Ask a DO application master anything

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Wannabedoc192 said:
Do you think applying this late in the cycle is worth it? 3.4 gpa, 508 mcat, lots of research experience, with decent LORs.
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You’re too late.


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YayPudding said:
I believe in their eyes adherence to the religious side outweighs potential board scores/physician quality.

It was their loss, I'm doing very well at a great DO school 🙂
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Did you have an issue following their mandates?
I've read posts on here that really seem told hold ire with the school for their morality code, but in all honesty I haven't read anything that sounds any more bizarre than your typical catholic school. Am I misinformed?
 
RNthenDoc said:
Did you have an issue following their mandates?
I've read posts on here that really seem told hold ire with the school for their morality code, but in all honesty I haven't read anything that sounds any more bizarre than your typical catholic school. Am I misinformed?
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They actually didn't convey any of that during my interview day (or I missed it). Is it true that drinking and sexual encounters are off limit?
 
YayPudding said:
They actually didn't convey any of that during my interview day (or I missed it). Is it true that drinking and sexual encounters are off limit?
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I'm not sure!
Did you convey a lack of interest in their values or something? I'm just shocked they didn't beg you to come.
 
RNthenDoc said:
I'm not sure!
Did you convey a lack of interest in their values or something? I'm just shocked they didn't beg you to come.
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That was what was perplexing and kind of bugged me. I interviewed well, so it was something else. I sincerely believe it was because I didn't talk about being religious and the influence it may/may not have on me. I interviewed as someone trying to become a physician which worked at other schools...

Whole place was a trip. Was fed brisket in the Jerry Falwell Jr office, it was a hoot
 
YayPudding said:
They actually didn't convey any of that during my interview day (or I missed it). Is it true that drinking and sexual encounters are off limit?
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I have read that these things are off limits per-written rules, but practically are not enforced in most cases. If a student is seen calmly drinking at a bar, sounds like it is okay whereas if they are seen loud and drunk at a bar there is possibility that action would be taken. I have also read that students can live with their significant other pre-marriage but it is safer to do so quietly.

That is just from posts I have read on SDN. Regardless of if the rules are enforced are not, they are off-limits per the rules. I would hate to have the added stress of that liability, even if I was very quiet about it.
 
Hi Master! I want to apply 2018 cycle and like you, I am planning on applying to all the DO schools!
During undergrad, I actually was not involved in anything, except tutoring, and one research internship and one shadowing only during summer. Despite all the time I had, I received cGPA 3.3 and sGPA 3.2 -ish. After graudation, I studied for MCAT while I worked as part time tutoring/teacher in few academies and managed to get over 510+. As of now, I am working in a clinical laboratory setting in a hospital and trying to get some shadowing done as well as try to get some LORs. Do you think I have some chance at DO? Do you have any advice for me? As a back up I am also trying to apply to SMPs during 2018 winter.
 
BlackForestCake said:
Hi Master! I want to apply 2018 cycle and like you, I am planning on applying to all the DO schools!
During undergrad, I actually was not involved in anything, except tutoring, and one research internship and one shadowing only during summer. Despite all the time I had, I received cGPA 3.3 and sGPA 3.2 -ish. After graudation, I studied for MCAT while I worked as part time tutoring/teacher in few academies and managed to get over 510+. As of now, I am working in a clinical laboratory setting in a hospital and trying to get some shadowing done as well as try to get some LORs. Do you think I have some chance at DO? Do you have any advice for me? As a back up I am also trying to apply to SMPs during 2018 winter.
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Good evening,

You should have a strong application especially given your MCAT, though you will likely have to explain your GPA. Some volunteering can't hurt and do your best to get strong LORs. SMP/Postbacc backup is always wise
 
I only went on 2 interviews and already felt it was a drag. I can't imagine doing 30+
 
Are you a Michigan resident? They seem to have a very low-yield OOS matriculation, from my research. Just curious.
 
YayPudding said:
Fellow premeds and soon to be OMS-1's,

It is I, the crazy applicant who applied to every (I think 39) osteopathic medical school offered by our friends at AACOMAS. I received 35 IIs, with only OSUCOM, Rowan, both KCOM campuses and and PCOM GA (I was already accepted to and decided to attend PCOM PA) outright rejecting me. I was interviewed at and accepted to PCOM PA, CCOM, MSUCOM, LMUDCOM, UNECOM, KCUMB, and WVSOM. I was rejected by LUCOM post interview, heh.

It would be my pleasure to field any and all questions regarding applications. I don't really have the time to edit PS or secondary essays, sorry.
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Hi! So my question is possibly very silly but I need to ask because I'm paranoid. I have an interview at a DO school, (my top choice) but I'm wondering if it's a courtesy interview. My MCAT is slightly above their average. My undergrad GPA is not the greatest, but I aced grad school. I'm currently a researcher with posters and my name in journals. Basic EC's maybe a sort of different story than other applicants since I'm older. That said, one of my LOR writers that I shadowed is the dean of clinical affairs and medical director at the school. I'm worried because I got an interview invite within hours of receiving an email saying that they had finished reviewing my application.

So I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is a courtesy interview and I should just not get my hopes up. Any feedback is much appreciated!
 
GTown said:
Hi! So my question is possibly very silly but I need to ask because I'm paranoid. I have an interview at a DO school, (my top choice) but I'm wondering if it's a courtesy interview. My MCAT is slightly above their average. My undergrad GPA is not the greatest, but I aced grad school. I'm currently a researcher with posters and my name in journals. Basic EC's maybe a sort of different story than other applicants since I'm older. That said, one of my LOR writers that I shadowed is the dean of clinical affairs and medical director at the school. I'm worried because I got an interview invite within hours of receiving an email saying that they had finished reviewing my application.

So I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is a courtesy interview and I should just not get my hopes up. Any feedback is much appreciated!
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I've never heard of a courtesy interview and honestly (expletive redacted) any school that would do such a thing. You wouldn't want to attend an institution like that anyway.

I think it's a perfectly legit interview and you're a little anxious and thinking silly. Relax and enjoy! You'll do great
 
I agree with @YayPudding . Medical school is a serious deal. They are not going to offer an interview for courtesy. If you have an interview, I believe you've done enough to raise the adcom's eyebrow and you earned it. Good luck!
 
YayPudding said:
I've never heard of a courtesy interview and honestly (expletive redacted) any school that would do such a thing. You wouldn't want to attend an institution like that anyway.

I think it's a perfectly legit interview and you're a little anxious and thinking silly. Relax and enjoy! You'll do great
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Thank you so much for that! I just needed confirmation that I was indeed being unnecessarily paranoid!
 
GTown said:
Hi! So my question is possibly very silly but I need to ask because I'm paranoid. I have an interview at a DO school, (my top choice) but I'm wondering if it's a courtesy interview. My MCAT is slightly above their average. My undergrad GPA is not the greatest, but I aced grad school. I'm currently a researcher with posters and my name in journals. Basic EC's maybe a sort of different story than other applicants since I'm older. That said, one of my LOR writers that I shadowed is the dean of clinical affairs and medical director at the school. I'm worried because I got an interview invite within hours of receiving an email saying that they had finished reviewing my application.

So I guess I'm just trying to figure out if this is a courtesy interview and I should just not get my hopes up. Any feedback is much appreciated!
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there are no courtesy interviews.
 
My state school offers interviews for every in-state candidate who passes prerequisites, takes an MCAT, and applies.

It is very much a courtesy interview for a lot of people, as they end up interviewing people who don’t have a shot.

That said, unless that was the situation I don’t think it was a “courtesy interview.”
 
RNthenDoc said:
My state school offers interviews for every in-state candidate who passes prerequisites, takes an MCAT, and applies.

It is very much a courtesy interview for a lot of people, as they end up interviewing people who don’t have a shot.

That said, unless that was the situation I don’t think it was a “courtesy interview.”
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Mississippi Med school?
 
Alexandra22 said:
Is it too late to apply to schools like LUCOM and Lake Erie Com at this point? I have a 3.9 GPA but a 498 MCAT, urm black female. Still waiting to hear back from some MD schools... thanks for any help.
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MCAT's kinda low but I sent in DO primaries a week and a half ago and the whole process was very fast. Verified within 2 days, secondaries very quick. And then completion emails very quick as well. I don't know if it's because it's this late in the cycle or if DO schools just move quicker than MD schools
 
I Went to community college for 3 years and then transferred to an university, showing a very strong upward trend in university with above a 3.8 gpa per term for the past three terms. I am graduating this semester and plan to apply to both MD and DO this cycle. But I am unsure if I have chances of getting an acceptance because my stats are on the lower end and on top of it I am an Asian California student. I am not sure if i should even bother doing the AMCAS application because of my stats.

cGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.36
MCAT: testing april 21st

- Leadership: job as a store manager for 2 years. Had a full time job for 4 years of college and taking the last year of college off.
- Clinical experience : shadowing less than 100 hours in an underserved community clinic.
- Medical Missionary trips: 2
- Research: year and a half, and started presenting research this semester.
- Non clinical volunteering: summer spent teaching science to underserved children. Volunteer at convalescent homes over the weekends.
- Current: shadowing at a oncology clinic and looking for a DO to shadow.


- right now I am doing full time school and studying for the MCAT, however, I feel like I am not devoting much time toward the MCAT and will end up with an average score 507-510. I am taking the MCAT in April so that i can apply in June for MD and end of May for DO.

Should I push my MCAT back and try for a better score or just take it so that I can apply early? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks guys!
 
03FB said:
I Went to community college for 3 years and then transferred to an university, showing a very strong upward trend in university with above a 3.8 gpa per term for the past three terms. I am graduating this semester and plan to apply to both MD and DO this cycle. But I am unsure if I have chances of getting an acceptance because my stats are on the lower end and on top of it I am an Asian California student. I am not sure if i should even bother doing the AMCAS application because of my stats.

cGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.36
MCAT: testing april 21st

- Leadership: job as a store manager for 2 years. Had a full time job for 4 years of college and taking the last year of college off.
- Clinical experience : shadowing less than 100 hours in an underserved community clinic.
- Medical Missionary trips: 2
- Research: year and a half, and started presenting research this semester.
- Non clinical volunteering: summer spent teaching science to underserved children. Volunteer at convalescent homes over the weekends.
- Current: shadowing at a oncology clinic and looking for a DO to shadow.


- right now I am doing full time school and studying for the MCAT, however, I feel like I am not devoting much time toward the MCAT and will end up with an average score 507-510. I am taking the MCAT in April so that i can apply in June for MD and end of May for DO.

Should I push my MCAT back and try for a better score or just take it so that I can apply early? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks guys!
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I don't know your state of residence, but if you do well on the MCAT (510ish+) you would at least probably have a shot for your state MD in addition to great chances at tons of DO programs. I think that would be worth it.

Good job getting experiences with your local underserved populations. This is great experience for your app. Get more if you can. Would also see if you can get some clinical volunteer work in. I would have liked to do a volunteer patient advocate position at a hospital were I do go through the whole process again.

I have been told that medical mission trips are not valuable to adcoms. Maybe in very select circumstances they are appropriate to write about or mention in your essays, but I would leave them out of your ECs and application the vast majority of the time. I mean, think about what it is. Medical school admissions are all about showing how modest and altruistic you are, but medical mission trips are clearly a wealthy-person cop-out for going on a vacation and trying to cross off some ECs and feel good about oneself.

Source: I have done them, and did not put them on my ECs.
 
03FB said:
I Went to community college for 3 years and then transferred to an university, showing a very strong upward trend in university with above a 3.8 gpa per term for the past three terms. I am graduating this semester and plan to apply to both MD and DO this cycle. But I am unsure if I have chances of getting an acceptance because my stats are on the lower end and on top of it I am an Asian California student. I am not sure if i should even bother doing the AMCAS application because of my stats.

cGPA: 3.5
sGPA: 3.36
MCAT: testing april 21st

- Leadership: job as a store manager for 2 years. Had a full time job for 4 years of college and taking the last year of college off.
- Clinical experience : shadowing less than 100 hours in an underserved community clinic.
- Medical Missionary trips: 2
- Research: year and a half, and started presenting research this semester.
- Non clinical volunteering: summer spent teaching science to underserved children. Volunteer at convalescent homes over the weekends.
- Current: shadowing at a oncology clinic and looking for a DO to shadow.


- right now I am doing full time school and studying for the MCAT, however, I feel like I am not devoting much time toward the MCAT and will end up with an average score 507-510. I am taking the MCAT in April so that i can apply in June for MD and end of May for DO.

Should I push my MCAT back and try for a better score or just take it so that I can apply early? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks guys!
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Most critical component of your application will be your MCAT. The major factor determining when to take it is when you feel ready and not a day sooner. I would say late-May to early June are still safe so long as your score very well.

High MCAT>>>early application in my book
 
parslea said:
I don't know your state of residence, but if you do well on the MCAT (510ish+) you would at least probably have a shot for your state MD in addition to great chances at tons of DO programs. I think that would be worth it.

Good job getting experiences with your local underserved populations. This is great experience for your app. Get more if you can. Would also see if you can get some clinical volunteer work in. I would have liked to do a volunteer patient advocate position at a hospital were I do go through the whole process again.

I have been told that medical mission trips are not valuable to adcoms. Maybe in very select circumstances they are appropriate to write about or mention in your essays, but I would leave them out of your ECs and application the vast majority of the time. I mean, think about what it is. Medical school admissions are all about showing how modest and altruistic you are, but medical mission trips are clearly a wealthy-person cop-out for going on a vacation and trying to cross off some ECs and feel good about oneself.

Source: I have done them, and did not put them on my ECs.
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Should I also not mention the mission trip in my personal statement? I am from California so i feel like i have no chance at the CA schools.
 
03FB said:
Should I also not mention the mission trip in my personal statement? I am from California so i feel like i have no chance at the CA schools.
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I think you'll get different answers from people on this. Know that it probably won't do much to differentiate you from other applicants because it is a common experience. But if it is super important to you and you write about it well or it is very atypical then I wouldn't necessarily exclude it. What I did was put a lot of effort into finding meaning in other experiences that I thought would be better received.
 
parslea said:
I think you'll get different answers from people on this. Know that it probably won't do much to differentiate you from other applicants because it is a common experience. But if it is super important to you and you write about it well or it is very atypical then I wouldn't necessarily exclude it. What I did was put a lot of effort into finding meaning in other experiences that I thought would be better received.
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did you apply both MD or DO? Do you think based on my stats I should just focus on doing the DO app?
 
03FB said:
did you apply both MD or DO? Do you think based on my stats I should just focus on doing the DO app?
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We cant advise you without an MCAT score. Also one tip. Get both apps done when they open. Apply to one school with each, that way your apps are proccessed and you can add schools that fit your MCAT as you see fit
 
Magus5454 said:
We cant advise you without an MCAT score. Also one tip. Get both apps done when they open. Apply to one school with each, that way your apps are proccessed and you can add schools that fit your MCAT as you see fit
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That sounds like a great idea, I didn't consider doing it that way. Thank you very much. I will start on both apps as soon as they open up and will be taking an FL next week to see if I should stick to my April test date or push it back to May.
 
03FB said:
That sounds like a great idea, I didn't consider doing it that way. Thank you very much. I will start on both apps as soon as they open up and will be taking an FL next week to see if I should stick to my April test date or push it back to May.
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Highest yield practice and best indicators are AAMC material: MCAT Test Prep Products From The AAMC
 
03FB said:
That sounds like a great idea, I didn't consider doing it that way. Thank you very much. I will start on both apps as soon as they open up and will be taking an FL next week to see if I should stick to my April test date or push it back to May.
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03FB said:
did you apply both MD or DO? Do you think based on my stats I should just focus on doing the DO app?
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I applied to one of my state MDs (regret not applying to the second as I have seen someone with about my stats get in there this cycle) and DOs. Like Magus said it is hard to say what you should do without an MCAT score. But when in doubt I say you should apply to both MD and DO because some programs are more mission oriented and might really like your writing and ECs. Just make sure you only apply to schools you would be willing to go to. Really try to research this beforehand. I applied to a number of schools this cycle that I would not have been willing to go to after I learned more about them, and this wastes everyone's time (and puts you at risk of getting an acceptance that you would turn down, which is problematic).
 
parslea said:
I applied to one of my state MDs (regret not applying to the second as I have seen someone with about my stats get in there this cycle) and DOs. Like Magus said it is hard to say what you should do without an MCAT score. But when in doubt I say you should apply to both MD and DO because some programs are more mission oriented and might really like your writing and ECs. Just make sure you only apply to schools you would be willing to go to. Really try to research this beforehand. I applied to a number of schools this cycle that I would not have been willing to go to after I learned more about them, and this wastes everyone's time (and puts you at risk of getting an acceptance that you would turn down, which is problematic).
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what would be the best way to research schools? i was planning on waiting til i get to take an AAMC FL practice exams and get my score and then from there based on all my stats, and EC's coming up with a list of schools to apply to. I will take the AAMC exams in March.
 
Courtesy interviews are definitely a thing! BUT, if you get one, YOU KNOW you are getting one as a courtesy. I.E. you have a specific connection to the school or specific public schools give courtesy interviews to all in-state applicants that meet certain criteria. For specific connections, linkages do come to mind. Ex. Students who went to Loyola Marymount for undergrad have a connection with WesternU for guaranteed interviews.

If you have no trace to why you'd get a courtesy interview, you probably didn't get a courtesy interview.
 
Would you recommend someone with low stats apply to 30+ DO schools like yourself?
 
MADD!!! said:
I’d still apply... remember, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
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I just knew i wouldn't be happy at those schools. I got over 10 II over the cycle so it worked for me. Ended up accepted at my top DO choice
 
Magus5454 said:
I just knew i wouldn't be happy at those schools. I got over 10 II over the cycle so it worked for me. Ended up accepted at my top DO choice
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Yea in that case don’t apply to schools you wouldn’t attend... I thought you meant stat wise don’t apply because you wouldn’t think you’d get in.
 
MADD!!! said:
Yea in that case don’t apply to schools you wouldn’t attend... I thought you meant stat wise don’t apply because you wouldn’t think you’d get in.
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Oh, i only met 2 out of 3 of KCU's required, still got a secondary, interview, and acceptance
 
03FB said:
Should I also not mention the mission trip in my personal statement? I am from California so i feel like i have no chance at the CA schools.
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As an aside, CA residents definitely have it rough. 🙁 still, rock the MCAT and you never know
 
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