D.O application question !!

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Chelsea FC

Chelsea FC

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I am mostly concerned about MD application so I couldn't help my SO out so I hope someone where can. So she took the MCAT 3 times (21,22 and 23) and applied to Puerto Rican schools 3 cycles and failed to get in 3 times. This was before I met her and I found out that our pre-med adviser didnt tell her it would hurt to be a re-applicant without improving her app..
Additional information
-she is from Puerto Rico so she is considered URM / most people think she is white because of her skin color but i doubt that will hinder her.
-GPA 3.15 and SGPA 2.8
-2 research author-ships
- 1000+clinical hours paid
- NO volunteer work
So my question is
1) If she apply to US DO schools will they know that she had 3 unsuccessful MD cycles if not should she mention it for ethical reason ?
2) Does she have any chance of becoming a Doctor after such a bad judgement call on her part. Should we start talking about alternative career plans?
3)Should she take the MCATs again? (The last 3 times she took it she spent only a week or 2 to study .. I know this shows bad judgement on her part but 3 years have passed and I think she grown to see this is really her dream and will put 3 months into studying and she managed to get a 10 in the verbal section each time)
Any help will be awesome, this is the chick i want to marry so I feel frustrated not being able to help her, so any help will be awesome
@Goro
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Doesn't sound like she's very serious about a career in medicine. Besides, even if she did get in a med school, she'd have no time to entertain you :ninja:
 
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Dohnut said:
Doesn't sound like she's very serious about a career in medicine. Besides, even if she did get in a med school, she'd have no time to entertain you :ninja:
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She wasnt serious at all, but I have watched her grown in 3 years now and she seems more serious in perusing this future. She works in a private practice with alot of responsibilities and patient contact so this has given her insight on how much she wants to do this and how stupid she was in the past.. But the question is does she have a chance now with 3 failed cycles and 3 poor MCAts. Should she even try for a 4th after studying for months which she never did before . Is DO/MD realistic??
 
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Is she even interested in DO or is this your idea? Obviously she has to retake the MCAT since her old scores are most likely expired(but they will be forever visible on her score chart). She also has to get her sGPA above at least a 3.0. And even that is low. DO admission gets more competitive each year and her stats are rock bottom. She also has to do some volunteer work. She's been at this for years now. How come she hasn't figured this out for herself? What makes you think she really wants to be a doctor? Other than her saying it?
 
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candbgirl said:
Is she even interested in DO or is this your idea? Obviously she has to retake the MCAT since her old scores are most likely expired(but they will be forever visible on her score chart). She also has to get her sGPA above at least a 3.0. And even that is low. DO admission gets more competitive each year and her stats are rock bottom. She also has to do some volunteer work. She's been at this for years now. How come she hasn't figured this out for herself? What makes you think she really wants to be a doctor? Other than her saying it?
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DO was my idea alot of people dont know about DO as an option. She is doing a Masters program to show that she can handle the science course load. She will doiong volunteer work at a animal shelter.. How do I know she really wants it ?? To be honest I dont, but I think when you know someone enough to tie the knot with them and spent so much time with them you can tell when they are being sincere (this isnt always true but I just know )
 
No, the DO schools have no communication with MD, and vice-versa. We also take it for granted that our applicants have applied, or are applying , to MD schools. We don't take it personally. The median stats for DO matriculants is ~3.4 and MCAT of 27-28.


1) If she apply to US DO schools will they know that she had 3 unsuccessful MD cycles if not should she mention it for ethical reason ?


Not at this point, and it's less poor judgement than her stats indicate that she can't handle a medical school curriculum. No schools would be doing her any favors by admitting her and having her fail out,. the fact that she couldn't make it into the PR schools as a Puertoriquena is telling.


2) Does she have any chance of becoming a Doctor after such a bad judgement call on her part.

Yes, it's time for Plan B.
Should we start talking about alternative career plans?

No. Even a 525 score won't make up for the poor GPAs. If she's really serious about being a doctor, she needs to retake all F/D/C science coursework and then apply to DO schools AND retake the MCAT. If she's really boning for the MD degree, she needs to do the same (and ACE MCAT) and then ace a SMP or post-bac program. And like it or not, you do have to consider that she may have grown emotionally, but not intellectually.


3)Should she take the MCATs again? (The last 3 times she took it she spent only a week or 2 to study .. I know this shows bad judgement on her part but 3 years have passed and I think she grown to see this is really her dream and will put 3 months into studying and she managed to get a 10 in the verbal section each time)
 
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Goro said:
No, the DO schools have no communication with MD, and vice-versa. We also take it for granted that our applicants have applied, or are applying , to MD schools. We don't take it personally. The median stats for DO matriculants is ~3.4 and MCAT of 27-28.


1) If she apply to US DO schools will they know that she had 3 unsuccessful MD cycles if not should she mention it for ethical reason ?


Not at this point, and it's less poor judgement than her stats indicate that she can't handle a medical school curriculum. No schools would be doing her any favors by admitting her and having her fail out,. the fact that she couldn't make it into the PR schools as a Puertoriquena is telling.


2) Does she have any chance of becoming a Doctor after such a bad judgement call on her part.

Yes, it's time for Plan B.
Should we start talking about alternative career plans?

No. Even a 525 score won't make up for the poor GPAs. If she's really serious about being a doctor, she needs to retake all F/D/C science coursework and then apply to DO schools AND retake the MCAT. If she's really boning for the MD degree, she needs to do the same (and ACE MCAT) and then ace a SMP or post-bac program. And like it or not, you do have to consider that she may have grown emotionally, but not intellectually.


3)Should she take the MCATs again? (The last 3 times she took it she spent only a week or 2 to study .. I know this shows bad judgement on her part but 3 years have passed and I think she grown to see this is really her dream and will put 3 months into studying and she managed to get a 10 in the verbal section each time)
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Short and sweet thank you.. Also she is a URM so the 3.4 GPA and 28 MCAT still holds true ? She is getting a 4.0 in a masters program in the University of Purto rico to show she can handle the course work. And has a very good upward trend. Family deaths freshman and sophomore year tanked her GPA Either way I will relay this message to her thank you/.... Its going to be a long emotional night
 
Chelsea FC said:
So she took the MCAT 3 times (21,22 and 23) and applied to Puerto Rican schools 3 cycles and failed to get in 3 times.
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Chelsea FC said:
she managed to get a 10 in the verbal section each time
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I wonder how "well" she did on the PS and BS each attempt... yikes

Goro said:
the fact that she couldn't make it into the PR schools as a Puertoriquena is telling
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Chelsea FC said:
Also she is a URM so the 3.4 GPA and 28 MCAT still holds true ? Either way I will relay this message to her thank you/.... Its going to be a long emotional night
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No, as an URM in genera she can get away with lower stats, but the fact that she couldn't make it into the MD schools in Puerto Rico as an URM Puerto Rican on 3 tries is very, very telling. It it great that she has this dream, but it's gonna be a very long road ahead
 
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JessebenBenjamin said:
Also... why are you posting this and not her?
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Our advisers told most of the students horror stories about SDN so she avoided it. Sadly to say this was a huge mistake on her part because she could save herself from alot of stress
 
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Mwooster said:
I wonder how "well" she did on the PS and BS each attempt... yikes




No, as an URM in genera she can get away with lower stats, but the fact that she couldn't make it into the MD schools in Puerto Rico as an URM Puerto Rican on 3 tries is very, very telling. It it great that she has this dream, but it's gonna be a very long road ahead
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Agreed. I will speak to her .. Also @Goro would retaking university classes to fix the GPA be better than a Masters program ? I know the 2 are viewed separately
 
Sorry if I missed this but would a 3.8-4.0 masters program make up for the bad GPA ? paired with a improved MCAT say a 28 improve her chances??
Sorry if im clutching at straws just want to know how to respond if she asks me
@Goro
 
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You know what - you need to back away from the discussion. Tell her to come here and get some outstanding advice. (Goro is faculty/ ADCOM at a DO school.) Your role should be one of support. If she doesn't want to ask these questions and get the information then that tells me she doesn't care that much about becoming a doc. She probably would become a doc if someone did the work and handed it to her.
 
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candbgirl said:
You know what - you need to back away from the discussion. Tell her to come here and get some outstanding advice. (Goro is faculty/ ADCOM at a DO school.) Your role should be one of support. If she doesn't want to ask these questions and get the information then that tells me she doesn't care that much about becoming a doc. She probably would become a doc if someone did the work and handed it to her.
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While I 100% get where you're coming from i'm her fiance . She is more than willing to come on here and do it herself but would much rather hear it coming from me.
 
Chelsea FC said:
While I 100% get where you're coming from i'm her fiance . She is more than willing to come on here and do it herself but would much rather hear it coming from me.
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I feel you man.
What kind of master's is she doing again?
People with low GPAs usually are advised to do grade replacement, retake MCAT and apply DO.
Perhaps this is what she needs to do?
 
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JessebenBenjamin said:
I feel you man.
What kind of master's is she doing again?
People with low GPAs usually are advised to do grade replacement, retake MCAT and apply DO.
Perhaps this is what she needs to do?
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She is taking Biochemistry and Cell molec. as courses offered to Masters students in the university of Puerto Rico. She is going to retake the MCAT and been studying hard for it so I will see a improvement there. But I think we need to have a talk about her redoing Cs in undergrad and wait a while before applying. What makes things more difficult the doctor who she works with thinks he is hottest **** in PR and got her 2 interviews her last cycle. but those were just courtesy interviews and she got rejected. He is trying to do it again and its just making the situation worst because I have to tell her they are just doing it to please him and that wont be enough to get you in.
PS.shogun total war 2 was the last good total war game :p
 
So she has applied again this cycle? Is that 3 or 4 cycles? I either case she needs to be truthful with her boss and tell him she's just not competitive at this point.
 
candbgirl said:
So she has applied again this cycle? Is that 3 or 4 cycles? I either case she needs to be truthful with her boss and tell him she's just not competitive at this point.
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No she hasn't I was texting her to tell her what you guys said and she mentioned that he made one of his research partner who is a ADCOM email her encouraging her to apply to the same school that rejected her. Her employer is a good guy but things way too highly of himself and thinks he can just get her in. Both of us just agreed applying again this cycle would just be plain dumb. I did tell her to respond and tell the ADCOM her situation and what is her best course of action so we will see how this goes.
 
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Goro said:
No, the DO schools have no communication with MD, and vice-versa. We also take it for granted that our applicants have applied, or are applying , to MD schools. We don't take it personally. The median stats for DO matriculants is ~3.4 and MCAT of 27-28.


1) If she apply to US DO schools will they know that she had 3 unsuccessful MD cycles if not should she mention it for ethical reason ?


Not at this point, and it's less poor judgement than her stats indicate that she can't handle a medical school curriculum. No schools would be doing her any favors by admitting her and having her fail out,. the fact that she couldn't make it into the PR schools as a Puertoriquena is telling.


2) Does she have any chance of becoming a Doctor after such a bad judgement call on her part.

Yes, it's time for Plan B.
Should we start talking about alternative career plans?

No. Even a 525 score won't make up for the poor GPAs. If she's really serious about being a doctor, she needs to retake all F/D/C science coursework and then apply to DO schools AND retake the MCAT. If she's really boning for the MD degree, she needs to do the same (and ACE MCAT) and then ace a SMP or post-bac program. And like it or not, you do have to consider that she may have grown emotionally, but not intellectually.


3)Should she take the MCATs again? (The last 3 times she took it she spent only a week or 2 to study .. I know this shows bad judgement on her part but 3 years have passed and I think she grown to see this is really her dream and will put 3 months into studying and she managed to get a 10 in the verbal section each time)
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Goro, you post good advice for a lot of people and it is great. But why the heck do add all your answers in on top of the quoted statements!?!?!? It defies any logic of order and sequencing!! Please reconsider, thx:whistle:
 
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piii said:
Goro, you post good advice for a lot of people and it is great. But why the heck do add all your answers in on top of the quoted statements!?!?!? It defies any logic of order and sequencing!! Please reconsider, thx:whistle:
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Goro said:
It's easier for me to write answers that way!
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I actually find it unique, and in a way, endearing, for @Goro to do this. Without reading further I'd know it's him and the response would be high-quality.
 
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Chelsea FC said:
Our advisers told most of the students horror stories about SDN so she avoided it. Sadly to say this was a huge mistake on her part because she could save herself from alot of stress
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Its insane that this happens. The real horror stories involve the advice given to pre-meds by their pre-med "advisors".
 
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Gandyy said:
Its insane that this happens. The real horror stories involve the advice given to pre-meds by their pre-med "advisors".
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Eh, we had strong premed advising, but our advisors still told us to avoid SDN except for getting the prompts from the SSD threads to pre-write secondaries.
 
Our pre-med adviser was one 70 year old professor who regularly locked himself out of his room..
 
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WedgeDawg said:
Eh, we had strong premed advising, but our advisors still told us to avoid SDN except for getting the prompts from the SSD threads to pre-write secondaries.
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n=1 though. Most pre-med advising offices are not like this.
 
WedgeDawg said:
Eh, we had strong premed advising, but our advisors still told us to avoid SDN except for getting the prompts from the SSD threads to pre-write secondaries.
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Well for top name schools I can see how this is good advice. Someone from an Ivy comes on here with a 3.35 and the consensus will be "Your GPA's too low. You shouldn't apply". In reality, at many Ivies and other top schools there is a fairly decent track record of people with that type of GPA and a good MCAT score having a reasonable chance of being admitted somewhere(just look at those famous WashU/Cornell charts). For the big names, admission kind of works differently for them to some extent and the best people who can advice Ivy grads are the pre-med advisers themselves who have all kinds of data and info that dates back years on how people fair in med school admission for their school.

But yeah at generic State U where a pre-med adviser once told one of my friends the PCAT might be able to replace the MCAT for some schools, pre-med advising is often just complete buffoonery.

Also to the OP how about trying to see if your friend even knows what DO stands for before you continue to do all their HW for him/her?
 
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GrapesofRath said:
In reality, at many Ivies and other top schools there is a fairly decent track record of people with that type of GPA and a good MCAT score having a reasonable chance of being admitted somewhere(just look at those famous WashU/Cornell charts).
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You got me curious, @GrapesofRath what are these charts you referred to?
 
Had the talk with her today. Will let you guys know what happened. If I have any luck I will pass on the info to @Goro so you can better assist students
 
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