Thank you very much for the input. It’s a concern for us also. The thought of sanding her to a school thousand miles away is scary, but we have to do it soon or later. But again, there are still majority about her age.
May I ask what the rush is? Is there any reason why she does not want to take 1-2 years to strengthen her application? Taking time will also allow her to mature socially, gain interview experience, additional life experience etc.
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I don’t understand your statement above. Many applicants take gap year(s) to do master, SMP, or retaking science courses to repair their undergrad GPAs. Many have to re-take MCAT more than once to be get a better scores . Her MCAT score is at 100 percentile, which only about a few hundreds can achieve that. Her GPA is 4.0, which combine with her MCAT are competitive to ALL medical schools based on MSAR. She is currently working with the health advisor to prepare for her application and from her advisor, she has strong portfolio, and will apply broadly.
if she gets no acceptance, then she will work on improving her app and applying again next year.
My counter question is why does she need to take a gap year? I don’t believe having thousands of hours volunteering will help improving her app, except for some of the service focused schools like Georgetown, Rush, etc.
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What I mean is….there are many students who have outstanding stats like your daughter (congrats!). They take time after college to strengthen the rest of their application….working in underserved communities, etc. I also think there is a benefit to having some life experience.
Take a look (above) at what happens if your daughter does not make it the first time. I just don’t understand the rush, but that’s just me.
She does not HAVE to take a gap year. Maybe she will be accepted, maybe she won’t. A gap year or 2 will strengthen her app and possibly make her more competitive. You spoke above that her ECs were “average.”
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Would you be willing to share where she is thinking about applying?
As mentioned upstream…her stats will get her through the first screening of applicants and really that is IT. After that, the medical school adcoms will be looking for the other things on her application.
I still haven’t seen you mention any significant volunteer work with disadvantaged folks. Is she doing that? This IS expected of medical school applicants. And not just one or two days of this, but significant volunteer work with this type of population over a period of time.
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I’m researching schools and working on come up with the list. Currently, I don’t have a concrete list yet but the goal is 25-30 schools with our in-state school, a few T20, several mid tiers and a few of OOS friendly schools. I’m also avoiding West Coast and Texas schools. In addition, I don’t think she needs to apply to DO schools. After I have that, she will decide to add or remove more schools and run by her advisor for recommendation.
I don’t want to provide too much info here to avoid doxxing, but she has what I think an average meaningful activities like many students apply straight through. As far as volunteering for disadvantage folks, I think that is a COLORFUL term for food pantry, or HIV testing in front of some grocery stores activities, etc … which she has volunteered in the past 3 years.
My understanding (guessing) of the process are:
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First screening is to screen out applicants who don’t meet school’s requirements (GPA, score, ECs, or any red flags).
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Second screening is to see whether applicants fit the school missions. I’m guessing the schools will try to pick a group of diverse and capable future docs, who will be able to thrive in 4 years of med schools. Stats, ECs, PS and essays questions are important at this point, since they will pick a list of candidates for interviews.
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The interview portion are to validate and to learn more about the candidates. This is also the time for candidates to convince the schools why he or she is worth in the investment. Since, there are many candidates, I’m guess they will have to use stats, ECs and other to pick a limit number of candidates (e.g. Kaiser has about 50 seats every cycle). From there, schools will make decisions to accept , waitlist or reject.
I do believe the reasons for clinical experiences, non-clinical volunteer, doctor shadowing, research and leadership roles are for:
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Applicants: To ensure that he or she are choosing the right path, to learn more about passion and compassion, and to prove to adcom he or she is the right fit for schools. These activities also help better PS, essays and interview.
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Schools will use this info to screen out. They also want to learn more about the applicants and possibly rank them when it comes to decision time. However, I do believe, they also include stats as criteria when ranking applicants.
I do think the process is black hole. I have relatives who went straight to med schools from undergrad. I also have a niece who took 3 attempts of applying before got accepted. She got accepted to the same schools she applied twice previously, so the rumor about you can’t re-apply to same schools who rejected you are not true.
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Volunteering in a food pantry or standing at a supermarket educating customers about HIV are certainly admirable and important activities.
Let me share what my daughter did- she was premed but realized after graduation what she really wanted to do. The purpose of my post is to share what other “high stats” premeds have achieved:
She spent 2 years during undergrad working with refugee families. She visited a family of refugee status… once a week for 2 years… and helped them navigate school, parent teacher conferences, the US medical system, paper work, doctors etc. The family did not speak English.
She joined a program after graduation and spent 2-3 years teaching in a Title 1 school. She developed lesson plans that reflected student cultures, advocated for students who were transitioning, advocated for students with special needs, helped families find mental health resources, helped organize a town hall meeting following an event that rattled the school community, raised money for a STEM lab etc. She also learned from her mistakes and was able to reflect on them- for example - when showing a video about climate change…one of the students raised his hand and asked why none of the kids in the video looked like him. She acknowledged her mistake and learned from it.
It was these experiences that helped her with the grueling interviews she had when she interviewed for school (solving problems, handling differences, challenging situations, reflecting on mistakes etc).
And my kid is NOT unique… at all. These experiences… these gap years… provided her with the experiences she needed- not just for med school apps (she changed her mind), but for grad school interviews.
I do not know what you mean by “colorful.” Her experiences, her work… was very hard.
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With her stats and what you have given on volunteering, she may not need a gap year. But I still want to know what I asked above: has she taken all the “recommended “ courses? If not, then take those and do not graduate early. Her transcript will matter.
As others have said, she still could use boosting of her clinical experience and she should jump on that now, and continue through the summer and beyond, keep all her ducks in a row just in case it does not work out the first year.
Edit: does her college have good premed advising? Premed advisors with lots of med school applicants at colleges who pride themselves on maximizing med school admissions do not typically mince words. They tell you if you need a gap year to maximize chances. They did that 25 yrs ago and D21s friends say they still do that now. Many definitely get full support to apply without a gap. Others don’t. Your D should ask for an honest assessment .
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She finished all her premed prereqs before taking MCAT. The plan to graduate a semester early is not concrete yet, since school may not offer classes she needs in the fall, but she wants to be able to work full time as MA during that time + adding more volunteer work. She will include those activities in her application with project hours.
She is currently getting help from her pre health advisor to prepare for the application. I do believe they also provide with proof reading, review app and even practice interview. She still needs to obtain LoRs, but the important is continue to work her ECs and prepare so that she can apply early. I do understand the concern for not having great ECs, but I still think it’s a stats driven process with having extra curricular to make a complete app.
Yes I understand she has done the required premed courses, I meant the “recommended” ones many schools list like Cell Bio, genetics, Stats, compsci. In addition to the basic premed reqs.
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The reason I called “COLORFUL” because most of these activities are done in campus or local facilities, not in some poor neighborhoods, communities countries.
My believe is every applicant is unique. Adcom will not expect they are all doing the same things and having great stats or many hours of extra curricular. Some accelerated with school and tests, some committed to services, but the expectation are most should have at least the minimum requirements. I understand the important of serving the communities, the compassion toward others, but if they can’t pass Step 1/2/3 then those qualities will not help them. That is why the GPA and the MCAT are the two of the criterion for med schools.
Except for CS, she will have all recommended courses when graduating.
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If she is applying this June, is she allowed to include the projected activities for next winter? I’m not an expert like others on this thread, but I didn’t think that would carry weight.
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She is applying this June, and what I saw from several youtube videos (Dr. Gray,…), the application has area where applicants can input project hours for activities. Of course, they don’t carry much weight, but if applicants do them having them in longevity, then that will show the commitment.
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Thanks. Following this thread since I have a premed. Although mine is applying senior year with the intention of a gap year. Nevertheless interested in the discussion. Best of luck.
Thank you and good luck to your child.
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My daughter worked for over 2 years in a Title1 school/neighborhood (responding to your comment).
I am not sure you understand that many applicants have perfect gpas and high mcats- in addition to everything else. That is why I am wondering what the rush is.
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