RVU-COM nontrad unfriendly?

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FBurnaby

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I spoke with someone at Rocky Vista admissions to see if I'm competitive. She said they particularly look at upper-level bio courses, with most successful candidates having well over 20 bio credits (I see on the CIB that 96% incoming were science majors). She also said "we have found that for students who have been out of full-time school for more than 2 or 3 years, our curriculum can be quite challenging for them."

Have any non-traditional liberal arts students had any luck with RVU? am I wasting my money sending them an application? I'm 26 with many clinical and community leadership work/ECs, liberal arts bachelors with prereq postbacc sciences only, 3.4 c/sGPA, 28 MCAT (from 22 retake) MI resident.
Here's my list of schools thus far:
ACOM
ATSU KCOM + SOMA
CUSOM
DMUCOM
KCUCOM
LECOM-B
LMUCOM
MUCOM
MSUCOM
NYITCOM
NSUCOM
PCOM
KYCOM
VCOM-A
WUCOMP-NW

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Non-trad philosophy major, english minor. I got in. I had high physics/chem section scores, and had about 20 units of upper level bio. I spoke to a few non-science major students at RVU and they were doing well. However, I don't know if they were out of school long.
 
I spoke with someone at Rocky Vista admissions to see if I'm competitive. She said they particularly look at upper-level bio courses, with most successful candidates having well over 20 bio credits (I see on the CIB that 96% incoming were science majors). She also said "we have found that for students who have been out of full-time school for more than 2 or 3 years, our curriculum can be quite challenging for them."

Have any non-traditional liberal arts students had any luck with RVU? am I wasting my money sending them an application? I'm 26 with many clinical and community leadership work/ECs, liberal arts bachelors with prereq postbacc sciences only, 3.4 c/sGPA, 28 MCAT (from 22 retake) MI resident.
Here's my list of schools thus far:
ACOM
ATSU KCOM + SOMA
CUSOM
DMUCOM
KCUCOM
LECOM-B
LMUCOM
MUCOM
MSUCOM
NYITCOM
NSUCOM
PCOM
KYCOM
VCOM-A
WUCOMP-NW

I refuse to think of 26 as nontraditional
 
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Members don't see this ad :)
I refuse to think of 26 as nontraditional
I certainly don't think I'm the poster child for nontraditional applicants, just mean someone with a non-science degree and out of school for more than three years
 
I certainly don't think I'm the poster child for nontraditional applicants, just mean someone with a non-science degree and out of school for more than three years

Well, we DO have nonscience students who seem to be doing ok (they are still around, at least). But I don't know how extensive or recent their science courses were. I interpret admissions' comment as saying "you'd better give us some reason to think you won't fail the curriculum", which can be tough to do if you've been out of school for years, unfortunately. But not impossible. KCUMB has a very similar curriculum, have you called them? I'm curious about what they would say about recent science courses.
 
I think you're misunderstanding the message. They are basically saying being out of school for that long is bad. If you've done a post-bacc, you most likely did it recently.

I see that you're applying to COMP-NW. They are very non-trad friendly, but at 26, you'll be close to the average age of matriculants.
 
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Non-trad, health science major, great life experiences w/ 3.9 gpa in pre-reqs/3.9 post bacc gpa/mcat well above their average....did not even get an interview last cycle. Not sure what they're looking for.
 
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Yeah I got rejected pre-interview because of the fact I haven't had a full load of coursework in 9 years. The fact that I re-learned all the material for the MCAT after 9 years while working full time and doing the AF National Guard and scored a 30; As well as taking a half course load whilst doing the same as above (FT work and ANG w/TDY's) wasn't enough for them. Got into KCOM though so wish me luck. I also had a friend in a similar situation get into UPitt MD school. So don't let what RVU does get you down.
 
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Yeah I got rejected pre-interview because of the fact I haven't had a full load of coursework in 9 years. The fact that I re-learned all the material for the MCAT after 9 years while working full time and doing the AF National Guard and scored a 30; As well as taking a half course load whilst doing the same as above (FT work and ANG w/TDY's) wasn't enough for them. Got into KCOM though so wish me luck. I also had a friend in a similar situation get into UPitt MD school. So don't let what RVU does get you down.

I'm baffled how they came to that conclusion in your scenario, especially considering a 30 MCAT. At least KCOM saw you're a great candidate. I was really interested in RVU but looks like I won't bother.
 
I'm baffled how they came to that conclusion in your scenario, especially considering a 30 MCAT. At least KCOM saw you're a great candidate. I was really interested in RVU but looks like I won't bother.
Well I suppose I might have been misleading. I did the MCAT stuff THEN did the class work. Still impressive IMO, but then again most candidates will think their story is impressive.
 
I am 25, out of school for 3 years, did not do a post bac but have extensive clinical experience and was a science major. My numbers are not the strongest (3.48, 29) but I received an interview, a subsequent acceptance and will be attending in the fall (more like summer).

During the interview process they explained that they do not necessarily look for applicants with the highest possible scores (ie 4.0 and 35+ MCAT). They want the most successful students possible but they also explained that students who were able to coast through undergrad and knock the MCAT out of the park often struggle with their rigorous curriculum as the first time they encounter adversity is first year of med school. They heavily screen their applicants post secondary so they interview a small number compared to other schools. They basically told us at the interview: if you have made it this far, we really like you and think you would be a good fit for our school.

Take from this post what you will but I think it is refreshing that a school has an idea of the candidates they actually want to attend and are not just looking for the highest composite score of MCAT, GPA, volunteer hours, shadowing hours, etc.
 
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