-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
Considering reapplying next cycle
Started by Dr.Mobitz
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
It would be helpful to have more info. Complete the WAMC template and post your school list.
Take the DO offer. Beggars can't be choosers. If you have absolutely nothing against DO programs, you should be fine to accept the fact you will start your career in medicine next spring/summer.
You got accepted to medical school. Congratulations. My advice is that you take your acceptance and go to medical school.
OP has a 3.8 GPA and an MCAT that is average for MD matriculants. I don’t think we have to go leaping straight into beggar’s territory without more information.
While DO is the best option for many applicants, it would (IMHO) be somewhat disingenuous to imply that both paths are completely interchangeable. Having the OP end up with a degree they don’t really want and decades of “what ifs” is not a desirable outcome.
While DO is the best option for many applicants, it would (IMHO) be somewhat disingenuous to imply that both paths are completely interchangeable. Having the OP end up with a degree they don’t really want and decades of “what ifs” is not a desirable outcome.
It would helpful to see a full school list and profile but if you applied to appropriate schools both cycles (ie places like Drexel, Hackensack, Rosalind Franklin, your state school, newer schools like Belmont), then I don't see how a 3rd cycle would produce different outcomes.
I wish you had come to us sooner.
I see this pattern often in reapplicants: strong metrics, strong clinical, strong research, weak service. Only I wouldn't call your research particularly strong.
Medicine is a service profession, and school's find it very easy to screen out the applicants who did not get the memo and apply with absent or poor service profiles. I'm not sure what a "recuperative care center" is, but it sounds perilously close to clinical work. If that is the case, dump it in favor of homeless shelter/soup kitchen volunteering or similar. 150 hours will keep you from getting screened out.
School list:
Howard - HBCU, by itself an odd choice.
Toledo - greater than 60% of class is from Ohio. Another odd choice.
Temple - not unreasonable.
Loyola - service heavy, won't give you the time of day.
MCW - not unreasonable.
MSU. - strong in-state bias, not going to work.
Drexel - good choice.
Quinnipiac - good choice.
U of Illinois - another one that isn't too friendly to OOS applicants.
U of Colorado - good choice (obviously).
Penn State - okay-ish.
Tulane - good choice.
ETSU - very strong in-state/regional bias to serve Appalachia. That's why they rejected you pre-secondary.
Of the 13 schools you listed, 6-7 were DOA before you even applied. It is little wonder you are having a quiet, sad cycle.
If you decide to reapply next year, (1) fix the service gap in your profile, and (2) apply to all the private mid- and lower tier schools and consider the handful of relatively OOS-friendly public schools. Historically these include the following:
Albany, Quinnipiac, NYMC, Vermont, Temple, Jefferson, GW, EVMS, VCU, Wake, Western Michigan, SLU, Rosalind Franklin, MCW, Oakland William Beaumont, Roseman, Tulane. If you really buff up your service to truly awe-inspiring levels you could consider Rush, Loyola, Creighton, and Georgetown.
Also, your PS may be trash, but we'll worry about that later.
I see this pattern often in reapplicants: strong metrics, strong clinical, strong research, weak service. Only I wouldn't call your research particularly strong.
Medicine is a service profession, and school's find it very easy to screen out the applicants who did not get the memo and apply with absent or poor service profiles. I'm not sure what a "recuperative care center" is, but it sounds perilously close to clinical work. If that is the case, dump it in favor of homeless shelter/soup kitchen volunteering or similar. 150 hours will keep you from getting screened out.
School list:
Howard - HBCU, by itself an odd choice.
Toledo - greater than 60% of class is from Ohio. Another odd choice.
Temple - not unreasonable.
Loyola - service heavy, won't give you the time of day.
MCW - not unreasonable.
MSU. - strong in-state bias, not going to work.
Drexel - good choice.
Quinnipiac - good choice.
U of Illinois - another one that isn't too friendly to OOS applicants.
U of Colorado - good choice (obviously).
Penn State - okay-ish.
Tulane - good choice.
ETSU - very strong in-state/regional bias to serve Appalachia. That's why they rejected you pre-secondary.
Of the 13 schools you listed, 6-7 were DOA before you even applied. It is little wonder you are having a quiet, sad cycle.
If you decide to reapply next year, (1) fix the service gap in your profile, and (2) apply to all the private mid- and lower tier schools and consider the handful of relatively OOS-friendly public schools. Historically these include the following:
Albany, Quinnipiac, NYMC, Vermont, Temple, Jefferson, GW, EVMS, VCU, Wake, Western Michigan, SLU, Rosalind Franklin, MCW, Oakland William Beaumont, Roseman, Tulane. If you really buff up your service to truly awe-inspiring levels you could consider Rush, Loyola, Creighton, and Georgetown.
Also, your PS may be trash, but we'll worry about that later.
I agree and would recommend aiming for 300+ hours completed in the settings Med Ed mentioned if you are not reliant on the clinical job to support yourself
I agree 1000% here. Many of the schools that have been recommended to you are service loving schools.
As a DO who had good undergraduate stats and came out of his osteopathic medical school and matched at two name brand programs for IM residency and rheumatology fellowship - I can assure you that I’ve never stayed up late at night wondering “god, what if I’d gone to an MD school”. Things have worked out splendidly for me. Your arrogance is pretty obvious.
Does it matter for a few specialties? Perhaps, but for the vast majority of medical students it is not as big of a deal as it is cracked up to be.
I guess I would have asked how the OP came up with the list in the first place and how this list meshed with their purpose as a physician. Time to share the DO list too.
I also feel that most of the clinical experience centers around one IM subspecialty and doesn't cover the full breadth of the medical industry. The OP could be very happy being in allied health helping cardiologists (sonographer, technologist, MA).
Again, without looking in depth at the entire application, I would suggest taking the offer. You will always work hard in medical school no matter where you go. Show us that you are "top brand" resident material.
I also feel that most of the clinical experience centers around one IM subspecialty and doesn't cover the full breadth of the medical industry. The OP could be very happy being in allied health helping cardiologists (sonographer, technologist, MA).
Again, without looking in depth at the entire application, I would suggest taking the offer. You will always work hard in medical school no matter where you go. Show us that you are "top brand" resident material.
Last edited:
I’m simply pro-choice.
