MD 506 MCAT & 3.6 GPA|Help with next steps after an unsuccessful cycle

[lgb12]

Hey there!

I am in my gap year currently after graduating in Spring from Florida State University. I applied this cycle (2017-2018) only MD schools, and unfortunately did not receive any II. One thing to mention is I submitted my primary around late August, and started sending in secondaries late September.

Ethnicity: White
Sex: F
cGPA: 3.6
sGPA: 3.6
MCAT: 506 & 506 (took twice a month apart; side note on the second attempt I did not finish my best section, CARS, which I feel could have gotten me to 510)
Schools I sent secondaries to:
Loyola
Tulane
U of Arizona-Tucson
U of Arizona-Phoenix
U of Minn-Twin Cities
VCU
Marshall University
WVU
MUSC
U of South Carolina-Greeneville
U of South Carolina-Columbia
Nova
FIU
Rosalind Franklin
Drexel
Rush
Sidney Kimmel
U of Utah
Cooper
Albany
UVM
LSU
MSU
Wake Forest
Wayne
ECs: 200 clinical volunteering hours (trained and certified medical assistant)
40 hours shadowing
3 years of research experience
2000 hours of service (current AmeriCorps member)
Taught Freshman Interest Group class


My main question is how should I go about improving my app before reapplying? How much time should I take off in between? I have *temporarily* decided to take another year off to study/retake the MCAT and work as a Medical Assistant for the rest of the year before my re-app.

*One of my questions is I got a C+ in Biochemistry after I graduated (so it is my post-bac GPA). Would it be useful to retake the course or take another upper level science course to improve my post-abc GPA which is now 2.25.

Any help is appreciated, thank you so much for the response, and sorry about the length!

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[Forever Geebs]

Your GPA and MCAT scores are not bad at all. With your stats and ECs, you should have received several invites.

Did you receive STRONG LORs?
Did you have others read and provide feedback on your PS/essays?

Also, is there a particular reason you didn't apply more broadly, and more specifically, to DO schools? You'll certainly want to consider doing that for the next app cycle.

 

[sunshine859]

Your postbac GPA may definitely be hurting you. Did your postbac end up bringing your overall GPA down?

 

[Faha]

Where is your state of residence? Half of the schools you applied to are state public schools that accept very few non residents with your stats.

 

[lgb12]

@sunshine859 This may be completely wrong, but it doesn't look like it factored into my cGPA. I think (?) the post-bac GPA was a whole separate thing. Regardless, if it did factor into it, it wasn't much because my GPA stayed about the same.

 

[lgb12]

Your GPA and MCAT scores are not bad at all. With your stats and ECs, you should have received several invites.

Did you receive STRONG LORs?
Did you have others read and provide feedback on your PS/essays?

Also, is there a particular reason you didn't apply more broadly, and more specifically, to DO schools? You'll certainly want to consider doing that for the next app cycle.

I have a feeling that my science LOR may not have been very strong, and will be asking FSU on Monday to see what they were like (this was probably a mistake to not check beforehand

Yes, I paid for a service to help me with my personal statement with a few different drafts. For the essays on the secondaries, my mom looked them over, lol.

Can you define more broadly? I am considering doing DO for the next cycle, I was just not completely aware of that option before i applied.

 

[lgb12]

Where is your state of residence? Half of the schools you applied to are state public schools that accept very few non residents with your stats.

I am a FL resident. I was honestly unaware of this, and I may have made a huge mistake in that regard of applying to this state public schools. I checked MSAR beforehand, and to me it seemed as those state schools accepted the highest percentage of OOS compared to any others, but maybe those OOS had higher stats than me?

I didn't apply to every FL state school because it seemed as though their stats were out of my range (UCF, USF, UF)

 

[Dr. Meliodas]

Of the schools you applied to, 16 were state schools with high in-state bias for states you are not a resident off. You had 9 schools you could have potentially received an interview from. Those were

Loyola
Tulane
Nova
FIU
Rosalind Franklin
Drexel
Wake Forest
Sidney Kimmel
Albany

You are not using the MSAR correctly. Many of the schools on your list interviewed thousands of OOS applicants an only offered a handful of spots while for the few hundred IS applicants account for 70-80% of the incoming class. (I looked up each school on your list).

You need to filter your searches by School Type and select "Private" and then look at those schools and select the ones you are closest to their median.

Your application does not seem very strong. You showed poor decision making when you took the MCAT a second time only a month after your first test date and did not improve. I am no sure I understand what you mean by post-bacc GPA. Did you only take one class or are there additional courses that factored into your post-bacc GPA? Either way doing poorly in Biochem is a red flag for medical schools. Do you have anything to show for your 3 years of research? Publication? At least a Poster-Presentation?

It hard to tell if you should wait a year before reapplying or if you could potentially apply again this coming cycle and just apply with a more appropriate list. (I'd be happy to help you come up with a list if you pm me with more detail of your app).

Some of the add coms here might be able to provide better advice on whether you should wait a year (take additional science course work), or reapply with a better list of schools. @Faha @Goro @LizzyM

 

[Faha]

I am a FL resident. I was honestly unaware of this, and I may have made a huge mistake in that regard of applying to this state public schools. I checked MSAR beforehand, and to me it seemed as those state schools accepted the highest percentage of OOS compared to any others, but maybe those OOS had higher stats than me?

I didn't apply to every FL state school because it seemed as though their stats were out of my range (UCF, USF, UF)

Most of the non residents accepted to most state public schools are high stat applicants, legacies, URM, or attended undergraduate school or are former residents of the state. I suggest applying to these schools when you reapply:
All your Florida schools (except Miami)
Quinnipiac
New York Medical College
Seton Hall
Drexel
Temple
George Washington
Oakland Beaumont
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton
California University
The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have less than a 50% chance for a MD acceptance so you should also apply to at least 8 DO schools and you are competitive for all DO schools.

 

[candbgirl]

Search these forums for @gonnif for his many very complete posts on reapplying too soon. The post should answer your questions about when to reapply. What have you done to significantly improve your app for next cycle? I’m confused about your post bac too. How many classes did you take during your post bac? It almost seems like biochem was the only one. That’s not really a post bac if that’s what you did.

 

[lgb12]

Of the schools you applied to, 16 were state schools with high in-state bias for states you are not a resident off. You had 9 schools you could have potentially received an interview from. Those were

Loyola
Tulane
Nova
FIU
Rosalind Franklin
Drexel
Wake Forest
Sidney Kimmel
Albany

You are not using the MSAR correctly. Many of the schools on your list interviewed thousands of OOS applicants an only offered a handful of spots while for the few hundred IS applicants account for 70-80% of the incoming class. (I looked up each school on your list).

You need to filter your searches by School Type and select "Private" and then look at those schools and select the ones you are closest to their median.

Your application does not seem very strong. You showed poor decision making when you took the MCAT a second time only a month after your first test date and did not improve. I am no sure I understand what you mean by post-bacc GPA. Did you only take one class or are there additional courses that factored into your post-bacc GPA? Either way doing poorly in Biochem is a red flag for medical schools. Do you have anything to show for your 3 years of research? Publication? At least a Poster-Presentation?

It hard to tell if you should wait a year before reapplying or if you could potentially apply again this coming cycle and just apply with a more appropriate list. (I'd be happy to help you come up with a list if you pm me with more detail of your app).

Some of the add coms here might be able to provide better advice on whether you should wait a year (take additional science course work), or reapply with a better list of schools. @Faha @Goro @LizzyM

Thank you for your lengthy and informative response. For the post-bacc GPA, Biochem was the only class that factored into the GPA. I realize now this was a big mistake. Since it is a red flag, do you recommend retaking or possibly taking an upper-level science course?

Do you think taking additional science course work or retaking the MCAT for one final time would be beneficial? If so, which one? Again, thank you for your help.

 

[lgb12]

Most of the non residents accepted to most state public schools are high stat applicants, legacies, URM, or attended undergraduate school or are former residents of the state. I suggest applying to these schools when you reapply:
All your Florida schools (except Miami)
Quinnipiac
New York Medical College
Seton Hall
Drexel
Temple
George Washington
Oakland Beaumont
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Creighton
California University
The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have less than a 50% chance for a MD acceptance so you should also apply to at least 8 DO schools and you are competitive for all DO schools.

Wow! Thank you so much for this list, I really appreciate it. Do you think I should retake the MCAT to up the chances of acceptance?

 

[lgb12]

Search these forums for @gonnif for his many very complete posts on reapplying too soon. The post should answer your questions about when to reapply. What have you done to significantly improve your app for next cycle? I’m confused about your post bac too. How many classes did you take during your post bac? It almost seems like biochem was the only one. That’s not really a post bac if that’s what you did.

Thank you for your response. I am new to this website so honestly I was very overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Gonnif has also been a major help to me and taken time out of his day to speak to me, which I appreciate very much. I just wanted to get multiple opinions on this subject and thought making a post would accomplish that, which it has. I will factor in all these opinions very gratefully.

Besides adding 2000 hours of community service as an AmeriCorps member I have not improved my app, which is why I was consider taking one year off. I just wanted to get an idea of where to focus my attention during that time off. More science course work? Retaking MCAT?

I agree about the post-bacc. Honestly I am not sure what to call it. I took Biochem after I graduated and so I was a non-degree seeking student and it has a GPA of its own. Yes, Biochem was the only class. I know this does not look good.

 

[candbgirl]

Thank you for your response. I am new to this website so honestly I was very overwhelmed and not sure where to start. Gonnif has also been a major help to me and taken time out of his day to speak to me, which I appreciate very much. I just wanted to get multiple opinions on this subject and thought making a post would accomplish that, which it has. I will factor in all these opinions very gratefully.

Besides adding 2000 hours of community service as an AmeriCorps member I have not improved my app, which is why I was consider taking one year off. I just wanted to get an idea of where to focus my attention during that time off. More science course work? Retaking MCAT?

I agree about the post-bacc. Honestly I am not sure what to call it. I took Biochem after I graduated and so I was a non-degree seeking student and it has a GPA of its own. Yes, Biochem was the only class. I know this does not look good.

I’m not sure what you’d call one additional class after you graduate. The reason I mentioned gonniff was because in his threads on reapplying too soon he quotes directly from several med school websites about reapplying too soon. I just thought it would save you some time and effort. I think Your Americorps work is a very good addition to your application.