competitive?

[peabody]

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to strengthen my application to DO schools. I am particularly interested in applying to UNECOM, but plan to apply to a good number of schools. I know people get annoyed by "what are my chances" posts, but any thoughtful advice would really be appreciated.

I graduated last may from a relatively competitive school with a 3.4 GPA in history and religious studies. I am currently working on my premed courses. I've received As in general and advanced bio courses, but chem is giving me a bit of trouble and I expect mostly B range grades in the rest of my prereqs. As far as MCATs, I am guessing (but who really knows) a pretty good verbal score is within my grasp, but I have little idea how I will fare on the other sections.

Non-academically, I am working full time in clinical/translational research at a university cancer center. I have many many hours of hospital volunteering and shadowing, although mostly in high school. Have a lot of social service related volunteer experience, and political campaiging experience (not relevant, but perhaps interesting?).

I don't really have any osteopathic specific experience yet, but have several DOs who have expressed willingness to let me shadow them and I look forward to taking advantage of this when time allows.

My other question: does applying to MD schools as well as DO schools decrease your chances of acceptance to a DO school? Honestly, while I really like osteopathic philosophy and would be very happy to attend a DO school, med school admissions is so tough I want to apply as broadly as possible.

Anyway, any advice on how I could strengthen my application would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Good luck to all applying this year!!!!

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[Fenrezz]

You're on the right track so far. Just see how you do on the MCAT, because that will make a big difference on what happens.

Don't worry much about applying to both. There's a chance some adcoms may look at the fact that you're applying to MD as well as DO (just human nature), but I applied to both and got into a DO school. You have to give yourself the best chance of getting accepted in a highly competitive field.

 

[peabody]

Thanks very much for the reply, Fenrezz, I appreciate it

 

[peabody]

Thanks very much for the reply, Fenrezz, I appreciate it

 

[Green912]

I agree with the above poster. Keep working hard at your courses, study hard for the MCAT and you should be doing well. Make sure you get that DO shadowing in also. It helps quite a bit. As for applying to both DO and MD that's exactly what I'm doing also. I would hope that most adcoms understand what students are going through in terms of competitiveness and the need to apply to more schools. Especially if restricted to a certain geography.