not so sure anymore - I could see myself practicing other things or even doing research.

 

I guess you could try this site: http://www.princetonreview.com/medical/research/articles/medicalschomatch.asp

Princeton Review is trustworthy enough. They helped me a lot in school and stuff.

 

i already went through the process.

my advice: apply as early as possible. get those letters of recs in to your advisor before august. just get it done done done. do you have an idea of what schools to apply to based on your mcat score and sci and overall gpa? is your PS written yet and revised at least five times (seen by at least five people)? once you get those secondaries, do them right away. its a long and expensive process of course but you'll get through it. good luck! email me if you have any questions... my email should be on my profile thingy

edit: actually just pm me and ill give u an email or aim s/n. oh and the MSAR is helpful too. i dislike any of the kaplan and princeton review stuff out there but it's personal preference.

 

I just submitted my AMCAS primary a few days ago, and my letters of recommendation are all in to my school's career center. I ended up applying to thirteen schools, and I think I covered a pretty fair range of difficulty to get accepted. Now I just get to wait for secondaries...

Do you know of any places that have secondary prompts? I'd rather get started on the essays sooner rather than rushing to get them done when the secondaries actually arrive.

 

Come to UF!

I take my MCATs this spring. Any advice guys?

I'm shadowing at a hospital in Gainesville this summer and I've seen some PRETTY COOL ****!!!!

I'm pretty sure about General Practice (Family Practice of CSI).

Give me some insight! My GPA is ~3.5. No idea what my MCAT will be.

 

UF would be sweet - but I didn't apply to any Florida schools. From what I heard/researched Florida schools really favor in-staters. A bummer.

My GPA is about a 3.5 as well and I did solidly on the MCAT (34O) Crucial was a test-prep class (I took Kaplan); not so much because of content, but because otherwise I would have never been motivated to study so far in advance!

 

When did you start studying/setting up the MCAT.

Oh, and UF does not bias for in-staters. In fact only 20% of admissions are from in-state. 10% from UF itself. Bummer for me.

Let me know where you get in!

 

Huh. Florida schools' stats were not in MSAR, but from what I gathered online I found the opposite. Good thing about this whole process though is I can still add schools to my list!

As far as the MCAT studying goes, I took a once-a-week class from October to April this past school year, and took the MCAT in May. This way, I was studying far in advance while still having time to do my usual things. Taking a three or four month class requires a lot more work, so I'd think that would make it harder to do while still in school and what not.

 

oooooooo FL definitely has bias for in-staters. I know FSU and UF have about over 90% reserved for in-staters. <--- This might even be an understatement lol. I know schools like in Arizona accept no one out of state except residence in Utah and Idaho.

Yeah I started studying for the MCATs the September before I took it in April giving myself about 6-7 months. Make sure you take a lighter courseload 12-16 credits instead of the stupid thing I did taking 21 credits both semesters. It's better taking the time to balance studying for the MCATs than cramming in classes. I did take a Kaplan class but the content was definitely no help and I agree with ninerman, the only good thing that came from it was motivation to study early. I highly recommend Examkrackers and it was the **** lol. I didn't do so well though (28O, with verbal being a 7 blaaaaah I'm so bad at reading comp). I applied to twenty schools (10 MDs, 10 DOs) and got into 2 DOs schools and I'll be at NYCOM this coming year woooo! Out of the 20 schools, I was offered 14 secondaries and did 13 (1 was 200 dollars and require a substantial amount of work and i was like no way lol), got three interviews, and was accepted to 2. My research was my high point along with community service but my GPA (3.45, albeit chemistry lol) and 7 in verbal was my weakness and that turned off a lot of schools.

What state do you reside in ninerman? Those out-of-state public schools are nasty in there selection and even the private schools out of state are quite picky as well. I'm a CT resident so I only had one state school so that sucked quite a bit. I was from MI and kinda used that to my advantage applying to midwest states but in the end, I ended up in a NY DO school.

oh btw ninerman, check out SDN (student doctor network) for those essay prompts. I'm sure you know about it but if not, visit the forums and in the Pre-Allopathic (or Pre-Osteopathic if you apply to DO schools), you can usually find a thread that mentions about essay prompts and what the secondaries are like. I know some schools recycle there essay prompts/apps. For example, UConn does the same thing every year with 6 "short" answer question with one asking you to pick who to have dinner with that was a famous person who contributed to medicine.

 

Nice Jon! Make sure you do that consistently and get a ton of hours/experience out of it. If you want to do Family practice, consider applying to DO (Doctor of Osteopathic) schools which is the same thing as an MD but has more emphasis on primary care than research, and also more emphasis on alternative medicine in addition to traditional medicine. It's what I'm doing albeit I want to be a cardiologist after becoming an internist. Aaaand I'll prolly change my mind about that too cause you never know whats going to happen in med school.

Good luck on the MCATs! My take is to practice verbal every day and consistently if you are okay or not so good with reading comprehension. It is, in my opinion, the hardest section and hardest to improve. You definitely need several months to improve that section. Also, make sure to take practice tests every other week in the beginning of your study sections and every week at the end of your studying. It's practice, practice, practice, practice, practice^inifinity lol

 

Yeah I definitely felt that the verbal section was the hardest to improve. It took lots of practice, and even then I attribute my score due to luck of the draw more than anything else.

I'm a Maryland resident, 3.52 GPA at Michigan, majoring in biomedical engineering. The only aspect of my application I am a little worried about is extracurriculars. I didn't really do much in the way of clubs or volunteering during undergrad. I do have some clinical experience and a lot of research experience.

Here is the list of schools I applied to. I think I did a pretty good job of covering the spectrum (first group is "reaches", second group is "realistics", and third group is "easier, relatively speaking"), as well as the residency stuff. I'm expecting to get outright rejected by a few of those top schools, but who knows?

University of Michigan, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania

Boston University, University of Maryland, Temple, Georgetown, Virginia Commonwealth

Michigan State, Tulane, George Washington

 

Every university favors in-staters. At UCLA, there's probably only 20% or so people outside of California (that includes those from out of the country as well). UC Berkely has more I think but.....Berkely is definitely one weird weird weird weird place.

 

Those are some great choices ninerman. I think you have a realistic chance for all the schools you're applying for. You've got a great MCAT score (unless you have like a 14, 13, 7 breakdown or something similar lol), a great GPA considering its biomed engr in one of the top schools in the country for undergraduate engineering, lots of research experience, and some clinical experience. As long as you have the clinicals and some community service, you are definitely fine. My predicition is you're not going to get any pre-secondary rejections (maybe Duke) since all your schools are within the region you reside and go to school. Your stats are great and my hat is off to you.

Yeah the reaches will be quite unpredictable. My roommate got a 39T on his MCATs (4.0 GPA in molecular and cell bio) and applied to Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and UConn (he already got accepted there for the combine program). He got wait listed to all those schools except NW but eventually got in to Johns Hopkins. A possible reason for the many wait list is that he applied in late August/early September or another is that too many people sent in their deposits early and stayed to matriculate.

Some schools may just outright reject you because you are not what you're looking for or some would flat out accept you. My roommate from freshmen year also got a 39T (yes i'm pretty dumb compared to them lol), 4.0 GPA in MCB, but he also got the Goldwater scholarship which meant an instant ticket to acceptance (he's going to Cornell).

I do have lots of friends that were in the 27-31 MCAT range. Some easily got in (they had great recommendations and created charities and did a lot of out of the ordinary things), some had a hard time, some didn't get in at all. My girlfriend got a 29R and didn't get accepted to any med schools (and thats with a 3.8 GPA in biology plus clincals and research). <-- She did apply in September though so that was a problem. She's doing Teach for America for two years and reapplying again. It's a very stressful, unpredictable process. In my case, my verbal and even my overall scored killed me for the MD schools, but in the end the DO schools gave me a chance and I'm nothing but happy with the outcome.

Goooooooood luck!

Oh do those secondaries immediately like its your full time job and get the process over and done with before fall semester ends. I scheduled my fall semester to not have classes on Mondays and Fridays so it was easier to schedule interviews.

Then you can enjoy your Christmas and New Years and drink lots.

 

I definitely want to have all my secondaries and stuff done within a week or two of getting them, because enjoying fall semester (and drinking a lot haha) is the plan. And funnily enough I also pegged Duke as the most likely school to give me a pre-secondary rejection.

The only thing is I haven't done any real volunteering since high school... so I am a little bit worried about that.

 

ooo maybe it'll hurt some but as long as you have clincal experience (i.e work in a hospital, shadowing a doctor, or doing clincal research) I think you're fine. Like for me, I needed to volunteer a lot. It might not be the case for you. MD schools are all about those stats and clincals.

Yeah senior year after the process was over was one of the best times of my life although my liver failed once too many times lol. I took like 3 classes each semester and the only real hard work was my thesis.

 

Hopefully even if some schools reject me because of no volunteering I'll still get in somewhere. I worked at a local pediatric office full-time for three summers, worked at a UMich lab, and am working at the NIH this summer (I'm at work right now but I am doing an hour long washing step haha). So I think my medical experience is really good - just no community service or extracurriculars like biology club or whatever.

After this med stuff is done, senior year will be off the chains! I am also taking only three classes a semester, so it shouldn't be too bad - except for senior design which I've heard is terrible. At least I'll theoretically already be in medical school so I can just aim to pass!!

 

I've got quite a bit of volunteering hours at a local theatre where I've worked with kids for a while. Will that work?

Then I've also got 60 hours of shadowing now under my belt from the past three weeks and I will be doing more rotations with an internist in Gainesville later this summer.

No research, though, think I'm okay?

My GPA is about ~3.5 and I don't think it's going to jump up dramatically. However, I'm banking on that my MCAT will be pretty good. My verbal skills have always been above average.

EDIT: Also, Tiger, great to have you back man. Lastly, UF med school has 45% enrollment from Florida students. The rest are international or out-of-sate.

 

yup thats great jon for community service and your commitment to shadowing would definitely be a big plus too. I think a lack of research would definitely be not good if you were planning to do an MD/PhD but clearly you're not. Some MD schools (especially those higher up in research) might not consider you but I don't think it'll be a huge factor. Just as long as you keep your grades up, commit to shadowing some more, and get that MCAT score to a consistent breakdown (meaning 10, 10, 10 or at least 11, 10, 9) of 30+, you will do fine. As always the higher the verbal score, the better. The reason is, most people that apply to med school are science majors and will naturally do well in the sciences. The verbal score will differentiate those similar science scores.

I am completely surprised about the 45% in-state in FL. The MSAR said different though. Even if it's 45% in-state, I'm sure the other 65% are mostly in the southern states.

Yeah man I've been sooooo busy. I'm interning at Pfizer right now and I'm waiting for a couple of reactions to be done. I saw this thread and decided to post something cause I love giving advice lol. I'm trying to get one of my best friends through dental school too since the process is pretty similar but f-in easier test!

Oh and it seems like you're the top dog on this site too