Epidemiologist to Physician - Applying in the 2026 Cycle

[Bouba]

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Hi. Just signed up for SDN and going to get this out of the way 🙂. Planning to apply in the 2026 cycle. I’ve had a very nontraditional journey, and I’m hoping someone out there can relate. I plan to apply to MD and DO. Domestically and internationally (UQ-Ochsner, UAG, WCM-Q, ETC.) Here is some info on myself

Graduated undergrad in 2015 with a cGPA around 2.71 — 2 or 3 science courses. I really struggled early on (more on that below). First gen high school grad. First gen college grad. URM. Finished an MPH in 2020 with a GPA of 3.35, and now I'm completed a DIY post-bacc at a community college where I maintained a 3.98 GPA. If everything goes to plan, I’ll end with a BCPM around 3.42. GA resident.

Work/Research (approx. 17,000+ hours total):

• Currently working as an epidemiologist (~5.6k+ hours) - Health education, disease investigation, surveillance, outbreak investigations, diagnostic advice, provide treatment recommendations to clinicians (based on literature)
• State and local public health experience including outbreak investigations, disease surveillance, direct patient testing, and case management (~3.2k+ hours)
• 3 first-author and 4 co-author publications on rare disease case reports
• Extensive applied public health research and data analysis across agencies (~3k+ hours), including Power BI, SAS, SPSS, and program evaluation
• Peace Corps global health work (~ 6k+ hours combined service, including project management, health education, disease surveillance, direct patient interaction, and M\&E)

Volunteering & Clinical (~ 700–800+ hours):

• Clinical/public health volunteering: various roles including health education, HIV counseling, COVID response, and refugee health support (~400+ hours across roles)
• Community and global volunteering: non-clinical volunteer work in many countries (~100–200 hours. not all directly clinical or documented, wasn’t thinking about medical school)
• Physician shadowing ~200 hours. 4 different specialties

Leadership (~1k+ hours):

• Trained multiple epidemiologists and public health folks
• Led grant-funded projects, refugee health initiatives, and national-level data reporting systems
• Peace Corps leadership training and coordination (~1k+ hours cumulative across multiple roles

Upward Trend:

• Freshman year was rough (low 2.0s), sophomore year improved slightly, but by senior year I was regularly pulling As and Bs
• MPH: 3.35 GPA
• Current post-bacc GPA: 3.98, all science courses
• Projected BCPM: 3.42 by end of post-bacc and 2.71 overall
• MCAT: 507. C/P 124, CARS 125, B/B 128, P/S 130

I know my low undergrad GPA will raise questions, but I’ve worked hard to build a story of resilience, professional impact, and academic growth. There are many other things on my resume that I left out as well. Would love any feedback — especially on school lists, narrative building, or ways to strengthen my app.

 

[Faha]

Which URM community are you from ? If you are Hispanic, are you fluent in Spanish ?

 

[Bouba]

Which URM community are you from ? If you are Hispanic, are you fluent in Spanish ?

Thanks for question and reading. African American, male. But am intermediate in Spanish. I took a 3 month long public health course in Mexico (taught in spanish) and have taken week long trips to central America to volunteer. I speak one East African language fluently

 

[Faha]

Thanks for question and reading. African American, male. But am intermediate in Spanish. I took a 3 month long public health course in Mexico (taught in spanish) and have taken week long trips to central America to volunteer. I speak one East African language fluently

Post your MCAT score here in the future. You will be competitive for many DO schools with a MCAT of 500+. You could receive MD interviews with a MCAT of 505+.

 

[Bouba]

Post your MCAT score here in the future. You will be competitive for many DO schools with a MCAT of 500+. You could receive MD interviews with a MCAT of 505+.

Hello. I scored a 507 on the MCAT in September. C/P 124, CARS 125, B/B 128, P/S 130

 

[Faha]

I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
Medical College Georgia
Mercer
U Georgia (Athens-when it opens)
Emory
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
Charles Drew
Xavier (HBCU in Louisiana-when it opens)
Methodist
Belmont
Alice Walton
Roseman
NOVA MD
Miami
Tulane
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Ponce (St. Louis)
TCU
Creighton
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
VCOM (all schools)
CUSOM
ACOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
UIWSOM
LECOM (all schools)
WVSOM
MU-COM

 

[Bouba]

I suggest these MD schools with your stats:
Medical College Georgia
Mercer
U Georgia (Athens-when it opens)
Emory
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
Charles Drew
Xavier (HBCU in Louisiana-when it opens)
Methodist
Belmont
Alice Walton
Roseman
NOVA MD
Miami
Tulane
Wake Forest
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Ponce (St. Louis)
TCU
Creighton
Loma Linda (if you fit their mission)
Also apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
VCOM (all schools)
CUSOM
ACOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
UIWSOM
LECOM (all schools)
WVSOM
MU-COM

Oh wow. I really appreciate you putting this list together

I wanted to ask your thoughts on a few that weren't included, particularly those with strong public health, service, or non-traditional student pipelines. specifically,
USF Morsani
Rush
Loyola Stritch
Saint Louis University
University of Illinois Chicago
Boston University
Georgetown

Do you see these as poor fits given my stats, or? I’m trying to figure out how hard I should target public health aligned programs vs others.

 

[Faha]

Oh wow. I really appreciate you putting this list together

I wanted to ask your thoughts on a few that weren't included, particularly those with strong public health, service, or non-traditional student pipelines. specifically,
USF Morsani
Rush
Loyola Stritch
Saint Louis University
University of Illinois Chicago
Boston University
Georgetown

Do you see these as poor fits given my stats, or? I’m trying to figure out how hard I should target public health aligned programs vs others.

Again, appreciate you. this has been supper helpful.

Rush, Loyola and Georgetown are all reasonable. Your stats are not competitive for those other schools.

 

[A224B]

This person could get an interview at any of those (no guarantees, though), but I'm not 100% convinced there's enough direct patient care experience relative to people with jobs like ER tech, EMT, or even nurses going back for their MD

I don't think you need to apply IMG

 

[Bouba]

This person could get an interview at any of those (no guarantees, though), but I'm not 100% convinced there's enough direct patient care experience relative to people with jobs like ER tech, EMT, or even nurses going back for their MD

I don't think you need to apply IMG

Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify, would you consider my experience direct patient care given that it included hands-on HCV finger-stick testing with results disclosure, counseling, and referral (13 months paid work), as well as HIV counseling that involved documenting viral loads and working with patients on medication adherence and sticking with them until they reach undetectable levels (10 months paid work)? Also, I had other patient-facing roles where I performed rapid testing for various infectious diseases, with direct interaction and results communication (1 year volunteer). Thisis lower-acuity and community-based compared to EMT/ER tech or nursing roles, but wanted to clarify whether you’d still view it as direct patient care. This info is not covered well in the summary I shared above.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the feedback. Just to clarify, would you consider my experience direct patient care given that it included hands-on HCV finger-stick testing with results disclosure, counseling, and referral (13 months paid work), as well as HIV counseling that involved documenting viral loads and working with patients on medication adherence and sticking with them until they reach undetectable levels (10 months paid work)? Also, I had other patient-facing roles where I performed rapid testing for various infectious diseases, with direct interaction and results communication (1 year volunteer). Thisis lower-acuity and community-based compared to EMT/ER tech or nursing roles, but wanted to clarify whether you’d still view it as direct patient care. This info is not covered well in the summary I shared above.

I think conducting health screenings is an important clinical experience (such as HDL/LDL draws or glucose/A1C testing). I'm not sure I'd call it "direct patient care" exactly, but I can be persuaded (like pharmacists giving flu shots vs. doctors va. PA's/nurses).