Medical Questions about viability & moving forward, underrepresented in medicine, standing out, and MCAT testing

[Goro]

Viability & Moving Forward: My freshman year was less than stellar. I finished with a 3.16 cGPA 2.88 sGPA. My sophomore year, I changed everything in my life, pretty much, and turned everything around. I've gotten a 4.0 the past two semesters, and I now have a 3.23 sGPA, 3.54 cGPA. How does this affect my viability. My plan is to continue to get 4.0s until I graduate.

Details about me:
I am a Psychology major, Chinese minor. I have no clinical experience. I have shadowed 8 hours Cardiology, 4 hours EM. I am a Crisis Text Line Counselor -- done 14 hours so far. Currently planning to do 8 hours a week over the summer. I was an Electrician and carpenter for my theatre (leadership & teaching position) during my freshman year, working about 600 hours. I am a Research Assistant for a psychology lab and have worked for approximately 52 hours since October 2019, no publications. I am a member of my Chinese club and have been attending meetings every two weeks since fall 2019 up until coronavirus. I have been taking Chinese for 6 years and I'm semi-fluent. I'll be doing research as part of a 10-week competitive program over the summer.

That means my summer plans are:

• Crisis Counseling 8 hours a week
• Mentored Research
• Studying for Molecular Biology and Organic Chemistry next semester

I want to incorporate as much as I can to make me a more viable candidate, but I'm unsure how to go about getting clinical experience. Do you all have recommendations for more things to do? Should i even be currently worried about it? Should I be doing more than 8 hours of crisis counseling weekly?

Underrepresented in medicine:
I'm gay and I'm unsure if this is considered under the umbrella. Is this a college-by-college kind of thing, or is there a consensus. If it is college-by-college, where would I find this info.

MCAT:

I'm not supposed to be taking my MCAT until next summer based on my understanding. Would it be silly/unnecessary to take a preliminary MCAT this winter to help get a gauge of where I stand? I will have finished all prereqs except metabolism, physiology, one semester of org chem/lab, and sociology (most of which are optional). I'll have finished all of these except physiology by spring 2021. If not winter, when should I take it?

Summary of questions:

1. Will my freshman year GPA greatly affect my viability?
2. Should I be doing more this summer/next semester? What should I be doing?
3. Is being gay considered underepresented? College-by-college or consensus?
4. Should I take MCAT before finishing all preliminary courses/well before medical school application? If not, when is the earliest I should take it?

1. Not if you maintain that excellent streak. Rising GPA trends are always good.

2. Start thinking about your clinical and nonclinical ECs. Meals on wheels is viable now.

3. Yes, but college dependent. Do NOT think about Loma Linda or LUCOM, either.

4. You take the exam when you are 100% ready for it. Taking it too early can lead to it expiring if you need a gap year.

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[Goro]

Meals on wheels sounds like a great idea. Would that be considered a clinical EC?

Nonclinical. Elderly folks =/= patients

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Are you posting in the LGBTQ forum on SDN? There should be some encouraging voices there too.

You need clinical experience and more shadowing. Crisis lines are helpful, but you need to get access eventually to knowing what doctors do in an interprofessional team working with patients. Community service such as Meals on Wheels is especially important because you need to understand the limits of your abilities in health care as a physician or caregiver, especially when societal structures have maintained disparities in access and care. Many of the elderly whom you may help are also dealing with their own individual health issues, and understanding how Meals on Wheels helps them with their health and wellness is critical for you to understand. But it is not a clinical experience.