Advice for DO vs MD

[OUstudent25]

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Applying Summer 2012-
DO cGPA,sGPA: 3.45,3.35
MD cGPA,sGPA: 3.35, 3.15

Had a C in calc and retook O chem II for an A, thus the somewhat sizable discrepancy in GPAs' for both

Job for 2 years: approx 15hr/week
Hospital volunteer: transporter department, minimal patient contact
Church volunteer: over 1000 hrs working with kids (want to do pediatrics)
URM: African-American Male
Shadowing: MD(pediatrician) ,DO(surgeon): approx 45-50 hrs, letter from both, letter from committee and one from non-science professor (medical ethics class!)

Oklahoma Resident, with ties to Arkansas (family and all)
Applying to regional MD schools: Arizona,Kansas,Oklahoma Arkansas.
Applying broadly to D.O. schools: At least 10-12 school (i.e ATSU, OSU-COM etc)

Two questions, should I apply only to D.O because my sGPA is insanely low I know, and checking stats for last year, saw that average AA matriculant had stats all lower than mine to D.O? I am very interested in doing D.O., but would give equal consideration if accepted to M.D. program (especially OU), and other question, if i do apply M.D., which ones and any advice is also welcome. (more patient contact maybe?)

 

[411309]

URM status+ that 30 mcat youll get into MD. almost positive. It would prob be a waste of money applying to too many DO schools. Check the stats posted in the stickied thread- your chances are very high for md.

 

[572776]

I agree with the guy above, you will get into md and do schools with 30+. I would apply to a few md and few Do and then pick whichever one you want to go to 👍

 

[Scalpels]

I'm actually going to quasi disagree with ColeSmalls (he's a great poster to follow advice from, though, so don't get me wrong), just on the ground that I too am an Okie.

You should probably go ahead and apply with OSU-Tulsa's DO school, if you haven't already. OU is actually fairly competitive, even among URMs. So I agree with your original thought that you should probably mix allopathic and osteopathic schools in your application process (but I don't think you need to go way overboard with that).

The redeeming grace you have is that OU HSC prefers OU undergrads. And I agree with the two posters above, I think you'll be more than fine with a 30.

However, I think your clinic volunteering is a bit low. I would go ahead and drop all other volunteering (you have plenty of hours for those), and pick up clinical hours with strong patient interaction.

In the metro area, you have OBI Northgate and Manos Juntas as two great locations for pre-meds to get some clinical experience. Manos Juntas is especially nice because it's on Saturday mornings and you can triage, whereas OBI Northgate is during the week days at business hours (I don't know firsthand what you can do there as I have class during those times). I know OU has a solid pre-med club, I would suggest contacting them on locations/times/etc.

It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and do this to start gaining hours.

 

[DanGee777]

According to the AAMC data:

https://www.aamc.org/download/157594/data/table25-b-mcatgpa-grid-black.pdf

black applicants with your stats (cGPA 3.20-3.39 and MCAT 30-32) had an 82.8% chance of acceptance. Your sGPA is quite low but if your app is complete in June and apply to at least 15 MD schools, you'll get into at least a couple of them. I wouldn't take the MCAT again assuming the subscores are somewhat balanced (no scores below 7). You don't want to run the risk of your score going down a couple of points.

Your chances are also great at DO schools.

 

[Catalystik]

Applying Summer 2012-
DO cGPA,sGPA: 3.45,3.35
MD cGPA,sGPA: 3.35, 3.15

Had a C in calc and retook O chem II for an A, thus the somewhat sizable discrepancy in GPAs' for both.
EC's :
MCAT: 30, retaking in July hoping for 32+
Job for 2 years: approx 15hr/week
Hospital volunteer: transporter department, minimal patient contact
Church volunteer: over 1000 hrs working with kids (want to do pediatrics)
URM: African-American Male
Shadowing: MD(pediatrician) ,DO(surgeon): approx 45-50 hrs, letter from both, letter from committee and one from non-science professor (medical ethics class!)

Oklahoma Resident, with ties to Arkansas (family and all)
Applying to regional MD schools: Arizona,Kansas,Oklahoma Arkansas.
Applying broadly to D.O. schools: At least 10-12 school (i.e ATSU, OSU-COM etc)

Two questions, should I apply only to D.O because my sGPA is insanely low I know, and checking stats for last year, saw that average AA matriculant had stats all lower than mine to D.O? I am very interested in doing D.O., but would give equal consideration if accepted to M.D. program (especially OU), and other question, if i do apply M.D., which ones and any advice is also welcome. (more patient contact maybe?)

If you don't have a steep upward grade trend in the sciences, it would help your case a lot to work toward that over this coming academic school year, letting AMCAS schools know via update letter, and by sending a new transcript to AACOMAS so they can tell their schools for you.

If your clinical experience is as sparse as you suggest, adding more may be critical to your success. This is something else that update letters are good for.

 

[OUstudent25]

sorry to bump this but was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for schools? Those that are URM friendly and don't have a huge regional or major in state preferences (like Texas schools). I'm working to find schools that fit my goals and also schools that promote diversity (like Missouri-Columbia). Any and all advice would be appreciated. Also for anyone who interviewed at Okla-Med, URM or not did you see many or any other minorities there.

 

[OUstudent25]

After some consideration this is the school list I came up with based on either where I would want to be for next four years/ tuition costs/ closeness to home etc. Anybody have any thoughts, suggestions, qualms etc about my list. Anything I should give up on based on stats, URM, regional bias etc.

MD:

University of Oklahoma
University of Colorado
University of Arkansas
University of Arizona (Phoenix and Tucson)
University of Kansas
Univeristy of Missouri
Univeristy of Iowa
Ohio State University
University of Cincinnati
University of Tennesse

D.O.:

PCOM – Philadelphia
PCOM – Georgia
OSU – Oklahoma State
DMU -Des Moines
A.T. Still – Mesa, Arizona
A.T. Still – Kirksville, MO
AZCOM – Glendale AZ