Reapply DO now or wait a year?

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I'm a senior about to graduate with a B.S. in Cell and Developmental Biology.

I applied exclusively DO this cycle, but I applied late (primary submitted in August due to transcript stupidity, then secondaries in Oct/Nov). I had two interviews Jan/Feb. One rejection and one waitlist.

Two of the schools where I didn't interviewed said that my MCAT scores are fine, but that I should raise my GPA. One explicitly stated they did not give interviews to anyone with a GPA less than 3.4.

My stats:
cGPA= 3.29
sGPA= 3.03 (Bio courses? Awesome. Other courses? ...Not so much)
MCAT: 29 V:11 P:8 B:10

I want to get a massage therapy degree next year if I'm not pulled from the waitlist. I want to practice OMM, and I believe the skills I learn there could be useful. Potentially, I could take summer/fall courses at a different school, maybe retake some of the prereqs or something, and then complete the massage therapy degree in the spring. I'll be working either way, because it's not financially feasible for me not to.

So, if I do this, should I apply for the 2012-2013 cycle, or wait another year until I've completed all this? Or is this whole plan just stupid?

Thank you for your help!

You should retake your science courses and boost your GPA, obviously reapply super early. I dont see why you shouldnt reapply this year...who knows you may get in..

I am not sure this massage therapy will do much for you, its more like an EC to the adcoms, they want to see A's

Im in a similar boat as you

Wow those scores would've earned you an acceptance at at least one DO school when I applied. I'm assuming you went for the older schools.

I'd wait a year in between to significantly strengthen my application. Or if you didn't apply to enough schools, I'd apply again next year and cast a wider net. Your call.

Originally Posted by Ghirahim

ITwo of the schools where I didn't interviewed said that my MCAT scores are fine, but that I should raise my GPA. One explicitly stated they did not give interviews to anyone with a GPA less than 3.4.

which school said they didn't interview anyone with a less than 3.4 gpa? what were the two other schools that said raise your gpa? also, what ethnicity are you?

I would put your application in on June 1st and in this next year take your science classes over that you need to replace the grade in. I would not take the MCAT over. Get a part time job to save money for acceptance down payment ($1500) and moving expenses.

Originally Posted by ineed2stpsmurfn

which school said they didn't interview anyone with a less than 3.4 gpa? what were the two other schools that said raise your gpa? also, what ethnicity are you?

UNECOM said they didn't interview anyone with less than a 3.4 GPA this year.
VCOM and UNECOM said to raise my GPA. The email also said "it's better to look forwards than back" when I asked if I should retake the Chemistry/Math/Physics courses I didn't do so well in, which I took to mean they would rather see me do something different?
I applied to 13 schools, received 11 secondaries, was rejected by three places based on those (UNECOM, VCOM, and RVUCOM). Interviewed at LECOM (didn't really like it, and was rejected anyway) and WVSOM. The other six schools will still only tell me I'm "in review," but I figure it's moot at this point. I'm on WVSOM's alternate list...and that's it.

Also, I'm white. Pasty pasty pale doesn't tan ever always burns white. Though I'm not sure why that's relevant.

Most schools don't want you to retake undergrad classes unless you literally bombed them. Getting a B- doesn't justify a retake. I take the look forwards remark as basically saying do a post bacc or SMP and take new classes to raise your GPA and show us you can do well.

Have you looked at other areas of your application like EC's, etc? I applied two months later than you to 23 schools, and had a worse cGPA, a worse MCAT but a 3.97sGPA and received an acceptance. I also had good EC's with lots of clinical exposure, are you missing that?

Without knowing your situation completely I would say you need to decide between applying again more broadly, i.e. 20+ schools, and early (June 1st). If you do this use your time to pursue clinical experiences or address any other possible weaknesses in your app. All schools seem to ask reapplicants what they have specifically done to improve their candidacy so make a list of things you want to tell them then get out there and make it happen. The other option is to start applying immediately to SMP's and try to do as well as possible then reapply.

Good luck, hopefully the waitlist comes through for you and you don't need to reapply.

I would not do the massage school thing, unless its something you just want to do for fun on the side, its not going to help you be a better doctor and its not going to help you get into school.