Chances for an academy cadet?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Any comments or help would be really appreciated.</p>

<p>My stuff:</p>

<p>I am a junior at the US Military Academy
GPA: 3.6
Science GPA: 3.5
MCAT: 31
Major: Econ
Extracurriculars: Not a whole lot- Military stuff everyone here does, about 60 hours worth of Doctor Shadowing, and 3 week trip to Africa to a research facility.<br>
Recommendations: Pretty Average, nothing bad but nothing great either.
I also think I’m a pretty good interviwer if that means anything.</p>

<p>I’m planning on applying to a ton of schools to boost my chances, I’d go pretty much anywhere, but here’s some schools I’m applying to:</p>

<p>Pitt
Ohio State
Cincy
VCU
UVA
Drexel
Penn State
Temple
South Carolina
SUNY Upstate/ Downstate/ Buffalo
Stony Brook</p>

<p>Can anyone comment on my chances at any of these school or in general? Or any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>If you don’t have any other clinical experience besides shadowing I would recommend that you take a year off to build up your ECs, that seems to be your weakness.</p>

3

<p>Academically, you’re pretty weak for most of the schools listed. Coming from a service academy w/ a 3.6 is good (the sGPA…pretty mediocre). The 31 MCAT is dead-average (for a matriculant), so a number of your schools (e.g., Pitt, UVA, etc.) would be high reaches. Along with a lack of ECs, your “average-ness” academically isn’t likely to be of much help.
Ultimately, I agree w/ mmmcdowe. You need to take some time off and build up your clinical experience as well as develop your personal interests a bit (i.e., have a “hook” for the adcom).
Btw, “average” recommendations will kill you. If by “average” you mean “excellent and pointing out specific good qualities, like everyone else’s, but haven’t cured HIV or solved world hunger” that’s one thing, but if your LORs are more along the lines of “USMA11 has been a great student and earned As in two of my classes. USMA11 is generally in the top 25% of the classes here and seems to have a strong interest in medicine,” that’s not going to get you far. (Think about it – 1 in 4 people are consistently in the top 25% of the class and probably 20-30% have had “a strong interest in medicine.”)</p>