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Session 169
Many people experience the frustration of not knowing what they are doing wrong. Today I’ll talk about how to review your own medical school application!
I have a ton of students coming to me for help with their medical school applications but I had to turn down some of them since I’m the only one doing this. So I’ve teamed up with Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep) and they’re now offering Medical School Admissions Consulting. Having been working with them for several years now, I am currently helping them out with this as their Director of Curriculum in the Medical School Admissions Consulting. Book a consultation call with them to help figure out how they may help you.
Meanwhile, be sure to sign up for an account on Nontrad Premed Forum so we can get your questions answered here on the podcast.
[03:05] OldPreMeds Question of the Week:
“I’ve been out of undergrad for about 3 years now and graduated with a 3.03 overall GPA and a 2.504 science GPA and had taken the MCAT once and made a 499. I applied to a handful of MD schools during my senior year of undergrad and got one interview but was ultimately not accepted. I then began working in a pediatric hospital surgical department as a PCT (transport mainly, running labs, etc) and took the summer to study for the MCAT with a formal, professional study course and my score actually dropped to a 496.
I then re-took biochem (which I had made a D+ in undergrad), took Biology 2 (which my undergrad institution did not offer), and several other 300-400 level biology courses totaling 27 hours in 4 semesters.
My GPA was a 3.74 for those courses (so now we are looking at a 3.16 overall and a 2.97 science GPA). I worked full time, volunteered at a local health clinic about 4 hours a week, and shadowed in the spare moments that I had.
After a year of limited patient contact in the surgical department, I was hired as a clinical assistant/ortho tech in a private orthopedic practice where I have extensive patient contact. I then studied on my own for the MCAT for about 4 months and brought my score up to a 500. I finally felt prepared to apply and spent months fine-tuning my personal statement and EC essays and applied to about 13 MD schools and 9 DO schools. I only got ONE interview to a DO school.
I guess my question is what the heck am I doing wrong? I have a strong upward trend (which I thought was a good thing), my MCAT score isn’t great but it isn’t bad, and I have leadership experience, good rec letters, and what I thought was a good personal statement.
Any insight would be appreciated because I’m at the point where, if I don’t get accepted to this one school, I’m looking at going back to school full time (most likely in the form of a biomedical sciences masters program, which I guess is a post-bac and not an SMP because it doesn’t have application/MCAT help) which is very difficult to swallow because I’m married and my wife’s income is not enough to sustain us by itself, so I am worried about accruing more debt.”
[05:32] Get More Hours In
It’s impossible to look at this question without looking at the personal statement, the extracurriculars – to really see what the student did to tell their story. Looking at your stats, do a little bit more because your Science GPA is still below a 3.0.
I don’t think you need a Master’s program but you can try to take some more undergrad classes and get more hours in to bump that science GPA above a 3.0. Get your total postbac courses around 40 hours if that will work to get you above a 3.0. science GPA. Because I think that’s where it’s really hurting you, which is having a science GPA less than a 3.0.
[07:25] MCAT Trend
Your MCAT scores are still not great. Why are you struggling with the MCAT? It’s not terrible. But it’s 500. It shouldn’t be preventing you from getting in. In fact, know of one student who got in with a 496 and got accepted to medical school.
[08:10] Consult with Next Step
When did you actually apply in the cycle? There are so many moving parts to the puzzle. Hence, I recommend you jump on a call with Next Step and consult with one of their admissions consultants as they may help you figure out. Instead of spending on a Master’s program where you have to stop working, you get to save up a little bit of money and work with somebody who can help you put together the best application possible.
Again. it’s hard to give specifics here since we don’t know what the student’s personal statement or ECs are like. But based only on what we can see here is that the science GPA is less than a 3.0 so you may want to bump this up.
[09:00] Should You Take a Master’s Program
At this point, you don’t really need to take a Master’s because you’re doing very well in your postbac classes. So keep doing that. Get above a 3.0 science GPA. Keep doing that and move forward!
[09:33] Next Step Admissions Consulting
Again, if you’re still figuring things out and still have so many questions regarding your application, check out Next Step’s Medical School Admissions Consulting and get a free consultation with them!
