Advise

[iurod]

So I have made the worst decision of my life. But let me give some background information. I got a 26N on my MCAT (I know its not great) and graduated with 3.4 sGPA. I went ahead in my stubborn mind knowing I couldn't get into a US MD school and went to the caribbean. I've been very disappointed with the teaching style here. They literally take way to many students than they can handle and since its a trimester program its at a insane pace. Although I've done exceptionally well Ive decided that this is not a conducive learning environment for me.

I really want to give DO school a shot, but I don't know how it will look after withdrawing and attempting over again. Are my chance of getting in done because of my MD past??? Do they even need to know I went to an MD school?

Does anyone have a similar story?

Thanks for any help or guidance

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[hallowmann]

So I have made the worst decision of my life. But let me give some background information. I got a 26N on my MCAT (I know its not great) and graduated with 3.4 sGPA. I went ahead in my stubborn mind knowing I couldn't get into a US MD school and went to the caribbean. I've been very disappointed with the teaching style here. They literally take way to many students than they can handle and since its a trimester program its at a insane pace. Although I've done exceptionally well Ive decided that this is not a conducive learning environment for me.

I really want to give DO school a shot, but I don't know how it will look after withdrawing and attempting over again. Are my chance of getting in done because of my MD past??? Do they even need to know I went to an MD school?

Does anyone have a similar story?

Thanks for any help or guidance

AUC? Good grades there? Did you already withdraw or are you trying to get into a US school first?

As long as you are withdrawing (and not failing out or being dismissed) with a good record of success at the Carib school, you should have a chance at DO schools. You have to report going to a previous medical school. You are explicitly asked that. Don't try to hide stuff like that in an app, its just not worth the risk.

I know a person who did exactly what you are doing. They went to an international school, hated it (did fine academically), and then came back and applied DO. They got a number of interviews at DO schools this last cycle, but I don't know if they ended up getting in. I wouldn't be surprised if they did. Its easy to explain withdrawing from a foreign med school by implying how you reevaluated your plans and found that you'd really only be happy at X-school or X-type of school.

If you haven't withdrawn yet and can complete the apps, I would do that first. If not, don't worry about it.

 

[iurod]

Hi Hallowmann,

Thank you so much for your reply.

It was AUC, I performed extremely well, but wasn't feeling challenged and really didn't like the way things are done here. The focus is mainly on brute memorization rather than understanding. Although I'm a good memorizer that's not the way I intended to learn medicine. My average for all my classes were in the mid 80's. I withdrew this week (I'm still in my first semester) having been fed up with the system and really want to give DO a shot.

Do you know what DO's schools your friend applied?

 

[hallowmann]

Hi Hallowmann,

Thank you so much for your reply.

It was AUC, I performed extremely well, but wasn't feeling challenged and really didn't like the way things are done here. The focus is mainly on brute memorization rather than understanding. Although I'm a good memorizer that's not the way I intended to learn medicine. My average for all my classes were in the mid 80's. I withdrew this week (I'm still in my first semester) having been fed up with the system and really want to give DO a shot.

Do you know what DO's schools your friend applied?

They applied to pretty much all of them in the Northeast/Midwest, but that's because they were from the NY/NJ/PA area. I know they applied to NYCOM, Touro-NY, LECOM, LMU-DCOM, MU-COM, WVSOM, and UMDNJ. I'm not sure about PCOM or OU-HCOM.

So do you have any official grades (like one complete trimester of grades) or will your transcript look like a bunch of withdrawals? If you have grades and they are like you mentioned, I would just apply and see what happens. If you don't you could still do that, but I would suggest trying to talk to admissions staff at any DO school close to your home, and seeing how they'd react to an individual in your situation. Withdrawing is again like I said, much better than being dismissed or failing out, but is not as good as having a strong academic record and choosing to leave.

 

[iurod]

So sorry for my delayed response been crazy busy with moving from the caribbean back to the US. My transcript will show one A- (Histology) and two withdrawals. I'm also from the NY area and plan to apply to most of the schools you mentioned above

 

[hallowmann]

So sorry for my delayed response been crazy busy with moving from the caribbean back to the US. My transcript will show one A- (Histology) and two withdrawals. I'm also from the NY area and plan to apply to most of the schools you mentioned above

Honestly, I'd just make sure to shadow some DOs, get good LORs and apply early and broadly. You might as well try and see what happens, if you have the money for it.