I have submitted most of my secondaries this past week (got them last Tuesday grinded out 17 of them so far) but I was wondering about how long do schools usually take to get back to you? I know that it changes depending on schools and a lot of MD schools haven’t started sending invites yet but what would be an average timeframe to hear back?
I am a master student in material science. My undergraduate degree was in chemical engineering and I knew almost nothing about material science coming into it. I joined this masters group thinking I was going to be working on a field that has to do with melting special salts at super high temperatures and measuring their properties for uses in advanced energy technologies. I had a project originally that did have to do with this that I thought was super cool. 2 months in my professor made me change projects because we only had 1 furnace to share between 2 labs and there “wasnt enough time for all the students that needed it” so I got forced off. No asking me if I wanted to. No discussing which of 3 projects should be moved off no, just me I got forced off with no warning no conversation. Now my project is making a system that is compatible with a new x ray measurement system we got last year. This new project had no real engineering, no calculations, no actually working with the high temperature energy systems I liked, just making a system in solidworks and then building it and testing it a few times. I am pretty non confrontational so I didn’t say anything about how I didn’t like the project at the time.
Throughout the last year I have received almost no support from my PI or the department faculty. I have had ZERO weekly meetings with my PI. I asked him several times to set up weekly lab meetings and 1 on 1 meetings, but all he told me everytime was “I like the more informal system we have going on” where we just go to his office if we have questions. This would be fine but everytime I do this all I get is “ya idk maybe try to find another way to do X thing you had a question about” and it’s no help at all. I had my designs finished in NOVEMBER but the campus machine shop took FOUR MONTHS to machine like 6 easy pieces. My instrument is in another professors lab who wouldn’t give me access to the door for 8 months so for that whole time I had to get other people to open the door for me and if nobody was there I just couldn’t work on my project. I finally had to go around the professor and get door access without her permission. She still doesn’t even know I have access. I sent her 5 emails and went up to her in person multiple times and she never even tried to help me out. No responses to my emails. Every conversation was “we need to do some training first” but then wouldn’t schedule a time or answer my emails about it.
Well now it’s a year later and I have it built mostly but there are issues that are going to take a couple more months to fix. I have pivoted my career path and am planning on going to medical school next year (or the year after maybe) and this masters won’t even do anything for me. I am starting to work full time at another healthcare job and having to come into the lab to try and work on my project at night and on weekends. I am still getting no support and I don’t even want to do this stupid masters anymore. I feel like I’m so close but so far from finishing and I’m working 7 days a week 14 hour days to finish a project I don’t even like and doesn’t even benefit me.
On top of all of this my professor basically showed my lab mate how to do his entire project. Showed him how to do his experiments, showed him how to run the analysis software, how to use a different software to optimize his experiments, and another one to do all the linear algebra calculations that were needed. I feel like I was just thrown out on some random shit project 2 months into my degree and forgotten about. I want to quit so bad but I feel like I will have wasted all this time and money that I spent over the last year to achieve this. I’m so close but also not that close and I don’t want to work 100 hour weeks anymore. That’s not even including my extra medical school prerequisite classes I am taking online so I just go home and work even more after the lab. I hate this stupid lab I wish I quit after they changed my project now I’m just stuck in purgatory
Just got my MCAT score back got 514 130/127/129/128 can’t read lol
I am a non traditional engineering graduate student (masters in material science engineering undergrad in chemical engineering, Nevada resident both degree at UNR) lower GPA (3.46 undergrad and 3.9 graduate) with lower volunteer hours (80 clinical 170 non clinical) and very high research (4000+ hours, conference presentations and will have publications at the time of interviews) also starting a job as a dialysis PCT full time next month. Submitted my app on June 19 so a bit late not sure if that will hurt me. I am pretty new to this community so I don’t really know how good of chances I have at getting
A bit lower than my last few FLs but I’m so happy I didn’t throw and get below a 500😭
Now as long as I can learn to read I might become doctor :))))
Well 5/22 scores come back on Tuesday and I am pretty much a wreck. I did pretty good on my full lengths (513 FL1, 514 FL2, 519 FL3, 518 FL4, 516 FL5, 520 FL6), took 3 practice exams the week leading up to the real thing, felt pretty good about it during the test. I need to do really good on the real thing since my stats are low (3.5 GPA from hard chemical engineering classes, I do have a 3.9 GPA in my engineering masters but from what I’ve read they care mostly about undergrad) and low volunteer hours (80 clinical and about 160 non clinical). I HAVE to do good on the MCAT to have a chance at getting in. Spent $1000 on AMCAS which I couldn’t really afford just for it all to possibly come crashing down next Tuesday. I’ve never really had anxiety about this stuff before but for some reason I am freaking out and I haven’t even gotten the score back yet. The only good thing I have on my application right now in my opinion is research which is at about 3000 hours. I’m going to be on vacation when the score comes back and if I do bad it will probably ruin the whole thing for me too. I’ve never written one of these vent posts before hoping it can help alleviate my anxiety at least a little bit. How do you guys deal with this? Struggling bad need some relaxation suggestions
On MSAR schools publish that they require a certain number of postbacc or graduate credits in order to consider them, usually 24 credits is what it says. I have both graduate and postbacc credits and I need schools to consider those when reviewing my app (3.45 undergrad GPA, 4.0 and 3.9 postbacc / grad GPAs). The issue is I that I only have 18 actual lecture graduate credits since I took 9 of the graduate credits as an undergraduate (pretty sure they count as undergraduate credits, not grad credits). I also have 6 thesis graduate credits but I don’t know if those really matter. I also only have about 9 postbacc credits since I got most of my prereqs done in undergrad, taking 4 more classes over the next two semesters. Since neither of them are at 24 credits individually are they going to be considered or not?
Sorry if that doesn’t make sense I can clarify more if need be.
How are you all selecting which schools to go to and seeing all their preferences? I am a Nevada resident with an undergrad and masters from UNR (chemical engineering undergrad and material science engineering masters, currently in MBA program also but probably won’t finish it since I’m trying to get into med school)
My stats are:
ORM (white)
3.45 cGPA (undergrad)
3.4 sGPA (undergrad)
3.9 cGPA (engineering and business graduate combined)
4.0 DIY postbacc GPA (still ongoing but will probably be 4.0)
80 clinical volunteer hours in hospital
80 non clinical volunteer hours also in hospital
50 hours shadowing (radiation oncology and pathology)
Taking the MCAT this Friday, my most recent FL was FL3 519
Avg FL score ~514
8000 hours research (protein engineering for cancer pharmaceuticals and nuclear materials)
No paid experience but am working as a dialysis patient care tech starting in July
Leadership experience as a graduate TA, teaching undergraduates in my lab, worked as an assistant manager in food service for 3 years in undergrad, team captain for club and high school sports
4 strong LORs (one from radiation oncologist who is also an adjunct professor at UNR medical school, 2 from professors and lecturers who I know well, 1 from my masters PI who I also took classes with and know well)
I obviously am applying to the Nevada schools, but I’m not sure how to select more. I know I won’t get into top tier schools so I want to shoot for middle of the pack MD programs. Where are you guys finding all this information on schools and how are you deciding where to apply?