3.3 GPA, 508 MCAT

[Radxical]

EDIT: Updated new stats far far below.

Hey there, somewhat long-time lurker. Finally got my MCAT scores so I'll post my stuff. Please and thank you!
Copy-pasting everything I posted from Reddit.

Hey there, just got my mcat score, looking for thoughts. Below, I've got MD schools, but I'm open to DO. Likely will apply to both. Would *not* like another gap year.

Year in school: Graduated 2017

Country/state of residence: USA/California

Schools to which you are applying:
D.O. schools:

M.D. schools:

Albany

CA Northstate Univ COM

Central Michigan University College of Medicine

Cooper Medical School of Rowan University


David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Eastern Virginia Medical School

Indiana University School of Medicine

Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo

Keck Sch. of Med.University of Southern California

Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

The University of Miami School of Medicine

The University of Toledo College of Medicine

University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix

University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson

University of California, Davis School of Medicine

University of California, Irvine- College/Medicine

University of California-Riverside School of Medicine

University of Central Florida COM

University of Colorado School of Medicine

Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine

Cumulative GPA: 3.3
Science GPA: 3.3/3.2?
MCAT Scores: 508
Research – Research in Plant Biology since Sept '16, 300+ hours accumulated, still ongoing, no publications, ~10 hours/wk.
Sept '16 - present

Volunteering (clinical) – local hospital in blood lab, NO PHYSICAL CONTACT but I do talk to patients very frequently, 180 hours, 4 hr/wk. July '16 - present

Physician shadowing – none

Non-clinical volunteering: church volunteering, 1400+ hours, 3-4 hr/wk. April '11 - present

Extracurricular activities: music (flute)

Employment history: 3 years at a grocery store chain, 1.5 of those being a book keeper doing accounting for that store. No longer employed. Average 30hr/wk. June '12 - Sept. '15

Immediate family members in medicine? N

Specialty of interest: Trauma/General Surgery

Shadowing experience: None

Graduate degrees: B.S. Biology

Interest in rural health: Uh...IDK?

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[Faha]

These schools on your list give preference to residents of their own state and accept very few non residents with your stats.
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Indiana University School of Medicine
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo
The University of Toledo College of Medicine
University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix
University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson
University of Central Florida COM
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine
West Virginia University School of Medicine
Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine
You are competitive for some DO schools and I suggest including all these in your DO application:
ACOM
ARCOM
BCOM
WCU-COM
LMU-DCOM
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
UIWSOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
NYIT-Arkansas
RVU-Utah
Idaho (new school)
Your lack of shadowing hours and limited clinical volunteering hours may hurt your chances for interviews at some schools.

 

[Radxical]

Awesome, thanks Faha.

I get that the chance is fairly low for those schools that you've listed. Is it okay to still try anyway? Or are the chances for those schools too miniscule? Thanks.

 

[Faha]

Awesome, thanks Faha.

I get that the chance is fairly low for those schools that you've listed. Is it okay to still try anyway? Or are the chances for those schools too miniscule? Thanks.

They are minuscule.

 

[Goro]

Add Touro-CA, Western (both), TUNCOM, PacNW and AZCOM to the list

Forget CN"u". Do a search as to why. They're MCAT ****** anyway, among other things.

For CA schools, keep only UCI and UCD; add UCR only if you're from the Inland Empire. Unless you had massive rising trend, I don't think any other MD schools are viable.

 

[Radxical]

Add Touro-CA, Western (both), TUNCOM, PacNW and AZCOM to the list

Forget CN"u". Do a search as to why. They're MCAT ****** anyway, among other things.

For CA schools, keep only UCI and UCD; add UCR only if you're from the Inland Empire. Unless you had massive rising trend, I don't think any other MD schools are viable.

Gotcha. I wasn't sure about UCR but I did hear similar warnings about their exclusivity.

Thanks. I'll update my list accordingly later.

 

[Radxical]

Sorry for bumping this. I just got my app verified and need advice.
3.14 science gpa (with 1.5 years being terrible at community college because major financial issues causing me to take on more hours to support my parents. Once I transferred to a 4 year uni, my grades improved)

3.27 overall gpa.

I've already decided to take a gap year to find a scribing job, find DO doctors to shadow. Should I take an unofficial postbacc? Can I only redo classes at the community college where I did poorly on?

And am I completely out of the run for MD? Should my focus solely be on DO now? Thanks.

 

[Faha]

Concentrate on your DO application and include all the schools I listed above.

 

[JustTooLit]

I'm sorry for a late comment but. I was wondering. I currently have a 3.35 GPA (in my second year) and around 200+ hours of volunteering. I was hoping for any advice. My GPA was a 3.53 until I took a C from Pre-calc to my transcript.

 

[candbgirl]

I'm sorry for a late comment but. I was wondering. I currently have a 3.35 GPA (in my second year) and around 200+ hours of volunteering. I was hoping for any advice. My GPA was a 3.53 until I took a C from Pre-calc to my transcript.

Why don’t you start your own thread? You’ll get advice specific to you!

 

[JustTooLit]

Why don’t you start your own thread? You’ll get advice specific to you!

I'm sorry but I'm new to this website and have almost no clue how it works.

 

[Radxical]

Hi, bumping an old thread.
I applied last year (DO only) and got two interview invites, both of them leading to rejections. I am looking to apply again this year, this time with both MD and DO. Hopefully it should be much better this time around since I will be applying in June rather than in October. Can anyone let me know what other schools I should sign up for? And which I should avoid?

AAMC GPA: c3.3/s3.3
AACOMAS GPA: c3.27/s3.14
300+ hours volunteering in blood lab, 1400+ non-clinical volunteering at church (miscounted last time in the original post, correct now), 2 years research in plant biology(0 publications), 50 hours of plastic surgery MD shadowing (currently looking for DO shadowing with no luck).
2 Science LoR, 1 non-science LoR, 1 MD LoR, 0 DO LoR.

Forgot to mention: ORM Male from California

DO School list:
ATSU: Kirksville
ATSU: AZ
ACOM
AZCOM
ARCOM
BCOM
CUSOM
CCOM
DMUCOM
KCUCOM
LUCOM
LMUCOM
MarianUCOM
Nova
NYITCOM
NSUCOM
PNWUCOM
Rocky Vista COM
Touro NY
Touro CA
Touro NV
WesternU CA
WesternU OR

MD School list:
Meharry
Morehouse
University of Washington SOM
Michigan State University COM
Florida State University
Loyola University Chicago Stritch SOM
Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Marshall University
University of Arizona COM
University of Louisville SOM
University of Nevada, Reno SOM
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University
University of Kansas SOM

Please and thank you!

 

[Faha]

All the MD schools you listed are totally unrealistic with your stats.You could add these DO schools:
ICOM
NYIT-Arkansas
VCOM (all 3 schools)
UIWSOM
WVSOM
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia

 

[Radxical]

I'm holding off on some of those DO schools because some require a DO letter of recommendation, which I do not have.

Not sure about ICOM because I interviewed and was rejected from there.

I'm looking through MSAR and some of the MDs I've listed seem feasible. My GPA has an upward trend and I can explain in person why it dipped in an early year. Money is not super important so I feel like it's still worth it to apply to at least half of them (I just reviewed through them and am crossing off the ones that are heavily in-state)
Do you really think it's not worth the effort? I'm down to 7 MD schools on my list.

Unrelated, do you think it is a bad idea to re-use my personal statement (or a majority of it) that I used for my last DO cycle? I really don't know what to change because I didn't do much other than research and volunteering. But I assume adcoms would dislike seeing the same personal statement.

 

[Faha]

You are not interpreting the MSAR incorrectly. These schools are state public schools that accept very few, if any, non residents with your stats. For example, U Washington accepts less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest (CA is not one of them). Florida State matriculated only 2 non residents out of 3,200 applicants.
University of Washington SOM
Michigan State University COM
Florida State University
Texas Tech University Health Sciences
Marshall University
University of Arizona COM
University of Louisville SOM
University of Nevada, Reno SOM
University of Kansas SOM
Other schools on your list such as Meharry and Morehouse accept mainly URM from the African American community. If you want to try MD schools I suggest these:
Loma Linda
California University (new school)
Kaiser (when it opens)
Quinnipiac
Albany
New York Medical College
Seton Hall
NOVA MD
George Washington
Oakland Beaumont
Rosalind Franklin
Shadow a DO soon and obtain a DO LOR. You also need to rewrite your personal statement.