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Official 2015-2016: Oh no, I don't have a single Interview Invite thread!
- Thread starter iDOliveinMD
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Yup. I just got one in the past few days and I didn't have a single interview invite prior to Thanksgiving. Now I happily have 3 interviews to attend in the next 13 days! Don't lose hope just yet because it only takes one!
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VERY thankful to have gotten one last week. @bananafish94 any insight into what the latest date you got an interview was? or have heard of someone getting? Very grateful to be sitting on two invites, but would love to have "Interviews Three."
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ahhh hope
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Super happy for you!!!!
Now if only UTHSC would holler at us- Joined
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Anyone got any Plan B ideas (at least what to do before reapplying)? I was thinking SMP, but i don't know if I'm a good candidate (3.6 cGPA, 3.6 sGPA, 516 MCAT). My EC's might have been weak and that's maybe where i suffered, also might have had a bad science rec letter. I don't really have another option to replace the rec letter at this point, graduating this spring and not taking any science classes, so i was thinking SMP and hopefully get better EC's and rec letter.
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Your states are good, especially your MCAT, what was your school list like? did you recieve any IIs?
Have you thought about taking another science class just to get the LOR?
What about DO?
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Your GPA stats may be a taaaad bit on the "lower" end of what is considered competitive but those are still very solid scores to have. I was in a similar situation like you around this time of year last year and I was considering SMP programs. However, most SMPs are for those whose scores are often too low to be considered competitive so they really need a boost in GPA stats. But for you, it's hard to say whether it'd be worth the tuition money to raise your GPA ~.2-.3 vs. adding ECs, research, etc.
Did you get any interviews this cycle? If not, it's not always because you had a "low GPA"--I had a 3.6sGPA and pretty average MCAT (88th percentile) and still got interviews so it could be more of a letter of rec issue like you suspect or lack of diverse ECs. If you are still set on applying to SMPs, I would only apply to ones with a high rate of acceptance into the med school (I had only considered Temple's post-bac which has guaranteed admission if you maintain a 3.6 in their program and Tulane's ACP) otherwise it may just be a waste of time for you--we have a post bac program at my school and it is RIGOROUS; the post bac students definitely work a LOT harder than us MD students and I cannot imagine putting myself in that if there wasn't some sort of high acceptance rate into the med school.
If you are planning to take the EC/research/etc. route, definitely look into the schools you want to apply to first because some schools would prefer to see more research over community service and vice versa. Hope this helped! Fingers crossed for you this cycle and for anyone else who's still waiting! I know it can be super stressful this time of the cycle but don't lose hope! I didn't get accepted into a med school until mid May at which point I had already rewritten my PS, applied to SMPs, opened a new AMCAS, etc. so it's never over until it's over
EDIT: It's still not too late to ask for letters of rec if you do end up reapplying--I actually had my professors write my letters AFTER I had graduated (I had taken 2 gap years)--just bring it up with them now and see if they'd be willing to draft one for you just in case.
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I haven't received any II's yet, and i think i had a pretty good school list(OH resident) : OSU, Cincinnati, Toledo, Wright State, NEOMED, Tufts, Boston Wake Forest, Temple, Drexel, Hofstra, Miami, George Washington, Case Western, Rochester, Einstein, MC Wisconsin, VCU, Vermont, Dartmouth. However, I didn't apply to any DO's
I am looking into taking another science course.
Your GPA stats may be a taaaad bit on the "lower" end of what is considered competitive but those are still very solid scores to have. I was in a similar situation like you around this time of year last year and I was considering SMP programs. However, most SMPs are for those whose scores are often too low to be considered competitive so they really need a boost in GPA stats. But for you, it's hard to say whether it'd be worth the tuition money to raise your GPA ~.2-.3 vs. adding ECs, research, etc.
Did you get any interviews this cycle? If not, it's not always because you had a "low GPA"--I had a 3.6sGPA and pretty average MCAT (88th percentile) and still got interviews so it could be more of a letter of rec issue like you suspect or lack of diverse ECs. If you are still set on applying to SMPs, I would only apply to ones with a high rate of acceptance into the med school (I had only considered Temple's post-bac which has guaranteed admission if you maintain a 3.6 in their program and Tulane's ACP) otherwise it may just be a waste of time for you--we have a post bac program at my school and it is RIGOROUS; the post bac students definitely work a LOT harder than us MD students and I cannot imagine putting myself in that if there wasn't some sort of high acceptance rate into the med school.
If you are planning to take the EC/research/etc. route, definitely look into the schools you want to apply to first because some schools would prefer to see more research over community service and vice versa. Hope this helped! Fingers crossed for you this cycle and for anyone else who's still waiting! I know it can be super stressful this time of the cycle but don't lose hope! I didn't get accepted into a med school until mid May at which point I had already rewritten my PS, applied to SMPs, opened a new AMCAS, etc. so it's never over until it's over
EDIT: It's still not too late to ask for letters of rec if you do end up reapplying--I actually had my professors write my letters AFTER I had graduated (I had taken 2 gap years)--just bring it up with them now and see if they'd be willing to draft one for you just in case.
Yeah i have 0 II's so far, i was thinking that SMP might not be the most beneficial thing to do, but if i can get better rec letters and maybe add things like better research, which i only have one summer of right now, i thought an SMP might be a good way to add that to my application. I am looking into SMP's with high acceptance rates into med school as one of my main criteria for where to apply.
As far as putting in a lot of work, i don't really mind. I went from a 3.0 after my freshman year to my 3.6 now, so I'm ok putting in any amount of work into improving my admission chances.
I just don't really know what my other alternatives are, i could scribe or volunteer for a year but without knowing where exactly i went wrong in my application it's difficult to plan right now. I just thought I'd start looking into SMP programs just in case that's somewhere where i could improve my application.
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Create your own thread, list your grades, ecs and school list. It might be worth it to get some feedback from the ADCOMS on here. SMPs are usually a waste of money and a high risk high reward kind of thing.
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Wow I'm really surprised that you haven't heard from any Ohio schools. It definitely seems like there might be a red flag somewhere in your application.
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If you think your ECs are weak, they probably are. Do you have enough clinical experience and non-clinical volunteering? Filling in gaps in your ECs will be more important than boosting your gpa (which is fine.) Also, when were you complete? A late application could have really hurt you especially if you have mediocre ECs.
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You can usually get pretty good feedback here on SDN if you make a post about your grades, EC's, where you applied, etc. or create an MDapps and have people take a look at that. My gut feeling is that your time will be better spent adding new ECs and such as opposed to an SMP, but if you really want to do an SMP, I believe Temple's is the only one with guaranteed acceptance into their med school as long as you maintain a 3.6 in their program.
If you have a med school/health career adviser at school, it might be worth making an appointment with them to go over your app as well.
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Dr. Strother said "they are working on scheduling my interview here soon" in an email recently so let's hope thats true!Super happy for you!!!!
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First of all, congratulations on your two interviews! The last invite I received was in early February, and I attended it in late February. I know of schools that held interviews well into April last year, so I would imagine that at least in theory you could still receive interviews into March.
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I wouldn't touch an SMP with a 39.5 foot pole. Your numbers are solid. A 516 on the MCAT is phenomenal, and a 3.6 alone would be fine--the fact that it is with an upward trend makes it even better. An SMP would be a waste of money and possibly even a risk! What kind of extracurriculars do you have? It sounds to me like this might be a situation where you should consider getting some serious clinical experience, possibly in the form of a gap year job, to bolster your application.
My takeaway from your school list is that there are a lot of crap shoots. Tufts, Boston, Wake Forest, Temple, Drexel, Hofstra, George Washington, Vermont, Dartmouth all get multiple thousands of applications with creates even more randomness in the process than there usually is.
Overall, it's not time to give up hope quite yet but definitely begin looking at back-up plans.
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Side note: Nearly 500000 people have viewed this thread. Almost a half million people have read my insane ramblings on stumbling into medical school. What a time to be alive.
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I think it doesn't count each indidual person, but each time anyone (including repeats) views it.
And stay away from SMP - your fine grades/MCAT wise, it has to be EC's, PS, and LOR's (I've said it once I've said it a million times - there is always a lower half of a bell curve which everyone seems to forget about
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And stay away from SMP - your fine grades/MCAT wise, it has to be EC's, PS, and LOR's (I've said it once I've said it a million times - there is always a lower half of a bell curve which everyone seems to forget about
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hope springs eternal!
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Go make us proud!
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Surprisingly, I got my 4th II today - for March 24th - so late in the cycle!
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Hey everyone, I'm in a bit of a predicament and kinda not really sure what to do anymore. I know that this is the 2015-2016 thread but it seems like this has been more updated than the 2016-2017 thread (my apologies if I'm posting in a completely wrong thread) but I'm hoping that you guys could give me some advice on what to do next.
Like most other premed kids I suppose, this medical school application process has not been going exactly the way I imagined it would go. It's actually to the point where at this point of the application process I have zero interview invites and have gotten really doubtful that I will be going anywhere this year. I'm not sure if I'm being pessimistic (it's hard to imagine that I am because it's becoming very painfully obvious that things are not going well) and if I just have to be more patient, or what.
Basically, I'm asking for what I can do next for the next application process to put me in the best position for next year and possibly what actually went wrong with my application so I can improve upon it. Here's a bit of background information about myself:
For my academics, I have as follows:
GPA: 3.78, sGPA: 3.72; MCAT: 513
Biochemistry (BA) at a decently strong science University
My extracurriculars are a pretty weak:
2.5 years of Science Research (no paper)
0.5 years of Clinic Research (yes paper)
0.5 years of volunteering at a local hospital
Summer volunteer trip at an international health clinic
100+ hours shadowing (health clinic, rural, hospital, international)
And other miscellaneous stuff like being an officer for a student association, a core leader for my church, intramural sports (do medical schools even care about this stuff?), etc.
Schools I have applied to include:
Boston University
Georgetown
George Washington
NYU
Rochester
U Indiana
U Pittsburgh
USC
U Washington
U Cincinnati
Tufts
Temple
Jefferson
Einstein
Drexel
Albany
Wayne State
I'm under the assumption that my academics are decent and that a big reason why I have 0 interview invites is because suspect that my extracurriculars are pretty weak, but I'm also suspecting that some of my letter of recommendations aren't very strong either. I'm currently working as a medical scribe and coaching youth basketball in my time and considering possibly volunteering at a homeless shelter and another abroad trip in means to continue strengthening my application. But I want to know what you guys think. Is my current volunteering enough to bolster my application? Or should I volunteer more? And if so, where would you recommend me go? Is my list too top heavy for a student my caliber? What about any other possible weak points in my application?
It's been an absolutely humbling experience this year and I'm ready to start from the ground up and do whatever I can, so thanks for your guys' help!
PS: my apologies if this isn't the appropriate thread
Like most other premed kids I suppose, this medical school application process has not been going exactly the way I imagined it would go. It's actually to the point where at this point of the application process I have zero interview invites and have gotten really doubtful that I will be going anywhere this year. I'm not sure if I'm being pessimistic (it's hard to imagine that I am because it's becoming very painfully obvious that things are not going well) and if I just have to be more patient, or what.
Basically, I'm asking for what I can do next for the next application process to put me in the best position for next year and possibly what actually went wrong with my application so I can improve upon it. Here's a bit of background information about myself:
For my academics, I have as follows:
GPA: 3.78, sGPA: 3.72; MCAT: 513
Biochemistry (BA) at a decently strong science University
My extracurriculars are a pretty weak:
2.5 years of Science Research (no paper)
0.5 years of Clinic Research (yes paper)
0.5 years of volunteering at a local hospital
Summer volunteer trip at an international health clinic
100+ hours shadowing (health clinic, rural, hospital, international)
And other miscellaneous stuff like being an officer for a student association, a core leader for my church, intramural sports (do medical schools even care about this stuff?), etc.
Schools I have applied to include:
Boston University
Georgetown
George Washington
NYU
Rochester
U Indiana
U Pittsburgh
USC
U Washington
U Cincinnati
Tufts
Temple
Jefferson
Einstein
Drexel
Albany
Wayne State
I'm under the assumption that my academics are decent and that a big reason why I have 0 interview invites is because suspect that my extracurriculars are pretty weak, but I'm also suspecting that some of my letter of recommendations aren't very strong either. I'm currently working as a medical scribe and coaching youth basketball in my time and considering possibly volunteering at a homeless shelter and another abroad trip in means to continue strengthening my application. But I want to know what you guys think. Is my current volunteering enough to bolster my application? Or should I volunteer more? And if so, where would you recommend me go? Is my list too top heavy for a student my caliber? What about any other possible weak points in my application?
It's been an absolutely humbling experience this year and I'm ready to start from the ground up and do whatever I can, so thanks for your guys' help!
PS: my apologies if this isn't the appropriate thread
Last edited:
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Shoot me a PM - I have a bunch of advice and can talk through some things if you'd like. My quick initial guess is a combination of EC's, LOR selection/choices, and how you actually filled out your app.
This is also a game of chance to some extent. Don't fret, I had 0 II's last year and I'm heading to my fifty this cycle shortly (2 acceptances and 2 haven't heard yet from the ones I have completed) with very little change between my apps.
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This is also a game of chance to some extent. Don't fret, I had 0 II's last year and I'm heading to my fifty this cycle shortly (2 acceptances and 2 haven't heard yet from the ones I have completed) with very little change between my apps.
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State of residence?
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Washington
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I'm a little bit surprised you haven't gotten anything at all...I would think your excellent numbers and research would turn heads somewhere. That being said, the biggest issue I see is a lack of volunteering or clinical experience, which the overwhelming majority of applicants have. In terms of your school list, the bolded ones are "low-yield" schools that get so many applications that you have to expect extra randomness in the process. Then you have other ones that are just really hard to get into, like NYU, USC, Washington, and Pittsburgh. So that's definitely part of the problem. The good news is that most of this is an easy fix and you don't have much work to put together an excellent application for next year if you end up needing to do that.
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You're in the same situation I was in last year. Stats are almost identical. I applied to 15 schools, 0 II. This year I applied to 17 schools, 10 II, and have 6 acceptances (including my dream school - a top 10!). Moral of the story: don't lose hope. Send me a PM if you want to talk more details, would love to help you build your next app!
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Ah I see. I know this is something that I should probably look up by myself but do you know schools that are around this tier that aren't as "high yield" that are around the same tier at the top of your head? I'm assuming they're going to be like schools around Wayne State.
Also, when it comes to volunteering/clinical experience, is what I'm doing right now (scribing, volunteering as a youth coach) pretty much going in the right direction? Or should I continue to do even more?
Thank you so much!
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I'm much more familiar with midwestern schools so I'm afraid I might not be of much help for your region. But yes, you're right that they are schools like Wayne State. They have a specific mission and heavily favor students who are from Michigan and have certain experiences, which cuts down their applicant pool by a lot. Illinois has SIU which basically interviews everyone from Southern Illinois, Michigan lots of these schools including places like Central Michigan which heavily favors people with experience in that community, Ohio has lots of these niche schools, etc. Again, I'm not too familiar with your area but I know that Washington is opening a new school next year that you might consider looking into! All of it basically comes down to researching the schools you want to apply to and considering whether or not their values are highly aligned with your application.
As for the clinical experience, yes, that's excellent (especially the scribing). I do think it would benefit you to go pretty hard with the clinical volunteering. If you have to apply again, you will want to show the schools that you have immersed yourself in medical settings and know that you want to be a doctor for sure.
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Too bad this wasn't on Youtube or something. All those views and you coulda been rich!
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I'm rich in friendship!Too bad this wasn't on Youtube or something. All those views and you coulda been rich!
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Focus on domestic service. Those international things are not often well-received. Even the AAMC recently issued a comment on their reservations about the practice.
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Link? I'm on mobile and can't google very efficiently.
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Welp, that's going straight into my bookmarks. Thanks!
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Relevant portion (emphasis mine):
"In particular, 45- 50% of those schools completing the survey described applicant involvement in invasive procedures in international settings as either harmful to, or of no value to, their application. Examples of such invasive procedures include giving vaccinations, suturing an injury, pulling teeth, and delivering a baby. This concern of admissions officers persisted, albeit at lower levels (35-40% of respondents), when the students were supervised by a health professional while performing such invasive procedures in international settings"
"In particular, 45- 50% of those schools completing the survey described applicant involvement in invasive procedures in international settings as either harmful to, or of no value to, their application. Examples of such invasive procedures include giving vaccinations, suturing an injury, pulling teeth, and delivering a baby. This concern of admissions officers persisted, albeit at lower levels (35-40% of respondents), when the students were supervised by a health professional while performing such invasive procedures in international settings"
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Any updates?
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Happy hump day all! This thread rocks. Still slogging through this *fun* process, and still hoping for the best.
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oh my gosh... it finally happened! I got my first II. I have been so discouraged but there is still hope for others! now time to focus on crushing this interview
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oh my gosh... it finally happened! I got my first II. I have been so discouraged but there is still hope for others! now time to focus on crushing this interview
Way to go! I'm hoping to join you soon!
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Nothing substantial, as of yet. I am working to apply for next cycle too.
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I wish you nothing but the very best of luck. You certainly deserve it.
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I admire your optimism, and that of everyone who has recently been posting on this thread! Remember, "life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards." I wish I had understood that better when I was applying. The funny thing is, as unhappy and pessimistic as I was when I was in the midst of applying, in retrospect the only thing I really remember are the good parts. Always take care of yourself, and keep fighting the good fight.
