**2017-2018 URM Medical School Application Thread**

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Well, thanks for elaborating that definitely isn't what anyone reading "no clinical experience" is going to infer. Haha.

I'm not speaking from personal experiences when it comes to reccomendations. I just share what's been posted on this board so much that I see it in my sleep.



I wasn't knocking your recommendation :) Everyone should do whatever is within their means to strengthen their app You're probably right about the % of ppl that shadow. Still doesn't mean it's a requirement though, hence my first comment.

For the people in the back. . . NOBODY IS RECCOMMENDING AN APPLICANT HAVE 0 SHADOWING OR CLINICAL EXPERIENCE.
So I'm guessing volunteering in a hospital doesn't count as clinical. It's not like I was just Manning the counter, I was constantly in out of those ER.

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Application sent last night, let's get this cycle rolling. Good luck everyone.
 
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Hey y'all, I'm pretty much finished with my personal statement and am gearing up to submit my primary sometime this weekend. I am in need of a few more people to just look over it for any grammar/wording issues, as well as to give me overall feedback on what major themes they picked up and their impression of me as an applicant. Any takers?
 
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So I'm guessing volunteering in a hospital doesn't count as clinical. It's not like I was just Manning the counter, I was constantly in out of those ER.

Volunteering in a hospital is usually clinical experience. It wouldn't be if you're in the chart room in the basement or if you working on the post-surgery cleaning crew. If you interacted with patients in a clinical setting I'd assume it was clinical experience.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. You said you had no clincal experience, and then you elaborated on your actual experience and now you're asking if it's clincal or not? Haha sorry, I don't follow.
 
Hey guys, I'm just browsing this thread. I was an applicant last cycle and am also here to help with any questions you might have. I pray you all have a really successful application/acceptance season!!!
 
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Did anyone else submit the primary June 1st and is still not verified?
 
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If you look at the verification thread in the premed forum it looks like they just finished verifying the people who submitted before 1 PM ET on the first day
 
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I'm about to submit my AMCAS but wanted to double check before I do... I'm a mexican/palestinian-american who works a lot with the Latinx population and I wrote about it in my PS. Do you think I should represent it as Latinx (as I typically do when I talk about it) or as Latino/a or maybe even Latin@ when I discuss it in my PS? I feel like the term Latinx still isn't as widespread as I'd like and am worried that Adcoms may think it's a typo or something.
 
Welp, my app is processed and I'm definitely an underdog: 2.98s, 3.25s and 3.91AO. I only applied M.D. and I know most of my schools don't screen but I feel like I should just give up now! Can getting a good MCAT serve as damage control?
 
Welp, my app is processed and I'm definitely an underdog: 2.98s, 3.25s and 3.91AO. I only applied M.D. and I know most of my schools don't screen but I feel like I should just give up now! Can getting a good MCAT serve as damage control?

Didn't you know your GPAs before applying? Which one is your sGPA? 3.25 could be perfectly fine, I don't know about a sub 3.0.

A great MCAT always helps. Depending on your score you may want to apply DO as well.
 
Didn't you know your GPAs before applying? Which one is your sGPA? 3.25 could be perfectly fine, I don't know about a sub 3.0.

A great MCAT always helps. Depending on your score you may want to apply DO as well.

Oh, my bad- the science is a 2.98.
 
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I think I should just give up-maybe I'm too stupid for medical school, haha.

I don't know about all that.

Didn't you know your GPAs before applying? You thought this was the perfect timing and the best app you could put forth? Why wait until you PAY and submit to wanna give up. I don't get that.

KILL. THE. MCAT. Study every waking moment, get offline.
 
I don't know about all that.

Didn't you know your GPAs before applying? You thought this was the perfect timing and the best app you could put forth? Why wait until you PAY and submit to wanna give up. I don't get that.

KILL. THE. MCAT. Study every waking moment, get offline.

I at least thought my science would be above 3.0; I'm going to go study for the MCAT.
 
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I'm about to submit my AMCAS but wanted to double check before I do... I'm a mexican/palestinian-american who works a lot with the Latinx population and I wrote about it in my PS. Do you think I should represent it as Latinx (as I typically do when I talk about it) or as Latino/a or maybe even Latin@ when I discuss it in my PS? I feel like the term Latinx still isn't as widespread as I'd like and am worried that Adcoms may think it's a typo or something.
Sorry for the late response but I'd go with Latino/a to be safe.
 
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has everyone already submitted ?

My pre-health advisor told me to edit my PS . I'll submit June 20/24th, looking at last years verification thread ill be verified by the end of next month.
 
has everyone already submitted ?

My pre-health advisor told me to edit my PS . I'll submit June 20/24th, looking at last years verification thread ill be verified by the end of next month.

I submitted a couple minutes after it opened and verified 2 days later. I definitely subscribe to submitting when you're ready...I accidentally uploaded the first draft of my PS , literally shat bricks when I decided to double check one last time. Also I think you should be fine, based on what I saw lurking the previous years.
 
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So it happened. I've finally submitted my primary! I'm so excited to go on this journey with you all, and can't wait to see what the coming months will bring!
 
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Hey I loved reading this thread and it motivated me to post a little background about myself and seek advice regarding my school list!

Background:
African-American Male. Southern-California. Ivy-League Undergrad
GPA: Undergrad cGPA: 3.75 BPCM 3.64 (Upward trend, cGPA 3.9 BPCM 3.85 after freshman year)
Major: Human Biology w/ Health Policy minor
MCAT: 515 MCAT 129 126 128 132
EC:
-Shadowing: 75 hours
-Minority Mentorship program: 1 year
-Teaching Assistant: 1 semester
-Research Lab: 1.5 years (not published lol)
-Clinical Research: Summer
-Residential Advisor: 2 years
-Abroad research and volunteering in Dominican Republic: Summer
-In-patient volunteer: 1 year
-VP of Intercultural/Multicultural Board: 2 year
-Community center volunteer halloween event coordinator: 1 every 3 years
-Hobbies (Tennis Photography): 4 years
-Fraternity: 3 years

List(I feel like everything is a super reach! Need some suggestions!!)

- Albert Einstein
- Baylor
- Columbia
- Drexel
- Emory
- Harvard
- Howard
- Mount Sinai
- Keck/USC
- Perelman/UPenn
- SUNY Upstate
- Stanford
- Tufts
- UC San Diego
- UC San Francisco
- UC Riverside
- UC Irvine
- UC Davis
- UCLA (Geffen)
- UCLA (Drew)
- University of Washington
- Weill Cornell
- Yale

 
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Hey I loved reading this thread and it motivated me to post a little background about myself and seek advice regarding my school list!

Background:
African-American Male. Southern-California. Ivy-League Undergrad
GPA: Undergrad cGPA: 3.75 BPCM 3.64 (Upward trend, cGPA 3.9 BPCM 3.85 after freshman year)
Major: Human Biology w/ Health Policy minor
MCAT: 515 MCAT 129 126 128 132
EC:
-Shadowing: 75 hours
-Minority Mentorship program: 1 year
-Teaching Assistant: 1 semester
-Research Lab: 1.5 years (not published lol)
-Clinical Research: Summer
-Residential Advisor: 2 years
-Abroad research and volunteering in Dominican Republic: Summer
-In-patient volunteer: 1 year
-VP of Intercultural/Multicultural Board: 2 year
-Community center volunteer halloween event coordinator: 1 every 3 years
-Hobbies (Tennis Photography): 4 years
-Fraternity: 3 years

List(I feel like everything is a super reach! Need some suggestions!!)

- Albert Einstein
- Baylor
- Columbia
- Drexel
- Emory
- Harvard
- Howard
- Mount Sinai
- Keck/USC
- Perelman/UPenn
- SUNY Upstate
- Stanford
- Tufts
- UC San Diego
- UC San Francisco
- UC Riverside
- UC Irvine
- UC Davis
- UCLA (Geffen)
- UCLA (Drew)
- University of Washington
- Weill Cornell
- Yale
You're set. State schools + your favorite of the top 10-20 schools (maybe even just top 10 if finances/time are an issue).e.g nix Drexel, think Johns Hopkins.
 
Whats good everybody? My friend told me about this thread and it looks fairly good so I'm just introducing myself.
 
So something I thought was interesting when my application was processed is that AMCAS considered my city/county to be medically underserved. I'm from Northern Virginia, and I self-reported my city as not being medically underserved because I'm like 45-1 hour away from cities like Alexandria/Arlington, VA which have specialists and good medical hospital systems. If I were to get a secondary asking if I've lived in a community that's medically underserved (like Howard's secondary), how would I answer that...? I'm like so confused now.

It is based on the specific municipalities you are talking about. If a city/county has a area that is designated as underserved then the whole jurisdiction is classified that way. Alexandria (city of) has certain areas or zipcodes that have very high immigrant populations from Africa and South America that have higher health disparities relative to the rest of the city, which is among the more affluent end, which is probably similar to South Arlington. The Alexandria/Arlington border has very high numbers of central American immigrants and is the reason that Alexandria is "underserved". You can live in Georgetown and will still get your jurisdiction marked as underserved because Wards 8 and 7, among other areas, are also within the same municipality, but Georgetown isn't an area of DC that has any unmet need. If you didn't grow up/live in the underserved areas, then you should avoid writing about it from that vantage point. Speak of your own experiences and everything will fall together.
 
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Thank you so much for that explanation! I'm going to avoid writing about it then because it doesn't fit my experience, and I definitely don't want to come across as dishonest or that I'm trying to overplay my hand or whatever.


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No problem, glad I could help. If you are curious, you could always look up online the areas that are undeserved in your county. I don't remember the exact search but I was able to find a map a couple of years ago because I was also confused about the same thing.
 
What did you all do in your last week before the MCAT? I JUST WANT TO TEST ALREADY OMG
 
Happily submitted yesterday! :) Good luck everyone! May the odds be in [our] favor :soexcited:
 
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For those applying DO and MD, how are you altering your PS to fit both character requirements?
 
For those applying DO and MD, how are you altering your PS to fit both character requirements?
I just wrote mine for the lower requirement tbh. After I got a draft that I liked around 4500, I tailored the DO one to more of a "why me and why osteopathic medicine (i.e. why the tenets of osteopathy)" and the MD one to more of "why me and why medicine."
 
Anyone taking MCAT on 8/19? I'm trying to prepare but I'm at a loss- any high scorers have any advice?
 
I just wrote mine for the lower requirement tbh. After I got a draft that I liked around 4500, I tailored the DO one to more of a "why me and why osteopathic medicine (i.e. why the tenets of osteopathy)" and the MD one to more of "why me and why medicine."
Would it be bad to only use one? Same one for MD and DO? I figured they'd ask why DO in supplemental
 
Anyone taking MCAT on 8/19? I'm trying to prepare but I'm at a loss- any high scorers have any advice?
Take as many practice tests as you can. When finished with a test, read the rationale for each answer (whether you got it right or wrong). If there's a topic in that rationale you don't know, read up on that. I pray you do well!
 
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Would it be bad to only use one? Same one for MD and DO? I figured they'd ask why DO in supplemental
I would assume it is fine to write just one! :) I am just an applicant myself but I did mine that way because, like most people on this site, I'm neurotic. One of my mentors who sits on the AdCom at the DO school near me said that he often can tell when a PS is written for both schools and he doesn't want to feel like his school is just a back-up choice even if it is. So maybe at the very least had some hint of looking at the body as a whole integration of systems that can be used to heal itself.... or maybe some aspect of providing education of preventative care to keep patients healthier..?
 
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What about content review? I was following a plan but it wasn't working.

Take as many practice tests as you can. When finished with a test, read the rationale for each answer (whether you got it right or wrong). If there's a topic in that rationale you don't know, read up on that. I pray you do well!
 
What about content review? I was following a plan but it wasn't working.
I used Kaplans book set for content review and they worked well for me. I supplemented with the AAMC flashcards for quick, on-the-go, studying while I was on the bus or light rail. Some of my friends didn't like kaplan so much and they used The Princeton Review books and they also did well. How much you put into depends on how much time you have to study each day. Since I worked full time and went to school full time and have a SO who likes a lot of attention (not a bad thing) I only could do 2-3 hours of studying a day. I stuck with a single subject each day but made sure I didn't pick the same subject twice in three days. Once I finished most of my content review I mostly went back to the books only when I needed to brush up on material that I didn't do as well on on the practice tests.
 
What about content review? I was following a plan but it wasn't working.

Just read one book at a time, while making brief summaries of chapters. Also do practice problems to help solidify what you know and don't know. It should only take you about 2-3 weeks to get through content. The bulk of your studying should be practice passages and full lengths. Make sure you do the AAMC Qpacks, section bank, and FLs.
 
What about content review? I was following a plan but it wasn't working.
I used Kaplans book set for content review and they worked well for me. I supplemented with the AAMC flashcards for quick, on-the-go, studying while I was on the bus or light rail. Some of my friends didn't like kaplan so much and they used The Princeton Review books and they also did well. How much you put into depends on how much time you have to study each day. Since I worked full time and went to school full time and have a SO who likes a lot of attention (not a bad thing) I only could do 2-3 hours of studying a day. I stuck with a single subject each day but made sure I didn't pick the same subject twice in three days. Once I finished most of my content review I mostly went back to the books only when I needed to brush up on material that I didn't do as well on on the practice tests.

I like @Stuck on CCL2 's recommendations. My content review was a bit different because I took a bulk of my classes that semester and took the MCAT the week after finals, so fo studying the review packets I made for myself was very helpful for when I wanted to study for the MCAT.
 
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Taking the time to plug our Facebook group. Lots of good people that are willing to help and answer questions... Our community is constantly growing so feel free to join...Log into Facebook | Facebook

EDIT: Not sure why the link keeps asking you to log into Facebook, but just search Minorities in Medicine on Facebook.
Just requested to join :clap:
 
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I like @Stuck on CCL2 's recommendations. My content review was a bit different because I took a bulk of my classes that semester and took the MCAT the week after finals, so fo studying the review packets I made for myself was very helpful for when I wanted to study for the MCAT.

Signed up for the NextStep MCAT course- hopefully I'll crush the MCAT!
 
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Hey, guys. I got my MCAT score today and posted in WAMC, but would love to have y'all's input into my school list as well, if you don't mind.


I already submitted my primary to my two in-state schools before my MCAT score came back, so I need maybe 10 more to fill out my list.

African American female, rural and underserved background, 33 y.o. non-trad - went to a T14 law school and practiced law for 10 years - did a DIY post-bac over the past year to finish prerequisites

cGPA: 3.60
sGPA: 3.62
MCAT: 516 (127/132/127/130)
State of residence: Alabama (2 in-state MD schools)
Undergrad: State U
Clinical experience: 1 year (~1500 hours) as an ER scribe
Research: ~80 hours in genetics lab - publication likely upcoming, but nothing definitive yet
Shadowing: ~40 hours in primary care and ortho
Non-clinical volunteering: ~100 hours as a member of a nonprofit board; 2 years (~70 hours) mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters; ~50 in a leadership development course for young professionals; ~200 hours of volunteer legal service for the underprivileged; 9 years (~900 hours) of community service as part of the Junior League; 3 years of interpreting for the Spanish-speaking community in various settings during college
Other extra-curriculars: Several years of community theatre and community choir performance; started a sorority in college; part-time fashion designer for certain niche markets

As I see it, the negatives on my primary application are my lack of clinical volunteering (although I have lots of non-clinical volunteering and paid clinical experience) and my GPA (especially my law school GPA, which is 2.91). There isn't much I can do about either of those things at this point.


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anyone available to read PS? the official thread has only two people left and I dont feel to comfortable with them...
 
anyone available to read PS? the official thread has only two people left and I dont feel to comfortable with them...
I can read it :). I already submitted my app for verification
 
Hey guys I'm new here and was wondering if anyone would be able to read my PS and provide me with some feedback? It would be kindly appreciated :)
 
I am a little confused. Is there a significant difference between clinical experience and shadowing?

I am a technician that lumped summed my clinical and shadowing in one experience. This is a paranoid type question lol , but its doesn't matter right?
 
Long time lurker, first time poster

Excited for this app cycle with y'all

AA male, 3.7x cGPA, 3.6x sGPA, 52x MCAT
 
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I am a little confused. Is there a significant difference between clinical experience and shadowing?

I am a technician that lumped summed my clinical and shadowing in one experience. This is a paranoid type question lol , but its doesn't matter right?
Technician is under clinical experience...you have duties tied to your job.

Shadowing is separate.
 
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I am a little confused. Is there a significant difference between clinical experience and shadowing?

I am a technician that lumped summed my clinical and shadowing in one experience. This is a paranoid type question lol , but its doesn't matter right?


Shadowing is typical passive and clinical experience active. On the work & activities thread it was stressed to have a separate shadowing category. If you already submitted it's too late to worry now. It is what it is, your app IS good enough!
 
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