advice for MD/DO

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Scratch the Caribbean schools. If you need to ask why, you should do some perusing through these forums.
 
yeah I would prefer to stay in US but kinda hesitant with my MCAT.... my EC and GPA are work and stuff is fine (I believe)
 
medschoolplease123 said:
hey so I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. my stats roughly are as follows:

mcat - 500
overall gpa - 3.75
science gpa - 3.85

the schools I was planning on applying to are:
Midwestern College of Osteopathic
UIC college of med.
Loyola
SIU
Rosalind Franklin
RUSH
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Lincoln memorial university

Carribean:
SGU
Ross
ACU

I would prefer to stay in US obvi. Any advice would be helpful also, would you guys mind posting any other DO schools that fit my stats that you might have been accepted to? Thanks!!!
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Say no to Caribbean!!! :pirate:

Is 500 on the MCAT really the best you can do? If yes, mainly aim for DO

If you can get it higher (506+), US MD becomes a good possibility if you have solid ECs given your good cGPA and sGPA. I assume you are an IL resident?
 
haha yeah I don't wanna go Caribbean. and idk maybe a couple points here or there. Yeah I am an IL resident. At this point I would be happy with DO schools.
 
Studied thw princeton and kaplan books. Did the practice exams. Did the section exams and then just reviewed.
 
medschoolplease123 said:
Studied thw princeton and kaplan books. Did the practice exams. Did the section exams and then just reviewed.
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Hmmm...over what period of time did you study, have you taken all of the classes tested on the MCAT, and how much time did you spend studying per day? Given this information, you should be scoring above a 500. A sub 510 score tells me that there are still major content deficits you failed to address or that you are not learning proper test-taking strategies.

Regardless, I think @Goro would be the best person to talk to you about your DO chances. Your MD chances are existent but not confidence inspiring. Your best bets are your state schools and mission driven schools that match a theme in your application, if there is one. The place to improve upon in your app provided you have all of the expected ECs is your MCAT score. I believe that someone who has a 3.85 science GPA can do better than a 509. Much better.
 
I studied for about 2 ish months. About8-9 hours per day. It's my CARS score that is bringing my score so low.
 
Do you know why you were not able to score better? Did you run out of time, or had trouble recalling information, or was it fatigue? If you know what was the issue, then you might still be able to improve and take the test in April or May before the next cycle.
 
It was trouble recalling info on the psych/soc section and mostly the CARS analysis of passages.
 
medschoolplease123 said:
It was trouble recalling info on the psych/soc section and mostly the CARS analysis of passages.
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Then do more CARS and Verbal practice and study your Psych / Soc terms while keeping up with Bio and Chem with flashcards. There is room to improve and that room can be difference between getting to medical school or not.
 
Your mCAT score is lethal for all MD schools, but passable for most DO schools. I would apply broadly, especially targeting the newest schools.

Skip the NY and CA Touros, CCOM, and AZCOM. I can't recommend LUCOM or the new DO school in TinyLittleTown, MN.

Teaching moment: SIU wants people from southern IL, and Central MI heavily favors MI residents.

medschoolplease123 said:
hey so I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. my stats roughly are as follows:

mcat - 500
overall gpa - 3.75
science gpa - 3.85

the schools I was planning on applying to are:
Midwestern College of Osteopathic
UIC college of med.
Loyola
SIU
Rosalind Franklin
RUSH
Western Michigan
Central Michigan
Lincoln memorial university

Carribean:
SGU
Ross
ACU

I would prefer to stay in US obvi. Any advice would be helpful also, would you guys mind posting any other DO schools that fit my stats that you might have been accepted to? Thanks!!!
Click to expand...
 
medschoolplease123 said:
Should i just skip SIU and central MI all together?
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Are you from Southern Illinois? I may be wrong but I think they really take their name into their mission and favor those from southern and some of central Illinois, along with heavy focus on local primary care.
 
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I'm not from southern illinois, I'm from west chicagoland. So yeah i heard they favor southern students more but was also curious on other peoples experience.
 
If your practice scores are only 500, it would be bad judgment to take the test now.... Push it back until your scores improve.
 
Do you guys have any comments about the reliability of the kaplan vs princeton vs the sample AAMC practice exams and how they are compared to the real exam? Like harder or easier did your guys scores change or stay the same?
 
medschoolplease123 said:
Do you guys have any comments about the reliability of the kaplan vs princeton vs the sample AAMC practice exams and how they are compared to the real exam? Like harder or easier did your guys scores change or stay the same?
Click to expand...
The AAMC practice exams are the closest to the real thing. You'll probably score close to how you did on those.
 
Okay yeah that's what i assumed but the only thing is that they tell you the percent you got right not the actual score conversion from like 118-132 is there a source online that represents this? I looked but couldnt find anything...
 
I'm not sure if they fixed the scoring for the Kaplan exams, but the highest I scored on 8 or so full length practice exams was a 503 and got a 514 on the real deal. So the scoring was very messed up at first for Kaplan.
 
medschoolplease123 said:
Okay cool cool. Do you know anything about PR vs. The real mcat? Like difficulty wise
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Nope, only used Kaplan materials and the first official AAMC practice test. Have you taken an official AAMC test? If so, how did you do?
 
Yeah i took the aamc exam. Didn't do as well as i had hoped. Around 70 for each section... 🙁
 
Uhh that was quite a bit ago haha and I don't have access to my score report anymore, but I want to say I had low to mid 80s on Bio and Psych, about a 78 on Chem/Physic and maybe an 88 on CARS? All scores hovered near 80, though.
 
Assuming your mcat does not dramatically rise with a retake, I would apply broadly to non mcat-obsessed DO schools to maximize your chances.
 
medschoolplease123 said:
I'm not from southern illinois, I'm from west chicagoland. So yeah i heard they favor southern students more but was also curious on other peoples experience.
Click to expand...

I go to SIU, from what I've learned anyone from Chicagoland will have a harder time getting in. I'd guess it's a debated topic on the adcom depending on the applicant, so if you apply emphasize any ties to central/southern IL you may have. Also should prob retake mcat as previously mentioned.
 
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