3.92 cGPA, 512 MCAT, Need help on where to apply

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TheaterOfTheme

TheaterOfTheme

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Hello all, I just got my MCAT back yesterday and am trying to figure out where I am headed...

Some background: I am a 6th year student and slightly nontraditional. I went to a private school for music (got a scholarship for classical guitar) and planned on being a theologian/pastor initially. Then I became more of a humanist and found a love for science and transferred to a CSU (I have a fun personal statement, to say the least). So medicine became a goal as sort of a fusion of different aspects of my personality/journey. Two things that may be a black mark are that I went to community college in between universities (so a few pre-reqs were done at a CC) and also, one time I had to drop a class with a 'W' due to work-related conflicts. I am hoping that these are minor!

State/School: CA, and I attend a CSU

Schools to which I am applying: This I am not sure of quite yet. I am a white male first-generation student, if that helps. Probably a mixture of mid-tier MD and DO schools

Cumulative GPA: 3.920

Science GPA: For DO = 3.98, for MD = ~3.91 (As AACOMAS does not calculate math courses)

MCAT Scores: 512 (127, 128, 129, 128)

Research: Four poster presentations at conferences. One first author and three second. I have done a summer REU through an immunology lab, worked for 1.5 years in a neurbiology/cell lab, and just joined a physiological biochemistry lab. Here I am aiming to publish during my gap year (this will likely not help my application). I will likely obtain a research fellowship by my professor's recommendation for this summer.

Volunteering (clinical): So far ~40 hours working in a free clinic. Soon a children's hospital as well!

Physician shadowing: 10 hours spent shadowing DO (family physician) (Soon to shadow ortho surgeon!!!)

Non-clinical volunteering: Greater than 100 hours working with the homeless through a church, ~30 hours working at a facility that caters to families of prisoners during visiting weekends, one semester working at an after-school program in a local neighborhood. Around 30 hours working at an afterschool program.

Extracurricular activities: Playing music (guitar, mandolin, violin), fitness (weight-lifting, jiu-jitsu), jazz band, orchestra, various gospel groups, and reading

Employment history: Worked at Chick-fil-A for two years, server for one year, and I am currently a TA for analytical chemistry and also a tutor for ALL pre-med subjects through my university.

Essentially, I have been doing research non-stop for the last 2.5 years while working to support myself entirely. I have an interesting story and background. Shadowing and volunteering clinically has only been within the last year. All of the other volunteering was before I decided to go into medicine. As I mentioned previously, I am white, male, and a first generation college student. I am pretty nervous for the application process and just wish I had a score that stood out more! I really don't know what else to say! Thanks for taking your time to offer advice!

P.S. I am highly considering mostly DO schools, as I know my score will be fairly competitive. If I were to retake and receive a 517 or so, how much would this help me for MD?
 
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Your app looks great. Definitely a fighting chance at MD's and top DO's.
 
1) Don't retake the MCAT
2) Your competitive for any DO school and a lot of lower tier MD programs.
3) Boost your clinical exposure. Keep adding to your volunteering hours as well.
4) Invest in MSAR. Target schools with median MCAT scores near yours and that take a good percentage of students OOS. I'll give you a few names below to help you get started:
Wake Forest, Oakland, Quinnipac, Medical College Wisconsin, Creighton. Come back with a list once you've gone through MSAR and you'll get a lot of good input.
 
GrapesofRath said:
1) Don't retake the MCAT
2) Your competitive for any DO school and a lot of lower tier MD programs.
3) Boost your clinical exposure. Keep adding to your volunteering hours as well.
4) Invest in MSAR. Target schools with median MCAT scores near yours and that take a good percentage of students OOS. I'll give you a few names below to help you get started:
Wake Forest, Oakland, Quinnipac, Medical College Wisconsin, Creighton. Come back with a list once you've gone through MSAR and you'll get a lot of good input.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice. I will look into MSAR!
 
MSAR is great! I can't believe I didn't know about this! However, is there a similar resource for DO schools?
 
No one gives a crap about W's if your GPA is high like that. I have 10+ W's on my record and have 5 II's out of 8 schools applied to.
 
You have to work on the self-esteem.
State/School: CA, and I attend a CSU (so nothing prestigious). This I feel hampers the effect of my high GPA.

Do NOT retake!!!!
MCAT Scores: 512 (127, 128, 129, 128) (This is my main concern. A white male with a 32 equiv., what else is new?) I am open to a retake,

This is your week spot; you need to get these hours up, ideally > 100. The mission trips don't count and are treated as medical tourism.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.


Volunteering (clinical): So far ~30 hours working in a free clinic, and soon mission trips to Mexico (1-day trips). I was not able to work at any big hospital until recently as I did not have health insurance. Now I do, so I am applying to hospital positions as well!


I suggest the following:

U VM

Miami

St. Louis

Albany

Albert Einstein

Rochester

Rush

Rosy Franklin

BU

Hofstra

NYMC

VCU

EVMS

Wake Forest

Jefferson

Temple

Drexel

Creighton

George Washington

Emory

Tulane

Dartmouth

Loyola

Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.

Your state school(s).

Any DO program, except LUCOM.
 
Goro said:
You have to work on the self-esteem.
State/School: CA, and I attend a CSU (so nothing prestigious). This I feel hampers the effect of my high GPA.

Do NOT retake!!!!
MCAT Scores: 512 (127, 128, 129, 128) (This is my main concern. A white male with a 32 equiv., what else is new?) I am open to a retake,

This is your week spot; you need to get these hours up, ideally > 100. The mission trips don't count and are treated as medical tourism.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.


Volunteering (clinical): So far ~30 hours working in a free clinic, and soon mission trips to Mexico (1-day trips). I was not able to work at any big hospital until recently as I did not have health insurance. Now I do, so I am applying to hospital positions as well!


I suggest the following:

U VM

Miami

St. Louis

Albany

Albert Einstein

Rochester

Rush

Rosy Franklin

BU

Hofstra

NYMC

VCU

EVMS

Wake Forest

Jefferson

Temple

Drexel

Creighton

George Washington

Emory

Tulane

Dartmouth

Loyola

Any new MD school. Skip Central MI and the three new FL schools. I can't recommend CNU.

Your state school(s).

Any DO program, except LUCOM.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your response Goro. Your input is greatly appreciated. My CSU is great and has a challenging curriculum (biochemistry). I know there is some prejudice sometimes though. When you say medical tourism, do you mean this in a negative sense? Also, do you think working in an underserved free clinic (or hospice, planned parenthood etc), is better than a hospital?

Again, I thank you for your time!
 
Yes. Too many people abuse the concept by merely going on vacation, and maybe saying hello to a local doctor. Either thst, or they do things that displace the local health care workers.





When you say medical tourism, do you mean this in a negative sense?

Yes. It takes a lot to deal with the grittier side of Medicine and confront mortality in the face.

Also, do you think working in an underserved free clinic (or hospice, planned parenthood etc), is better than a hospital?

Again, I thank you for your time![/QUOTE]
 
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Hello Everyone,

I wanted to update and get some more advice. Due to work and course-load I haven't made much more progress in volunteering. I have near 50 hours at my free clinic and am very happy to have gotten through in the application process to start working at a children's hospital! (this place is pretty renown and hard to get in to, and I am super pumped for it.) In addition, I have made contact with an orthopedic surgeon who will allow me to shadow him.

I feel like I am cutting it very close in order to proceed with this application cycle, however. All else remains the same from my original post.

I didn't want to make a new post to clog the forums. Thank you adcoms for your help as always!
@gyngyn @Goro @LizzyM
 
Well, you are non-trad and came to this decision later than someone who knew well before starting college so adcoms might cut you a little slack as long as you keep at it throughout the next 12 months. That means having the date open ended or "through July 2017" with an estimate of the hours past and future.
 
gyngyn said:
I take it you are applying next cycle.
Where are you planning on applying?
Click to expand...

Yes
-All California schools (Including privates, Stanford, LLU, and USC)
-I am sifting through the privates out of state, but primarily the ones that Goro listed earlier in the thread.
-DO schools (with high preference to WesternU and Touro)

I am hoping to land in CA.

How do you use MSAR to determine %OOS admitted? I could not find the feature. Is that something to refer to a website?
 
LizzyM said:
Well, you are non-trad and came to this decision later than someone who knew well before starting college so adcoms might cut you a little slack as long as you keep at it throughout the next 12 months. That means having the date open ended or "through July 2017" with an estimate of the hours past and future.
Click to expand...

I see. So putting a future date on the AMCAS is allowable?
 
TheaterOfTheme said:
Yes
-All California schools (Including privates, Stanford, LLU, and USC)
-I am sifting through the privates out of state, but primarily the ones that Goro listed earlier in the thread.
-DO schools (with high preference to WesternU and Touro)

I am hoping to land in CA.

How do you use MSAR to determine %OOS admitted? I could not find the feature. Is that something to refer to a website?
Click to expand...
USC and Stanford are long shots. Are you adventist, do you ever consume alcohol or have sex outside of marriage? Are you from the IE?

Spend twice as much time on your OOS list as IS. This is what good CA applicants have to do to be successful.
 
gyngyn said:
USC and Stanford are long shots. Are you adventist, do you ever consume alcohol or have sex outside of marriage? Are you from the IE?
Click to expand...
Yes they are...do you think they are too far to reach for?

And LLU is a great fit. I do not like alcohol (for moral and taste reasons). I am getting married and do not believe in personally practicing pre-marital sex. (I really don't care what others do)
Not adventist, but affiliated with a Christian church (much more liberal)
I grew up in the High Desert and the IE. I know why those communities needs more health care professionals--to say the least. Most of my volunteer work is in Lucerne Valley (very worst of the IE).
 
TheaterOfTheme said:
Yes they are...do you think they are too far to reach for?

And LLU is a great fit. I do not like alcohol (for moral and taste reasons). I am getting married and do not believe in personally practicing pre-marital sex. (I really don't care what others do)
Not adventist, but affiliated with a Christian church (much more liberal)
I grew up in the High Desert and the IE. I know why that community needs more health care professionals--to say the least.
Click to expand...
Keep LLU and UCR, then.
 
TheaterOfTheme said:
Do you think the other UCs are a great reach?
Click to expand...
We all applied to them. It's just who we are. As long as your OOS list rocks, you should be ok.
Remember, 1528 of CA's successful applicants matriculated OOS. Only 910/6520 stayed home...
 
gyngyn said:
We all applied to them. It's just who we are. As long as your OOS list rocks, you should be ok.
Remember, 1528 of CA's successful applicants matriculated OOS. Only 910/6520 stayed home...
Click to expand...
6250 is the overall applicants or overall successful--from cali?
I see! Well I will work on the out of state list like mad then!
Thank you
 
TheaterOfTheme said:
6250 is the overall applicants or overall successful--from cali?
I see! Well I will work on the out of state list like mad then!
Thank you
Click to expand...
There were enough applicants from UCLA alone (961) to fill all the spots into which CA IS MD applicants matriculated (910)!
There were 6250 CA applicants last year. Those with with a strong OOS strategy were much more likely to be successful.
 
gyngyn said:
There were enough applicants from UCLA alone (961) to fill all the spots into which CA IS MD applicants matriculated (910)!
There were 6250 CA applicants last year. Those with with a strong OOS strategy were much more likely to be successful.
Click to expand...
Wow--crazy numbers indeed. Thanks for the tips 🙂
 
Just as another update. I was able to secure a position with the children's hospital, however, I will not have a significant amount of hours till well after June. Would it be worth it to wait till the next cycle? I feel this would be a more sober0minded decision...In addition I was just awarded a research fellowship. Of course, I'd prefer not to wait. I do think I could get into DO schools this cycle considering connections I have made.
 
Woo! Looks like I'm setting a record for longest going WAMC thread...

Anyways, due to financial hardship and family reasons I did not risk applying the past cycle. I am in a much better position now and ready for a successful cycle. I thank you all for your help. This is the last cycle before my MCAT (Aug 2015) expires, so I hope I can succeed!

By the end of January, I will have greater than 100 hours at my free clinic. I just graduated, so I will have a lot of extra time to volunteer.

I have a concern that most of my non-clinical volunteering is all from around 4-5 years ago. Is this a problem, seeing that I have spent these past years as a full-time student, employed for at least 20 hrs a week, in various research labs, and getting get clinical exposure? (My current employment is in elementary education, so at least it is a good application boost as well)

Ideally, how many clinical hours should I have? I can probably get up to 200 from the free clinic and maybe 5o-100 from a hospital. Does this look bad seeing that most of it will be done in a short period of time?

Thank you all for your extended assistance 😉
 
TheaterOfTheme said:
Woo! Looks like I'm setting a record for longest going WAMC thread...

Anyways, due to financial hardship and family reasons I did not risk applying the past cycle. I am in a much better position now and ready for a successful cycle. I thank you all for your help. This is the last cycle before my MCAT (Aug 2015) expires, so I hope I can succeed!

By the end of January, I will have greater than 100 hours at my free clinic. I just graduated, so I will have a lot of extra time to volunteer.

I have a concern that most of my non-clinical volunteering is all from around 4-5 years ago. Is this a problem, seeing that I have spent these past years as a full-time student, employed for at least 20 hrs a week, in various research labs, and getting get clinical exposure? (My current employment is in elementary education, so at least it is a good application boost as well)

Ideally, how many clinical hours should I have? I can probably get up to 200 from the free clinic and maybe 5o-100 from a hospital. Does this look bad seeing that most of it will be done in a short period of time?

Thank you all for your extended assistance 😉
Click to expand...
Apply early and strategically and you should be fine.
 
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