We will interview them, but tend to disregard rejects from other programs. Doing poorly in other programs doesn't bode well for med school.
Refugees running to Medicine are viewed more leniently than refugees fleeing another program or field, especially Law or Chiropractic.
Thanks for responding. Here's what is kind of tricky about my situation. I wasn't actually enrolled in a "standard" PA program; I was enrolled in an anesthesiology PA program (officially known as an Anesthesiologist Assistant program). I actually did relatively well with the first semester courses, several of which are the same courses as those taught during the first semester of medical school. In fact, in one of the medical school courses, I had one of the highest grades in the class. The course I failed was actually an anesthesia lab simulation course that was taught during the second semester, but since that was the only class I failed, I wasn't technically dismissed from the program (students have to fail 2 courses to be dismissed). However, since that particular course is only taught once per year, I couldn't continue on with the program either. So here I am.
When you say that your program will interview rejects from other programs but tends to disregard them, are you saying that most of the rejects have a decent chance of receiving an interview invitation but will ultimately end up not getting accepted? Or that it's very unlikely for your program to even offer them an interview invitation, save for a select few?
If my GPA is over a 3.45 (sGPA only a ~3.3, unfortunately), and considering that I at least have the advantage of not having to check the "Were you dismissed from another program?" box, do you think I at least have a chance of receiving invitations to interview at DO programs in the southeast?
Here is the other problem with my situation. Prior to going to anesthesia PA (AA) school, I got a Biology degree that I did pretty well in, and the only "bad" grades I made (2 C's) have already been re-taken. So all my other grades that were taken for the degree are either A's or B's, and even when I calculate what my new cGPA/sGPA would be if I re-took the courses that I made B's in that I'd be eligible to re-take, my GPA doesn't receive all that much of a boost, despite AACOMAS's grade replacement policy. So to summarize, whereas most applicants with lower GPAs started off poorly but made improvements later in the course of their college careers, I'm an example of the opposite scenario: I started off strongly and took a nosedive in the later stages of my college career.
In your opinion, can a higher-than-average MCAT score help make-up for my recent poor academic performance? Or do I need to pursue a master's degree in a scientific discipline before any DO schools will be willing to give me a chance?
That leads me to another point -- for both my undergrad degree as well as the AA program I was previously enrolled in, I have already taken the usual upper/grad-level science courses that folks recommend applicants to take to make their application more competitive (e.g., grad-level anatomy, several grad-level physiology courses, other grad-level science courses such as evolutionary biology, etc.). So basically, my situation is extra tricky because I took the various "redemption" courses PRIOR to actually nosediving my academic profile, which leaves me with much fewer options than the typical "lower GPA applicant" when it comes to improving my application on a GPA basis. However, the silver lining (if there is one) is that my GPA is still somewhat competitive for certain programs, and it wouldn't take more than 1-2 semesters of science courses to boost my cGPA to a 3.5 (obviously my sGPA would still be lower). And depending on the particular school's perspective on the value of MCAT scores, I could possibly make my application look more competitive by applying with a higher-than-average MCAT score (although this probably wouldn't make a difference with VCOM, since they don't emphasize MCAT scores much at all).
In your opinion, is spending several years getting a master's degree my only hope for getting in?
