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[Ari1245]

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[Faha]

You could receive interviews at MD schools with your stats and ECs and I suggest these:
UMass
Tufts
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
St. Louis
Loyola
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Apply in June and submit all your secondaries by July.

 

[Ari1245]

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[Goro]

Do not retake the MCAT; it appears that you have plateaued.
I agree with the wise Faha's list, but you'll need to have some DO schools on the list as well. Any DO program. Include UNECOM. I can't recommend LMU, ARCOM, RVU, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So I don't really have a sense of the areas of significant improvement over the first application attempt. It should be very clear now that you must include DO schools unless you want to risk a third application. I don't know how much you have networked with schools in your area, especially your public in-state options in Massachusetts or nearby states.

What I don't really get is a real picture of you as a physician focused on serving others. You have a lot of great activities that give you insight about the clinical workplace and some ideas of helping people in need. But somehow I don't get an idea of how you will put a focus together so I really know what will make you an excellent physician. Maybe it's in your essays that you submitted. You didn't say if you got any interviews in your first attempt, but not being in the right frame of mind, who knows. You have a fair amount of teaching and helping children learn to code, as well as other activities that seem to be very tech-oriented. I don't know... why not go into a health tech/entrepreneurial direction... What are the most significant and meaningful experiences that will guide me through the noise?

 

[chilly_md]

You can subtract 50-100 hours from scribing and put it under shadowing to help show you worked with other specialities beyond EM.

Do not retake the MCAT. For DO schools to add to Faha’s list, I suggest:

Touro NY
NYITCOM
PCOM
DMU
KCU
UNE

 

[Ari1245]

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[Mr.Smile12]

That's a little helpful. Here's an example that can give you a better idea: Application Advice for Future Rural Health Professionals - SDN

 

[Ari1245]

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[Goro]

Thanks for your reply! I will definitely add those schools to my list.

Do you think getting the same score twice is a major red flag?

Not really.

Also, should I talk about the circumstances surrounding my low score/retake in my essays/secondaries?

Absolutely not. Your excuses (they're not explanations) will reflect badly on your judgment. The MCAT is as much an assessment of judgement as it is about competence.

I also would like to ask if I should mark myself down as coming from a disadvantaged/rural background as I spent the first 10 years of my life in a very rural, remote part of India (where I was financially disadvantaged and relied on volunteer educators) before immigrating to the US, although my family was still financially disadvantaged until HS. Would it make sense to mark myself as disadvantaged since I only spent the first 10 years of my life there (even though these were very formative parts of my childhood)? Or should I not do that?

I don' think that you'd fit the bill for disadvantaged.

 

[Ari1245]

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[Ari1245]

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[Faha]

Since I'm below the 10th percentile for the MCAT for UMass, would it make sense for me to apply even if I submit everything as early as possible? I was told before that I shouldn't bother applying to any school where I'm at or below the 10th percentile for MCAT or GPA. I don't know if my ECs or anything in my background is exceptional enough to make up for my MCAT.

Yes, apply to UMass since you are a MA resident. They interview half of MA residents who apply.

 

[imso***ed]

cGPA: 3.92. sGPA: 3.84. MCAT: 509 (126/128/126/129) and 509(126/130/125/128). ORM MA resident. Graduated in 1/2021.

ECs:

1. Helped start and run a nonprofit (linked to my religious organization that I have been a part of since I was a child) that teaches meditation and yoga. Primarily based in India, but I played a major role in organizing events (virtual and in-person) across the US. Major teamwork, organization, and coordination work. ~300 hours.
2. Volunteered at UMass Hospital for 2 years (EM & FM). ~200 hours
3. Member of a club in University that provided healthcare screenings at public health events. I would primarily measure and interpret the blood pressure and blood sugar levels of people at free community health screenings and fast-paced, high-traffic environments such as college fairs. ~80 hours
4. Student lab assistant in a spinal cord injury research lab. ~75 hours
5. Research Assistant at a Physiopsych Lab for 2 years. No pubs. 1 poster presentation. ~350 hours.
6. Shadowed an EM physician. ~45 hours.
7. Teaching Intern for General Chemistry during my sophomore year. Conducted workshops, office hours, and review sessions for 150+ students.
8. Peer leader during my senior year. Taught a 1-credit introductory course for international students for 1 semester.
9. Volunteered at a Covid vaccine help website that helps primarily the elderly and the tech-challenged MA residents secure vaccine appointments. ~40 hours.
10. Medical scribe, have gone on to become chief scribe ~2000 hours so far in pediatrics, family medicine, and urgent care. Planning on quitting by the end of this year.
11. Volunteering at Helping Hand for Relief and Development, basically helping collect, sort, and send clothes, school supplies, books, etc. for donations to refugees overseas. ~60 hours so far.
12. Volunteered at a soup kitchen while in college. ~70 hours
13. Currently volunteering at another food bank at home ~150 hours so far
14. Volunteered at eVidyaloka, a nonprofit that partners volunteer teachers with groups of children in remote, rural India who don't have consistent access to teachers/schools by using video-conferencing tech. I taught english and math to 6th-8th graders for 4 years. Total hours: ~200.
15. I am currently also working as a coding instructor to schoolchildren across the US . I teach Java/Python and HTML to kids aged 8-12+ virtually and in-person and help them design apps for non-profits such as cancer charities. ~50 hours so far.

Due to multiple deaths in my family last year, I was definitely not ready, mentally, at all to be taking the MCAT or applying to medical school but I was being pressured to not waste time and so I took it anyway and got a 509(126/128/126/129). I immediately retook it less than two months after I got the same score( 126/130/125/128). Retaking was definitely a stupid decision made out of panic. I did not get in anywhere when I applied for the 2021-2022 cycle and decided to take this year off to get my **** together. I’m currently still working as a scribe, teaching coding, and volunteering at the food bank and HHRD but not doing much else other than preparing for the MCAT. I’m scoring notably higher on UWorld than I did last time (I didn't get through even half the questions last time so these are new Qs and I'm not taking the same assessments again), I and feel more prepared this time but I’m worried because I read a comment on here that I should pretty much give up on MD schools because it’s bad to take the test twice and get the same score twice.

I’m just wondering if I’m screwed for MD schools and if it’s worth bothering to apply to them next cycle. Is retaking worth it if I can manage to score a 514-515 on my third try? Or should I apply without taking the MCAT again? Or should I just give up on MD schools? If not, can anyone suggest a school list?

You should consider applying to canada. Most med schools there only look at CARS in the MCAT, and 130 is really good. You have a really good shot at McMaster, and probably also Western and Queens.

 

[chilly_md]

You should consider applying to canada. Most med schools there only look at CARS in the MCAT, and 130 is really good. You have a really good shot at McMaster, and probably also Western and Queens.

The Canadian medical schools as a group take very few international students. MSAR would indicate more updated data, but I doubt the number has increased substantially.

 

[gyngyn]

You should consider applying to canada. Most med schools there only look at CARS in the MCAT, and 130 is really good. You have a really good shot at McMaster, and probably also Western and Queens.

These schools rarely (if ever) interview or matriculate non-Canadians.
Last year neither McMaster nor W. Ontario interviewed any non-Canadians.
Queens supplied no data.
I cannot recommend that OP apply to any Canadian schools as a US citizen.