Session 54

In this episode, Ryan talks about how you can improve your medical school application where he touches on some points such as postbac courses, clinical experience, and international clinical volunteering.

Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan again dives into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where you can ask questions, get answers, and participate with other students.

OldPreMeds Question of the Week:

Poster has the following credentials:

• 3.0 undergrad GPA
• 3.8 Master's GPA in Health Administration
• 28 on old MCAT (now studying for a year and hopes to get a 510+ on the new one
• 3+ years of research experience as a lab technician for a medical school but they have a 3.25 undergrad GPA cutoff
• 2 shadowing experiences
• Clinical volunteering with 3-week international trip and 25 hours in emergency department

This student is taking some postbac courses this upcoming semester including advanced biochem and advanced genetics and maybe an O chem retake.

How can you best utilize my time to improve my application when you work full time and you're planning to apply this upcoming cycle entering 2018 class?

Here are the insights from Ryan:

Master's degrees don't really have a huge effect on your application especially Health Administration GPA because it's not a "hard sciences."

More postbac classes, better undergrad GPA

Look into taking more postbac classes to help boost your undergrad GPA. Remember, postbac classes are undergrad GPA courses so they would affect your undergrad GPA. These would be listed separately in the application but they will be combined into your compete undergrad GPA.

Shadowing experiences and clinical volunteering

Two shadowing experiences wouldn't be a lot unless they are long term. You need a good 25-30 hours of shadowing or a little bit more as a minimum.

International trip is okay although a lot of medical schools don't really like international clinical volunteering. It's actually debatable whether it helps your application or not because it's seen as unnecessary.

More than your stats

Your application is much more than just your stats since it includes everything about you.. Your personal statement is huge as well as your extracurriculars and how you described them.

Major takeaway from this episode:

Get enough clinical experience. Get a great MCAT score. Think about some more classes to bump up your undergrad GPA.

Links and Other Resources:

The Premed Years Session 171: Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve

OldPreMeds.org