MD & DO 3.5 cGPA, 25 MCAT - Texas Resident

[ccxz]

Hi all,

This is my first time posting in here, but I've been roaming around. I just received my MCAT today, and was wondering what are my chances of a MD / DO school? I understand that my chances at MD are pretty much shot at this point. It's pretty disappointing, yeah, but I guess... to be honest, I'm pretty discouraged by my stats / numbers, I feel as if it's practically impossible for me to get into any school anymore.

I don't think it's worth retaking the MCAT (personally). The highest I was able to get was a 27.

Should I even bother applying? I want to do medicine, but man... I'm just... incredibly discouraged. However, if I do happen to apply, I was hoping to apply this upcoming cycle in 2015 for incoming class of 2016.

Anyhow, stats and numbers and things:

Background and Numbers

-Asian, Female, Texas Resident, wanting to get into TX schools primarily
-cGPA: 3.56 (TMDSAS) ; 3.53 (AMCAS)
-sGPA: 3.45 (TMDSAS) ; 3.42 (AMCAS)
-MCAT: 25 (9 PS, 7 VR, 9 BS)
-Languages: Mandarin (fair), English (standard), Spanish (elementary, and have used it before interacting with patients to try and check in / check out / collect and escort them around the specialist office I work for)

Volunteering

-Lab Volunteer, ~400 hours, in lab centered around DNA analysis at University of Texas Medical School at Houston involving PCR genotyping, electrophoresis, gel collection, making dilutions, all of that fun lab stuff... -- With this experience, there were 2 publications (very lucky)

-Lab Volunteer, ~15 hours, in lab centered around fungal / microbiological analysis at University of Texas Medical School at Houston involving observations and testing to identify fungal species (mainly was there to get a feel for a lab in a different field)

-Volunteer in school club, ~20 hours, visiting sick children in a dialysis clinic or nursing home to spend time with them, etc

-Member at church, where I sang as back-up for our Praise Band for some of our events from Sundays services to Friday night bible studies, visited nursing homes / retirement homes on weekends, scrubbing pots and pans from our events, cooking for our events, baby-sat, the list goes on, etc.

Work Experience

- Student Helper, ~200 hours, at Baylor College of Medicine in a clinical Medical Genetics Lab

-Summer intern, ~300 hours, at University of Texas Medical School at Houston through their program

-Medical Office Assistant, 500+ hours, at an ophthalmologic specialist office that I currently still work for; includes everything from checking patients in and out, billing and collecting, assisting in small office surgeries (ex. chalazions), to setting the phoropter (sp?) or just assisting the doctor in any way I can...

In terms of schools, I was just thinking about applying to Texas schools... What are some thoughts? Thanks so much for taking the time to read this

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[The Big Lebowski]

A 25 MCAT and the 7 in verbal are probably too low for MD schools. Being a Texas resident helps, but a 25 is still below the 10th percentile for all of their schools and your GPA isn't high enough to compensate. I do think that with your stats and very solid EC's, you would be fine for most DO schools. If your heart is absolutely set on MD schools, I would retake the MCAT (work on that verbal!), keep improving your GPA and EC's, add more than just Texas schools (use MSAR), and apply for next year's cycle (it's starting to get kind of late for this one).

 

[SkipJunior]

If you plan on applying DO next cycle, then start shadowing a DO now and work towards procuring a DO letter of rec. Also don't apply to Touro-CA, Touro-NY, AZCOM, CCOM, MSUCOM, Rowan, UNECOM, OU-HCOM since these DO schools will probably waitlist/reject you. The rest of the DO schools for the most part are fair game.

 

[ccxz]

Ah okay, thanks guys I think I have a lot to think about, and yeah, if I want to try DO, I should probably hop on DO shadowing and so forth.

 

[ccxz]

A 25 MCAT and the 7 in verbal are probably too low for MD schools. Being a Texas resident helps, but a 25 is still below the 10th percentile for all of their schools and your GPA isn't high enough to compensate. I do think that with your stats and very solid EC's, you would be fine for most DO schools. If your heart is absolutely set on MD schools, I would retake the MCAT (work on that verbal!), keep improving your GPA and EC's, add more than just Texas schools (use MSAR), and apply for next year's cycle (it's starting to get kind of late for this one).

Thanks so much for your input (again). I guess I'm starting to really doubt / freak out whether I should seriously consider retaking the MCAT because I'm not sure if I will be able to score higher than a 27... -- to be honest, I can see my second score's "potential improvement" to be not as significant (3+ points)... if such is the case, should I just stick with this 25 and apply in 2015 for 2016 incoming...?

 

[pink/\floyd]

Suggest retake. You could get into newer DO schools, but it will be a stressful year. Do yourself a favor and study for the MCAT and get your score to at least a 28 for DO schools and 30-32 for MD schools.

 

[DokterMom]

If you can hit 27, you have a much better shot at the TX MD schools. That's their 'cliff point'.
Otherwise, DO is your best shot.
With all due respect, don't even bother with OOS MD, as the presumption seems to be that if you were a good applicant, a cheap TX school would accept you.

If, after assessing your MCAT chances, you honestly feel that 25-27 is about the best you can do, then I'd suggest you shift your focus away from the numbers (they are what they are) and onto your ECs. Right now, they're very solid. They're also very predictable. I don't mean that in a bad way -- just that you're doing the kinds of things every good pre-med does. Hospital, shadowing, research.

Do something really different. Something eye-catching. Something that will make the AdComs stop drowsing and say "Wow! Who does that!?" Show creativeness, passion, long-term dedication. (Sorry - That'll take time) Make it peripheral to medicine, humanitarian, working with the 'least appealing' population (dementia? mental illness? homeless? AIDS?) --

In a nutshell -- Your numbers are good enough, but barely. Make them want you enough for other reasons... Enough to call your numbers 'good enough'