Advice...I have no idea what to do!

[biodork444]

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Hi. this is my first time posting on this forum, but I thought someone might be able to help me with my current predicament. I applied to eight schools. I got rejected from most schools 😡 , but I am now wait listed at another school and accepted to an osteopathic school. the allopathic school was my first choice to start, but due to my palce on the wait list, they told me that it is unlikely that I will be offered a place in the class. SO....I have choices to make now. I am writing a letter of intent and emailing it and sending it through regular mail. I guess I am planning on going to the ostopathic school, but I am kind of concerned about it, since I came so close in the other allopathic school. I am wondering if it is just better to wait the year and see what happens next year. But of course, I run the risk of not being accepted to the osteopathic school if they catch on to what I may have done or something.I mean, I am getting married this june so I guess I could tell them that I wanted of year of married life or something, but i think the whole thing is kind of a big gamble. Relying on an allopathic school next year because I got wait listed this year may not be the best choice either, but it is my first choice and I really want to go there. I don;t know what to do. 😱 Well maybe I do, but I just thought I could get some feeback from people. Thanks 😳

 

[gschl1234]

Why is the allo school your top choice? Is it something special about this particular school or that you prefer allo schools in general over DO schools? At the end of the day it's all the same so if I were you, I'd go to the DO school, otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered applying to the DO school in the first place.

 

[biodork444]

I want to go to this school because it is my state school and I have wanted to go there since I went pre-med. There are aspects to the school I like, because it does PBL and it has this other program where you shadow a physican for half a day once a week. It is just where I always thought I would end up. I have no problem going to the DO school and I will go there if the allo school doesn;t work out, I am sure, but I just wanted to hear from others that they would do the same...It is hard to be sure that i am doing the right thing. I mean, i am excited either way. 🙂

 

[sistahnik]

well first of all congratulations on the acceptance. what are your reasons for not wanting to go to the osteopathic school? that's what you need to ask yourself first, then maybe ask yourself what it is that you think the M.D. school will offer you that the D.O. school won't. I attended an open house @ a D.O. school last week and I swear the students and faculty almost made me believe that they were the only medical school on the earth. I had an awesome time while I was there visiting, and I also learned alot more about the philosophy from a different perspective. you should try visiting the D.O. school if at all possible and maybe try thinking about the philosophy behind how D.O. students are trained and maybe that will ease your mind about going to a D.O. school, because if you don't understand the background you may not like the training. while at the open house I observed OMM and I think it's a wonderful way to bond with your patient and get them to open up to you. Patients need ppl they can trust. just my .02 cents!!! just think about it.

 

[gschl1234]

I want to go to this school because it is my state school and I have wanted to go there since I went pre-med. There are aspects to the school I like, because it does PBL and it has this other program where you shadow a physican for half a day once a week. It is just where I always thought I would end up. I have no problem going to the DO school and I will go there if the allo school doesn;t work out, I am sure, but I just wanted to hear from others that they would do the same...It is hard to be sure that i am doing the right thing. I mean, i am excited either way. 🙂

I see what you mean. In addition to being a sentimental issue, it's a financial issue. Aren't DO schools generally pretty expensive? Did your state school tell you why they waitlisted you? If that's really the only school you want to attend, talk to the dean and ask what he/she thinks your chances would be if you applied early decision next year. If you can change the aspect of your application that held you back from getting an acceptance, you should try the state school once again. If you don't mind me asking, what is your state school?

 

[yasmeensak]

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[biodork444]

Oh.. my state school is UCONN and after the DO school I will be $154,000 in debt. I have never been in debt. Maybe my dad will pay those off!! doubtful...
Also...it gets worse...I am getting married in June. My fiance has a wonderful job here so we have to have an apartment there and an apartment here and he is going to have to work from the apartment 2-3 days a week instead of being in his office, which i guess isn;t so bad, but that is a lot of driving. Plus...i am kind of a home- body (like to be near the fam),so maybe this whole moving thing might be good, but just don;t wanna do it. I think I might try to contact the dean...it said u can in the letter they sent, so maybe I will try to find out about next year. Thanks for your help.

 

[biodork444]

yasmeen...that was my idea, i didn't know people commonly did that. I am afraid to write schools in case some inside dean spy reads these, but i am accepted to NYCOM. I agree, it is best not to waste time, i am not much of a time waster.

 

[gschl1234]

yasmeen...that was my idea, i didn't know people commonly did that. I am afraid to write schools in case some inside dean spy reads these, but i am accepted to NYCOM. I agree, it is best not to waste time, i am not much of a time waster.

I don't know whether it's very common or not but I bet lots of people put down a deposit and then decide not to go. People who have gotten accepted but are on some waitlists at other schools must lose their deposit so I don't think the schools would be too upset over it. They'll just pull some people off their own waitlists etc...

I feel really sorry for you with your dilemma. I still think it's worth a shot making an appointment to see the dean of admissions and look through our application. Applying early decision next year might do the trick. Good luck 🙂

 

[yasmeensak]

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[Mutterkuchen]

I'm not sure about early decision. If you are low on the waitlist this year, I don't know why they would accept you right away next year. If they really wanted you this year, you would have gotten in or would be higher on the list. If you are going to reapply to Allopathic schools you probably need to improve your application. Retaking the MCAT is the quickest way. But that won't for EDP next year.

If it were me and I wasn't exited about the DO school, I'd retake the MCAT and reapply. Your husband could work at his job for a year, and then move next year when (if) you get in. Or with an improved app, you may get into UCONN. This is somewhat risky, but it is what I would personally do.

By the way debt sucks, but unless you get into your state school or can get a scholarship, it is high at private or out-of-state med schools too.

 

[Adapt]

It is hard to be sure that i am doing the right thing. I mean, i am excited either way.

You will be doing the wrong thing by turning down the DO acceptance. There is no guarantee you will get accepted to your state school next year if you reapply. In fact, if you do not improve your application much, they will reject you.

In addition, you cannot attend the DO school and apply to the MD school while at a DO school. If you get an interview at the MD school, they will ask you what you did over the year to improve your application. Are you going to tell them you were going to medical school?

You do have some tough decisions to make and the debt is a big thing. You have to realize though that most of us are going to be in 200K debt compared to your 154K so you should be happy at least that it's less.

Option 1: You go to the DO school, save a year, and live happily ever after.

Option 2: You reject the DO school, reapply to your state school, and don't get in. The DO school won't take you back since you rejected them already. You are left with nothing and won't become a doctor.

I would go with option 1. 👍

 

[DoctorDoom]

To the OP... can you defer a year from the DO school? Will give you time to reapply and think about what you want to do, allopathic vs. osteopathic.

 

[Sharkfan]

Just to offer another opinion, I would say do what you want and what would make you happy. If you really want to go to an allo school, spiff up your application and try again. Never let anyone talk you out of what you want to do, or get you to think that you are not good enough to do what you want to do.

 

[gschl1234]

I'm not sure about early decision. If you are low on the waitlist this year, I don't know why they would accept you right away next year. If they really wanted you this year, you would have gotten in or would be higher on the list. If you are going to reapply to Allopathic schools you probably need to improve your application. Retaking the MCAT is the quickest way. But that won't for EDP next year.

If it were me and I wasn't exited about the DO school, I'd retake the MCAT and reapply. Your husband could work at his job for a year, and then move next year when (if) you get in. Or with an improved app, you may get into UCONN. This is somewhat risky, but it is what I would personally do.

By the way debt sucks, but unless you get into your state school or can get a scholarship, it is high at private or out-of-state med schools too.

Yes, although you can't assume she got a low MCAT. Maybe her problem was applying too late this year. Some schools definitely implied to me the reason they didn't interview me was because they dind't think I was serious about coming so applying early decision would make it clear that X is your first choice school. Although it would make sense to do that only if you know there aren't any glaring weaknesses in the application.

 

[JayMiranti]

To the OP,

Hey, I am from connecticut and found myself in the same situation last year.. was Uconn your only interview? What were your stats? PM me if necessary...

Anyway, let me tell you a thing or two that I hope helps...

Being on the third tier of the waitlist, you have absolutely no chance of getting in. This is a courtesy, a way of saying: hey we know you are In-state and we dont want to upset you with an outright rejection..we want you to waste your money and time and apply next year, and if you have a 35 on your mcat, well consider you... (slight exageration but not much)


Overall, I have found Uconn to be somewhat misleading and VERY difficult to get into...

Although they are the only state school for CT residents to apply to, they only accepted 27 male students this year and about 35 last year, and that includes minorities, so if you are a non-URM male, your odds are real slim.. i mean the class size is only 80 to begin with...

Last year, I applied with a 26Q MCAT (10v, 7p, 9b) 3.5 and 3.3 bcpm. Got onto the third tier of the waitlist with the same line they sent you... So i found myself in a situation similar to yours.. but no DO acceptance, i didnt apply, so i took a year off to apply again, logical right? I even asked the dean what went wrong and he said it was the mcat.

After retaking the mcat and getting a 4.0 my senior year, I applied again with a 28 mcat (10v, 9, 9) a 3.65 and a 3.45 bcpm (and a math degree). Also, I changed my Personal statement, wrote better secondary essays, and worked as a teacher in bridgeport (underserved area) full time for the whole year. I went on my second interview, talked to the dean who told me that "we are conservatice with our acceptance right away, but later on we will be able to make more offers" and was waitlisted again, same tier...

I had made no progress after a full year. Meanwhile, I got 4 other interviews this same cycle while taking the august mcat (still hoping one school will pan out).The moral of the story?

Uconn is one of those schools with no soul. They pretend to care about your ECs, background, and personality, but when it comes down to it, if your a male non-URM they only care about your #s since they have to meet averages and since they admit so few people.

I thought to myself, no way they would do that to me. Make me feel like I almost got in the first year, lead me to take a year off and improve my app, apply again, interview again, this time more promising, but dun dun dun...what is the result? the same.. they say one thing and do another.. my advice is steer from Uconn clear unless your not a male-URM or you have ridiculous numbers.

sorry for the rant.

 

[JayMiranti]

sorry i was losing it there..

i meant steer clear from Uconn unless your are a URM, a female, or have ridiculous numbers.

 

[biodork444]

Hi.thanks u guys for all the advice. I think i am just going to send my letter of intent and keep on it with the DO school. It seems a little silly to me to wait a year for something that may or may not happen. Because I am getting married and everything it really will delay a lot of important things and who knows, i may really like NYCOM and think that it was a good choice in the end. I think it is a good choice now, but I mean not the best circumstances, but i think i am going to wait and see what happens. I am sorry Jay about your experience. I am a female, but I don't know how much that matters, but you are right that they seem to be accepting more females. I could take the MCAT again, but quite frankly, I was afraid it might go worse. I see how things go. thanks again.

 

[biodork444]

oh yeah, the problem was my mcat. I have great experience and a 3.9 GPA...my mcats were low.

 

[rgporter]

I'd go to the DO school for sure, rather than risk maybe going nowhere. The education is good, give them a couple decades and no one will recognize the difference between DO and MD.

 

[rgporter]

Hi. this is my first time posting on this forum, but I thought someone might be able to help me with my current predicament. I applied to eight schools. I got rejected from most schools 😡 , but I am now wait listed at another school and accepted to an osteopathic school. the allopathic school was my first choice to start, but due to my palce on the wait list, they told me that it is unlikely that I will be offered a place in the class. SO....I have choices to make now. I am writing a letter of intent and emailing it and sending it through regular mail. I guess I am planning on going to the ostopathic school, but I am kind of concerned about it, since I came so close in the other allopathic school. I am wondering if it is just better to wait the year and see what happens next year. But of course, I run the risk of not being accepted to the osteopathic school if they catch on to what I may have done or something.

I'd go to the DO school for sure, rather than risk maybe going nowhere. The education is good, give them a couple decades and no one will recognize the difference between DO and MD.