Did I reinvent enough?

[HopefulDO25]

Hello all. Could someone please guide me to what I should do now and what my chances are? Also what schools should I apply for? Also I would like to thank the sdn community for helping me get my life together. I was unable to do well in college due to personal relationship and familial issues. My undegrad sgpa was 2.6 and now my sgpa is 3.12! Keep in mind I only had 50 something science credits in undergrad as I was a humanities major. Also, keep in mind I did take my courses only 1 or 2 at a time due to work (I need to survive) as well as taking care of my grandma and volunteering. hopefully taking courses in pairs and singles in this situation will not be frowned upon?

undergrad sgpa: 2.6ish
24 credit post-bacc (CC): 3.76
overall sgpa: 3.12

Classes:

Spring semester: Integrated Medical Bio= A
Summer session: Anatomy 001= A
Fall session: Microbiology =A Physics 1=B+
Spring session: Physiology=B+ Physics 2= A

MCAT: 505 (probably not applying this year due to financial situation but I can probably raise it a few more points)

LOR: 1 from a DO, 1 from Anatomy professor, 1 from Microbio professor and I'll probably get one from my volunteer coordinator

EC
-150 hours VA hospital volunteer
-100 hours homeless shelter
-1 year big brother big sister
-1 year as a paid private tutor (idk if this is relevant or not but I enjoy helping kids learn and succeed. especially even more because I had to do all this reinvention and I want others to be able to do the same)
-60 hours shadowing DO (two different DO's)
-I'm also thinking of tutoring disadvantaged children online as it's possible to do this due to covid

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[Goro]

Yes. Send an app to my school, somewhere west of St. Louis.

No, I can't tell you exactly where, because then I'd have to reject you!

 

[HopefulDO25]

Yes. Send an app to my school, somewhere west of St. Louis.

No, I can't tell you exactly where, because then I'd have to reject you!

Haha I guess I'll apply to every DO school. Oh and do you recommend me do anything else? should i mention my tutoring experience (although paid) on my app?

 

[rzees]

Haha I guess I'll apply to every DO school. Oh and do you recommend me do anything else? should i mention my tutoring experience (although paid) on my app?/

/
So, I am not a student just yet, but am applying DO. I would not apply to every school. Why? Because they have cut-offs for your GPA, and you may not meet the requirements for some of them. I would research each one, there's only about 30 so not that bad, and figure out which ones you meet the requirements for first.

 

[Goro]

Haha I guess I'll apply to every DO school. Oh and do you recommend me do anything else? should i mention my tutoring experience (although paid) on my app?

Yes, mention the tutoring

 

[HopefulDO25]

/
So, I am not a student just yet, but am applying DO. I would not apply to every school. Why? Because they have cut-offs for your GPA, and you may not meet the requirements for some of them. I would research each one, there's only about 30 so not that bad, and figure out which ones you meet the requirements for first.

what schools would you apply if you were me? I'm also Asian and a californian resident so I'll probably apply to very few California DO schools.

 

[rzees]

what schools would you apply if you were me? I'm also Asian and a californian resident so I'll probably apply to very few California DO schools.

I'm probably not the best person to ask for my opinion on that because I don't know each school very well. I was, however, under the impression that state schools preferred to have in-state students, so you may be better off applying to more California schools rather than fewer. In AACOMAS, you can pull up a list of all of the programs, under the Add section. If you click on the names of each school, they usually have a description of their requirements and a link to their admissions page for more information.

Also, a side note, some schools require multiple LOR from professors. Some want 2 science and 1 non science in lieu of committee letters.

 

[Damson]

So why is california so competitive for medicine?

 

[HopefulDO25]

Yes, mention the tutoring

Also @Goro I have one more question. I've been browsing the sdn forums and many students say that doing a postbacc at a CC is detrimental to the application as it could mean that I just took the easy way out and performed well at a CC for a good science gpa. Is this true? Do most DO schools look down on those who take CC credits for sgpa repair rather than those who did gpa repair at a 4 year uni?

 

[HopefulDO25]

So why is california so competitive for medicine?

Idk haha it's just really competitive in CA for pre meds. Also do you think that me taking postbacc classes at a CC for a sgpa boost is detrimental to my application? I've heard mixed things about this. I didn't do mostly for this reason. The main reason is I paid 40k/year for undergrad and I need to save money and all those other financial things.

 

[Goro]

Also @Goro I have one more question. I've been browsing the sdn forums and many students say that doing a postbacc at a CC is detrimental to the application as it could mean that I just took the easy way out and performed well at a CC for a good science gpa. Is this true? Do most DO schools look down on those who take CC credits for sgpa repair rather than those who did gpa repair at a 4 year uni?

Not at my school. Cost is an issue for many people, hence the CC is OK, especially when they're working 1-2 jobs at the same time.

 

[HopefulDO25]

Not at my school. Cost is an issue for many people, hence the CC is OK, especially when they're working 1-2 jobs at the same time.

oh okay. But do you know if others (or majority) of other DO schools besides yours consider it bad? or is your school one among few who view it like that?

 

[Dochopeful13]

oh okay. But do you know if others (or majority) of other DO schools besides yours consider it bad? or is your school one among few who view it like that?

It seems DO schools don’t care much. Plus your mcat score obviously shows you know your sciences. I really don’t get the hate CC classes get. I really did not notice much if any difference between my four year college classes and CC classes.

 

[Goro]

oh okay. But do you know if others (or majority) of other DO schools besides yours consider it bad? or is your school one among few who view it like that?

Don't know

 

[Angus Avagadro]

CC credits may take some luster off of your reinvention. But your MCAT is solid for most DO schools. I think the opposite would be more worrisome, i.e. a 3.8 gpa from a university and a 496 MCAT. You would be competetive at my school, i hope you apply. Its somewhere east of St Louis. Good luck and best wishes!

 

[HopefulDO25]

CC credits may take some luster off of your reinvention. But your MCAT is solid for most DO schools. I think the opposite would be more worrisome, i.e. a 3.8 gpa from a university and a 496 MCAT. You would be competetive at my school, i hope you apply. Its somewhere east of St Louis. Good luck and best wishes!

thank you! I plan on applying to a variety of DO schools and I'm just happy I now have a decent shot. Since I plan on applying to a variety of DO schools and not all view CC coursework the same would you recommend me taking maybe a extra semester at a state school? thank you!

 

[princesspeach2]

It seems DO schools don’t care much. Plus your mcat score obviously shows you know your sciences. I really don’t get the hate CC classes get. I really did not notice much if any difference between my four year college classes and CC classes.

I want to say I agree, but in my experience there is a difference that depends on the CC and the individual instructor. I ended up taking an intro chem class 3x at 2 different schools (had to drop it twice due to work schedule conflicts/safety at night concerns), and even among the 3 instructors, there was a HUGE variety in rigor and what was expected. One required a normal lab notebook and written summary/analysis on top of lab questions, one marked off heavily if you got sig figs wrong or your answer had a higher standard of error than allowed, one wanted us to memorize a ton while another had minimal memorization required, and one just had assignments on paper and no lab notebook as the professor was retiring and checked out a bit. All 3 were much easier than the 1 chem class I took at a 4-year, which required extensive writing and far more complex lab notebooks. Although there was one CC professor who insisted that we spend pretty much the entire lab period drawing a table with a ruler and measuring the spacing of lines for our tables and was very particular about the most tiny details of how we organized our data or notes. He just wanted it very neat I suppose.

Lab equipment available and the set-up of the labs also varied. The 4-year had much nicer, newer, and enough for each person to have 1 of whatever they needed. At the CC's I went too, it was clear that there was less funding spent for chem supplies and substitutions were made constantly for lab materials.

One of the biology courses, on the other hand, was very similar to a 4-year university intro bio course, as the professor prided himself on making it at university level.

It just depends.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

thank you! I plan on applying to a variety of DO schools and I'm just happy I now have a decent shot. Since I plan on applying to a variety of DO schools and not all view CC coursework the same would you recommend me taking maybe a extra semester at a state school? thank you!

As @gonnif likes to say, consider yourself rejected until the acceptance letter arrives. If you think an extra semester will help your app, and you can afford it, then you probably should.

 

[Dochopeful13]

I want to say I agree, but in my experience there is a difference that depends on the CC and the individual instructor. I ended up taking an intro chem class 3x at 2 different schools (had to drop it twice due to work schedule conflicts/safety at night concerns), and even among the 3 instructors, there was a HUGE variety in rigor and what was expected. One required a normal lab notebook and written summary/analysis on top of lab questions, one marked off heavily if you got sig figs wrong or your answer had a higher standard of error than allowed, one wanted us to memorize a ton while another had minimal memorization required, and one just had assignments on paper and no lab notebook as the professor was retiring and checked out a bit. All 3 were much easier than the 1 chem class I took at a 4-year, which required extensive writing and far more complex lab notebooks. Although there was one CC professor who insisted that we spend pretty much the entire lab period drawing a table with a ruler and measuring the spacing of lines for our tables and was very particular about the most tiny details of how we organized our data or notes. He just wanted it very neat I suppose.

Lab equipment available and the set-up of the labs also varied. The 4-year had much nicer, newer, and enough for each person to have 1 of whatever they needed. At the CC's I went too, it was clear that there was less funding spent for chem supplies and substitutions were made constantly for lab materials.

One of the biology courses, on the other hand, was very similar to a 4-year university intro bio course, as the professor prided himself on making it at university level.

It just depends.

Ya I agree. I just think CC automatically gets a bad rep when it shouldn’t. I took intro cell bio at my cc and it was more difficult then a 300 cell bio class at TX state. However, I would say you are right. It really depends on the class and CC.

 

[HopefulDO25]

Ya I agree. I just think CC automatically gets a bad rep when it shouldn’t. I took intro cell bio at my cc and it was more difficult then a 300 cell bio class at TX state. However, I would say you are right. It really depends on the class and CC.

would you recommend me take an extra semester at a state school like a cal state? i would take a few courses like immunology or something

 

[Dochopeful13]

would you recommend me take an extra semester at a state school like a cal state? i would take a few courses like immunology or something

Look into these:

Sciences

extension.ucsd.edu

 

[HopefulDO25]

Look into these:

Sciences

extension.ucsd.edu

Thanks. However I only took like 58 science credits in undergrad and I took 24 credits of sgpa repair at a cc. I wouldn't want to spend money to go to a post bacc for another year but I'm considering taking 2-3 classes while working at a state school. An extension would cost 20k+ compared to 3-4k