Chances for DO

[Papo1376]

Hey there, first off good evening guys and gals

Well here goes nothing:

I am a student from Puerto Rico and I have a 3.35 Gpa and 3.00Sgpa (both of them are going up to 3.5 and 3.30+ respectively..I know that for a fact ) I have yet to take the MCAT but I am planning to do so very soon. (23-26Scores in Ptests)

For a number of reasons (including health and family) my grades have not been the best (i kick myself around a lot for this) but my desire to attend a DO school is very high.

I believe that I am a well rounded candidate for the following reasons:
- A couple of EC's--> Including but not limited to, Music and sports
- Good to Great LoRs from Professors in Sciences, History, and others
- A couple of Comm. Serv. Hours
- Completing a BA in History ( would that be a disadvantage?)

I believe that i will be graduating with a GPA at or above 3.5 and a sGpa at or above 3.30

What scores would I need to get in the Mcat to even consider applying to DO schools?

Does anyone know if DO schools have a sort of Hispanic MCAT curve? (I have heard that MD schools and Grad schools take into account that English is not the first language in PR and oftentimes use that to justify low-scores)

I know its not the most stellar of apps but...hey, thats life lol

 

[411309]

you're hispanic you got it made. you can do MD the URM thing for MD is more prevalent if i recall. you can go to PR Med Schools easily, their average mcat scores are like 22s or something? lol

do you prefer DO over MD?

I suggest looking at the stickied charts and see how lenient med schools are to URMs..you'll like what you see.

 

[Papo1376]

Oh Dude, you just made my night man Ive been very worried.

To answer your question, yes i prefer DO over MD. Only for personal reasons ( I dont wanna start a flame war ) Also can you throw me the link to the URM posts ( if it isnt too much trouble of course )

 

[411309]

Cool, I prefer DO over MD actually too. Im not sure how much URM status helps with DO so i cant answer that for sure. But for MD it helps a ton.

As you can see here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=12108016#post12108016

 

[Papo1376]

I suppose It could help with DO's as well. I would have to check though. Many of the statistics I saw in the DO books stated that schools had 3-6% Hispanic on average deeming us (I mean me lol) URMs

 

[411309]

Ironically, I just checked the data http://www.aacom.org/data/applicantsmatriculants/Documents/2011Matriculantsummary.pdf

Apparently for DO, it helps for african americans but not hispanics. What the hell is the point of that? Lol. Im just basing this off the gpas of the accepted african americans vs accepeted lations. Latinos pretty much match caucasians. Blacks are a bit lower, so it seems like DO is perhaps a little more lenient towards that and not so much hispanics? lol.

 

[Papo1376]

I saw those scores...The SD is plus or minus so the mean should be 3.15-3.49 for sGpa and 3.2-3.6 Gpa

Mcat 22-27 which is ballpark for me.

Anyways, I'm having a hard time finding a DO in Puerto Rico so its gonna be hard to get a LoR from a DO if there are none here XD

 

[411309]

I wouldn't use SD, go with the mean. It's prob going to be next to impossible finding a DO in PR. I'm sure many DO schools will understand, not all of them require specifically a DO letter anyways. Only some do.

 

[Papo1376]

It would definitely help though. WVCOM says they need one for secondary XD .... Anywho, Im gonna take the MCAT and hopefully get 22-26 and apply to

NYCOM/UMDNJCOM/KYCOM/TOUROCOM/Western U

I think I have good chances for KY, and Nyit.

 

[411309]

it would help but many people have gotten in without one so i wouldnt say it's vital and one of the important parts of your application. It's like the whip creme on a sundae...everyone loves it but if it's not there, it wont ruin the sundae.

 

[Papo1376]

I guess so. Either way thanks for your help and best of luck to you in your DO career. If you get accepted into a DO school lemme know which lol

 

[411309]

Will do, guess ill find out this cycle. Ill ask them if they love Hispanic people while im there, lol.

 

[Papo1376]

My sGpa (since the AOAMAS doesnt count math for the gpa) is higher or rather going to be higher around 3.33-3.40 by the time of graduation

 

[411309]

get a 26 on the mcat and im sure youll get in somwehere.

 

[BestDoctorEver]

Ironically, I just checked the data http://www.aacom.org/data/applicantsmatriculants/Documents/2011Matriculantsummary.pdf

Apparently for DO, it helps for african americans but not hispanics. What the hell is the point of that? Lol. Im just basing this off the gpas of the accepted african americans vs accepeted lations. Latinos pretty much match caucasians. Blacks are a bit lower, so it seems like DO is perhaps a little more lenient towards that and not so much hispanics? lol.

Wow...URM AA GPAs and MCAT are still lower than the average of non AA matriculated students but it's not as a big factor as it is for MD.

 

[Guero]

Hey guys, I'm wondering what my chances would be for DO. Take a peek at my MD Apps. My original MCAT was 230, sGPA 3.80, cGPA 3.82. But I'm likely going to pull at least one, if not two, C+s this semester (Organic Chemistry II & Cellular Bio). This semester I applied to med school, lost a family member, separated from my wife, and found out my dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I thought schools were understanding, since I had extenuating circumstances surrounding my MCAT, but after this cycle, have become far more cynical. Any DO advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and good luck. (I'm thinking PCOM, MUACOM, and CCOM are my top choices.)

 

[Papo1376]

Wow...I just checked...literally no DO's from PR

I dont wanna be the first one...or maybe i do

 

[411309]

DOs sometimes have a hard time practicing in other nations. Im assuming, hence assuming lol, that it wouldnt be bad though since PR is sort of part of the US and that DOs would have no issue practicing there. I could be wrong.

I'm assuming again that the reason that PR has so few DOs is because PR premeds typically have a lot of options for MD so they go MD over DO. That's nothing more then a educated guess though.

 

[Papo1376]

You are probably right. It couldnt hurt to be the first right? lol