sviola

Hi,

I'm a senior in college and I'm planning to take a gap year + start applying Spring/Summer 2013. I'm looking for:
1. suggestions to improve my application during the next year
2. ideas for things to do during my gap year
3. some med schools in my reach

Thank you so much!



Stats: Female, ORM
School: Ivy
State: CA
Major: Applied Mathematics and Biology
GPA: 3.73c/3.70s (projected); strong upward trend 4.0 during final 2 years!
MCAT: 36R (I was usually scoring in the upper 30's and I only studied 2 weeks. should I retake?)

Special circumstance: During the year of my worse grades (sophomore), I was working 3 part-time jobs! I quit 2 of them and took on a rigorous courseload (max courseload for my uni), which I excelled in. Don't worry - I didn't get any C's.

Extracurriculars:
- Residential Assistant (RA) for 1 year (I had to move out of the dorms bc it's cheaper off-campus or else I would've probably continued)
- Acapella for 1 year
- Ballroom dance for 1 year
- Sunday school teacher 3 years
- EMT skills instructor for 1 year (current)
- CPR instructor for 2 years (current)
- Leadership role among university EMS corps (current)
- Teacher's aide (current)
- English tutor for adult ESOL (current)

International Experience:
- (after Jan 2010 earthquake): Worked alongside Haitian doctors in a rural clinic setting

Clinical experience:
- EMT-Basic: paid and volunteer, 750+ hours of service by the time I graduate (current)
- Helped open a walk-in program at a local free clinic and also help staff the clinic last summer; soon promoted to volunteer coordinator for the walk-in clinic at my university (current)
- Haiti again.

Shadowing:
- Emergency Room: 20+ hours
- International Medicine: 70+ hours (2 weeks in Haiti, appx 8 hours a day)

Research: (not my favorite thing)
- Harvard summer research program for URM
- my university's summer research grant
- going to do a senior honors thesis
- no publications, but I am acknowledged in a paper submitted to a big-name journal

Once again, thanks for any and all recommendations.

rutgershopeful

you don't even need a gap year - even harvard med school has only a 35 mcat average!
I don't know if you're thinking of going to a top 10 or just any old med school, but you're better than the average applicant...
your ec's are fantastic, and although your research is lacking, you can get into most med schools.
you could prob apply this year if you wanted to
good luck!

sviola

Thanks for your kind words! My premed advisor basically told me he doesn't want me to apply this year because of my GPA... he even implied I might not get a committee letter if I went against his recommendation.

And it doesn't really help I'm a female Asian from CA, hoping to go to a UC...

Well, and since I want a committee letter, what can I do? Gotta jump through the premed hoops. :\

somemom

If you are showing a strong trend improving your GPA that can be a good reason to take a gap year. My DD did that and had all As her senior year, I think it helped her overcome a lower than ideal MCAT. Your profile is very strong, but since your pre-med advisor is recommending you wait, I would do that. Perhaps you would have gotten in this cycle, but the committee letter and the strong GPA showing will certainly help, you might have different school choices this way.

My DD got a job as a research assistant, paid at a university in an area in which she was interested. One thing you might consider if whether you want to be a resident in the state you are currently attending undergrad. You could switch right now, then get a research job there after graduation and apply as a resident of that state.

That being said, maybe you prefer California and if so you have a solid chance at UCs, too.

i_wanna_be_Brown

I didn't know Dean Simmons actually stopped people from getting committee letters. Anyway, california is brutal so he's probably right that it would be tough. You certainly have the stats to get in anywhere but as someone pointed out earlier, you're average at best for the top schools so be sure to apply broadly. What kind of research did you do? Was it bench or clinical? Did you try the opposite?

Also, what do you mean by "special circumstance?" I don't think that qualifies as a disadvantaged background on AMCAS if that's what you meant.

entomom

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10 char

sviola

Wow - thanks for the awesome replies!

@i_wanna_be_brown: I was a little surprised by how you mentioned Dean Simmons (lol). Guess my undergrad college isn't a huge surprise to anybody anymore. But, no, it was actually the *other* premed advisor that had an urgent one-on-one meeting with me before I submitted my HCAD. Basically, he scared me out of being a re-applicant and told me it was better to apply for the first time with the best stats I can manage.

Regarding research, by the time I graduate, I will have had 2 years in bench research - which would (hopefully) lead to my senior thesis. I am working on my own independent project and it's going - I just find that I am a bit too impatient with experiments and basic science stuff. I have also tried public health research and, because by the end of the year I will be one course away from finishing a master's in biostatistics, I am hoping to try more public health/database research in the future.

(P.S. It's not a disadvantaged background as much as it would be something I would write in the optional comments section. I was really silly for taking on 3 jobs as a sophomore, but the scholarships I earned from high school had run out and I didn't want to place the financial burden on my family. Oh well... I really feel like it was a formative moment for my sympathy for people trapped in cycles of poverty, my renewed focus on my academics, and my motivations toward pursuing medicine (as in, bad things come when I chase money and I should find true happiness elsewhere).)

@entomom: I can't answer your question without maintaining some privacy because my information is up on the internet, via the summer program name. It was a paid internship that related to my major. I worked with a professor and a grad student. I didn't have my own project, but I got lots of mentoring, learned very applicable research skills, and helped out with a larger project. It was for URM because it had extra tidbits like "How to apply to grad school" sessions and practice GRE and stuff. It culminated in a research presentation too. I liked it.

entomom

I didn't understand the ORM/URM disjunct, that's all. Definitely don't jeopardize your personal information, it's not that important.

sviola

Oh, hahaha. I think it was luck. I kind of applied on a whim (I was a freshman and was ready to spend the summer waitressing or tutoring) but I got in so I went.

riseagainst2009

With a 3.7/36 you should have applied this year. I see no reason why any medical school would not take you.

The opportunity cost of taking a gap year, measured in potential future income and loan deferment are too high to take a gap year if you have a 3.7/36.

I wish I had you numbers. ***.

riseagainst2009

They have particular programs open to minorities, like Penn's LDI program: Penn LDI : SUMR- Summer Undergraduate Minority Research Program. So Asians qualify for the program, even though they are URMs.

entomom

^I think you meant NOT URMs??

I asked because the OP stated they were an ORM attending a URM (not a minority) program. I'm aware that URMs are a subset of minorities; URM =/= minority.

riseagainst2009

^ I guess I stand corrected. Sorry I misread that. However, the OP could still be referring to a program like Penn's. She may have just mentioned that it was for URMs because most of these programs are filled mostly by URMs, and few asians.

sviola

Sorry for the unconventional acronyms I used:

URM - underrepresented minority (in the med world usually: Latinos, AfrAm, NativeAm, maybe first-generation college student, maybe low SES)
ORM - overrepresented minority (usually East Asian and South Asian... might refer to SE Asian?)


Yeah, I'm an Asian (ORM) and I was accepted to a URM med program. To other Asians, I don't recommend doing this because I got a lot of attitude from the other program participants about being Asian. I just did it because my half-sister did the same program when she was undergrad and she seemed to like it.

i_wanna_be_Brown

Sviola,

sorry, did a quick "see other posts by" search and it became obvious quickly what ivy you go to (plus other things in your post sounded very "familiar" to me).

I wouldn't include that in the comments section. It sounds like it could be nice inspiration for an essay (given what you said in your later post) but honestly it just sounds like you're making excuses if you mention it anywhere else in any other context.

Riseagainst,
Plenty of people get rejected with those numbers, especially from top schools. Depending on OP's goals for admission (california is especially brutal), the gap year might have been necessary.