WAMC? Low MCAT + Extenuating Circumstance. Would love someone to DM about it.

[burnerburnerturner]

1. GPA: cGPA 3.7, sGPA: 3.5
2. MCAT: 500 (128/122/124/126) -> Retake 5/18 (Fls 503-506)
   1. Extenuating Circumstances: Personal circumstances regarding immigration/tensions between family (DM for more info due to privacy). I will be writing this within the primary application.
3. Residency: Michigan Resident
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Middle-Eastern
5. Undergraduate institution or category: Michigan State University
6. Clinical experience(volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. Committed Full time, one-year medical assistant and arabic translator at city clinic (300 currently, ~1000 projected before matriculation/paid)
   2. ~250 hours home-helper/companion
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. 500 hours clinical research -> 1 publication mid-author
   2. 500 hours Cardiology clinic Reseach assistant -> helped with grants and publications(? more like twitter posts lmao) like visual abstracts for lay audiences
8. Shadowing: ~30 hours oncology, pediatric oncology, internal medicine
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   1. 150 hours as a volunteer for children's physical and recreational therapy (includes leadership position)
   2. 200 hours miscellanous volunteering (food banks/horse-back riding/fundraising) through a volunteer club
   3. 800 hours as a summer camp counselor all 4 years (includes leadership positions
   4. Board member of a non-profit that educates younger populations on drug usage & mental health
10. Other extracurricular activities:
    1. Pre-med fraternity (with leadership positions )
    2. Founded a club based on my personal interests (ran it for 2 years)
11. Relevant honors or awards: none

School List:
- All michigan schools, including MSU DO.

I really am just looking for someone to discuss my WAMC because of my MCAT. Please feel free to suggest MD/DO schools that I may have a shot at. Also, please DM if you are interested in knowing more about my extenuating circumstances or ECs (which I left generic due to privacy reasons).

TIA.

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[Mr.Smile12]

It's too early to speculate without your retake score. Obviously if you stood on your 500, I would recommend DO schools and the service-oriented MD schools in Michigan (play to the home team).

 

[burnerburnerturner]

It's too early to speculate without your retake score. Obviously if you stood on your 500, I would recommend DO schools and the service-oriented MD schools in Michigan (play to the home team).

At what MCAT would it be useful to add more MD schools than DO?

Also - do you know what extent it may be useful writing an extenuating circumstances essay? I am worried it may hurt rather than help my application despite being an important obstacle in my journey

 

[Mr.Smile12]

OIE?: Personal circumstances regarding immigration/tensions between family (DM for more info due to privacy). I will be writing this within the primary application.

More MD if you go over 513-515 on the MCAT for sure.

Without reading any drafts, I would try to put your immigration tensions between family as a topic for Other Impactful Experience. This will help you focus your PC on "why medicine" better.