DO School chances from those who applied already, opinions?

[Eliassam1]

I am applying to 25 D.O. schools. (Looking for 2015) Currently my Gap Year

23 years old, Syrian/Middle Eastern, NJ resident

BS in Public Health, conc in Community Health,

GPA. 3.6 sGPA- 3.4

MCAT- Dec 6. (Practice Tests are 22-24. I'm not a good standardized test taker)

Worked as research assistant for 3 years. Regarding adolescent sexual behaviors.
3 national presentations and 3/4th author on 3 publications in Spring 2015.

Worked in Academic Advising, advising students on schedules and classes

Over 4000 hours of Volunteer/ Advocacy Work.
1.Traveled to Nicaragua/Study Abroad
2. Formed Public Health Club on campus, was president and treasurer.
3. EMT
4. Internship at Trauma Center
5. Shadowed D.O. Physician (400 hours)
6. Sigma Alpha Lambda- Treasurer
7. Patient Advocate for rare disorder through national organization
8. Case presentation volunteer at Cornell for past 4 years.

Access to 10 LOR- DO and MD physician,Physics and Chem professors, Supervisor, English prof, Advisor, Epidemiology prof, etc

Personal Statement- Had rare genetic disease growing up, looking to become a physician in order to help those patients who weren't as fortunate as I was. (Had dual organ transplant after high school, treatment for 10 years, medications and surgeries)

Chances, Thoughts? Its my MCAT that has me worried.

Thank You in advance.

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[Saxappeal1]

If I were you, I'd work on getting those practice scores up. Wise peers of mine told me to expect +/- 3 points from your average and right now, that isn't looking so good.

 

[mspeedwagon]

Your chances with a 22 are almost zero. You'll be screened out pre-secondary at almost all schools. With a 24, it's an uphill battle. I applied with a 26 (9/8/9) and 3.6ish this cycle (10 years of healthcare experience. 1000s of hours of shadowing, Strong personal statement (overcoming growing up in a Civil War torn region) and have yet to hear back).

Many schools want a 28+. Anything below 25 and you are going to be in deep trouble for the your cycle.

 

[jbuc1081]

I have a 3.57 cGPA, 3.87 sGPA, 23 MCAT, 5,000 + hours of medical experience, maybe 300 more of shadowing, and I was accepted to a DO school recently. I have had three interviews, two of those ending in being waitlisted, and I'm sure it's because of my MCAT score. Nothing is impossible, but I know that a 24+ MCAT score would help you out a lot. Just keep working hard and you'll get there!

 

[Doug Underhill]

C'mon, SDN has strategies to help you get that MCAT score up. Thing is, the MCAT isn't the test that's keeping you from being a doctor. The USMLE/COMLEX Step 1s are the tests that will do that. If you can't get at least an average score on the MCAT (25 is the average of all test takers), passing those exams will be a real problem.

Do you need a plan?

 

[ProudMD]

Concur with everyone above.

Your GPAs are strong, and your ECs look great. If you can get at least a 26+ on the MCAT, you should be in a great position. There are still 3+ weeks until your December test, and improving from a 22-24 to a 26+ shouldn't be very difficult. A score in the 22-24 range suggests that there are significant gaps in your content knowledge. By improving your content knowledge, it should be very easy to score in the mid/upper 20s. You really don't need any "standardized testing skills" at this score range. Just brush up on your content review.

 

[mspeedwagon]

I don't know enough about the person posting below, but I'm going to guess that those 3 interviews and 1 acceptance were at mission-driven schools (WCU, LMU-DCOM, CU or something along those lines).

OP, I wouldn't count on being able to get into a mission driven school. Definitely do your best to get at least a 25. You can get in with lower (as evidenced below), but it's a really long, hard, uphill battle and you will be looking at either newer or more mission oriented schools (nothing wrong with these, just it would be nice not to be forced to exclude all others).

I have a 3.57 cGPA, 3.87 sGPA, 23 MCAT, 5,000 + hours of medical experience, maybe 300 more of shadowing, and I was accepted to a DO school recently. I have had three interviews, two of those ending in being waitlisted, and I'm sure it's because of my MCAT score. Nothing is impossible, but I know that a 24+ MCAT score would help you out a lot. Just keep working hard and you'll get there!

 

[jbuc1081]

I don't know enough about the person posting below, but I'm going to guess that those 3 interviews and 1 acceptance were at mission-driven schools (WCU, LMU-DCOM, CU or something along those lines).

OP, I wouldn't count on being able to get into a mission driven school. Definitely do your best to get at least a 25. You can get in with lower (as evidenced below), but it's a really long, hard, uphill battle and you will be looking at either newer or more mission oriented schools (nothing wrong with these, just it would be nice not to be forced to exclude all others).

It was, in fact, some of these schools. I know my deficiency with the MCAT was heavily due to a lack of studying, thanks to 70 hour work weeks and such, but in the end I did the best I could with the time I had. I have had other interview offers from different, non-mission oriented school (at least by how I think you meant mission driven) but I turned them down because I'm too poor to travel and I had already been accepted. You're 100% right with needing to score higher on the MCAT for OP because I took big a risk even applying. If I could go back and do anything over, it would be spending a couple months studying for the MCAT, but that wasn't the cards I was dealt. I do a lot of motivational speeches in the area I live, so I tend to be optimistic; perhaps to a fault, too.

 

[mspeedwagon]

First, congrats jbuc1081 on the acceptance! Just for clarity, I view D.O. schools in two categories (well, a third if you consider in between the two a category). Mission obsessed or MCAT obsessed. Schools like Touro-CA, AZCOM and CCOM are MCAT obsessed. You'd have a nearly impossible time getting an interview invite at those schools without a high MCAT. Schools like LMU-DCOM, CU, WCU are mission driven. It's much more important that they see you as a fit for their school than your MCAT score (you can get into these schools with a 22 or higher provided they are convinced you fit their mission). Most other schools fall in between these extremes.

I have had other interview offers from different, non-mission oriented school (at least by how I think you meant mission driven) but I turned them down because I'm too poor to travel and I had already been accepted. You're 100% right with needing to score higher on the MCAT for OP because I took big a risk even applying.

 

[jbuc1081]

First, congrats jbuc1081 on the acceptance! Just for clarity, I view D.O. schools in two categories (well, a third if you consider in between the two a category). Mission obsessed or MCAT obsessed. Schools like Touro-CA, AZCOM and CCOM are MCAT obsessed. You'd have a nearly impossible time getting an interview invite at those schools without a high MCAT. Schools like LMU-DCOM, CU, WCU are mission driven. It's much more important that they see you as a fit for their school than your MCAT score (you can get into these schools with a 22 or higher provided they are convinced you fit their mission). Most other schools fall in between these extremes.

That's a very good way of looking at it. I knew that I only had enough money to apply to about 10 schools, so I avoided those schools in particular. Really, there's no magic formula to getting accepted into medical school, but good MCAT scores never hurts!

 

[diesel2101]

Your best bet is to cough up the $$ for the Berkeley MCAT Review books, study like crazy, and postpone that MCAT until you are scoring 28+.

 

[DaMedDude]

Hopefully you did better on the real thing than your practices, otherwise you have some work to do.

 

[rths24]

Hey Eliassam1,

Just keep your head up. I was just accepted 2 weeks ago, but before that I was feeling the same way you were. I had a 25 ( 6-9-10) on my MCAT, 3.3 cgpa & 3.1 sgpa, tons of research experience, great letters & essays (Trust me I was shocked when I received the ii and then nearly fainted when I was accepted). It can be done. personally I wouldn't of applied if I had gotten below a 25 though. Like the above responses, apply to schools who's mission fits you---not the ones that are just playing the numbers game! Good luck!