Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
But he does not have a higher gpa which is why if he wasn’t an in state applicant to a state DO school he likely would not be matriculating anywhere. The advice was spot on. OP got lucky. I’m very happy for him and I wish the best to him, but future applicants should view this as the exception and not the rule before deciding to drop a lot of money on an expensive med school application with subpar stats.
3.7 GPA, 498 MCAT (24 old scale). I think my ECs helped a great deal, since, as you can see, my MCAT sucked haha
For clarification purposes regarding your comment on me getting lucky-I had a 3.7 gpa (not sure if you would consider that a higher gpa or not) with a handful of interview invites from several OOS DO schools. I cancelled the remaining interviews i had because i was accepted at rowansom, my state-school yes, but my top choice nonetheless (great personal fit, lower cost, close to home, among many other reasons, so it is no wonder i have chosen to attend rowan). The best medical school is the one at which the applicant will be happiest and, for me, that is Rowan. The whole med school app process was quite humbling. I appreciate the help that my fellow SDNers have given me so far. I am sorry to former posters on this thread for coming across arrogant about my acceptance, which was not my intention , and you have given me a great perspective going forward, so I thank you for that. I want my acceptance to be seen as a learning tool for other applicants like my 2015 ignorant self to realize that nothing will make up for an abysmally low mcat score no matter your background, but that if you work hard and put in the time you can get an MCAT score that will get you into medical school eventually
I took the time to study when I wasnt a full time student and realized that its not just content review but practice tests are key (practicing in real test taking conditions). I really just didnt take the MCAT seriously the first time around and thought that everything else in my app could make up for a very low MCAT (boy was I wrong). If you are applying to med school and have this mentality you will be sorry. Now by no means should anyone take advice on mcat prep from someone with only a 498 (24 old scale) but what i did to raise my score was to take the mcat much more seriously. I studied to get a 500+ because i knew thats really what i had to do. I was scoring consistent 503s on AAMC practice tests right before test day so I think nerves or something got to me I will never know (i think studying from AAMC material was extremely valuable tbh). Also, imo Kaplan was not helpful at all and EK was very helpful for content review if you want to get back to the basics and are far removed from material for those non-trad applicants. The MCAT is no joke at all, but i really didnt care to really knock the test out out of the park and score a 510+ (not sure if I even could if I tried but just saying in general) bc i knew i wanted to go DO and wasting my time knowing every detail about pre-med material (physics chem etc) that Ill never use felt like I could have spent my time learning other more valuable things in my preparation for medical school
A 3.7 would be acceptable with an mcat on lowish side like yours. My previous post was in regards to your original post in this thread. You had a 2.4cgpa and a second degree in biology that ended up being a 3.67 gpa. I don’t see how that alone netted you a 3.7 gpa. That’s why I was making a “readers beware” post.
I wasnt finished with grad school yet. I had another full year to go. I graduated with a 3.7 sGPA in the end a second degree in biology that was a 3.7 and a cumulative for all classes ever taken combined of a 3.4 (undergrad included) when you include my abysmal 2.4 from undergrad in 2011. i was a non-trad with massive grade repair but med schools didnt care about my 2.4 because of my upward trend and re-invention
In biology for your second degree right?
correct
So when you submitted to aacomas, your first degree in sociology didn’t bring down your overall gpa?
It did bring down my oAGPA. read my post again a few posts up
I had a 3.7sGPA a 3.7 gpa in my second degree in biology and a 3.4 oaGPA bc of my 2.4 but like i said med schools cared less about my 2.4. I took like 320 credits since undergrad and it was back in 2011. Re-invention and upward trend kind of made the 2.4 less important.
3.7 sGPA, 3.4 oaGPA (bc of the 2.4). But like i said med schools really only cared about my sGPA my 2.4 was kind of negligible at this point
I’ll lay off the 5th degree. I didn’t realize you explained in another post that it was actually a 3.4 so I was confused. You put in some serious work and took enough courses to get almost 3 degrees. That’s a pretty solid underdog success story if I ever heard one. Congrats.
No worries Ho0v sorry for the confusion. Thank you!
I am definitely planning on leaving manipulation behind for good other than the required courses i will have to take in med school since I am doing DO and will have to take OMM. Manipulation isnt something that I really enjoy or have a passion for. I am keeping my options open at this point until 3rd and 4th yr rotations and step/comlex scores but i am thinking IM/FM or potentially surgery (I love ENT but i know how competitive it is especially as a DO-so i need to see how board scores, any research and the connections i may form through school turn out). But as a DC and practicing in a sports medicine practice I know 100% for sure that I dont want to go into any of the MSK specialties like Ortho or PM&R. I also know i dont want to do Rads, since i was not big on dx rads or neurorads in chiro school and i read xrays on the reg and really dont like it, plus i also like patient contact, being apart of their health and care plans and love treating patients so rads is out for sure.
I honestly didnt have the grades or confidence to think i could attend med school right out of undergrad and i figured chiro would allow me to diagnose and treat patients but they would also accept me with my grades. however i figured out quickly that while in school i was spending all of my time studying ENT derm endocrinology etc and all those courses and did not like ortho or manipulation classes at all which all my classmates loved. instarted shadowing MDs/DOs and did rotations in the DC program in multidisciplinary clinics and then realized how much i really loved medicine. then after i got into practice i realized how limited i was to treat anyone and any internal disorders they had but of course it was dx and tx by their MD/DO already and their was nothing i could do about it. Thats when i was 100% sure medicine was for me!
That was a "what if" score since i took a few nextsteptestprep practice tests and my scores on the practice tests were 508s but found out later how incredibly curved their scoring is. I was wondering where i could have gotten in if I had actualy got a 508
higher than expected on my my nextstep practice tests that i later discovered were inflated since the practice tests were curved apparently but was (falsely) told before that that they most closely paralleled the real thing
Oh yes! I remember you from back in the day! Cocky would be an understatement lol! Glad to hear that things are going well now, but you gotta wonder if that "cockiness" turned off some prospective students to this path.
Haha thanks! what specialty are you? I ended going into Allergy and love it
Cocky is definitely an understatement haha. I remember you from back in the days bro lol. Really happy to see you thriving after all the hard work you’ve put in. Good job on getting into Allergy fellowship!
