Reap: Help narrowing down schools?

[buckeyes15]

Hello everyone kind enough to help me!

I am going to be applying to both DO and MD this cycle and was gonna see about any input I could get. I went to undergrad in Ohio and am originally from the Chicago area with strong ties to Wisconsin and Iowa. My stats are still low GPA wise, but I have shown huge upward trend during retaking and clinical experience, outlined below:

Jumped MCAT from 25 to 511
Retook most chemistry classes (C+ originally, As after)
Got CNA licensure and have been working ~30 hrs/week for 5 months and counting
Also did some nannying on the side to bring my workload up to 40 hrs a week.
This combined with taking 15 credit hours of Orgos, Microbio, and Physics with A's
Final GPA: AAMC: 3.15 AACOMAS: 3.42
Plenty of volunteer and shadow hours all over different aspects of hospital (different departments) and private practice settings.

Almost completely going DO, but figured I would throw an application to my state MD (Illinois) and a few surrounding.

If I get an interview I feel very confident I can kill it but I just need to hope to get to that point.
Thoughts?? Thanks!

List:

DO Schools
CCOM, AZCOM, ATSU - SOMA, MU-COM, DMU-COM, MSUCOM, OU-HCOM

MD Schools
Rush, Loyola, UIC, MCW, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, (maybe a couple in Ohio), Indiana (brother went there), and any other suggestions!

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[buckeyes15]

Hello everyone kind enough to help me!

I am going to be applying to both DO and MD this cycle and was gonna see about any input I could get. I went to undergrad in Ohio and am originally from the Chicago area with strong ties to Wisconsin and Iowa. My stats are still low GPA wise, but I have shown huge upward trend during retaking and clinical experience, outlined below:

Jumped MCAT from 25 to 511
Retook most chemistry classes (C+ originally, As after)
Got CNA licensure and have been working ~30 hrs/week for 5 months and counting
Also did some nannying on the side to bring my workload up to 40 hrs a week.
This combined with taking 15 credit hours of Orgos, Microbio, and Physics with A's
Final GPA: AAMC: 3.15 AACOMAS: 3.42
Plenty of volunteer and shadow hours all over different aspects of hospital (different departments) and private practice settings.

Almost completely going DO, but figured I would throw an application to my state MD (Illinois) and a few surrounding.

If I get an interview I feel very confident I can kill it but I just need to hope to get to that point.
Thoughts?? Thanks!

List:

DO Schools
CCOM, AZCOM, ATSU - SOMA, MU-COM, DMU-COM, MSUCOM, OU-HCOM

MD Schools
Rush, Loyola, UIC, MCW, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, (maybe a couple in Ohio), Indiana (brother went there), and any other suggestions!

No one? :/

 

[jwilliams1993]

I have stats pretty similar to yours and applied to most of the same schools, but I only got interviews to MU-COM and ATSU-KCOM this year- and it was my SECOND cycle. I'd say take IU off of the list. They're doing everything they can to boost their gpa and mcat averages and I doubt they even looked at me despite me graduating from there. Your stats seem to be a little more competitive for DO schools, but by all means apply MD too if you have the money for it! Especially apply MD if you aren't interested in OMM.

 

[cabinbuilder]

Do you have a specific question?

 

[buckeyes15]

Do you have a specific question?

I guess just if my stats are in decent shape for the schools on my list or if I'm dreaming. Also, I was curious to see if anyone had any other suggestions about possible schools that aren't in the carribbean. Thanks!

 

[DrMidlife]

Ties schmies.

For MD, you have to pick one state as your home state, and you have to be able to back that up with proof (drivers license, voter registration, car registration, etc). You might get treated as instate outside your home state for admissions/tuition purposes at the discretion of a med school.

If you will not be considered instate at a school (such as Indiana) you have to compete with all the Californians and New Yorkers who have better stats than you and are hail marying in the midwest. You need to be looking at the number of OOS apps going to these schools, not just their stats. Assume OOS stats for matriculants are top 5% candidates.

Your MD list makes no sense to me. Apply to every MD school where you will be considered instate. If you want MD, it makes no sense to leave SIU off your list, for instance.

If you're going to make a claim at instate or instate-ish, make the whole claim. It makes no sense to include public MI schools without including privates and Wright State.

All that said, yes you're pretty much throwing away $ to try for MD with a 3.15. If MD is what you really want, then you need to be looking at SMPs.

Best of luck to you.

 

[DetectiveGrayson]

DrMidlife, with a person like the OP's kind of stats and he or she did do a Master's Program and not exactly a SMP ..do you think she would have a shot at MD as well. Simply, I've been through the threads but I haven't seen your opinion on SMP specific versus MP non-special....what do you think?


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[DrMidlife]

DrMidlife, with a person like the OP's kind of stats and he or she did do a Master's Program and not exactly a SMP ..do you think she would have a shot at MD as well. Simply, I've been through the threads but I haven't seen your opinion on SMP specific versus MP non-special....what do you think?

The OP's 3.15 includes maybe a year of fresh undergrad redemption, and an average MCAT on the second try. That's not enough to make me confident that the OP is ready for the rigor of med school. Very successful completion of a program, preferably one that has already put good students into my med school, which is preferably hosted at a med school and puts the student through the rigors of med school (an MD SMP), is going to make me more confident. Applying MD during an SMP, with these stats, would be pointless. And as I described, the home state public schools are where an app like this is going to have a chance - the 3.15 cumulative number won't likely make it into the "maybe" pile at a school that gets more than say 5000 apps. For instance.

Now, if you're saying you already have at least one recent continuous year of very strong full time mostly science undergrad work in your cGPA, which is 2-3 std devs below the matriculant average, and you have a straight up average MCAT maybe after a prior lower score, and you present with fresh very successful grad work from a terminal masters, maybe in biosci or pharm or genetics or whatever, not at a US MD school, I would not advise you to apply MD, unless you are already a resident of a state like Michigan or Louisiana that prioritizes grad work over undergrad, or prioritizes recent work over older work. Assuming you already completed a one year masters not at an MD school, I suggest you should go straight to DO.

In either case the party that needs to be deeply respectful and fearful of the 7+ years of training they're fighting to get into is the applicant. Getting into med school is not the hard part. You are low GPA premeds so you won't even notice those words, it's a physiological impossibility, so I'll say it again: GETTING. INTO. MED. SCHOOL. IS. NOT. THE. HARD. PART.

Best of luck to you.

 

[buckeyes15]

The OP's 3.15 includes maybe a year of fresh undergrad redemption, and an average MCAT on the second try. That's not enough to make me confident that the OP is ready for the rigor of med school. Very successful completion of a program, preferably one that has already put good students into my med school, which is preferably hosted at a med school and puts the student through the rigors of med school (an MD SMP), is going to make me more confident. Applying MD during an SMP, with these stats, would be pointless. And as I described, the home state public schools are where an app like this is going to have a chance - the 3.15 cumulative number won't likely make it into the "maybe" pile at a school that gets more than say 5000 apps. For instance.

Now, if you're saying you already have at least one recent continuous year of very strong full time mostly science undergrad work in your cGPA, which is 2-3 std devs below the matriculant average, and you have a straight up average MCAT maybe after a prior lower score, and you present with fresh very successful grad work from a terminal masters, maybe in biosci or pharm or genetics or whatever, not at a US MD school, I would not advise you to apply MD, unless you are already a resident of a state like Michigan or Louisiana that prioritizes grad work over undergrad, or prioritizes recent work over older work. Assuming you already completed a one year masters not at an MD school, I suggest you should go straight to DO.

In either case the party that needs to be deeply respectful and fearful of the 7+ years of training they're fighting to get into is the applicant. Getting into med school is not the hard part. You are low GPA premeds so you won't even notice those words, it's a physiological impossibility, so I'll say it again: GETTING. INTO. MED. SCHOOL. IS. NOT. THE. HARD. PART.

Best of luck to you.

I like the DO mentality of medicine just as much if not better than the MD, so I am more than happy to be in a DO. Yes my stats are currently low but there were 3 deaths of friends my senior year paired with some personal issues that I have sorted past. I am finishing a year of retaking the C+ classes I got with all A's. This is paired with working 30 hours a week at the hospital as a CNA and some other jobs on the side to put me at approximately full time and still able to get straight A's and 86th percentile MCAT. The confidence band said up to 513 so I didn't know whether to include it or not. I have made strides and been through enough of the tough times to strengthen my beliefs that I can survive and prosper in a medical school environment and be a hell of a physician. I do appreciate the honesty I know its going to be an uphill battle but don't assume that I don't know that it only gets harder...do you (or anyone else) think I have a decent shot at DO then? While I'm below GPA stats I am above with my MCAT as well as patient contact and volunteer hours I am good. Plus I know I can ace an interview...I have grown nothing but more passion for the profession as I get more and more clinical hours. Again, thanks for the honesty.

 

[DetectiveGrayson]

Thanks for the insight MidLife. Very helpful insight.

Buckeye, while we all do it from time to time on SDN, no need to justify where you are and have been. I myself don't need to, as long as we keep making ourselves better all whilst keeping a good serving of pragmatism in our pockets. While the opinion and insight of our forum peers is very respected and most of the time needed by others who have been there, we need to remember that there is no one formula to this and we need to just keep fighting the good fight.


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[buckeyes15]

Thanks for the insight MidLife. Very helpful insight.

Buckeye, while we all do it from time to time on SDN, no need to justify where you are and have been. I myself don't need to, as long as we keep making ourselves better all whilst keeping a good serving of pragmatism in our pockets. While the opinion and insight of our forum peers is very respected and most of the time needed by others who have been there, we need to remember that there is no one formula to this and we need to just keep fighting the good fight.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Thank you! I'm sorry I didn't mean to come off defensive. Simply am used to defending myself when the gunners I went to school with came after me haha we'll get there when we get there