Best Schools for someone with strong ECs/experiences but not stellar numbers?

[charmcity23]

Based on the advice of my pre-professional office, I'm waiting until next cycle to apply broadly (you know, 20-30 med schools)
However, I just graduated in May and I'm working full time in Baltimore, Maryland, but in order to maintain my state residency in Utah, I have to apply to University of Utah before I've worked full time out-of-state for more than a year, so I have to apply to University of Utah SOM this cycle.
As anyone who's ever filled out the AMCAS knows though, that was a hell of a lot of work for one medical school, so in order to make things more worth my time, I added a few more schools to the mix.
I have a list of 8 (my AMCAS is already verified with those 8), but I'm thinking of rounding it out to 10 and I'm looking for advice on schools to add.
Basically I'm looking for schools that will value my experiences strongly/ application holistically and not consider my GPA a detriment or look at numbers more than qualities and experiences.

My stats:
Bachelors of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology
Bachelors of Arts in Writing Seminars (creative writing)
both from the Johns Hopkins University.
(class of 2014)

GPA: 3.3
Science: 3.05
Non-Science: 3.58
(My senior year science was 3.4 and my senior year non-science was a 3.78)

I had a bad sophomore year (Tried to take physics for engineering majors, orgo, orgo lab and engineering physics lab all in the same semester) which brought down the numbers, but overall Johns Hopkins deflates grades considerably, especially in STEM courses. (I believe the average GPA for math/science/engineering majors is a 2.7)
Teachers routinely failed up to 40% of a class in big courses like cell biology/organic chemistry/genetics, etc, so getting say a C+ in one of them was actually kind of an accomplishment.

However, I know that not every med school recognizes that this is the case at Hopkins, and the numbers are what they are, so I'm taking masters classes at the Hopkins school of public health with hopes of improving them.

MCAT:
8 PS 10 V 11 BS (29)

ECs:
In retrospect my GPA probably would've been better if I had been less involved. The gist of this section is that I spent a great deal of time at dance, volunteering, doing research, with patients etc. etc. etc. so I'm not worried about these. But if you're interested in the details, here they are:

Patient contact:
I currently work full time doing clinical pancreatic cancer research at Johns Hopkins, which has given me over 100 hours of direct patient contact (I take a history and performance status evaluation with them and their families in our clinic/ visit inpatients at post-op in order to screen for our study)
I also just started volunteering with Pancreatic cancer action network (PanCan) with patient/community education/ advocacy.

Other Volunteer work/teaching/ public health work:
I taught ballet to inner city Baltimore elementary students for a year (100 hours)

I also worked with MERIT Baltimore, which works with Baltimore city high school students to help give them the tools to go in to health professions one day. I co-taught a course on health care disparities in the US and Baltimore and facilitated discussions about how the students could address these disparities (we used The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as a loose guide to the course), and then taught Writing and Critical Reading SAT prep the next semester with the same group of kids. (70 hours)

Research:
I spent 3 semesters (300 hours, easily) doing research in a neuroscience/biomedical engineering lab at JH SOM. basically our study was funded by NASA to investigate the contribution of the otolith organs to the VOR and sensorimotor adaptation at different gravity levels. I guided subjects through our protocol and did data entry mostly. We published a poster at a national conference in 2014. I was the 3rd author.

I also did an independent research project as part of the biology department senior poster session. 2 other students and i designed and conducted an experiment to investigate the time dependency of fgf-signaling in zebrafish fin regeneration under the guidance of a professor (50 hours)

Athletics/ Skill based Extracurriculars:I was a member of the Johns Hopkins University Dance Team. Membership was by audition only, and we performed at halftime of lacrosse, football, basketball, and at showcases and competitions. (10 hours/week. We had 2.5 hour practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday in addition to performances)

I also played club soccer. (Also tryout-based. I played varsity soccer in high school)

Leadership:
I served as campus liaison for my dance team's exec board. I did promotion/advertising, recruitment, taught choreography, coordinated with other dance groups, and ran a dance clinic for Baltimore city elementary students.

I also was the Director of Formal Recruitment for my sorority for two recruitment seasons. My chapter rushed number 1 on campus both years, and we were recognized by our international office for excellence in recruitment (2011-2012), and outstanding formal recruitment (2012-2013)

I was the shift leader at Coldstone in Utah where I worked during the summers.

Shadowing:I did 50 hours of shadowing at home in Utah. Internal medicine, peds, GI, orthopedics, dermatology.
I shadowed otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins hospital for 8 hours.

Employment:I worked part time with work study every semester I was at Hopkins and during the summers at the JHU Phonathon (called alumni for money), the JHU IT office, and at Coldstone.

Awards:
I graduated with honors in writing seminars, was on deans list senior year, earned the Homewood Arts Certificate for excellence in dance, the two awards I mentioned for recruitment, and I also had two short stories published in Thoroughfare Literay Magazine, and an essay published on the Johns Hopkins admissions site.
(I was a National Merit Finalist in HS and an AP scholar with Distinction also, but I didn't add these to AMCAS because I didn't think they wanted anything from HS)

Additional Info:
I have letters of rec. from the pre-prof. committee, the current director of the NSBRI at NASA, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, (both were my PIs) professors from biochemistry (they co-taught the course) and two writing professors who know me very well (I was in an 8 person class with them) and also happen to write for a living, so theoretically these should all help me out.

Also, my dad worked for the NHSC after residency and served Sweetwater County, Wyoming (a very underserved area) for 8 years, and I'm interested in going into something similar, or in some other way addressing national health disparities and women's representation in medical professions. (in my home state only 18% of physicians are female)

The schools I have so far are:
University of Utah (home state)
Creighton SOM
Loyola U in Chicago SOM
Georgetown SOM
(I went to catholic HS and I like that these are all Jesuit medical schools. My dad also graduated from Georgetown SOM)
OHSU
U Wash SOM
(Kind of reach schools, but both have a commitment to serving western states and the underserved populations)
U Maryland SOM
GW SOM
(I met with representatives from both schools who were encouraging about a holistic approach, and both have a good number of JHU grads. Plus they're both in my area)

All of these schools have various programs I'm interested in, the info in brackets is just why I thought I might be an attractive candidate for them.

What two schools should I add? I was thinking about Jefferson but heard from pre-prof that they're pretty strict with numbers. People keep telling me to apply to Johns Hopkins SOM also since I went there for undergrad, but their median MCAT section score is like a 13 (aka way out of my leauge.)
any other suggestions or a better read on Jefferson's admissions philosophy?

THANKS!!!

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[gyngyn]

Add SLU, delete UW and Uof MD and get the MSAR. You need 10 more schools.

 

[charmcity23]

Thanks for the advice!
I do have the MSAR, but it's a little bit more difficult to get a read on less quantifiable things like how much as school values a holistic application or experiences/ECs than numbers.

I explained my situation to the rep from Maryland and he said they often reject students with much higher numbers than mine because they have a very particular idea of what type of student they want, which is largely based on intangibles in addition to academic abilities. That's really what I'm looking for right now also is if schools do this sort of thing where they take into account other parts of the application as much as gpa/mcat. Basically the rep told me that you don't have to have perfect numbers (although it's obviously always a plus) to have a fighting chance with the committee. I mean, this is obviously only one opinion, but that's why I'm personally keeping Maryland. UW I have gone back and forth on a bit though.

And that's interesting about adding ten more schools- I'll keep that in mind. As i mentioned at the beginning- I'm taking masters classes this year (thankfully my research job pays for continuing education) at the SPH, and as a result, I'll have a much stronger GPA next cycle. The committee at Hopkins agreed with this and told me that at some point, applying to medical school "isn't a statistics problem" aka applying to more schools doesn't necessarily give you a better chance of getting in if it's not your best cycle. Plus psychologically, I'd imagine it's easier to be a re-applicant in general if you know that you've only applied to a handful of schools in the past and not broadly.
I am open to suggestions/thoughts about this strategy though. I mean, I'm just going off what the health professions committee advised so it would be interesting to hear what other people have to say.

 

[gyngyn]

Thanks for the advice!
I do have the MSAR, but it's a little bit more difficult to get a read on less quantifiable things like how much as school values a holistic application or experiences/ECs than numbers.

I explained my situation to the rep from Maryland and he said they often reject students with much higher numbers than mine because they have a very particular idea of what type of student they want, which is largely based on intangibles in addition to academic abilities. That's really what I'm looking for right now also is if schools do this sort of thing where they take into account other parts of the application as much as gpa/mcat. Basically the rep told me that you don't have to have perfect numbers (although it's obviously always a plus) to have a fighting chance with the committee. I mean, this is obviously only one opinion, but that's why I'm personally keeping Maryland. UW I have gone back and forth on a bit though.

Grades in Master's programs do not remediate a weak undergraduate gpa. An SMP is the exception for many schools, though.

And that's interesting about adding ten more schools- I'll keep that in mind. As i mentioned at the beginning- I'm taking masters classes this year (thankfully my research job pays for continuing education) at the SPH, and as a result, I'll have a much stronger GPA next cycle. The committee at Hopkins agreed with this and told me that at some point, applying to medical school "isn't a statistics problem" aka applying to more schools doesn't necessarily give you a better chance of getting in if it's not your best cycle. Plus psychologically, I'd imagine it's easier to be a re-applicant in general if you know that you've only applied to a handful of schools in the past and not broadly.
I am open to suggestions/thoughts about this strategy though. I mean, I'm just going off what the health professions committee advised so it would be interesting to hear what other people have to say.

Your stats are below average for matriculants at all the schools on your list. Two of the schools on your list (OHSU and UW) have strong regional preferences. You are at or below the 1oth% in gpa and MCAT for U of MD (a public school) where you are also OOS.
You are a fair to good candidate for your state school.
GT and GW get an enormous number of applications (12,250 and 13683 respectively).
With your current list you therefore have a fair chance at maybe 4 schools. That's not usually enough. It happens, but given the stigma associated with a re-application, it's better to apply once, well.

Master's grades do not remediate the undergraduate gpa. An SMP might.

 

[Catalystik]

Based on the advice of my pre-professional office, I'm waiting until next cycle to apply broadly (you know, 20-30 med schools)
However, I just graduated in May and I'm working full time in Baltimore, Maryland, but in order to maintain my state residency in Utah, I have to apply to University of Utah before I've worked full time out-of-state for more than a year, so I have to apply to University of Utah SOM this cycle.
As anyone who's ever filled out the AMCAS knows though, that was a hell of a lot of work for one medical school, so in order to make things more worth my time, I added a few more schools to the mix.
I have a list of 8 (my AMCAS is already verified with those 8), but I'm thinking of rounding it out to 10 and I'm looking for advice on schools to add.
Basically I'm looking for schools that will value my experiences strongly/ application holistically and not consider my GPA a detriment or look at numbers more than qualities and experiences.

My stats:
Bachelors of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology
Bachelors of Arts in Writing Seminars (creative writing)
both from the Johns Hopkins University.
(class of 2014)

GPA: 3.3
Science: 3.05
Non-Science: 3.58
(My senior year science was 3.4 and my senior year non-science was a 3.78)

I had a bad sophomore year (Tried to take physics for engineering majors, orgo, orgo lab and engineering physics lab all in the same semester) which brought down the numbers, but overall Johns Hopkins deflates grades considerably, especially in STEM courses. (I believe the average GPA for math/science/engineering majors is a 2.7)
Teachers routinely failed up to 40% of a class in big courses like cell biology/organic chemistry/genetics, etc, so getting say a C+ in one of them was actually kind of an accomplishment.

However, I know that not every med school recognizes that this is the case at Hopkins, and the numbers are what they are, so I'm taking masters classes at the Hopkins school of public health with hopes of improving them.

MCAT:
8 PS 10 V 11 BS (29)

ECs:
In retrospect my GPA probably would've been better if I had been less involved. The gist of this section is that I spent a great deal of time at dance, volunteering, doing research, with patients etc. etc. etc. so I'm not worried about these. But if you're interested in the details, here they are:

Patient contact:
I currently work full time doing clinical pancreatic cancer research at Johns Hopkins, which has given me over 100 hours of direct patient contact (I take a history and performance status evaluation with them and their families in our clinic/ visit inpatients at post-op in order to screen for our study)
I also just started volunteering with Pancreatic cancer action network (PanCan) with patient/community education/ advocacy.

Other Volunteer work/teaching/ public health work:
I taught ballet to inner city Baltimore elementary students for a year (100 hours)

I also worked with MERIT Baltimore, which works with Baltimore city high school students to help give them the tools to go in to health professions one day. I co-taught a course on health care disparities in the US and Baltimore and facilitated discussions about how the students could address these disparities (we used The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as a loose guide to the course), and then taught Writing and Critical Reading SAT prep the next semester with the same group of kids. (70 hours)

Research:
I spent 3 semesters (300 hours, easily) doing research in a neuroscience/biomedical engineering lab at JH SOM. basically our study was funded by NASA to investigate the contribution of the otolith organs to the VOR and sensorimotor adaptation at different gravity levels. I guided subjects through our protocol and did data entry mostly. We published a poster at a national conference in 2014. I was the 3rd author.

I also did an independent research project as part of the biology department senior poster session. 2 other students and i designed and conducted an experiment to investigate the time dependency of fgf-signaling in zebrafish fin regeneration under the guidance of a professor (50 hours)

Athletics/ Skill based Extracurriculars:I was a member of the Johns Hopkins University Dance Team. Membership was by audition only, and we performed at halftime of lacrosse, football, basketball, and at showcases and competitions. (10 hours/week. We had 2.5 hour practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday in addition to performances)

I also played club soccer. (Also tryout-based. I played varsity soccer in high school)

Leadership:
I served as campus liaison for my dance team's exec board. I did promotion/advertising, recruitment, taught choreography, coordinated with other dance groups, and ran a dance clinic for Baltimore city elementary students.

I also was the Director of Formal Recruitment for my sorority for two recruitment seasons. My chapter rushed number 1 on campus both years, and we were recognized by our international office for excellence in recruitment (2011-2012), and outstanding formal recruitment (2012-2013)

I was the shift leader at Coldstone in Utah where I worked during the summers.

Shadowing:I did 50 hours of shadowing at home in Utah. Internal medicine, peds, GI, orthopedics, dermatology.
I shadowed otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins hospital for 8 hours.

Employment:I worked part time with work study every semester I was at Hopkins and during the summers at the JHU Phonathon (called alumni for money), the JHU IT office, and at Coldstone.

Awards:
I graduated with honors in writing seminars, was on deans list senior year, earned the Homewood Arts Certificate for excellence in dance, the two awards I mentioned for recruitment, and I also had two short stories published in Thoroughfare Literay Magazine, and an essay published on the Johns Hopkins admissions site.
(I was a National Merit Finalist in HS and an AP scholar with Distinction also, but I didn't add these to AMCAS because I didn't think they wanted anything from HS)

Additional Info:
I have letters of rec. from the pre-prof. committee, the current director of the NSBRI at NASA, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, (both were my PIs) professors from biochemistry (they co-taught the course) and two writing professors who know me very well (I was in an 8 person class with them) and also happen to write for a living, so theoretically these should all help me out.

Also, my dad worked for the NHSC after residency and served Sweetwater County, Wyoming (a very underserved area) for 8 years, and I'm interested in going into something similar, or in some other way addressing national health disparities and women's representation in medical professions. (in my home state only 18% of physicians are female)

The schools I have so far are:
University of Utah (home state)
Creighton SOM
Loyola U in Chicago SOM
Georgetown SOM
(I went to catholic HS and I like that these are all Jesuit medical schools. My dad also graduated from Georgetown SOM)
OHSU
U Wash SOM
(Kind of reach schools, but both have a commitment to serving western states and the underserved populations)
U Maryland SOM
GW SOM
(I met with representatives from both schools who were encouraging about a holistic approach, and both have a good number of JHU grads. Plus they're both in my area)

All of these schools have various programs I'm interested in, the info in brackets is just why I thought I might be an attractive candidate for them.

What two schools should I add? I was thinking about Jefferson but heard from pre-prof that they're pretty strict with numbers. People keep telling me to apply to Johns Hopkins SOM also since I went there for undergrad, but their median MCAT section score is like a 13 (aka way out of my leauge.)
any other suggestions or a better read on Jefferson's admissions philosophy?

THANKS!!!

If you aren't willing to include some DO med schools on your list, have you considered engaging in a Special Masters Program (where one is essentially taking classes along with first year med students as an audition).

 

[Faha]

Additional schools where you would have a chance for an interview with your stats would be Quinnipiac, Oakland Beaumont, Western Michigan, New York Medical College, Albany, St. Louis, Rosalind Franklin, Jefferson, Drexel, Temple. Agree with Gyngyn that Maryland, Washington and OHSU are unlikely since you are not a resident of those states.

 

[futuredoc7576]

hello everyone,
I'm wondering if I can get some advice... I retook the mcat on july 2, got my score on august 5th and didn't do so well (barely hit a 20) this was my second try.
My application is already processed. Sucks to have the mcat ruin your cycle attachFull184737 but I'm debating on whether to retake the mcat before the new one comes out. If I retake the mcat in October, will I be too late in the game for an interview? I'm so bumped out. Would you guys recommend to retake the old version, given that I definitely need improvement in my testing technique, content knowledge, etc...

 

[gyngyn]

hello everyone,
I'm wondering if I can get some advice... I retook the mcat on july 2, got my score on august 5th and didn't do so well (barely hit a 20) this was my second try.
My application is already processed. Sucks to have the mcat ruin your cycle attachFull184737 but I'm debating on whether to retake the mcat before the new one comes out. If I retake the mcat in October, will I be too late in the game for an interview? I'm so bumped out. Would you guys recommend to retake the old version, given that I definitely need improvement in my testing technique, content knowledge, etc...

You really need to start your own thread. This one pertains to OP's issues...

 

[Goro]

I do not believe that your numbers are competitive for MD schools, but you should be fine at DO programs IF you apply broadly. The low sGPA might be of some concern.

Based on the advice of my pre-professional office, I'm waiting until next cycle to apply broadly (you know, 20-30 med schools)
However, I just graduated in May and I'm working full time in Baltimore, Maryland, but in order to maintain my state residency in Utah, I have to apply to University of Utah before I've worked full time out-of-state for more than a year, so I have to apply to University of Utah SOM this cycle.
As anyone who's ever filled out the AMCAS knows though, that was a hell of a lot of work for one medical school, so in order to make things more worth my time, I added a few more schools to the mix.
I have a list of 8 (my AMCAS is already verified with those 8), but I'm thinking of rounding it out to 10 and I'm looking for advice on schools to add.
Basically I'm looking for schools that will value my experiences strongly/ application holistically and not consider my GPA a detriment or look at numbers more than qualities and experiences.

My stats:
Bachelors of Science in Molecular and Cellular Biology
Bachelors of Arts in Writing Seminars (creative writing)
both from the Johns Hopkins University.
(class of 2014)

GPA: 3.3
Science: 3.05
Non-Science: 3.58
(My senior year science was 3.4 and my senior year non-science was a 3.78)

I had a bad sophomore year (Tried to take physics for engineering majors, orgo, orgo lab and engineering physics lab all in the same semester) which brought down the numbers, but overall Johns Hopkins deflates grades considerably, especially in STEM courses. (I believe the average GPA for math/science/engineering majors is a 2.7)
Teachers routinely failed up to 40% of a class in big courses like cell biology/organic chemistry/genetics, etc, so getting say a C+ in one of them was actually kind of an accomplishment.

However, I know that not every med school recognizes that this is the case at Hopkins, and the numbers are what they are, so I'm taking masters classes at the Hopkins school of public health with hopes of improving them.

MCAT:
8 PS 10 V 11 BS (29)

ECs:
In retrospect my GPA probably would've been better if I had been less involved. The gist of this section is that I spent a great deal of time at dance, volunteering, doing research, with patients etc. etc. etc. so I'm not worried about these. But if you're interested in the details, here they are:

Patient contact:
I currently work full time doing clinical pancreatic cancer research at Johns Hopkins, which has given me over 100 hours of direct patient contact (I take a history and performance status evaluation with them and their families in our clinic/ visit inpatients at post-op in order to screen for our study)
I also just started volunteering with Pancreatic cancer action network (PanCan) with patient/community education/ advocacy.

Other Volunteer work/teaching/ public health work:
I taught ballet to inner city Baltimore elementary students for a year (100 hours)

I also worked with MERIT Baltimore, which works with Baltimore city high school students to help give them the tools to go in to health professions one day. I co-taught a course on health care disparities in the US and Baltimore and facilitated discussions about how the students could address these disparities (we used The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as a loose guide to the course), and then taught Writing and Critical Reading SAT prep the next semester with the same group of kids. (70 hours)

Research:
I spent 3 semesters (300 hours, easily) doing research in a neuroscience/biomedical engineering lab at JH SOM. basically our study was funded by NASA to investigate the contribution of the otolith organs to the VOR and sensorimotor adaptation at different gravity levels. I guided subjects through our protocol and did data entry mostly. We published a poster at a national conference in 2014. I was the 3rd author.

I also did an independent research project as part of the biology department senior poster session. 2 other students and i designed and conducted an experiment to investigate the time dependency of fgf-signaling in zebrafish fin regeneration under the guidance of a professor (50 hours)

Athletics/ Skill based Extracurriculars:I was a member of the Johns Hopkins University Dance Team. Membership was by audition only, and we performed at halftime of lacrosse, football, basketball, and at showcases and competitions. (10 hours/week. We had 2.5 hour practices Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday in addition to performances)

I also played club soccer. (Also tryout-based. I played varsity soccer in high school)

Leadership:
I served as campus liaison for my dance team's exec board. I did promotion/advertising, recruitment, taught choreography, coordinated with other dance groups, and ran a dance clinic for Baltimore city elementary students.

I also was the Director of Formal Recruitment for my sorority for two recruitment seasons. My chapter rushed number 1 on campus both years, and we were recognized by our international office for excellence in recruitment (2011-2012), and outstanding formal recruitment (2012-2013)

I was the shift leader at Coldstone in Utah where I worked during the summers.

Shadowing:I did 50 hours of shadowing at home in Utah. Internal medicine, peds, GI, orthopedics, dermatology.
I shadowed otolaryngology at Johns Hopkins hospital for 8 hours.

Employment:I worked part time with work study every semester I was at Hopkins and during the summers at the JHU Phonathon (called alumni for money), the JHU IT office, and at Coldstone.

Awards:
I graduated with honors in writing seminars, was on deans list senior year, earned the Homewood Arts Certificate for excellence in dance, the two awards I mentioned for recruitment, and I also had two short stories published in Thoroughfare Literay Magazine, and an essay published on the Johns Hopkins admissions site.
(I was a National Merit Finalist in HS and an AP scholar with Distinction also, but I didn't add these to AMCAS because I didn't think they wanted anything from HS)

Additional Info:
I have letters of rec. from the pre-prof. committee, the current director of the NSBRI at NASA, a physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital, (both were my PIs) professors from biochemistry (they co-taught the course) and two writing professors who know me very well (I was in an 8 person class with them) and also happen to write for a living, so theoretically these should all help me out.

Also, my dad worked for the NHSC after residency and served Sweetwater County, Wyoming (a very underserved area) for 8 years, and I'm interested in going into something similar, or in some other way addressing national health disparities and women's representation in medical professions. (in my home state only 18% of physicians are female)

The schools I have so far are:
University of Utah (home state)
Creighton SOM
Loyola U in Chicago SOM
Georgetown SOM
(I went to catholic HS and I like that these are all Jesuit medical schools. My dad also graduated from Georgetown SOM)
OHSU
U Wash SOM
(Kind of reach schools, but both have a commitment to serving western states and the underserved populations)
U Maryland SOM
GW SOM
(I met with representatives from both schools who were encouraging about a holistic approach, and both have a good number of JHU grads. Plus they're both in my area)

All of these schools have various programs I'm interested in, the info in brackets is just why I thought I might be an attractive candidate for them.

What two schools should I add? I was thinking about Jefferson but heard from pre-prof that they're pretty strict with numbers. People keep telling me to apply to Johns Hopkins SOM also since I went there for undergrad, but their median MCAT section score is like a 13 (aka way out of my leauge.)
any other suggestions or a better read on Jefferson's admissions philosophy?

THANKS!!!

 

[johnston9234]

All schools check apps holistically....

What you are asking is if there is a school that essentially ignores or weights the MCAT and GPA a significant less than other schools. The answer to that would be no, because there will always be too many good med school applicants who did not make it at other schools for the lower tiers to ignore.

 

[dogtatu]

I would try Penn State COM. They are friendly to OOS students, and like to see extensive volunteer experience and appreciate a predilection for Primary Care (first Department of Medical Humanities and first Department of Family and Community Medicine in the nation). In addition, quite a few members of my class had MCAT scores in the high 20s and/or lower GPAs at a non-grade-inflated school that were compensated for by ECs. Best of luck!