43p mcat, 3.36 gpa...

[Paseo]

Well I've held off on the desperate "what are my chances?" post for a while, but the neurosis has finally overcome me. Here is my info....

GPA: 3.36 — With some upward trend
F – 2.9
S – 3.2
J – 3.7
S – 3.6
MCAT: 43P —
P–14
V–15
B–14
Extracirriculars—Poor
60 hours shadowing primary care doc (great experience & wrote me a letter)
15 hours shadowing neurosurgeon
Medical outreach experience in Uganda
Just started volunteering at a free clinic –very few hours so far
Just started volunteer work with families of seriously ill children –very few hours so far
2 years of research (no pubs, may get one this summer)
Ethnicity –White
Very white
Undergraduate school
University of Washington

...So clearly the (very lucky) MCAT is the bright-spot in an otherwise underwhelming application. I am fairly confident that some MD program somewhere will accept me, but my school list is very reach heavy at this point. Obviously there is an easy solution to that problem, but I think there is a lot i can do to strengthen my application in the next year and I don't want to burn any bridges with the schools that are more likely to accept me by turning them down in the hope of getting into one of my top picks on the next go 'round. Anyway, I've included my school list below and I'm wondering if any of you would be so kind as to give me your opinion. I am well aware that I am under-qualified for many of these schools, so please don't take my naive optimism as arrogance. Thanks a lot for any help you can give me, and best of luck to you!

University of Washington→ My top Pick
Perelman (Penn)
Duke
Icahn (Mt. Sinai)
Feinberg (Northwestern)
Pritzker (Chicago)
UCSD
UCSF
Vanderbilt
Weil Cornell
Boston
North Carolina
David Geffen (UCLA)
Geisel (Dartmouth)
Georgetown
Keck (USC)
Stony Brook
Tufts
Oregon Health & Science University
John A. Burns (Hawaii)
Jefferson
Stritch (Loyola)
Tulane

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[cerno]

You mentioned taking another year to improve your application.

Considering your MCAT, I would do that to improve at least your ECs. Also, it's been said that turning down an MD acceptance is a big red flag for future cycles, especially if it's due to wanting to attend you "dream school", since it puts into question your motivation for attending medical school.

 

[DrSolus]

This list is very, very top heavy. You're on the right track with the ECs you just started, but your experiences during the cycle won't exactly count towards your CURRENT app.

Considering the MCAT is the only bright spot on your app, I would bring your expectations down a smidge. You need to start thinking bigger picture : Do you want to start medical school next year even if it isnt a top 20, or do you want to go back to running the med school app treadmill for another year+ and not being in md school?

Apply to more mid tier schools (Forget UCSF, that's a waste of $30) if you want to start med school next year. (Chances are good that you will).

If you're insistent on going to a top 20 (for whatever reason, which I highly doubt is actually meaningful), then take 2 years off and get your research/ECs under your belt, include it in your PS, then apply. (I would highly discourage this). You can do amazing things at any of these medical schools, it's up to you to put in the effort (see the many many many threads about med school rank/prestige not mattering on this forum).

 

[mcloaf]

In spite of the fantastic MCAT, with you GPA and weak ECs I think many of the schools on your list are out of reach if you apply this year. Way too top heavy.

If you take a year or two and strengthen the EC portion of your app I think you'll have much better chances at the schools you're interested in.

Why is your GPA so much lower than you test score?

 

[Barley426]

Why is your GPA so much lower than you test score?

If you look at his post it looked like he didn't give his full effort or had some personal problems in his first two years, I had a similar trend.

Your MCAT is phenomenal, and you have a good upward trend; you can definitely get accepted to an MD school this year. I had a marginally better GPA with a strong upward trend but a lower MCAT and I was very well received at several schools.

I advise you to simply add some mid-range and some safety schools and go ahead and apply. That being said don't half ass any applications, if you give a school the impression that they are a safety school you may not get accepted. Just be prepared to go wherever you do get accepted; don't put something on your list if you won't go there.

 

[Goro]

Take a year to do your volunteering, and then aim for low-medium tier schools. The lower than avg GPA will hurt you at others despite the 99%ile GPA, which is highly admirable. Stick to your state public school too, if any.

Well I've held off on the desperate "what are my chances?" post for a while, but the neurosis has finally overcome me. Here is my info....

GPA: 3.36 — With some upward trend
F – 2.9
S – 3.2
J – 3.7
S – 3.6
MCAT: 43P —
P–14
V–15
B–14
Extracirriculars—Poor
60 hours shadowing primary care doc (great experience & wrote me a letter)
15 hours shadowing neurosurgeon
Medical outreach experience in Uganda
Just started volunteering at a free clinic –very few hours so far
Just started volunteer work with families of seriously ill children –very few hours so far
2 years of research (no pubs, may get one this summer)
Ethnicity –White
Very white
Undergraduate school
University of Washington

...So clearly the (very lucky) MCAT is the bright-spot in an otherwise underwhelming application. I am fairly confident that some MD program somewhere will accept me, but my school list is very reach heavy at this point. Obviously there is an easy solution to that problem, but I think there is a lot i can do to strengthen my application in the next year and I don't want to burn any bridges with the schools that are more likely to accept me by turning them down in the hope of getting into one of my top picks on the next go 'round. Anyway, I've included my school list below and I'm wondering if any of you would be so kind as to give me your opinion. I am well aware that I am under-qualified for many of these schools, so please don't take my naive optimism as arrogance. Thanks a lot for any help you can give me, and best of luck to you!

University of Washington→ My top Pick
Perelman (Penn)
Duke
Icahn (Mt. Sinai)
Feinberg (Northwestern)
Pritzker (Chicago)
UCSD
UCSF
Vanderbilt
Weil Cornell
Boston
North Carolina
David Geffen (UCLA)
Geisel (Dartmouth)
Georgetown
Keck (USC)
Stony Brook
Tufts
Oregon Health & Science University
John A. Burns (Hawaii)
Jefferson
Stritch (Loyola)
Tulane

 

[Paseo]

This list is very, very top heavy. You're on the right track with the ECs you just started, but your experiences during the cycle won't exactly count towards your CURRENT app.

Considering the MCAT is the only bright spot on your app, I would bring your expectations down a smidge. You need to start thinking bigger picture : Do you want to start medical school next year even if it isnt a top 20, or do you want to go back to running the med school app treadmill for another year+ and not being in md school?

Apply to more mid tier schools (Forget UCSF, that's a waste of $30) if you want to start med school next year. (Chances are good that you will).

If you're insistent on going to a top 20 (for whatever reason, which I highly doubt is actually meaningful), then take 2 years off and get your research/ECs under your belt, include it in your PS, then apply. (I would highly discourage this). You can do amazing things at any of these medical schools, it's up to you to put in the effort (see the many many many threads about med school rank/prestige not mattering on this forum).

Thanks for posting. I will definitely take your advice and trim some of the more egregious reaches (UCSF, Penn etc.) and add some more practical schools.Despite what it looks like, I actually didn't organize my list based on prestige. Obviously with my GPA and ECs I am in no way entitled to ANY school, never mind top 20. I picked schools largely based on which cities I thought i would like to make home for 4+ years (thus multiple schools in Philly, Chicago, Boston and NY).

 

[rueby25]

Hello all, my GPA is 2.7 and my MCAT score is a 37. what are my chances in an MD or DO school in the states?....I previously had medical school education in Nigeria, the nigerian medical school system is obviously different from the american system. i was doing my clinical rotation while in med school in nigeria, I moved to the states and started college as a junior. i have worked alongside doctors and been involved n several surgeries and hospital consultations. do you think this experience would help in my application?

Dude. Seriously? Stop bombing other people's threads. And you clearly have not gotten a 37 on the MCAT, based on a post you made less than an hour ago...

I've been scoring between 9-10 on the Ps and Bs. using princeton and TBR, is there anything else i can do to improve i'm looking to break the 11-12 barrier.

 

[DokterMom]

Might this not be that highly unusual situation where a LATE APPLICATION - like September - might not actually work in the applicant's favor? The 43 will get everyone's attention, so his application will get looked at - pretty closely, I'm betting. If the school is interested, they'll find an interview spot.

While the GPA is OK, his/her weakness is clearly ECs, and with no school over the summer, could s/he not devote 40+ hours per week to buffing them up? Even if much of that time is volunteering at a soup kitchen, that's still very helpful to this particular ap.

OP - If you're dead-set on top tier, which, with a 43 MCAT, you could very reasonably shoot for, an extra year to devote to ECs would all but guarantee you a top-20 acceptance. But if you'd be satisfied with a mid-tier is one of your preferred cities, then go ahead and apply this year.

You might also want to add some notorious 'stat *****' schools: (Washington U. in St Louis comes to mind) or schools where your insane MCAT can help their averages -- maybe some of the Texas schools, which are really inexpensive.

 

[Snow Ninja]

First of all, thank you for being humble with that obscene MCAT. Wow... 43... Great work. Considering U Wash is your top school, and if you are absolutely set on going there, you have to try to boost those ECs. However, I think you should still apply there this cycle, as your MCAT is well above their average. If you land an interview (and I would be surprised if you didn't) anything could happen. Good luck!!

 

[whatever5]

Are you a WA resident? OHSU automatically denies washington residents, so I'd remove that if that is the case.

 

[mcloaf]

Are you a WA resident? OHSU automatically denies washington residents, so I'd remove that if that is the case.

What? Care to provide a source for this? I'm a WA resident who was invited to interview at OHSU last cycle, though I ended up declining so who knows if they'd have accepted me.

However OP's GPA puts him outside of their academics mission-based group (http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/sc...admissions/academic-and-selection-factors.cfm), so an interview would be highly unlikely.

 

[jlescher]

What? Care to provide a source for this? I'm a WA resident who was invited to interview at OHSU last cycle, though I ended up declining so who knows if they'd have accepted me.

However OP's GPA puts him outside of their academics mission-based group (http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/education/sc...admissions/academic-and-selection-factors.cfm), so an interview would be highly unlikely.

To expand on this, OHSU received so many OOS applications last year that they didn't even look at my app. because my cumulative GPA was a 3.6 despite having a much higher sci GPA and a qualifying MCAT score. Only a few tenths lower than their cut off and no dice. OHSU is unlikely.

Although the EC hours are a blemish on the app., if you learned a lot and conveyed a deep understanding in your essays it might not be a problem.

With that said, most of the schools you listed take the best applicants in the country. They are the best because they have the whole package: MCAT, EC, and GPA. You have deficits in 2/3, but if luck is on your side, it could happen with that MCAT.

 

[487806]

To expand on this, OHSU received so many OOS applications last year that they didn't even look at my app. because my cumulative GPA was a 3.6 despite having a much higher sci GPA and a qualifying MCAT score. Only a few tenths lower than their cut off and no dice. OHSU is unlikely.

Although the EC hours are a blemish on the app., if you learned a lot and conveyed a deep understanding in your essays it might not be a problem.

With that said, most of the schools you listed take the best applicants in the country. They are the best because they have the whole package: MCAT, EC, and GPA. You have deficits in 2/3, but if luck is on your side, it could happen with that MCAT.

Your reply would've been more appropriate 7 months ago...

 

[jlescher]

Your reply would've been more appropriate 7 months ago...

Thanks for taking the time to weigh in on that. That's why I said things like, "if you conveyed" not "if you convey". Past tense. Just providing more info from past experience. But I agree, it would have been better 7 months ago.

 

[487806]

Thanks for taking the time to weigh in on that. That's why I said things like, "if you conveyed" not "if you convey". Past tense. Just providing more info from past experience.

Of course. It would've been nice if OP responded to this thread with an update.

 

[jlescher]

Of course. It would've been nice if OP responded to this thread with an update.

Yeah, I wonder what happen. Maybe our discussion will prompt s/he and they will.

 

[solitarius]

Are you a WA resident? OHSU automatically denies washington residents, so I'd remove that if that is the case.

Not true. OHSU has accepted WA state residents in the past.

I disagree with people who say he will get into a Top 20 if he improves his ECs. Time to get real. He may have a.shot at mid tiers, but there is no harm in applying to some of his reaches.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

Not true. OHSU has accepted WA state residents in the past.

I disagree with people who say he will get into a Top 20 if he improves his ECs. Time to get real. He may have a.shot at mid tiers, but there is no harm in applying to some of his reaches.

How about MCAT-***** schools like Wash U and U of Chicago?

 

[solitarius]

How about MCAT-***** schools like Wash U and U of Chicago?

You mean stat-***** schools that love high MCAT & GPA?