Chance me?

[Jrparra]

Ok so here's my stats and situation, I am Hispanic, on an ROTC scholarship, and am currently attending The college of William and Mary. I transferred in 2 semesters ago with a 3.4 gpa from the university of Hawaii, not accounting for the university of Hawaii grades my current gpa is a 2.7, will be a 2.9 by the end of summer if all goes well, my firs semester here really bombarded me more than I thought it would and I had to develop absurd study skills that I lacked during high school, but I've shown an upward trend, from 2.33 to 2.7 in one semester, and I am a kinesiology pre med major, I am also involved in alot of service, have about 150 hours of shadowing a reconstructive plastic surgeon, volunteered through red cross in Hawaii for about 80-90 hours, and also did research in a sickle cell anemia lab for 2 years during high school the whole summer of sophomore and junior year, as well as volunteered in coaching a local wrestling team for so far one semester, after the next two years i should have about 300 hours shadowing doctors and maybe 100 hours volunteering in a local free clinic. what would my chances look like for both MD and DO schools if by senior year I have a 3.3-3.4, I have no idea what my mcat will be but if I had to guess after some of the study skills I've gained and great professors I've had here a 32-34 on mcat. I have done quite a bit of leadership events and plan on getting involved in school clubs and such. From looking at the amount of credits I'm taking and considering that I've done 16-18 credits per semester + volunteering+ summer classes+ I'll have ROTC ldac which is a 6 week long summer assessment after junior year, you can tell I'm quite a busy guy and a hard worker. So how does this look for me overall?

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[Catalystik]

Ok so here's my stats and situation, I am Hispanic, on an ROTC scholarship, and am currently attending The college of William and Mary. I transferred in 2 semesters ago with a 3.4 gpa from the university of Hawaii, not accounting for the university of Hawaii grades my current gpa is a 2.7, will be a 2.9 by the end of summer if all goes well, my firs semester here really bombarded me more than I thought it would and I had to develop absurd study skills that I lacked during high school, but I've shown an upward trend, from 2.33 to 2.7 in one semester, and I am a kinesiology pre med major, I am also involved in alot of service, have about 150 hours of shadowing a reconstructive plastic surgeon, volunteered through red cross in Hawaii for about 80-90 hours, and also did research in a sickle cell anemia lab for 2 years during high school the whole summer of sophomore and junior year, as well as volunteered in coaching a local wrestling team for so far one semester, after the next two years i should have about 300 hours shadowing doctors and maybe 100 hours volunteering in a local free clinic. what would my chances look like for both MD and DO schools if by senior year I have a 3.3-3.4, I have no idea what my mcat will be but if I had to guess after some of the study skills I've gained and great professors I've had here a 32-34 on mcat. I have done quite a bit of leadership events and plan on getting involved in school clubs and such. From looking at the amount of credits I'm taking and considering that I've done 16-18 credits per semester + volunteering+ summer classes+ I'll have ROTC ldac which is a 6 week long summer assessment after junior year, you can tell I'm quite a busy guy and a hard worker. So how does this look for me overall?

For MD, you can see the historical odds for Hispanics with various cGPA/MCAT combinations here:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=888650

An upward grade trend will be important to you, and ideally it would be a steep rise (mainly A grades). If you are so over-involved in ECs that you can't keep your grades high, then you need to prioritize better. You can always add ECs later, but it gets increasingly more difficult to improve a poor GPA as you get to the end of the college years.

Shadowing is not considered a "service" as you are the only one who benefits from a passive observership. I strongly suggest you broaden beyond plastic surgery to include a primary doc, at the least. About 50 hours total is the average for this type of activity. OTOH, having only 100 hours of clinical experience where you interacted with sick people is on the sparse side, so maybe beef that involvement up some more before you apply.

The HS research isn't going to help you much if you don't also have a college research activity. Or did you mean that you worked in the same lab during college summers, too?

The leadership and coaching look good. Rather than joining "clubs" which won't help much unless they lead to leadership or community service, maybe you could find a cause you care about that helps the disadvantaged and give it 1-2 hours of your time each week.

 

[Jrparra]

Thank you! I'm planning as of right now to do shadowing with a family practice doc during this summer as well as the plastic surgery doc, next school year I'm going to be doing service in a free clinic where I will interact with patients, I also thought about joining a service fraternity and perhaps going overseas during one of my breaks to do a medical relief. I'll spend some time soon looking for some volunteering in the community other than the coaching that is also non medical related to branch out some. Is there anything else you would suggest doing? And although ROTC can be considered a EC it really isn't because they're paying for school so it's mandatory. I'm also going to seek out doing research with one of the kinesiology or biology professors.

 

[Catalystik]

1) I'm planning as of right now to do shadowing with a family practice doc during this summer as well as the plastic surgery doc, next school year I'm going to be doing service in a free clinic where I will interact with patients,

2) I also thought about joining a service fraternity and perhaps going overseas during one of my breaks to do a medical relief.

3) And although ROTC can be considered a EC it really isn't because they're paying for school so it's mandatory.

4) I'm also going to seek out doing research with one of the kinesiology or biology professors.

5) Is there anything else you would suggest doing?

1) Maybe you could ask the plastic surgeon if there's something helpful you could do in the office setting, to turn it into an active clinical experience.

2) These would be an unnecessary expense since you can get application-building ECs in other ways.

3) ROTC is an activity that takes your time, so you want adcomms to know about it. Talk about the characteristics it requires that translate into good traits in a physician.

4) Good.

5) I've given you enough to work on. Do all that, and you have the basics covered.

 

[Jrparra]

Ah then I am fortunate, out of the hours I've done with the Dr so far about 80% have been in his practice while diagnosing patients or doing small surgeries with awake patients. So in this regard i have had the chance to interact with the actual patients in a clinical setting as well as helping around when I became more familiar, ergo bringing him his recorder, gauze, suture kits, etc. And I'll ditch the fraternity and trip and stick to local volunteering. Thanks again!

 

[Catalystik]

Happy to help.