Do I have a shot? INPUT PLEASE

[a5schmidt]

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Heres my stats

Overall GPA: 3.35
BCMP GPA: 3.73
MCAT: 28
State: Michigan

Do I have a shot at any MD, DO schools? I have a year of volunteer work at the YMCA, local hospital, and habitat for humanity. I have also shadowed a MD and a DO for a few days.

 

[Piston95]

I know many people that have gotten multiple interviews and acceptances to MD programs with stats similar to yours. You'll probably have the best shot at your state school. Also add some OOS privates that have average stats similar to what you have. See if you can apply to about 20 schools total. If you throw your name into all those hats, you should get some love from some of them. So to answer your question, yes you definitely have a shot.

Good luck, and don't worry too much.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Heres my stats

Overall GPA: 3.35
BCMP GPA: 3.73
MCAT: 28
State: Michigan

Do I have a shot at any MD, DO schools? I have a year of volunteer work at the YMCA, local hospital, and habitat for humanity. I have also shadowed a MD and a DO for a few days.

Do you mean you've done a year of volunteer work EACH at the Y, the hospital, and HFH, or is that if you add up your time at each of those things, the total would be a year? If it's a year at each, your volunteering/clinical should be alright, if unspectacular.

Unfortunately, with your stats, your ECs really need to be spectacular to get into an MD school. Unless you've got some research or leadership positions you didn't tell us about, you really just have the stock volunteer experiences every applicant has- there's nothing wrong with that, it's just you need something to really impress the adcoms with to distract them from the fact that your stats are low.

In all honesty, even if you had amazing ECs, that cGPA of 3.35 would really be a deal-breaker at a lot of MD schools. If you really want to go for an MD, after about a year to a year and a half of additional undergrad classes with a 4.0 you can probably bring your grade up to a 3.5+, which is really where you need to be in order to have a shot. I would also retake the MCAT, since you'll never have the GPA necessary to cover up a sub-30 score. For you, a year or two off could be very good, as it would give you the time to fix your numbers and turn your average ECs into something you can really hang your hat on.

With stats like yours, I would think you would stand a reasonable shot at some DO schools right now, though I don't think you would be a shoe-in by any stretch.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I know many people that have gotten multiple interviews and acceptances to MD programs with stats similar to yours. You'll probably have the best shot at your state school. Also add some OOS privates that have average stats similar to what you have. See if you can apply to about 20 schools total. If you throw your name into all those hats, you should get some love from some of them. So to answer your question, yes you definitely have a shot.

Good luck, and don't worry too much.

There are no schools anywhere in the country with an average cGPA of 3.35, state or otherwise. For that matter, he's from MICHIGAN, and Michigan happens to be a top 5 med school in the country, so that leaves him with just two state schools, and he's below average on both GPA and MCAT for those places too. If he had a 3.6-3.7, I'd say sure, throw your name in some hats; as it is, he would really be wasting about $2k in application fees in all likelihood to MAYBE get one or two interviews, if that. I think he'd be much better off pocketing that cash and rather than wasting time filling out apps that are all long-shots, spend that time studying for the MCAT, taking post-bacc classes, and buffing up ECs so that when he DOES apply, it'll be the one-and-only time he has to drop that kind of money.

 

[HrryUpNwait]

Your GPA is below the mean for pretty much all MD schools. Your MCAT is below the mean for pretty much all MD schools. Lets remember something though- they are MEANS- half of their students lie above that number, and half lie below. So yes, your chances aren't as good because you would be below on both, but the 30 MCAT and 3.6 GPA are not necessarily mandatory checkpoints- just medium scores for matriculants. I would imagine that you would have a shot if you apply to a lot of schools 15+, write a good personal statement, get some good letters of rec and let the schools know how badly you want it. I am an advocate of always giving it a shot, but money is certainly a factor to consider...

 

[Piston95]

There are no schools anywhere in the country with an average cGPA of 3.35, state or otherwise. For that matter, he's from MICHIGAN, and Michigan happens to be a top 5 med school in the country, so that leaves him with just two state schools, and he's below average on both GPA and MCAT for those places too. If he had a 3.6-3.7, I'd say sure, throw your name in some hats; as it is, he would really be wasting about $2k in application fees in all likelihood to MAYBE get one or two interviews, if that. I think he'd be much better off pocketing that cash and rather than wasting time filling out apps that are all long-shots, spend that time studying for the MCAT, taking post-bacc classes, and buffing up ECs so that when he DOES apply, it'll be the one-and-only time he has to drop that kind of money.

My mistake, I read it as a 3.73 cGPA and 3.35 sGPA. If you're still in school, just make sure you try to do well in the rest of your classes. If your out of school, see if you can do a post-bac program to try and get your gpa up. If you can get to near a 3.6 or so you have a decent shot and should probably try to apply to as many OOS privates (with average stats similar to yours) as you can.

In my original post, I was talking more about Michigan State than U of M. As the OP probably knows, U of M is gonna be tough.

 

[a5schmidt]

I was hoping to take the DO route actually.Do you think I have a shot at MSU or any other DO program (Erie, ect.)?

I already graduated with a business degree with two majors, so im already sitting at over 200 credits, so getting my GPA up would take a long time. I have had a 4.0 in the last 3 semisters (55 credits)

 

[Piston95]

I was hoping to take the DO route actually.Do you think I have a shot at MSU or any other DO program (Erie, ect.)?

I already graduated with a business degree with two majors, so im already sitting at over 200 credits, so getting my GPA up would take a long time. I have had a 4.0 in the last 3 semisters (55 credits)

I think you are good to go for D.O. You might want to post it in the osteopathic forum to see what they think. But from what I've seen and heard, you'll have no problem.

If you definitely want to go D.O because of their approach to medicine (which it sounds like is the case) then go for it. But, if you're using it as a backup to M.D because you don't think you'd get into an M.D program (which some people do) I would also definitely try to apply to some M.D schools as well because I think you would be competitive at some. Remember all the stat averages are just that, averages and many will get in with numbers below that. It sounds you have some really cool EC's too which will help.

But anyways, if you want to go D.O because of their approach def go for it and more power to you. You should have no trouble getting in.

 

[Mobius1985]

Overall GPA: 3.35
BCMP GPA: 3.73
MCAT: 28
State: Michigan

I was hoping to take the DO route.Do you think I have a shot at MSU or any other DO program (Erie, ect.)?

I have a year of volunteer work at the YMCA, local hospital, and habitat for humanity. I have also shadowed a MD and a DO for a few days.

Acceptees to DO schools have a mean GPA of 3.4 and mean MCAT of 24. Considering your recent rising GPA trend, a science GPA that is high, and your above-the-mean MCAT, I think you have a very good chance at DO schools, despite the slightly lower oGPA.

Your extracurriculars as mentioned are good, if you mean to say you've done both humanitarian gigs and the clinical exposure for a year each. You could consider more shadowing, if available. Get to know the DO doc well enough to get a recommendation letter. Some DO schools require a DO letter, but others will take DO or MD letters. For which is which, see:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=10677&d=1217108730

You are also expected to have a leadership experience to put on your application. Additionally, a research experience is valuable (but not necessarily obligatory).

If you haven't seen it, here is a link to all DO schools and their requirements and stat cut offs, as well as application deadlines: http://www.aacom.org/resources/bookstore/cib/Documents/cib2009/2009_CIB_web.pdf

You'll see that MSU's cut offs are GPA 2.7 and MCAT 18, whereas LECOM's are 3.4 and 25. Considering your good science GPA, you might call LECOM and see how rigid their GPA cut off is, since your cGPA is so close.

 

[Mobius1985]

Looking through the LECOM discussion thread in the Pre-Osteopathic forum I found that they aren't at all rigid about their published GPA cut off. See discussion starting with post #54: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=525710&page=2

 

[magikdoc]

Heres my stats

Overall GPA: 3.35
BCMP GPA: 3.73
MCAT: 28
State: Michigan

Do I have a shot at any MD, DO schools? I have a year of volunteer work at the YMCA, local hospital, and habitat for humanity. I have also shadowed a MD and a DO for a few days.

So responding to the original OP... these threads ALWAYS get off track lol... I think if you beef up your MCAT to a 32+, you will offset the low cGPA. Your GPA is .25 below the average, which is somewhat disconcerting, but if you can just get that MCAT up really high... I think the ADCOM's might just have something to go on when they are reviewing your APP. Post-bacc. classes, I think, are a must if you are going for middle to top tier med schools.

Good Luck!