Am I missing anything? Need guidance

[doctorbob23]

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I plan to apply this upcoming 2016-2017 cycle. I wanted to see if there is something else I should do or anything I should add to snag an acceptance somewhere. I plan to apply both md and do..I put in this the DO thread because I mostly plan to apply DO

To start off with a little history I went into college my freshman year wanting to be a cop and pursuing a criminal justice major. My mentality was C= a degree so I didn't really put any effort. I got a hole bunch of F's and even one semester signing up for 4 classes and not even going and forgetting to drop before the drop date (stupid I know I beat myself up for it). Story short I ended up with 11 F's and a gpa of barely over 1.0 Yeah.

Then I dropped out and went to a community college and In that time my father had an ALF business and helping him out I interacted with some nurses and then decided to enter the medical field as a nurse and have been working as one since almost 2 years now at a cardiac floor in a local hospital.

During nursing school I fell in love with the med surg aspect and I started to love the medical "science" of the nursing and started to dislike the nursing aspect.

Right after I started my job I did went back to the same initial university I got the F's and retook all of them and got A's. Every single one. Then I did my bio prereqs including biochem and got straight A's on all of them and A's on every class Iv taken since I came back (mostly science classes since I had my AA). I had salvaged my university gpa to reflect a 4.0 but I know MD amcas calculates all grades

So I will be graduating in summer with gpa of
MD: cGPA 3.1 sGPA 3.4
DO (with grade replacement): cGPA 3.7 sGPA 3.9

I took the mcat yesterday so I don't have a score for you guys but I think I did well.

As far as EC i don't have much since I work 2 nights a week and taking a full load

1.I did tutoring on campus for 2 years.
2. My current nursing job (clinical experience)
3. Shadowed an MD (no DO yet)
4. A semester of research experience mostly psychology based
5. ER volunteering before I got my current job
6. Member of Pre-soma (will do blood drive and community based events this semester and next)

So that's pretty much it. Do you think I am competitive for DO programs? Do I have any shot at md? Is my EC sufficient? Anything I should add? Do you think the nursing experience will help or hurt me?

I know the mcat has a heavy weight but any insight will help. Trying to figure out where to direct my efforts. Thank you

 

[adrian710]

Little EC's for DO is bad news

 

[mathnerd88]

I plan to apply this upcoming 2016-2017 cycle. I wanted to see if there is something else I should do or anything I should add to snag an acceptance somewhere. I plan to apply both md and do..I put in this the DO thread because I mostly plan to apply DO

To start off with a little history I went into college my freshman year wanting to be a cop and pursuing a criminal justice major. My mentality was C= a degree so I didn't really put any effort. I got a hole bunch of F's and even one semester signing up for 4 classes and not even going and forgetting to drop before the drop date (stupid I know I beat myself up for it). Story short I ended up with 11 F's and a gpa of barely over 1.0 Yeah.

Then I dropped out and went to a community college and In that time my father had an ALF business and helping him out I interacted with some nurses and then decided to enter the medical field as a nurse and have been working as one since almost 2 years now at a cardiac floor in a local hospital.

During nursing school I fell in love with the med surg aspect and I started to love the medical "science" of the nursing and started to dislike the nursing aspect.

Right after I started my job I did went back to the same initial university I got the F's and retook all of them and got A's. Every single one. Then I did my bio prereqs including biochem and got straight A's on all of them and A's on every class Iv taken since I came back (mostly science classes since I had my AA). I had salvaged my university gpa to reflect a 4.0 but I know MD amcas calculates all grades

So I will be graduating in summer with gpa of
MD: cGPA 3.1 sGPA 3.4
DO (with grade replacement): cGPA 3.7 sGPA 3.9

I took the mcat yesterday so I don't have a score for you guys but I think I did well.

As far as EC i don't have much since I work 2 nights a week and taking a full load

1.I did tutoring on campus for 2 years.
2. My current nursing job (clinical experience)
3. Shadowed an MD (no DO yet)
4. A semester of research experience mostly psychology based
5. ER volunteering before I got my current job
6. Member of Pre-soma (will do blood drive and community based events this semester and next)

So that's pretty much it. Do you think I am competitive for DO programs? Do I have any shot at md? Is my EC sufficient? Anything I should add? Do you think the nursing experience will help or hurt me?

I know the mcat has a heavy weight but any insight will help. Trying to figure out where to direct my efforts. Thank you

EC's are a little bit on the low side, but we really need the MCAT score to really know your chances.

 

[hopefulERdoc251]

The EC's for a normal app is on the lower side, though I suspect that being a Nurse will most def help with this. If you need volunteering, literally, google volunteer opportunities in *** (wherever you live) and you'll find a lot of stuff to pick from! Also with having about 5-6 months before the app cycle opens, you should be able get a good amount of hours!

 

[AlteredScale]

Agree try boosting your ECs a bit more but all in all whatba great comeback story! If you do well on the MCAT and with some boosting of the other stuff you'll be golden fornan acceptance. The nursing exp would help for sure especially if you explain why you transitioned over from nursing to med.

 

[Howlin_Radio]

I don't think you have a shot at MD without an SMP program. I may be wrong, and a lot of it depends on how your MCAT goes. For example, a 30 flat won't be your saving grace.

It's funny how you guys are stating his ECs aren't good when he didn't put any hours. For instance, 1000+ hours of nursing experience, 100-200 hours of tutoring, 100-200 hours of ER volunteering, 100+ hours of shadowing is actually really good. But of course you'll need LORs.

How many hours do you have in each of those experiences?

 

[doctorbob23]

I don't think you have a shot at MD without an SMP program. I may be wrong, and a lot of it depends on how your MCAT goes. For example, a 30 flat won't be your saving grace.

It's funny how you guys are stating his ECs aren't good when he didn't put any hours. For instance, 1000+ hours of nursing experience, 100-200 hours of tutoring, 100-200 hours of ER volunteering is actually really good.

How many hours do you have in each of those experiences?

You all have valid points thank you for the feedback. I agree that my mcat is prob my saving grace for md and possibly increase my ec for DO schools

 

[Howlin_Radio]

You all have valid points thank you for the feedback. I agree that my mcat is prob my saving grace for md and possibly increase my ec for DO schools

I'm confused as to why you don't think you have any ECs?

2 years of nursing sounds like you've accumulated at least 1000+ on the clinical side. How much ER volunteering? How much tutoring? How much shadowing?

 

[adrian710]

I don't think you have a shot at MD without an SMP program. I may be wrong, and a lot of it depends on how your MCAT goes. For example, a 30 flat won't be your saving grace.

It's funny how you guys are stating his ECs aren't good when he didn't put any hours. For instance, 1000+ hours of nursing experience, 100-200 hours of tutoring, 100-200 hours of ER volunteering, 100+ hours of shadowing is actually really good. But of course you'll need LORs.

How many hours do you have in each of those experiences?

Hours are hours but quality EC's comes from the vast array of exposure including leadership, work, clubs, volunteering clinically, volunteering non-clinically, research, hobbies, and the list goes on.

 

[doctorbob23]

I'm confused as to why you don't think you have any ECs?

2 years of nursing sounds like you've accumulated at least 1000+ on the clinical side. How much ER volunteering? How much tutoring? How much shadowing?

I feel like clinically I'm good as far as exposure and medical school committees know for sure that I know what I'm getting myself into, which I feel is what they really want to see. I don't think they want to see cancer curers just yet. But I feel like I'm missing the non clinical side in life experiences and was wanting to hear a second opinion on how it looks or if maybe I should add something to give a well rounded package. I agree as well with Adrian..I think after x amount of hours it starts being less significant and more of what you have to bring to the table as a result...I just feel like I'm missing that wow factor. anyone think they'll take a part time job as consideration into less diverse EC than maybe someone that has 100% free time?

 

[OrdinaryDO]

Medical schools want consistency, not variety. If you have volunteered for an organization for 3-5 years, for example, then that would almost be sufficient for volunteering. However, you would need to shadow physicians and get some clinical experience if possible. You definitely need to shadow a DO, because this is easily the single easiest application booster for osteopathic schools - it may not be the BEST one, but by far the easiest if you have access to a D.O.. I think if you score anywhere around 498+ you will probably get in SOMEWHERE. Obviously, the higher the MCAT the better your chances, but your comeback story is quite amazing and your nursing experience is invaluable (I am a CNA of 6 years and that seemed to be a very big plus in the ADCOM's eyes). Your MD chances are quite low without a high-end MCAT score, but keep going and shoot for the stars. Very nice job showing your dedication to school to make it back to this point.

 

[Howlin_Radio]

Hours are hours but quality EC's comes from the vast array of exposure including leadership, work, clubs, volunteering clinically, volunteering non-clinically, research, hobbies, and the list goes on.

I agree, but to an extent. The highlighted above must significantly outweigh the others. I'd go as far to say that the rest is only marginally important. Notice I didn't highlight volunteering clinically but just clinically. I don't think it matters as long as it shows exposure to the medical field. This seems to be the consensus from other forum posts, as I'm obviously no expert.

Medical schools want consistency, not variety. If you have volunteered for an organization for 3-5 years, for example, then that would almost be sufficient for volunteering. However, you would need to shadow physicians and get some clinical experience if possible. You definitely need to shadow a DO, because this is easily the single easiest application booster for osteopathic schools - it may not be the BEST one, but by far the easiest if you have access to a D.O.. I think if you score anywhere around 498+ you will probably get in SOMEWHERE. Obviously, the higher the MCAT the better your chances, but your comeback story is quite amazing and your nursing experience is invaluable (I am a CNA of 6 years and that seemed to be a very big plus in the ADCOM's eyes). Your MD chances are quite low without a high-end MCAT score, but keep going and shoot for the stars. Very nice job showing your dedication to school to make it back to this point.

Second this except you really don't want to limit yourself that much. For D.O, 504+ will leave you with options as to which school you'd like to join (maybe not the best options but you'll have a selection). For M.D? I'm not sure, but I'd say 510+ or 508+ depending on your state of residence. But really, that GPA is way out of line for M.D. I'm not sure if an upward trend would even matter with a 3.1cGPA. Your science GPA is also too low. The adcoms know way more than I do. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

 

[68PGunner]

Your chances at a MD is close to zero without further GPA repair or a SMP.

We need that MCAT to make an assessment about your chances. But I would advise you to get your GPA and sgpa over 3.25 to avoid autoscreening.

 

[BombsAway]

Crazy how things change when you toss in a 514 and URM status. Went from being advised to apply DO and sacrifice a goat, to getting 21II and 18A.

Well done DoctorBob. Well done.