MD & DO What're my chances?

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Hey Guys,

Long time lurker, this is my first post. I'm taking my MCAT this Friday and I won't be doing well at all. Planning on taking practice exams Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm debating whether or not I should take one on Thursday (the day before the exam).

Kaplan diagnostic- 20
Kaplan FL 1 (July 21)- 23
AAMC 8 (July 22)- 24 PS-8, VR-7, BS-9
AAMC 9 (July 23)- 26 PS-8, VR-9, BS-9
AAMC 10 (July 24)- 28 PS-10, VR-8, BS-10
AAMC 11 (July 26)- 27 PS-8, VR-8, BS-11 (I got hung up on the PS and had to guess 2 whole passages)

Just got my MCAT score. I got a 30R VR-9, PS-9, BS-12

My stats:
cGPA: 3.54
sGPA: 3.63
President of BBB, a biological honors society
Co-president of the Green Team (~35 hours nonclinical volunteering, with over 500 hours invested into the club)
Intern/volunteer at a free clinic (~150 hours and currently writing a proposal for the clinic to obtain retinal screening cameras for diabetic retinopathy)
(just got a scribing position at another free clinic but I don't think I can add that to my application)
Volunteered at a hospital (~105 hours)
Organic chemistry research for a semester
Neuroscience research Jan 2012-present
I've shadowed over 100 hours, including MD and DO.

So...what are my chances?

Here's the MD schools that I applied to. Any suggestions on any other schools that I should add to the list that I have a good shot at (I would prefer to stay on the east coast)?

Albany Medical College
Boston University School of Medicine
Eastern Virginia Medical School
George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Howard University
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Morehouse School of Medicine
Temple University School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
West Virginia University School of Medicine

And another quick question, I haven't started my secondaries, will turning them in within the next 2 weeks be too late?

I'm hardly one to speak, but I think, looking at your GPA stats, you'll need at least a 30 on the MCAT to have a chance at MD programs, but you probably have a pretty good shot at DO

Do you think I'd have a chance at a low-tiered MD school? And how strong of a chance at DO schools? My friends have said to go MD or DO, because that can affect your residency. I don't really care but as of right now I want to go into neurosurgery or trauma surgery, and I hear it's harder to get MD residencies as a DO. If I get accepted into a low-tiered MD school and a DO school (like VCOM, WVCOM, or PCOM) which should I choose?

Your GPAs are excellent for DO schools, but on the low end of competitive for MD (the low-tiers, and possibly your state schools). GPA should ideally should be >3.6.

If you think you're going to do poorly on the MCAT, why on earth are you taking it then? This is a career-defining exam...and you're not ready for it? That says to me that your judgement is suspect. Take the time to get ready and do it right! This is no place for magic thinking.

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

Do you think I'd have a chance at a low-tiered MD school? And how strong of a chance at DO schools? My friends have said to go MD or DO, because that can affect your residency. I don't really care but as of right now I want to go into neurosurgery or trauma surgery, and I hear it's harder to get MD residencies as a DO. If I get accepted into a low-tiered MD school and a DO school (like VCOM, WVCOM, or PCOM) which should I choose?

Anything below a 28 and it will be an uphill battle for MD schools. If you are planning on applying this cycle, it's starting to get late as you won't get a score until the end of August or early September and verifying AMCAS will take several weeks as well. If you aren't planning on applying this cycle, I would just wait, take some sort of review course, and then take the MCAT next spring. The rest of your application would be competitive, but with an MCAT of 26, I don't think you would have a very good chance of getting accepted to an MD school.

I've spent the entire summer studying for it, and I believe I was doing it wrong. I was reading through the material but wasn't committing it to memory. I think I'm going to do poorly because I had high expectations for myself- expecting at least a 30 on the MCAT and the practice tests proved me wrong and I was being emo about it.

Originally Posted by Goro

Your GPAs are excellent for DO schools, but on the low end of competitive for MD (the low-tiers, and possibly your state schools). GPA should ideally should be >3.6.

If you think you're going to do poorly on the MCAT, why on earth are you taking it then? This is a career-defining exam...and you're not ready for it? That says to me that your judgement is suspect. Take the time to get ready and do it right! This is no place for magic thinking.

I just took another practice test and got a 28. I'm seeing a strong upward trend that I'm hoping will come through on the test day. I'm already finished with my primaries- waiting for amcas to review it and whatnot. What else do they have to do after I get my scores?

Originally Posted by boshtrich

Anything below a 28 and it will be an uphill battle for MD schools. If you are planning on applying this cycle, it's starting to get late as you won't get a score until the end of August or early September and verifying AMCAS will take several weeks as well. If you aren't planning on applying this cycle, I would just wait, take some sort of review course, and then take the MCAT next spring. The rest of your application would be competitive, but with an MCAT of 26, I don't think you would have a very good chance of getting accepted to an MD school.

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

Hey Guys,

Long time lurker, this is my first post. I'm taking my MCAT this Friday and I won't be doing well at all. Planning on taking practice exams Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm debating whether or not I should take one on Thursday (the day before the exam).

Kaplan diagnostic- 20
Kaplan FL 1 (July 21)- 23
AAMC 8 (July 22)- 24 PS-8, VR-7, BS-9
AAMC 9 (July 23)- 26 PS-8, VR-9, BS-9
AAMC 10 (July 24)- 28 PS-10, VR-8, BS-10

My stats:
cGPA: 3.54
sGPA: 3.63
President of BBB, a biological honors society
Co-president of the Green Team (~35 hours nonclinical volunteering, with over 500 hours invested into the club)
Intern/volunteer at a free clinic (~150 hours and currently writing a proposal for the clinic to obtain retinal screening cameras for diabetic retinopathy)
(just got a scribing position at another free clinic but I don't think I can add that to my application)
Volunteered at a hospital (~105 hours)
Organic chemistry research for a semester
Neuroscience research Jan 2012-present
I've shadowed over 80 hours (only MDs [this included rounding with an attending and his residents] will be doing DO soon)

So...what are my chances?

PS I'll add practice exams as I do them

Looks like you're improving with the MCATS. Be confident and you'll do well, brotha.

Not too educated about the specifics of the app so i'm not sure if you could add this to it at this point in time. However, definitely let all the schools know that you are doing it (by e-mail or whatever).

just received my MCAT score.

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

Hey Guys,

Long time lurker, this is my first post. I'm taking my MCAT this Friday and I won't be doing well at all. Planning on taking practice exams Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm debating whether or not I should take one on Thursday (the day before the exam).

Kaplan diagnostic- 20
Kaplan FL 1 (July 21)- 23
AAMC 8 (July 22)- 24 PS-8, VR-7, BS-9
AAMC 9 (July 23)- 26 PS-8, VR-9, BS-9
AAMC 10 (July 24)- 28 PS-10, VR-8, BS-10
AAMC 11 (July 26)- 27 PS-8, VR-8, BS-11 (I got hung up on the PS and had to guess 2 whole passages)

Just got my MCAT score. I got a 30R VR-9, PS-9, BS-12

My stats:
cGPA: 3.54
sGPA: 3.63
President of BBB, a biological honors society
Co-president of the Green Team (~35 hours nonclinical volunteering, with over 500 hours invested into the club)
Intern/volunteer at a free clinic (~150 hours and currently writing a proposal for the clinic to obtain retinal screening cameras for diabetic retinopathy)
(just got a scribing position at another free clinic but I don't think I can add that to my application)
Volunteered at a hospital (~105 hours)
Organic chemistry research for a semester
Neuroscience research Jan 2012-present
I've shadowed over 100 hours, including MD and DO.

So...what are my chances?

Here's the MD schools that I applied to. Any suggestions on any other schools that I should add to the list that I have a good shot at (I would prefer to stay on the east coast)?

Albany Medical College
Boston University School of Medicine
Eastern Virginia Medical School
George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Howard University
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Morehouse School of Medicine
Temple University School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
West Virginia University School of Medicine

And another quick question, I haven't started my secondaries, will turning them in within the next 2 weeks be too late?

Are you URM? If not, BU, GW, GU, Hopkins, UVa, Brown are far above what your stats will realistically get you.

Ha, good thing you didn't skip/void your score.

But yeah, top tiers are probably out.

I received FAP, so I figured I should go for some of them (the top tiered schools) since I was looking at DO schools mostly. Now, I'm not so sure because I would love to go to a state MD school b/c of costs and it's proximity to home.

-I don't think i'm URM. I'm asian. Does URM include low economic status?

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

I received FAP, so I figured I should go for some of them (the top tiered schools) since I was looking at DO schools mostly. Now, I'm not so sure because I would love to go to a state MD school b/c of costs and it's proximity to home.

-I don't think i'm URM. I'm asian. Does URM include low economic status?

URM is based on ethnicity, I think there's a separate check box for low economic status.

Some schools might consider some Asian backgrounds to be URM (Filipino), but generally, URM refers to Black/Hispanic.

I don't think Asian counts either...

Originally Posted by 295821

I don't think Asian counts either...

Not generally, no. But I've heard of specific schools looking at specific subsets and viewing them as URM,

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

Hey Guys,

Long time lurker, this is my first post. I'm taking my MCAT this Friday and I won't be doing well at all. Planning on taking practice exams Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm debating whether or not I should take one on Thursday (the day before the exam).

Kaplan diagnostic- 20
Kaplan FL 1 (July 21)- 23
AAMC 8 (July 22)- 24 PS-8, VR-7, BS-9
AAMC 9 (July 23)- 26 PS-8, VR-9, BS-9
AAMC 10 (July 24)- 28 PS-10, VR-8, BS-10
AAMC 11 (July 26)- 27 PS-8, VR-8, BS-11 (I got hung up on the PS and had to guess 2 whole passages)

Just got my MCAT score. I got a 30R VR-9, PS-9, BS-12

My stats:
cGPA: 3.54
sGPA: 3.63
President of BBB, a biological honors society
Co-president of the Green Team (~35 hours nonclinical volunteering, with over 500 hours invested into the club)
Intern/volunteer at a free clinic (~150 hours and currently writing a proposal for the clinic to obtain retinal screening cameras for diabetic retinopathy)
(just got a scribing position at another free clinic but I don't think I can add that to my application)
Volunteered at a hospital (~105 hours)
Organic chemistry research for a semester
Neuroscience research Jan 2012-present
I've shadowed over 100 hours, including MD and DO.

So...what are my chances?

Here's the MD schools that I applied to. Any suggestions on any other schools that I should add to the list that I have a good shot at (I would prefer to stay on the east coast)?

Albany Medical College
Boston University School of Medicine
Eastern Virginia Medical School
George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Howard University
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Morehouse School of Medicine
Temple University School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
West Virginia University School of Medicine

And another quick question, I haven't started my secondaries, will turning them in within the next 2 weeks be too late?

Originally Posted by Cuongoff

I received FAP, so I figured I should go for some of them (the top tiered schools) since I was looking at DO schools mostly. Now, I'm not so sure because I would love to go to a state MD school b/c of costs and it's proximity to home.

-I don't think i'm URM. I'm asian. Does URM include low economic status?

3 of your schools are historically black colleges.

Originally Posted by 295821

I don't think Asian counts either...

If anything, asians are overrepresented minorities. Even according to AMCAS, Asians require higher GPA's and MCATs to achieve the same chance of acceptance into medical school.

Originally Posted by darkjedi

3 of your schools are historically black colleges.




If anything, asians are overrepresented minorities. Even according to AMCAS, Asians require higher GPA's and MCATs to achieve the same chance of acceptance into medical school.

Some of the HBCs are more open to non-URMs than others, but yeah that's a detail worth noting. Check your MSAR over to see what the admission stats are, I think it breaks down by subsets of Asian ethnicities even.

Originally Posted by coolingglasses

Some of the HBCs are more open to non-URMs than others, but yeah that's a detail worth noting. Check your MSAR over to see what the admission stats are, I think it breaks down by subsets of Asian ethnicities even.

Normally I would agree with you, but it seems like this guy just slapped on schools in his vicinity with similar stats to his. Usually these schools still want students in line with their mission, which seems questionable for this guy.

Originally Posted by darkjedi

Normally I would agree with you, but it seems like this guy just slapped on schools in his vicinity with similar stats to his. Usually these schools still want students in line with their mission, which seems questionable for this guy.

Probably, lol. I started off doing the same thing before I stepped away from MD entirely.

With these schools, a record of service to underserved urban residents would probably be helpful.

Did I miss something? Cuongoff, what did you get?

Originally Posted by Lucky Louie

Did I miss something? Cuongoff, what did you get?

He updated his original post, he got a 30.

Yea, I wasn't sure what my MCAT was going to come out to be, and had committed to DO schools. I really did just go through some website that showed the MCAT scores and GPA scores of the schools located on the east coast and chose the ones that I knew I can get into.

I do have a record of service to the underserve, though it's not extremely long and committed since I didn't start doing anything until Junior year. Since last January, I have been an intern at a free clinic in an underserved community. I just recently got a volunteer scribing position at another free clinic (this one is in a better neighborhood though). I am still an intern at the other clinic.

Originally Posted by coolingglasses

Probably, lol. I started off doing the same thing before I stepped away from MD entirely.

With these schools, a record of service to underserved urban residents would probably be helpful.

Originally Posted by darkjedi

Normally I would agree with you, but it seems like this guy just slapped on schools in his vicinity with similar stats to his. Usually these schools still want students in line with their mission, which seems questionable for this guy.

I qualified for FAP, and one of the benefits is the MSAR right? I haven't received it and don't know how to access it. I thought I would get an email or something but nope.

Originally Posted by coolingglasses

Some of the HBCs are more open to non-URMs than others, but yeah that's a detail worth noting. Check your MSAR over to see what the admission stats are, I think it breaks down by subsets of Asian ethnicities even.