cGPA 3.37 & 499 MCAT

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Jay.bee

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Asking for a friend. She is unsure of the best plan of action on these stats and has been asking me for advice. She has good extracurriculars (shadowing, 1 publication for research, lots of clinical exposure) and went to a large, but not particularly well known state school. I think her best plan would be to A) apply to DO school and/or B) apply to an SMP. She is still favoring MD fairly heavily, so I guess my question is what is the best plan of action?

I don't know if her scores are competitive enough for an SMP, but would a DIY postbacc be an option?

She has a strong upward trend in GPA, and has taken the MCAT twice. The first was a 21, and as the title says the second was a 499. Obviously this is an improvement, but I don't know if it's enough. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hours:
Research - 100s of hours
Shadowing - 100s of hours
Clinical Exposure - 100s of hours
Worked full time throughout school (>40hrs/wk)
MCAT: 21 (quite old, taken early in school) and 499 (just released)
GPA: 3.37

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With two MCATs at that level, both of which are pretty similar, she's not getting into an MD school anytime soon. She needs to come to terms with that because an SMP right now would be a waste of a year and a whole lot of money.

With grade replacement, it's possible she could get into a DO school, but 499 is on the low end of maybe acceptable for DO.
 
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Oh and if relevant: she's white (not URM in any way).

And meant to ask more specifically, is a postbacc a better option than an SMP (if SMP is even attainable with these numbers)? Obviously there is a price difference that is significant, which is why she wants to know. Thank you again for any help you can offer.

edit: Thank you for your input WedgeDawg. I'll have to look up an MSAR equivalent for DO to see what the percentiles are.
 
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It looks to me like the average DO matriculating score is somewhere in the range of 26-27 (according to http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/cib/cib_web_full-publication.pdf?sfvrsn=28). I believe a 499 is ~25... I just don't know how bad it is to have taken the MCAT twice like this.

If she were to retake, and continue taking more undergrad classes in a DIY postbacc, what kind of score would be necessary? Obviously her current score is below the average, but the DO MSAR document that I found does not indicate the 10th-90th percentiles, and these are not available on the MD MSAR.

Again, thank you for the help.
 
She would have a chance at some DO schools such as:
ARCOM
ACOM
BCOM
WCU-COM
LMU-DCOM
WVSOM
UP-KYCOM
LUCOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
NYIT-Arkansas
RVU-COM Utah
Incarnate Word (Texas)
Of course it is important to apply no later than July and submit all secondaries by August since an early application helps.
 
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Her main problem right now is not her GPA - it's her MCAT. And with two below 50th percentile scores with long periods of time between them, it's unlikely she'll be able to improve enough to make MD any sort of possibility.
 
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Her MCAT scores are lethal for all MD schools and probably all but the newest DO schools. She'd be autoreject at mine.


Asking for a friend. She is unsure of the best plan of action on these stats and has been asking me for advice. She has good extracurriculars (shadowing, 1 publication for research, lots of clinical exposure) and went to a large, but not particularly well known state school. I think her best plan would be to A) apply to DO school and/or B) apply to an SMP. She is still favoring MD fairly heavily, so I guess my question is what is the best plan of action?

I don't know if her scores are competitive enough for an SMP, but would a DIY postbacc be an option?

She has a strong upward trend in GPA, and has taken the MCAT twice. The first was a 21, and as the title says the second was a 499. Obviously this is an improvement, but I don't know if it's enough. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hours:
Research - 100s of hours
Shadowing - 100s of hours
Clinical Exposure - 100s of hours
Worked full time throughout school (>40hrs/wk)
MCAT: 21 (quite old, taken early in school) and 499 (just released)
GPA: 3.37
 
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Thank you both for your input. It is a real help!

edit: Thank you all* (Goro just snuck in above me :) )
 
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