MD & DO Very Low MCAT, High sGPA...Chances?

[wyang517]

Hi,

sGPA: 3.89
cGPA: 3.90
MCAT: 27 - 9PS, 8VS, 10BS

EC:
200hrs research, presented poster once
400hrs clinical volunteering
600hrs OChem TA
30hrs shadowing

I am a NC resident. As you can see, I don't have a very strong EC nor a high mcat... so I am trying to apply to mostly new/lower tier schools:

MD schools:
ECU
UNC
Wake Forest
South Carolina - Greenville
VCU
North Dakota
South Dakota
Marshall
West Virginia
Quinnipiac
Louisville
Oakland William Beaumont
Morsani
FIU
Loma Linda
Texas A&M
Texas Branch
Texas Tech - Paul L. Foster
Texas San Antonio
Texas Houston

DO schools:
Campbell
Michigan

Please let me know if you guys have any comments or suggestions. Thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Faha]

Hi,

sGPA: 3.89
cGPA: 3.90
MCAT: 27 - 9PS, 8VS, 10BS

EC:
200hrs research, presented poster once
400hrs clinical volunteering
600hrs OChem TA
30hrs shadowing

I am a NC resident. As you can see, I don't have a very strong EC nor a high mcat... so I am trying to apply to mostly new/lower tier schools:

MD schools:
ECU
UNC
Wake Forest
South Carolina - Greenville
VCU
North Dakota
South Dakota
Marshall
West Virginia
Quinnipiac
Louisville
Oakland William Beaumont
Morsani
FIU
Loma Linda
Texas A&M
Texas Branch
Texas Tech - Paul L. Foster
Texas San Antonio
Texas Houston

DO schools:
Campbell
Michigan

Please let me know if you guys have any comments or suggestions. Thanks!

 

[Faha]

You are applying to too many state schools that accept very few OOS residents with a MCAT of 27. I would recommend deleting North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Marshall, West Virginia, Louisville, Morsani, FIU, and the 5 Texas schools. Consider adding more mid to lower tier private schools such as Hofstra, New York Medical College, Albany, Drexel, Jefferson, Temple, Western Michigan, Loyola, St. Louis, Creighton, Rosalind Franklin, George Washington and Tulane. Also add a few more DO schools to your list as you should be accepted to a DO school with your stats.

 

[chemguy79]

Entirely too many OOS schools for your scores. Great GPA, but the MCAT will be the limiting factor.

Do you have any history of working with the underserved in rural NC or focusing on primary care? If not, I would be somewhat wary about ECU due to their mission statement.

 

[Alucard6]

I know it is tough to do, but if you could get in the 31+ range, you'd be in great condition.

Otherwise, the schools @Faha suggested are what you should look for, and try to stay in state for a better chance.

 

[wyang517]

You are applying to too many state schools that accept very few OOS residents with a MCAT of 27. I would recommend deleting North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Marshall, West Virginia, Louisville, Morsani, FIU, and the 5 Texas schools. Consider adding more mid to lower tier private schools such as Hofstra, New York Medical College, Albany, Drexel, Jefferson, Temple, Western Michigan, Loyola, St. Louis, Creighton, Rosalind Franklin, George Washington and Tulane. Also add a few more DO schools to your list as you should be accepted to a DO school with your stats.

Thank you @Faha, that's very helpful to know. However, do you really believe I should apply to Drexel and NY Med, where they pool of applicants are 9,000-12,000? Or Hofstra and Tulane, where the avg MCAT is 33? One of the reason that I choose N.Dakota, S. Dakota, and TX schools is because I know their OOS applicants pool is a lot smaller (600-1,000), so I might have a better chance of getting in with less OOS competitions. But my logic can be completely wrong.

 

[wyang517]

Entirely too many OOS schools for your scores. Great GPA, but the MCAT will be the limiting factor.

Do you have any history of working with the underserved in rural NC or focusing on primary care? If not, I would be somewhat wary about ECU due to their mission statement.

Thanks @chemguy79 and @Alucard6, yeah ECU and UNC are actually my top choices. All of my clinical volunteering revolves around helping underprivileged people.

 

[chemguy79]

Thank you @Faha, that's very helpful to know. However, do you really believe I should apply to Drexel and NY Med, where they pool of applicants are 9,000-12,000? One of the reason that I choose N.Dakota, S. Dakota, and TX schools is because I know their OOS applicants pool is only 600-1,000 so I might have a better chance of getting it with less OOS competitions. But my logic can be completely wrong.

IMO, there are fewer OOS applicants because those schools are very limited to a specific type of OOS applicant that excludes most applicants. TX requires their MD programs to be 85-90% in-state, so few OOS applicants apply and those who do either have exceptional stats or are from neighboring states. For ND and SD, they primarily interview OOS applicants from neighboring states which, again, excludes most OOS applications. You are always welcome to try, but I don't believe that your statistics will reach the threshold for what they want in an OOS applicant.

It's difficult to find acceptable OOS MD programs and unfortunately, with your MCAT score, it makes things much more difficult. I would imagine that your best best would be with programs that have a large number of applicants from OOS and hopefully your personal statement will speak to their mission statement. It's rather low yield, but it's a far better chance than applying to UND or the TX programs.

 

[Mr.Happy]

I agree with @Faha and @chemguy79 here. Although I'm applying to TX schools as an OOS applicant and with the same MCAT score as yours, I have a unique ECs and a unique story and even then, I'm not raising my hopes. Your application (like that of most other medical school applicants) is very cookie-cutter, which is okay. However a cookie cutter app with a low MCAT score is not good. However, according to the AAMC table of accepted applicants, your GPA and MCAT score gives you a decent chance of being accepted to a MD school.

Just apply early, broadly, and smartly. Apply to a lot of new and low tier MD schools. Turn in your secondaries right away. Apply to at least 20 MD schools.

 

[Mr.Happy]

and your MCAT score is not very low for MD schools, it's a low score, period. Keep in mind that the average score of applicants is 27-28 and about 45% of applicants are accepted every cycle. Yes URMs and legacies do skew the statistics but also keep in mind that a good proportion of the applicant pool apply late, don't apply to enough or the right type of schools, or simply don't have the clinical experience.

 

[mrh125]

and your MCAT score is not very low for MD schools, it's a low score, period. Keep in mind that the average score of applicants is 27-28 and about 45% of applicants are accepted every cycle. Yes URMs and legacies do skew the statistics but also keep in mind that a good proportion of the applicant pool apply late, don't apply to enough or the right type of schools, or simply don't have the clinical experience.

70% of people who take the mcat don't get a 30 or above, so for the purposes of the mcat it isn't a low score. it's more in the mid 60s percentile (avg is 25). DO schools take plenty of students in that range and a strategic MD applicant can probably close a few gaps.

 

[wyang517]

Thank you so much for your suggestions and comments everyone! I'll take you guys' advice and replace some of my schools with Drexel, Creighton NY Med, George Washington, St. Louis, Albany.

I agree with @Faha and @chemguy79 here. Although I'm applying to TX schools as an OOS applicant and with the same MCAT score as yours, I have a unique ECs and a unique story and even then, I'm not raising my hopes. Your application (like that of most other medical school applicants) is very cookie-cutter, which is okay. However a cookie cutter app with a low MCAT score is not good. However, according to the AAMC table of accepted applicants, your GPA and MCAT score gives you a decent chance of being accepted to a MD school.

Just apply early, broadly, and smartly. Apply to a lot of new and low tier MD schools. Turn in your secondaries right away. Apply to at least 20 MD schools.

Also, this maybe a stupid question. Do most people send in all of their secondaries? I have talked to a couple of people who got accepted with my MCAT score, and they told me they only sent out ~6/20 secondaries that they received.

 

[Mr.Happy]

It's to your benefit to send in all of your secondaries since schools won't consider your application unless you submit your secondary. Secondaries take up a lot of time and money but they are necessary, especially for people with borderline stats like ourselves.

@mrh125 for the 2013 year, 77% of MCAT test takers scored below a 30. Otherwise, I fully agree with your post.

https://www.aamc.org/students/download/361080/data/combined13.pdf.pdf

 

[mrh125]

It's to your benefit to send in all of your secondaries since schools won't consider your application unless you submit your secondary. Secondaries take up a lot of time and money but they are necessary, especially for people with borderline stats like ourselves.

@mrh125 for the 2013 year, 77% of MCAT test takers scored below a 30. Otherwise, I fully agree with your post.

https://www.aamc.org/students/download/361080/data/combined13.pdf.pdf

WOAH that means my estimates were conservative o.0. Thanks for the info. I remember getting a 29 months ago and being like "so why is this a bad score? "

 

[Goro]

The 27 is circling the drain for MD schools.

MD schools:
ECU
VCU
West Virginia
Quinnipiac
Oakland William Beaumont
Loma Linda (have you read their abstinence policies?)
TCMC
Marshall

DO:
Campbell
Both VCOMs
PCOM-GA
Pikesville
ACOM
LMU-DeBusk
Both FL DO schools
WmCarey
Any other DO program, except LUCOM.