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I have this fear, that this will happen to me when I apply.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
Has anyone ever experienced this?
I have this fear, that this will happen to me when I apply.
Has anyone ever experienced this?
You probably would have had more acceptances last year had you applied to the 3 new schools and maybe LMU.Yeap.
1st cycle I applied with a low MCAT score and late. Also I applied to 4 schools.
2nd cycle I applied with a higher MCAT but I was still low in that sense. Applied to 8 schools with all rejections. PCOM, LECOM, Pikeville, NYCOM, TOURO, VCOM, WVSOM, and one more but I forgot.
3rd cycle: I applied with a higher MCAT, got my Masters in Biomedical Sciences. I applied to LECOM, PCOM, Pikeville, NYCOM, UMDNJ SOM and some other schools. Got an interview to UMDNJ SOM, waitlisted, eventually accepted. Now currently a 1st year at UMDNJ SOM
You probably would have had more acceptances last year had you applied to the 3 new schools and maybe LMU.
Once again, SCHOOL SELECTION put this person at a significant disadvantage all 3 cycles they applied.
It has happened. To those it has happened to, it is often because they:
1) applied late
2) applied with poor grades, poor MCAT, poor LOR/ECs or an incomplete application
3) applied to a narrow selection of schools or schools they had a less than decent chance at being accepted to
Avoiding those can STILL get you finding rejection all around, but at that point it is more just bad luck than your own doing
However, fear of failure is a darn poor excuse to keep yourself from doing what you would want to do.
I applied with above average stats to a bunch of DO schools and the ones I didn't hear back from were the low-mid stat ones.. So if you apply with good stats thinking you'll get into a specific school, good luck.
DO schools in particular seem to like people that know what they want and don't care for applicants with high stats that aren't interested in their school. Getting a DO letter and being truthful and enthusiastic at the interview helps a lot (and in your essays).
A friend of mine applied this cycle with 3.4/29 to CCOM, WesternU, PCOM, RVU, TouroCA, LECOM-B, MSU, and Marian. Got either a flat or a silent rejection from all but Maria where he interviewed and was eventually rejected. Last month, that person added LMU, LUCOM, ACOM, WVSOM, and Pikeville and, still, hasn't received any ii. No red flags. Plenty of EC's and research experience. True story.
A friend of mine applied this cycle with 3.4/29 to CCOM, WesternU, PCOM, RVU, TouroCA, LECOM-B, MSU, and Marian. Got either a flat or a silent rejection from all but Maria where he interviewed and was eventually rejected. Last month, that person added LMU, LUCOM, ACOM, WVSOM, and Pikeville and, still, hasn't received any ii. No red flags. Plenty of EC's and research experience. True story.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a red flag somewhere cause this just doesn't happen for no reasonA friend of mine applied this cycle with 3.4/29 to CCOM, WesternU, PCOM, RVU, TouroCA, LECOM-B, MSU, and Marian. Got either a flat or a silent rejection from all but Maria where he interviewed and was eventually rejected. Last month, that person added LMU, LUCOM, ACOM, WVSOM, and Pikeville and, still, hasn't received any ii. No red flags. Plenty of EC's and research experience. True story.
I'm sorry, but there has to be a red flag somewhere cause this just doesn't happen for no reason
Nope. Outside of RVU, nothing is surprising. Marian gave an interview invite as expected, but they are known for rejecting a ton of people. The rest of the applications are late. If one applies early and broadly, this scenario is avoidable.I'm sorry, but there has to be a red flag somewhere cause this just doesn't happen for no reason
First time around, I applied to a whole bunch of DO programs really late with stats well above average and got rejected at all of them. The next time around I submitted very early in the season and got interview offers from all except 2 which told me they required a DO LOR (which I did not have), and then accepted to all where I interviewed.
How late is late?
Ask him what the schools said (if he contacted any). Weak essays aside, you got ii's from several high stat schools with 3.3/28, and got into COMP (which people sometimes refer to as a low tier MD in competitiveness). Yet crickets with his 3.4/29...No red flags. Nada.
The only 2 things I can think of are 1) the person applied a little late (end of August, beginning of September). 2) They didn't do good quality work on their secondary essays (I read some and it seemed to me that they were rushing through it and didn't put the necessary efforts that correlate to the rest of the application). Still, I still think that this person should have received more ii's.
Besides RVU and Marian, I'm not too surprised about your friend's rejections. CCOM is super competitive, PCOM favors IS, URM or very high stats, WesternU, TouroCA and MSU seems to have higher stat requirements for their OOS applicants. Overall, I think well-established DO schools are not as easy to get into as people think especially if you are not IS.
Best of luck to your friend!
You probably would have had more acceptances last year had you applied to the 3 new schools and maybe LMU.
Once again, SCHOOL SELECTION put this person at a significant disadvantage all 3 cycles they applied.
A friend of mine applied this cycle with 3.4/29 to CCOM, WesternU, PCOM, RVU, TouroCA, LECOM-B, MSU, and Marian. Got either a flat or a silent rejection from all but Maria where he interviewed and was eventually rejected. Last month, that person added LMU, LUCOM, ACOM, WVSOM, and Pikeville and, still, hasn't received any ii. No red flags. Plenty of EC's and research experience. True story.
But WesternU has two campuses, in two different states... Does that mean it favors people from both of those states?
I was referring to Western-Pomana...I'm not sure about Western-Lebanon.but I'm assuming they will favor Oregon residents...did you already take your MCAT? Without your MCAT score its hard to determine anything. As long as you don't completely bomb the MCAT then I think you have a very solid chance at both Western-Lebanon and PNWU.
A < 8 in Biological Sciences may be a bit disturbing.
I just havent taken ochem. If Ochem is only a small part of the Bio section, then I would be able to score higher, if the bio knowledge is the most important.
Ochem is usually 1-2 passages in the biological section out of the 7.
I did pretty well in Ochem and found it to be of little use for the test. Not only did I not get many Ochem questions, the ones I got were really focused discretes that I wouldve only gotten if I was fresh out of Ochem or had dug insanely deep in Ochem minutia study material. Your time is better spent studying for the physical sciences section (via practice problems) or on bio sections where they present series of information (graphs, results, etc) and you have to determine what it means.
I think they will be moving away from heavy Ochem on future tests because a lot of it (except for some acid/base stuff and resonance) is basically completely random and you wont ever use that again. I found that on the practice tests they hit random knowledge heavily but when I came time for the real deal, it really tested whether or not you can see information in a passage and understand the consequences and results from that information. One reason why I think having a biochem section is good; It takes the important stuff from Ochem and puts it into a more reasonable perspective in biology.
Ochem is usually 1-2 passages in the biological section out of the 7.
Oh. How many questions are there per section?
more eloquently... exactly. It was really only stuff late in Ochem II that I found helpful.You could say that for 90% of the MCAT. Ochem is the basis for biochemical reactions.
If I remember its like 4-7 questions per passage and 7 passages, so you have like 35 problems total for ochem/bio. Maybe 7-9 problems will be Ochem. Of those 7-9 maybe 4 or 5 will be common stuff that is consistently hit and will therefore be highlighted in prep books. The other couple questions are like if you REALLY studied Ochem heavily or if you understand and remember it remarkably well from class.
Either way I would suggest not taking it until all of your pre-reqs are done. Will it help? Absolutely. But if the question is whether ochem is heavy or not on it, I would say no.
I found that what was highlighted most and what I shouldve studied more was bio passages that have graphs and stuff and you had to interpret results. Like I wish I could retake my MCAT now that I have professional research experience because I basically do that every day. I spent too much time studying random stuff (cell structure and signalling etc) when I shouldve been studying how to interpret data.
ex. graph shows that some sort of chemical was added to the cells and various responses occur resulting in some cells dying, some cells growing faster etc.
The questions will relate to possibilities of why the cells would be dying, why they are growing faster, what it could mean physiologically (like if the chemical was theoretically a hormone or something). That sort of thing. Which brings me to the one big thing you should study for bio is hormones. Flash card all of them. Its very easy points if you know the hormones: what they do, where they come from, where they are going.
Agree, but I had 3. Two short passages and one super long. I would say, between passage-based and discretes, I had at least 20 Ochem questions. They were tough questions too. Even the typical IR/NMR questions that you find on the practice test were a little harder because the questions weren't straightforward and required more critical thinking.
I admit my exam was an anomaly, but one should be prepared for any possible scenario.
iirc both of my MCATs had 3 O-chem passages. As someone else put it, there is just enough O-chem to ruin your score if you aren't readyOchem is usually 1-2 passages in the biological section out of the 7.
Have you taken the MCAT yet? I sincerely hope that you're trolling. If not, approach it with that attitude and let me know how it goes.I'll keep that in mind. It seems like the bio section should be easy then, just interpreting graphs and stuff? Also, why does everyone say that the MCAT is so hard? All it seems like to me is just interpreting data, except maybe for the physics stuff you actually have to know how to solve problems. But for verbal and bio, it sounds like all you do is interpret data.
144. 52 in each of the sciences in 70 minutes, and 40 in verbal in 60 minutesHow many questions total are on the mcat?
I'll keep that in mind. It seems like the bio section should be easy then, just interpreting graphs and stuff? Also, why does everyone say that the MCAT is so hard? All it seems like to me is just interpreting data, except maybe for the physics stuff you actually have to know how to solve problems. But for verbal and bio, it sounds like all you do is interpret data.