Hi everybody im relatively new.

im applying this cycle and have a 3.95 overall and 3.87 science. i got a 26R (PS-8 VR-10 BS-8) :mad: and i am retaking in july. I live in illinois and go to north central (small private college).

i have about 140 ish hours shadowing doctors (do/md). i have 60 hours of direct patient contact in a hospital. 4 years teachign sunday school. 2 years doing research (2 different projects, 450+ hours, presented at a conferecne)
slightly involved in organizations at school but not much- not like boards and stuff).

im applying DO and MD.

these are the schoosl but i dont know if i have a chance at any of them

DMU
CCOM
AT Sill-kirksville
KCUMB
U of I
Rush
RFU
Loyola
SIU (dont even live in teh south, but whatever) :rolleyes:

thats all i have so far...i was hoping some people could help me decide on some schools in the midwest (preferably) that i actually have a chance at.
im soo worried b/c of my low mcat :( :scared: :scared:
hopefully i can get it up to 30 by july.

oh yeah im south asian (pakistani) so not URM, rite?

thanks in advance to anyone who responds!! :)

anyone have any advice for me???

You have an excellent GPA and your MCAT is not as bad as you think. You are probably not going to be URM, I am persian and I know I cant apply URM, so I would guess you wouldnt be able to either. Honestly, If I had a 26 on my MCAT I would not retake. Especially with your GPA. I would go ahead and apply. Also you should just go on the schools websites to find the average statistics for GPA and MCAT to see where you fit. Your stats are actually high compared to many of the DO schools, but I am not sure about the MD schools, you would have to check on that. Good Luck!

You are fine for the DO schools on your list. You will probably need to retake the MCAT to have an above averge shot at the MD school. If you can score 28 or higher with you GPA and credentials, I think you would have a great shot at all the schools you listed.

All that being said, I would apply no matter what your next MCAT score ends up. You need to do a good job on your app and ps accentuating your high gpa and service work. It will be about how you portray yourself and how confident (not cocky) you appear.

GL

You're not a URM (South Asian doctor from IL is a URM?? you know that doesn't make sense ) and are correct that your MCAT scores will hurt you. The IL Allopathic schools are out of reach right now. The good news is that many of these schools will come into play if you bring your MCAT up.

You won't want less than 9 in any single section of the MCAT. Your baseline goal should be at least 9 in your lowest section and at least 10 in the other two. It's good that you already scored a 10 in VR, which many consider the hardest.

You'll probably get into most of the Osteopathic schools you apply to even if your MCAT scores stay the same.

Apply to all the Osteopathic schools in the region you're interested in. In addition, you might as well apply to some Allopathic schools now and hope your MCATs improve. I'd recommend: Rush, UIC, Loyola, RFUMS, MCW, NYMC, Drexel and GW (I know the last three don't fit the location, but they're still worth trying). Many of the Allopathic schools in the MidWest are public, so they're not worth applying to.