Advice Needed. Feeling hopeless with the Thanksgiving date approaching.

[roxasblade]

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My application cycle feels futile; 1II (DO), 1WL (DO), 2 R (1MD, 1DO), 2 Holds (MDs). 27 silence
Today just got waitlisted at one of my top OOS D.O. school that has an 80% acceptance rate for those they interview (average MCAT 506 and GPA 3.6). I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the school and I felt that the interview also went smoothly (the only issue brought up was that there were typos and grammar mistakes on my secondary app. I was surprised; I think I accidentally copy and pasted my pre-edited secondary from Microsoft word/ google word counter).

If anyone can advise me on what I should do in moving forward, I would really appreciate it. Should I still have hope or should I begin studying for the MCAT in January? Taking it in April? Pre and Re-write my personal statement/secondaries April-June?

I'm currently working in my research lab, EMT, and continuously volunteering at AIDS Services Foundation to keep my application improving. So it would be good to know if I need to step down from my research position to restudy for the MCAT.


ORM, LGBT, Asian Male, California Resident.
GPA s3.37, overall 3.4; Strong upward trend: 4.0 informal post-bac at UCI
MCAT: 511 (131, 121, 129, 130)
Research: ~2500 hours of Research (neuropharmacology lab at UCI): pending first author publication (possibly in a strong journal, such as nature communications)
Paid Clinical: 800+ hours of EMT work, 150 hours of clinical volunteering, 60 hours of shadowing family med MD.
Nonclinical: 500+ hours of working for those who have AIDS-related illness and impoverished (Aids Services Foundation), 125 hours of aquarium exhibit guide
Paid Employment: 200 hours as an AVID tutor (helping and tutoring middle school kids get into a 4-year college)

Completed at most mid-August (8/10-8/14)
MD:
Albany Medical College
California Northstate University
California University of Science and Medicine
Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University
Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin
University of Medicine & Science Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Drexel University College of Medicine
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim
Geisinger Commonwealth
George Washington University - Rejected
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo
Kaiser Permanente
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Loyola University Chicago Stritch
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
New York Medical College - Hold
Nova Southeastern University
Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center
Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian State
New York Downstate Medical Center
Tulane University School of Medicine - Hold
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Riverside
Wayne State University

DO:
Rowan U COM
NYIT COM
NOVA COM
RVU-COM - Waitlisted
CCOM - Rejected
PCOM
Western U - Pomona

 

[DOsoon_2Be]

Don't feel discouraged just yet. There's still plenty of time, especially for DO schools.

Also, I think you're looking into your waitlist a bit too much. I'm sure some of those folks in that 80% accepted post-II may have also been on the waitlist since I'm sure they take number of acceptances vs number of interviews given. Not to mention there's usually always movement in December since that's when people have to start paying their deposits at other places and withdrawing their acceptances.

Just keep on going and have patience.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[Blueprint Med School]

While it's still relatively early for DO schools, it is starting to get late for MDs. This isn't to say that you won't receive any MD IIs, but (sorry!) based on your stats, it's hard for me to say that you will receive an interview at an OOS MD. However, you're definitely competitive for DO, so I wouldn't lose any hope there.

 

[Faha]

Apply to more DO schools this week and I suggest these:
AZCOM
TUNCOM
BCOM
UIWSOM
MU-COM
CUSOM
VCOM (all 4 schools)
LECOM (all schools)
DMU-COM

 

[Osteosaur]

Its rough man.

Your stats are low for MD, to be blunt, especially in CA. I had a very hard time at MD schools because my GPA was on the lower end of 3.6. If you're below 3.5 you may not meet the cut at a lot of places. You kind of need to be 'extraordinary' in terms of ECs to make it over the hump otherwise. That has been my experience reapplying. There is also that 121 on an otherwise great MCAT. I would focus heavily on DO schools. Do you have the letter?

The good news is you are getting interviews still, and you did leave a lot of DO schools off your application that might be good fits. Apply to more.

Better check with adcoms to see how a 121 MCAT might be viewed. personally? I studied while volunteering and working. I found the key to this was to really space out my studying over time. This is just me, but I think a good research job can help build your CV and gives you a little more sense of self respect to just bring in a paycheck. Work experience can also help a lot with 'challenge' essays and so on.

You'll definitely want to rewrite. I reapplied once to the same place with the same essay and they noticed.

 

[roxasblade]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your support and advice.

I decided against becoming a physician because of my personal values. This week has been really rough for me; I even quit my lab I have been in for a year and a half to increase my HCE. However, I am really happy pursuing my new journey as a pre-PA and being able to start my career and life earlier. Maybe my MCAT and the waitlist were blessings allowing me to reflect what I really wanted in life at the end.