She Applied to 13 Med Schools. No One Interviewed Her. Why? | Application Renovation (S2 E4)
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- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2024
- What held this premed back from getting any medical school interviews? Was it her 502 MCAT score? Was it her personal statement? Today I'm going through her full AACOMAS application and helping her identify what she needs to fix before she reapplies!
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Our student this week didn't receive any interviews in her application cycle, and she thinks the main reason was her low MCAT score. She applied to 4 DO schools and 9 MD schools.
One of the first things we see is her MCAT score. She got a 499 the first time, then retook and got a 502. Her 502 is not far below the average for DO schools (around 504), so although it's a bit low, I would've still expected her to get some interviews if the rest of her app was solid.
She has a 3.77 cumulative undergraduate GPA, with a 3.61 science GPA. So her GPA is good. No reason to add a Master's program or postbac.
In her activities section, she has some good leadership, volunteer experience, shadowing, scribing, hobbies, and more. I gave some brief feedback on some details of her EC descriptions.
The personal statement is where I have the most feedback. As with many students, she gets into some issues that are really aside from the point of why she wants to be a physician. I pointed out some places where she could have told her story better.
Remember: The goal of the personal statement is to communicate WHY you want to be a physician. Not proving that you're going to be a good physician. Not proving that you know what it's like to be a doctor, that you have the right traits, or that you understand death and teamwork are parts of medicine.
Hopefully, this med school application review was helpful for all of you! To watch more, check out the full Application Renovation playlist at applicationreno....
Not sure if one of these already exists (just found this channel, loving it so far!) but it would be really cool to circle back in with a student from one of these episodes who ends up getting in to med school and seeing how they improved their application.
Her application is actually a lot better than some of the MD applications you've shown. I'm shocked she didn't get any interviews. But then again writing a compelling personal statement is reallllllllllly hard. I took your tips and finished mine. Hopefully, it's good enough.
Love the fact that DOs are getting some attention!
Is crazy how people think having good grades is all it takes, but than again people with 3.7-3.8 gpa are not getting in because of their lack of story telling or what ever the case is. Interesting!!
Thanks for this great episode Dr. Gray! I was wondering if you could do a video/podcast going through an excellent personal statement and pointing out what's really great about it. I think that would be a really helpful comparison
I love these episodessss!!!
Hi Dr. Gray,
I have a question about the personal statement. I was wondering if the statement could tell a story that sort of talks about specific experiences that make me want to become a certain type of physician? For example, I’m a psychology major and I have a lot of experiences with mental health work and volunteering and also personal life experiences that make me want to become a psychiatrist. Is it a red flag to talk about only one speciality if you’re trying to go to med school?
If she can get a 508+ she should retake it and reapply to mainly MD with some DO.
How many shadow hours is good
These videos are super interesting! I didn’t know about state schools having such a strong preference for in-state applicants. I lived in California for a decade and graduated from UCSD but just moved back to Colorado with my mom while I finish up some pre-reqs. Is there a way to show California schools that I have strong ties to the state and would likely stay there if I got in even though I’m a Colorado resident now?
Meredith Anderson now I’m not an admitted Med student, I’m actually just starting my pre-med journey as a non-science graduate. I’ve seen just from my research that state schools will list what is considered “strong ties” to a state. This could be graduating from a high school in this state, college graduate, or other factors even having family live in the state. I’d drop a call to individual schools and just ask so there’s no confusion. Again idk about California but I’m sure you’ll get some answers.
Good luck!
Hey Meredith, many school will include a section in their secondary essays where you can indicate strong ties to the university's state. Just be warned that California is notorious as the hardest state to matriculate into med school from. Many of their school have more of a regional preference versus a state preference (i.e. a school will prefer an applicant from within 100 miles of the campus). Additionally, some of the higher caliber schools don't have much of an instate preference at all. I'd recommend purchasing the MSAR if you haven't already to see the percentages of instate vs out of state students each university takes to get an idea of how out of state friendly they are.
Right off the bat I would say the issue is strictly the number of DO schools she applied to. If she would have applied to 13 DO schools and no MD schools I am SUPER confident that she would have gotten interview invites! In my case I am not concerned about my GPA but my MCAT may be a concern (I'm still practicing and have 7 weeks before my test date, but my score still hasn't broken 500). So I may end up being in the same boat :) If I am only able to barely break a 500 come test day, I have already decided that I will not apply to ANY MD schools because so many of them wouldn't even look at my application due to a more strict screening process than DO schools. But that's just my take on it :) I think being real with yourself and taking into account what your chances are when compared to that schools averages is really important. I hope this helps!
Tyler Alger I was thinking the same thing, your school list is to important. Your personal statement is a great barrier breaker! Maybe she wasn’t as strong in this two aspects of her application.
Can you do this for dental school as well?
Luz Bautista His channel is mainly focused on medical school. Don’t think he does anything on dental school.
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aah thank yoy