BS in Biology Ultimate Goal is M.D. , D.O. , P.A School Need advice

[Dan 313]

Hello everyone,
This is my first post in this forum, so sorry if this information is relevant to any other post. I need advice about my future goal. I just finished my last class to receive my BS in Biology today I would be graduating with a cumulative GPA of 3.1 with a year of research experience and being a teaching assistant for Chemistry labs. My overall goal is to work in the medical field as a M.D. or P.A. I am debating in either doing a Post-Bacc program in order to boost my application in terms of GPA and clinical experience. My second choice is to apply for a Masters in Respiratory care program, and later applying to MD, or PA after a couple months to a year of work experience.
Would RT school be beneficial in my situation, or should I consider another route possibly a masters program?
Thanks for the response

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[pamac]

I don’t know what the best plan would be, but I know you have different plans available to you. I’ll lay out a couple of ideas in here over time. On idea is to forget about MD school completely and focus on Doctor of Osteopathy school, which will still have you practicing medicine as a doctor. That’s a given for you because Md schools are way too picky. You could work on getting into a Caribbean medical school, as they tend to be less choosy than the US MD or DO schools. It’s still medical school, and still tough to get into, but more achievable than places in the US. The issue there is that they are expensive, and you still have to get good grades to not fail out, and to be able to pass your exams so that you can land a residency in the US. So your performance has to show.

Or, you could consider podiatry school. You could easily find a program and get in with your GPA, and you would be a doctor that works on feet. Downside is expense, as these programs are also expensive. And podiatrists compete with orthopedic physicians, who have a clear edge overall.

Physician asisstant school is competitive to get into, probably harder than DO school, and definitely harder than Podiatry school. They want to see great grades, and good health care experience really isn’t as appealing to P.A. programs like they used to look for. The last 5 PA grads I’ve met had virtually no health care experience beyond basic entry level stuff like CNA. Of those last 5 I’ve met, 2 were scribes before applying, which isn’t hands on experience at all.

To get your gpa up, you could do one of those medical science masters degree programs that some places will sell you for over $20k where you take master level science classes. When you graduate, you have a masters degree that is good for nothing else other than getting your grades up, so if you go that route, make sure you make the most of it by getting good grades. Or you could do a clinical laboratory science degree, accelerated RN degree, or repuratory science degree and have a degree where you can make money until you get into a professional school.

But I think Md school is off the table. DO and PAs school are a stretch. And POD school is completely obtainable.

 

[Dan 313]

I don’t know what the best plan would be, but I know you have different plans available to you. I’ll lay out a couple of ideas in here over time. On idea is to forget about MD school completely and focus on Doctor of Osteopathy school, which will still have you practicing medicine as a doctor. That’s a given for you because Md schools are way too picky. You could work on getting into a Caribbean medical school, as they tend to be less choosy than the US MD or DO schools. It’s still medical school, and still tough to get into, but more achievable than places in the US. The issue there is that they are expensive, and you still have to get good grades to not fail out, and to be able to pass your exams so that you can land a residency in the US. So your performance has to show.

Or, you could consider podiatry school. You could easily find a program and get in with your GPA, and you would be a doctor that works on feet. Downside is expense, as these programs are also expensive. And podiatrists compete with orthopedic physicians, who have a clear edge overall.

Physician asisstant school is competitive to get into, probably harder than DO school, and definitely harder than Podiatry school. They want to see great grades, and good health care experience really isn’t as appealing to P.A. programs like they used to look for. The last 5 PA grads I’ve met had virtually no health care experience beyond basic entry level stuff like CNA. Of those last 5 I’ve met, 2 were scribes before applying, which isn’t hands on experience at all.

To get your gpa up, you could do one of those medical science masters degree programs that some places will sell you for over $20k where you take master level science classes. When you graduate, you have a masters degree that is good for nothing else other than getting your grades up, so if you go that route, make sure you make the most of it by getting good grades. Or you could do a clinical laboratory science degree, accelerated RN degree, or repuratory science degree and have a degree where you can make money until you get into a professional school.

But I think Md school is off the table. DO and PAs school are a stretch. And POD school is completely obtainable.

Hello, Thank you for the reply. Would you suggest going into RT school then D.O? I am sure I can get into an RT school with my current GPA. I am just not sure if that's a good route to take. Do you think that D.O schools look down on R.T. clinical experience? Also, which programs would you suggest in Illinois for accelerated RN? Thanks once again

 

[pamac]

I don’t know anything about accelerated BSN programs in Illinois, sorry.

Prior health care experience doesn’t matter to medical schools as opposed to having good grades and good MCAT scores. Some P.A. schools look fondly at health care experience, but they still want to see that you’ve got grades that demonstrate you’ve mastered concepts that are pertinent to the fast pace of P.A. school.

 

[Makati2008]

I don’t know what the best plan would be, but I know you have different plans available to you. I’ll lay out a couple of ideas in here over time. On idea is to forget about MD school completely and focus on Doctor of Osteopathy school, which will still have you practicing medicine as a doctor. That’s a given for you because Md schools are way too picky. You could work on getting into a Caribbean medical school, as they tend to be less choosy than the US MD or DO schools. It’s still medical school, and still tough to get into, but more achievable than places in the US. The issue there is that they are expensive, and you still have to get good grades to not fail out, and to be able to pass your exams so that you can land a residency in the US. So your performance has to show.

Or, you could consider podiatry school. You could easily find a program and get in with your GPA, and you would be a doctor that works on feet. Downside is expense, as these programs are also expensive. And podiatrists compete with orthopedic physicians, who have a clear edge overall.

Physician asisstant school is competitive to get into, probably harder than DO school, and definitely harder than Podiatry school. They want to see great grades, and good health care experience really isn’t as appealing to P.A. programs like they used to look for. The last 5 PA grads I’ve met had virtually no health care experience beyond basic entry level stuff like CNA. Of those last 5 I’ve met, 2 were scribes before applying, which isn’t hands on experience at all.

To get your gpa up, you could do one of those medical science masters degree programs that some places will sell you for over $20k where you take master level science classes. When you graduate, you have a masters degree that is good for nothing else other than getting your grades up, so if you go that route, make sure you make the most of it by getting good grades. Or you could do a clinical laboratory science degree, accelerated RN degree, or repuratory science degree and have a degree where you can make money until you get into a professional school.

But I think Md school is off the table. DO and PAs school are a stretch. And POD school is completely obtainable.

I agree with your post except the Caribbean school option. In 2020 I foresee more IMGs getting shut out due to the merger. I would focus on lower tier MD as well as DO schools

 

[pamac]

True. I didn’t even know about that until you brought it up and I did some research. That sounds like a bad deal for DOs and IMGs.

 

[SLC]

True. I didn’t even know about that until you brought it up and I did some research. That sounds like a bad deal for DOs and IMGs.

Meh, DO’s will be fine. IMG’s...yikes.

 

[pamac]

DOs might be ok. It sounds like DO will no longer be a safety option for folks with poor pre med academic marks.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

If you can get a 505+ in the MCAT right now, you'd be fine for many DO schools. That's assuming you have the other ECs like shadowing, volunteering, and community service.

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[KeikoTanaka]

My DO school offers a Master's program that offers direct matriculation if you score above a certain grade. I don't know the details as I didn't do it, but at least 15 kids from my class did the M.S. program last year and it really prepared them well.

 

[Makati2008]

True. I didn’t even know about that until you brought it up and I did some research. That sounds like a bad deal for DOs and IMGs.

DOs will be fine. I trained in a MD residency which was/is competitive. The big plus for them is the lower tier students will still be able to apply to the traditionally DO programs as well as their “reach” MD programs in a single match.

Also this will be a big plus for MD students who might want to match for example into ortho and aren’t quite strong enough application wise for a MD spot but strong enough for a DO one.

 

[pamac]

Changes like these have reached the point where I’m not interested in trying to keep up on them on my own. I didn’t even know about this. If it doesn’t directly delve into the niche I occupy, I’m not up to speed on the impact of new initiatives. It all sounds reasonable on its surface, though.

So how does it affect IMG’s?

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Changes like these have reached the point where I’m not interested in trying to keep up on them on my own. I didn’t even know about this. If it doesn’t directly delve into the niche I occupy, I’m not up to speed on the impact of new initiatives. It all sounds reasonable on its surface, though.

So how does it affect IMG’s?

AOA basically now owns 30% on voting boards at the ACGME, so the IMGs and FMGs will feel the crunch first (especially those with red flags), then it will be the DOs with red flags. The merger is gonna be good for any competitive student MD or DO (especially informed DOs that have similar apps as MDs meaning taking both USMLE and COMLEX, having research experiences, usually in the top 50 percentile in their class). For me, that's a good step forward for DOs though it will make it harder for the weak DO students to match, but at the same time the strong ones will match better.

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