Chances of Acceptance

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karends

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I am a junior at a small liberal arts college in Missouri. I currently have a 3.3 cGPA and a 3.0 sGPA. I am an Athletic Training major with minors in Bio and Chem. I work part time at a small hospital near my home as a Paramedic, where I work on the ambulance as well as in the ER. I served in the Army before going to college and have work experience in field hospitals in a combat zones as well as stateside. I have 40 hrs shadowing ortho docs and 40 hrs with a DPM. Also, I have 1200+ hrs of clinical experience. I have yet to take my MCAT, but on the practice one we had at my school I received a 28. What I am wanting to know is will my clinical/work experience help my lower GPA's? Also what chance do I have for getting into a DO or MD School? What steps should I take to get accepted from here? I am looking more at DO and DPM schools. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

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First, many thanks for your service to your country.

Your GPAs are well below avg for MD schools, but your state school may cut you some slack, especially if you can score well (>30) on MCAT. You're fine for most DO programs.

I am a junior at a small liberal arts college in Missouri. I currently have a 3.3 cGPA and a 3.0 sGPA. I am an Athletic Training major with minors in Bio and Chem. I work part time at a small hospital near my home as a Paramedic, where I work on the ambulance as well as in the ER. I served in the Army before going to college and have work experience in field hospitals in a combat zones as well as stateside. I have 40 hrs shadowing ortho docs and 40 hrs with a DPM. Also, I have 1200+ hrs of clinical experience. I have yet to take my MCAT, but on the practice one we had at my school I received a 28. What I am wanting to know is will my clinical/work experience help my lower GPA's? Also what chance do I have for getting into a DO or MD School? What steps should I take to get accepted from here? I am looking more at DO and DPM schools. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
 
I am a junior at a small liberal arts college in Missouri. I currently have a 3.3 cGPA and a 3.0 sGPA. I am an Athletic Training major with minors in Bio and Chem. I work part time at a small hospital near my home as a Paramedic, where I work on the ambulance as well as in the ER. I served in the Army before going to college and have work experience in field hospitals in a combat zones as well as stateside. I have 40 hrs shadowing ortho docs and 40 hrs with a DPM. Also, I have 1200+ hrs of clinical experience. I have yet to take my MCAT, but on the practice one we had at my school I received a 28. What I am wanting to know is will my clinical/work experience help my lower GPA's? Also what chance do I have for getting into a DO or MD School? What steps should I take to get accepted from here? I am looking more at DO and DPM schools. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Goro definitely pointed you in the correct direction. I would only add (and you may already know this) that the DPM shadowing is something you would only mention when applying to DPM schools. MD/DO schools generally dont count those hours (someone correct me if I am wrong, but thats what I understood). So I would say figure out which type of medicine you wish to practice (complete medicine as an MD/DO or podiatry as a DPM). Either one will give you a great career with many options.

Best of luck!
 
Small libarts college in mo...Drury? CofO? Washington? My family lives south of Springfield...certainly miss the midwest these days - cheap fishing licenses!

You should really look into AT Still in Kirksville. Did a campus tour a couple of months ago; seemed like a great place to go to school, if you don't mind the rural MO life. I will be applying there myself. In fact, you should probably focus mainly on DO schools, which means start shadowing DOs now so you can succinctly articulate the "why DO instead of MD?" question that will most likely come up.

It is often said that being an older student/veteran certainly puts you ahead of your peers. Why only 1200 clinical hours? Were you in a FOB or some kind of aid station in country? Count those hours...if you were 1) a medic and 2) on a standard 4 year contract, you should be listing 4800 hrs+, and that is nothing to sneeze at.

Can you get rec letters from any of the medical officers/nurse corps officers/pa's that you worked under? Those will help you.

Apply broadly to schools that accept students in the range of GPA that you have. The next best thing you can do is spend PLENTY of time doing QUALITY preparation for the MCAT, and aim for 30+.

Afterthought: can you claim any underrepresented ethnicity? There is a program at Anschutz in Denver, CO that invites rejected med school URMs into a 1-yr master's program and guarantees med school acceptance with completion of the program with a 3.5gpa.

Another afterthought: start diversifying the options you have available to you after undergrad. It's best to have a plan of attack, right? Start looking into special master's programs and post-bacc programs that have linkages to medical schools. U of northern CO has a post-bacc with linkage to Rocky Vista University in Parker - good school in a nice place, within an overnight's drive of MO.

Best of luck to you, good sir!
 
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