How Do I Know if I Am Competitive Enough to Get Into Med School?

Session 104

How do you know if you are competitive amongst other applicants? Let’s break down this student’s stats to help him know if he is ‘good’ enough.

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[00:23] Question of the Day

“I am a nontraditional applicant and between working a full-time job right now and trying to prepare my application. I’m just feeling a little lost and a little uncertain of knowing if my score is good enough? Do I need to take more classes? What can I do to make myself more likely to get interviews and get an acceptance somewhere? What are my chances?

I feel that my biggest potential issue is in my MCAT score. I took the MCAT twice. But in both of those times, I wasn’t really in the right position. And I didn’t give it the respect that I needed to. And my scores reflected that. But it’s been a few years now since I’ve really considered making this commitment and trying to take this path. But it’s still just been gnawing at me in the back of my head of wanting to go to med school and wanting to be a doctor. Especially working at a hospital doing research, it just feels that even more. So I finally came to that point of being committed and giving in everything and had a great improvement in my score. But I’m still just a little nervous that I didn’t quite improve enough. And I’m not yet at that threshold that I needed to be. My score is 507.”

[02:38] Average Score for the MCAT

507 is a good score. It’s not amazing, but it’s good. The average for matriculants is 511-512. Now. Especially for a nontraditional student who has two prior poor scores, 507 is still short of the average for matriculants. But remember, the average is made up of a lot of numbers.

'A 507 for a lot of schools is going to be good enough.'Click To Tweet

By good enough, it means it’s going to get through the filters or those digital shredders. It means your application will get through and end up on someone’s desk.

Now, with your 507 MCAT score, a lot of advisors will tell you to retake it. I don’t think you need to yet. So our student explains that the last time he took classes was in 2017. His math and science GPA was 3.67. His total cumulative was 3.71. It’s a solid GPA. It’s not amazing, but it’s good enough.

[04:12] Shadowing and Clinical Experience

In terms of his clinical experience, he has roughly 500 hours of clinical and shadowing experience. He said he was a part of a mentorship program in 2016, at a hospital in Johnstown, shadowing 12 different specialties week over week. For some of them, he did two different specialties in a week. And he found it very eye-opening because it showed him the spectrum of clinical medicine.

Then he had some shadowing here and there, five hours this day, and then 10 hours. The most recent shadowing he had was in 2017. So shadowing is a little bit old.

Then our student also says he’s doing research which is both clinical and bench research. He works for two dermatologists where they do clinical trial studies, with little interaction with patients. He helps collect blood samples and some skin samples from them. So he’s not necessarily working with patients every single day. So his last big clinical experience was back in 2017.

[06:57] The Potential Issue

Our student says he’s going to apply next year as he decided he can’t wait for another 12 months. so, let’s assume, May-June 2021 rolls around, and you have the same experiences you have now. And you’re really not doing anything to show that you want to go to medical school. You’re not getting clinical experience, you’re not shadowing. The research, potentially, depending on how much clinical experience you’re getting could be good. It sounds like you’re downplaying that a little bit for clinical.

Looking at the stats, MCAT and GPA are solid. Not amazing, but good. Now, let’s look at the next thing. You haven’t really gotten any shadowing or clinical experience anytime soon. So how can you tell me that you want to be a physician without actually going and doing the things that show me you want to be a physician?

“You have to have a story that supports what you're saying that you need to be a physician.”Click To Tweet

Yet, you’re not playing the baby doctor of shadowing and getting other clinical experience. So that is a bigger potential issue than a 507 on an MCAT.

The good thing is you already work in the hospital. So you already have those clearances. You obviously already have some sort of COVID protocol training. You have some exposure to patients and physicians already. Now the question is how do you get more and can you leverage the job and relationships that you already have for more?

Try to reach out to those physicians and ask if maybe you could get some exposure. Maybe you stay late one day, maybe you come in early one day, maybe instead of taking lunch, you’re shadowing. Doing those kinds of things to leverage the network that you already have will definitely help.

[10:38] The Next Steps

There’s probably a good chunk of your work that doesn’t have to take place between nine to five. The normal patient care side of things typically is around a normal nine to five schedule. So if you could carve out a little bit of time during that nine to five to maybe act as like a pseudo-MA. Maybe talk to one of the physicians or get in with the department and say, you’d love to learn how to bring a patient back and take their vitals and interact with them and ask them why they’re here, etc.

So you get an hour or two of experience, or maybe it’s a half a day, once a week. Then you spread out those extra four or five hours over the course of just staying a little bit later, each of the other days.

There’s lots of flexibility and potential, especially for someone like yourself, who’s already in a clinic, especially now, during a pandemic.

For students who aren’t in a clinic already, who don’t already have that access to the hospital, obviously, so it’s much, much harder. Unfortunately, a lot of places just aren’t going to let students in right now. And we just have to wait it out.

Starting now is fine as you’re still applying next year so you can add those clinical experience hours and some more shadowing hours. So try to get a few hours a week between now and your applications. And that definitely just restarts that story of you needing to be a physician.

“You're proving to them that you still want to be a physician and you’re proving to yourself that it's what you want.”Click To Tweet

[14:25] What to Include in Your Personal Statement

Q: “What should I include in my personal statement? Is it okay for it to overlap with my activities description?”

A: Remember that the personal statement is all about why you want to be a physician. And it all comes down to the conclusion after you do a lot of brainstorming and thinking about your journey in the experiences that you’ve had. Recall those memories and ask yourself what were three or maybe four experiences that really exposed you to patient care? What are those experiences that have shown you that this is what you want to do?

'Whatever's in your personal statement will be in your activity list. The question is what from your activities, what goes into your personal statement?'Click To Tweet

[15:48] What to Put in Your Most Meaningful Experience

Shadowing just isn’t a meaningful activity. In general, the definition of shadowing is, you’re there watching. It’s not a super impactful experience. It’s super exciting as a premed that you’re there in the clinic and you’re following the doctor.

“The most meaningful is what are the activities that have been the most impactful to you in your life.”Click To Tweet

What activities were you most excited about becoming a physician? That’s why I typically don’t recommend putting shadowing as a most meaningful experience.

[16:57] Should You Retake the MCAT?

It’s one of those scores that is going to be a hard decision. Obviously, a better score is better, a worse score is worse. And where you’re at right now, take a look at your risk tolerance and threshold.

With everything you’ve done now and you’re getting some more clinical experience, more shadowing, are you okay with putting in an application? You’re showing an improvement over your previous scores, which, in and of itself is a good little story in there as well. If you’re okay, with going through that process, spending the money for the application, and getting a rejection based on your MCAT score, then retake the MCAT.

It really depends on you and your personality and what your risk tolerance is to applying and getting rejected and to the whole timeline of being delayed a little bit more.