I’m in my late 20’s and currently waitlisted at several schools but as July winds down I am unsure how to proceed. I want to reapply but I feel like it is too late for me this year and I am not sure I can get my application together fast enough to be competitive. I am itching to move on with my career and don’t want to wait another cycle.
I did undergrad at a large state school with solid grades and a double major in community health and English (3.8 gpa) which included A&P, bio, microbio, and a semester of general chemistry (all A’s and B’s) among other health-related courses. I got an MPH (3.7 gpa) from a very good school and have worked in health education, social epidemiology research, health survey research, and now work for a chronic disease program at a local health department. A year after finishing my MPH I went back to school to do my pre-reqs at a local university and got straight A’s. As I was preparing my application last summer I was dealing with a breakup and moving and struggling with related depression. I didn’t do very well on my MCAT, 504, and I know I could have done better. I had some issues with my committee letter (one professor forgot to submit a letter until September) and was pretty slow to turn around my secondaries (7/10 schools I applied to). Nevertheless, I interviewed (January and February dates) and was waitlisted at two of my top choices. And I’m still waiting.
As I was doing my MPH I realized that I did not want that to be my long term career. I like public health and applied health research but I can’t imagine spending the rest of my career sitting in a cubicle in front of a computer crunching numbers, writing reports, and rarely getting to see the people I am helping face to face. I study health disparities and I have often wanted to better understand issues I am studying, I loved physiology and microbiology and biochemistry. I want to use both my MPH and an MD and work on community-based research related to health disparities.
I have been studying for the MCAT for the past month or so but wasn’t able to get a date until late August. I have started revising my PS, but many other parts of my application would be fairly similar. I’m going to talk to a premed advisor this week. I probably should have done it earlier but I was mostly just praying that I would get an acceptance. But I also wonder what the OPMs think, should I submit an application with my current score, banking on the fact that I got waitlisted last time?
I am also just so frustrated with the waitlist process. The schools won’t tell me anything. How am I supposed to make decisions about reapplying?
I’m not at this stage yet, so I have nothing to offer in terms of advice. What I can say is that your situation sounds super frustrating, and being in limbo without any sense of control about what happens next can be crazy-making. I hope you can get some answers soon-- from what you’ve already accomplished, it sounds like you’re a rockstar, and it is a matter of “when” instead of “if”. Rooting for you!
Thanks! The advising I have access to is sort of not helpful, they haven’t been able to give me clear answers as to what I should do this year. I think I’m going to go for it, my application will be in way earlier than before.