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Hi Everyone, 

Congrats to U of C MD class of 2020!

I'm a total advice leech, and need your thoughts/feedback once more.  I'll start by giving a bit of background on myself, followed by the question/issue I want your help with.  

Background: I'm a prospective applicant in my mid-30s with degrees in mol. bio and nursing (in the pretty remote past).  My GPAs in mol. bio = 3.2, and in nursing it was 2.4-2.5 (horrible). I'll have to invoke the 10 year exclusion rule to have a chance.  Last couple of years I returned to school as a open studies/special student took fulltime (> 4 full courses/year) to augment my GPA. I took advanced undergrad/grad courses in infection/immunity, nutrition, physiology and a research project.  My GPA over the last 2 years is 3.85 (would have been >3.9 but I had a C+ in stats!).  Over the last 9 years I have been working as a tx coordinatoor, ICU RN, clinical instructor and have also ran my own site maintenance company (snow removal/lawn cutting, etc) for commercial clients for a few years.   My old MCAT was 34S (13 BS, 12 PS, 9 VR), but this is no longer valid as it was in the last glacial epoch!!  I am scheduled to write the MCAT Aug. 18th (less than 2 months).  Since I'm so old, I have a ton of work experience in a wide variety of other areas as well (sales, serving, personal training, etc).  I have 3 summers of research, and 2 senior undergraduate research projects but sadly no pubs. 

What I need help with: 

My plan for the summer was to work 20-25 hours a week (2-3 days/week) and prep for the MCAT while doing maybe a 1-2 days of research volunteering.  I also have a powerlifting meet later this year so I have had to really dial in training for that.  Unfortunately, due to severe staffing shortages in the Tx department, I am now stuck working 40-50 hours a week. This dramatically reduces the amount of time I have to prep for the MCAT.  In addition, we've had a wonderful, albeit despotic addition to our family with the arrival of our first child! She's wonderful and I love her to bits, but caring for her is eating up a lot more time than I had thought it would.  This further exacerbates the shortage in time that I have to prep for the MCAT.  The inconsistent sleep is what really hurts, especially with the heavy weight training 4 days/week.  Due to the combination of work and family commitments I have been unable to do any research or volunteering stuff this summer :-(

I was aiming to apply for this upcoming application cycle.  I don't think I have any hope of getting in, but at least it would be good practice for doing the application, writing top 10s, etc.  My goal is to somehow get an interview.  That being said, given the lack of prep time I have for the MCAT, I am not sure if its even worth applying this year with a less than an acceptable score.  Based on my science background and historical performance on the old MCAT I think I can score minimum 129 on the science sections. I know I will struggle with the CARS, but hopefully can get >127.  

I would like to get your thoughts on how to approach this problem...

1) Should I just do the best I can and write the MCAT Aug. 18th, and apply anyways?  I can rewrite the MCAT at a later date when I have much more prep time as my life settles down and hopefully augment my score.  I won't get in this year, but at least I'll have some feedback about what I need to work on for the subsequent cycles. 

2) Not apply this cycle as a poor MCAT score looks bad. Use the extra year to make myself a stronger candidate by volunteering more, doing more research stuff, and taking the extra time to get a good MCAT score. 

Your thoughts are highly appreciated as always. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read my post. 

 

 

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First of all, congratulations on your new family member! I remember the first few months with my little ones - so awesome, and it just got better and better. 

My advice, for what it's worth - go for it!  If you feel ready for the change and up for the challenge, if now feels like the right time, then there's not much point waiting another year. My story is similar to yours (though your current work experience is so much more relevant than mine), so maybe I can help by sharing my journey. 

I am in my mid-forties, with three kids entering their teenaged years.   Five weeks before the last possible MCAT date in August last year, I decided to take the plunge. Somehow, I managed to squeeze my test prep (which, in my case, involved teaching myself all of the bio, biochem, psych, etc - my background is civil engineering), while working full time, and not sacrificing too much family time.  I got the kids to quiz me (they got a kick out of trying to read the scientific jargon), and they were as   invested in my test results as I was. Your daughter's a bit young for that, but I bet some of the biochem material would make a great bedtime story, or you could strap her into a snuggly and tell her all about the human psyche while out for a long walk...  Given your time constraints and your solid science background, I would suggest maybe focusing most of your sit-down study efforts on CARS practice.

While I am not a serious athlete, I kept up with my training over the summer, as it helps keep me balanced; I didn't commit to any competitions, though until after the application deadline (though I subbed in a team with a last-minute cancellation).  It sounds like you're pretty serious about power-lifting...  you might need to make some tough choices there, maybe adjust your training until the MCAT is out of the way.

In the end, my MCAT score was not spectacular (504), but I did well on CARS (129).  My GPA was not nearly as high as I remembered (3.77).  Where I think I made up some ground, and where I think you could excel, is on the 10 experiences.  You have a lot of life behind you and it sounds like you've done some amazing things. Tell your story, and be sure to hit all of the assessed attributes through these life experiences. I felt I had so much material to draw from - I think I wrote up 12 or 13 experiences, then picked the 10 I thought really showcase who I am.

If you're fortunate to get an interview, this is another step where I think you could excel - your experience will give you a great frame of reference and a more in-depth understanding of the issues and of who you are, which should help you come across as genuine, compassionate, and thoughtful. I had so much fun with the interview - I felt like I was engaged in meaningful discussion about important issues (so refreshing after 20 years of engineering/regulatory/financial discussions/negotiations.)

All of this to say - if you feel that the timing is right, if you're ready to start school next summer, go for it!  I got an offer (just squeaked off the wait list), and I am over-the-moon about it (and so are the kids). 

Best of luck, monkeyman, whatever you decide!

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Oldbat: First of all congratulations on your acceptance!  I don`t know too many engineers that have made it into med school, but the one guy I do know is a bit of a genius freak (in a good way!)... He`s currently a cardiac surgeon with a background in mechanical eng.  He actually thought up and designed an ex-vivo organ (heart and lung I think) perfusion machine in his garage to help increase the viability of explanted organ grafts that were being transported from far away.  The technology has helped us to be able to utilize organs that in the past would have been deemed unusable due to being too far away.  As you can imagine organs outside the body for extended periods of time don`t do well.    

Its an amazing accomplishment that you only had 5 weeks to prep, had to work fulltime with 3 kids and still managed a reasonable score, and more importantly ended up matriculating! Honestly, your story actually inspired me to dig deep and try and give it a shot in August.  As you said, I`ll be focussing on the CARS section, but should not ignore the other sections too much. You did kicka$$ on the CARS so any tips would be appreciated.  Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, as I can sincerely say that you`ve inspired me!

What sport do you play? I`m not a serious powerlifter, like I`m not national level or anything, but striving to get there maybe in a few years! As you said, physical activity is extremely important as it allows one to stay balanced and sane!  I`m only training 4 days a week now, but the workouts can be pretty long, so I`ll try and truncate it down a bit.

I`ve been lucky in that I`ve been a part of healthcare teams that deal with very critical and complex clinical situations.  I know these experiences will make it easier for me to transition to clerkship/residency, however, I don`t think they automatically give me lots of points with the CanMEDS competencies.  It`ll be up to me to figure out a way to emphasize those qualities.  

Given that you are also a mature student, do you have any tips for writing top 10s?

Thanks again for your thoughts and feedback!

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As long as your MCAT and GPA are tight, you should have a solid shot at an interview. It looks like you have a lot of varied professional experience, so I wouldn't worry too much about your ECs. Have solid LORs and most importantly, write your Top 10 in a way that reflects the CANMEDs roles and really showcases your experiences, your impact on your community as well as your personal growth. If you're in-province, I don't believe you need an astronomical MCAT score to be admitted. Take a look at the reference statistics on the U of C website for an idea.

Best of luck.

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On 24/06/2017 at 10:09 PM, freewheeler said:

As long as your MCAT and GPA are tight, you should have a solid shot at an interview. It looks like you have a lot of varied professional experience, so I wouldn't worry too much about your ECs. Have solid LORs and most importantly, write your Top 10 in a way that reflects the CANMEDs roles and really showcases your experiences, your impact on your community as well as your personal growth. If you're in-province, I don't believe you need an astronomical MCAT score to be admitted. Take a look at the reference statistics on the U of C website for an idea.

Best of luck.

Thanks for your response.  I`m not sure what`s considered a solid GPA/MCAT for getting an interview, but I`ll be really happy if I can somehow get one this cycle!

One of the things I really am concerned about is my lack of relevant volunteering experience in healthcare, etc. I have tens of thousands of hours of actual paid "in the trenches" clinical time, but virtually no recent volunteering hours.  I`m not sure how this would be viewed by the admission committee... Hopefully I can use my experiences to write up an impactful top 10!  

Thanks again for your thoughts. 

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