You could add these MD schools to your application:
I suggest these schools with your stats:
Will do, thank you for your feedback!
Honestly, the only way to increase you score significantly is by constantly doing practice problems (AAMC has the best ones, of course...UWorld has good ones with great explanations) and tons of practice tests (again AAMC has the best. After them, BluePrint. The practice tests from Kaplan and Princeton Review are a waste of time and money imo).
Thank you so much!!! I am working full time as well in the hospital. My mcat is in 3.5 weeks. I was scoring around 503 but got 10 points lower on the actual exam!
Mind if I ask how many practice exams you've taken? Also, were they under test conditions? Or did something happen on test day?
Gotcha. Well it sounds like you may have just been in your head on test day. Also be careful with practice test retakes, because you will remember more from the first take than you think. But it sounds like a 502+ is absolutely within range. I'd recommend (if you can) buying a UWorld question pack and just powering through those over the next few weeks.
No problem!
Most schools don't give a wide option of dates, because they want to fill their closest interview schedules first.
Thank you!
The state DO schools you mentioned accept few non residents with no connection to the state. Post your actual MCAT score when available and I can suggest realistic schools to apply to.
I totally understand, I'm older than traditional applicants too. But keep in mind that in the grand scheme of all the medical training, 1 year more is nothing. Why rush it when you could apply next year and have your pick of schools?
I think it totally depends on your reason for declining. If your reason is that you think you can get into other schools that you like more in the future, then they're not going to like that. If you really want to only do MD, then I don't think you need to apply DO in the first place. There are aspects of their curricula that supplement allopathic training. If you want to learn that, then I say apply DO. If it is because you think you won't have a chance at MD schools because you are submitting late, I say wait and apply MD. Just my 2 cents.
You do have several state public schools on your list that accept very few non residents with no connection to the state. For example, U Washington accepts less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest. I suggest adding more schools this week and consider any of these:Hi all, I know I'm a bit late to posting on here! I have already applied and am having some doubts about my school list and whether I should last minute add schools or apply DO.
URM: Latina, bilingual
Undergrad: Arizona
Grad: Arizona
Undergrad Major: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Grad: Molecular and Cellular Biology
Undergrad: cGPA: 3.81, sGPA: 3.75
Grad: 4.0 - will be graduating accelerated master's program in may 2021
MCAT: 509 (128/128/126/127)
Research: ~2500 hrs - 4 yrs in same asthma research laboratory, 2 poster presentations - 1 first place, 1 radio interview, 1 pub in progress
Clinical Volunteering: ~175 hrs volunteer at free health clinic serving uninsured Latino community, as well as at mobile health clinic providing free basic health screenings in Spanish to underserved areas in southern AZ
Shadowing- ~140 hrs - 100 abroad in Spain, 20 hrs in US prior to COVID19, then 0
Other/Leadership: 2 years as president of a women's club sport at university (4 yrs as player, D-III for two years, D-I for two years),
Non-clinical Volunteering/ tutoring: volunteer for community youth league of the above sport, also volunteer on my the youth committee for my community's organization that plans leagues for the sport and I manage the social media, undergrad teaching assistant for one semester, grad paid teaching assistant for summer class
Work experience: 2 yrs of paid research work, summer graduate teaching assistant
School list:
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
UCSD
UCI
UCLA
USC
University of Virginia
University of Florida
University of Vermont
Rutgers NJMS
Tufts
UConn
Georgetown
UMass
VCU <- rejected
TCU & UNTHSC
Miami Miller
OHSU
Colorado
UACOM-Tucson
UACOM-Phoenix
UB Jacobs
Brown Alpert
University of Washington
NYU long island
Indiana University <- got an interview invite
Basically, I built this school list without MSAR and with the help of people who did not know much about MD admissions, and I am now worried it is all reach schools. But please let me know if I am just overworried haha
It is not too late to add schools in the next week but submit your secondaries as soon as possible.
You should receive many interviews from your Texas schools with your stats. Apply to all your Texas MD schools. Are there any other regions of the country that interest you ?
Are you applying this cycle? It is pretty late. Is your app verified?
Oh I see. Was your masters an SMP? A lot of schools require a 3.0 minimum so that 2.8 sGPA might present a problem. I think it is kind of early to prewrite secondaries for next year. I feel like you could spend the next year learning and gaining new experiences to write stronger essays next year. Plus, the prompts might change. But if I were in your shoes, I would figure out a way to rectify the 2.8 gpa, unless your gGPA is from an SMP. I agree that you could also retake the MCAT if you think you can improve.
The MCAT retake would take priority for meI believe a 4-year college is a preference for many schools, but you got to do what you got to do. I feel like getting it over a 3.0 is the most important thing so if that means taking community college classes, then I feel like you will be okay. All transcripts get sent to AMCAS and all undergraduate level courses go towards your AMCAS GPA so they would be transferable to your undergraduate GPA. Yeah, COVID-19 has messed everything up. I think, for me at least, I didn't know how to write the "application way" until when I was starting to apply. I feel like you will grow and realize things as it goes closer to the application cycle that will probably help you write stronger essays. Now seems a little early but it is up to you. I just would not spend too much time writing secondaries without getting the primary app together first (GPA > 3.0, recommendation, personal statements etc).Its a post bacc but it's going towards a degree so I do not think it contributes to my undergrad sGPA despite the credits all being upper-level sciences. However, I am about to take some additional community college science classes. Not sure if those would be transferable to my undergrad GPA since I already graduated. Would you know? Also thanks for the advice that's definitely something I will consider doing. However, gaining new experiences will be a bit of a challenge because I am still a teacher and all the virtual teaching Is new and time-consuming as you might imagine
I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
Yes, take those community college science classes since if you raise your sGPA to 3.0 it will significantly increase your chances for interviews. Those classes will count towards your undergraduate sGPA.Its a post bacc but it's going towards a degree so I do not think it contributes to my undergrad sGPA despite the credits all being upper-level sciences. However, I am about to take some additional community college science classes. Not sure if those would be transferable to my undergrad GPA since I already graduated. Would you know? Also thanks for the advice that's definitely something I will consider doing. However, gaining new experiences will be a bit of a challenge because I am still a teacher and all the virtual teaching Is new and time-consuming as you might imagine
Yes, I applied to all of them. I actually just got my first interview at UT San Antonio. I also applied to a broad range of schools in the US:
You will need to check with AMCAS to see if your Masters science courses will be included in your undergraduate sGPA. Community College science courses do count toward your undergraduate sGPA.Thank you for the list, helps a lot!. I just want to confirm one thing because I keep getting different responses (even from AMCAS). So the post bacc I'm in (that happens to grant a masters in the process) that I have 40+ credits of science classes (3.85) will NOT count raising my undergrad sGPA of 2.8 but the community college classes will?? Is this not the point of a post bacc? I don't want to be screened out so I will do whatever it takes to raise it but I also don't want to have to spend unnecessary money during this time on additional cc classes if I really don't have to.
Thank you for your patience, I know I ask a lot of questions
Yes.
You have a good list and should receive several interviews. You could add any of these schools:
Post your new score here when available .
