What are my chances?

[pakman]

Strictly osteopathic.

3.42 cGPA 3.44 sGPA with a strong upward trend in the last two years (as well as a few retakes which help the numbers out) Biology related major from your average State Uni

28 MCAT 12B/8V/8P

ECs:
~200 hours of general community service (soup kitchen etc)
~150 hours of nursing home volunteering
~150 hours hospital/community clinic volunteering
~40 hours MD shadowing (primary care)
~40 hours DO shadowing (primary care) (No DO rec unfortunately)
Not much other than volunteering here unfortunately, and its mostly concentrated within a year or so.

I guess I'm looking for what you think my chances overall are for acceptance. Also, it might help if someone tosses in advice on a school or two which I stack up favorably or ones I should avoid just based on the above info. I don't have any regional help for the schools that look favorably on it.

Thanks for reading, and sorry if my first post isn't up to par or is redundant.

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[FrkyBgStok]

apply broadly and your chances for DO school are quite good.

 

[Member 5721720]

Your volunteer work is great, your GPA is good, definitely within good med school averages. as for the MCAT, there's a big variance between your section scores, so speaking honestly, that would probably be the one that holds you back the most. I've spoken to deans of admissions and the collective answer regarding minimum score per section is 9 and above. if you are set on applying this cycle, go for it. definitely apply to DO schools. your scores are competitive for DO schools. Also, more clinical experience would help your application. Over 200 hours is the average as far as I've seen. When you say you shadowed an MD and DO, do you mean in their private office or in a hospital? the setting you shadowed in can change things. 80 hours in a hospital is worth more than in an office where there's little for you to learn clinically.

Have you considered taking a gap year? There's a lot you could do with an extra year to beef up your application like get more clinical experience, take the MCAT again, etc. My advice is take some time to consider whether you absolutely want to go this cycle or take a year. It could give you a better chance. I chose a gap year because I wanted to do more clinical and research before I applied.

 

[Goro]

Concur strongly.

apply broadly and your chances for DO school are quite good.

 

[hallowmann]

Your stats are good for DO, but I would really look into getting a DO LOR. About half the DO schools require/strongly recommend a DO letter, so not having one will work against you. Why won't the DO you shadowed give you one? I would even suggest shadowing another DO just for the letter.