I'm a Louisiana resident attending school in Texas. My plan is to apply next year to both MD and DO schools. I have two questions of which the first is most important. 1.) What can I do too improve my chances based on the stats below? 2.) Should I even bother applying MD as I'm perfectly fine with being a DO. I, also, don't have brand names glittering in my eyes, I've had enough prestige in my life. LSU's 2014 class stats as published on their site is a 3.7 and a 31. I'm very much below these.
Red Flags:
A slew of W's/F's for non attendance, which includes a few multiple "retakes".
Low GPA/High MCAT dilemma.
GPA:
AMCAS - 2.94cu, 2.63sci *Most recent 3yr mean GPA - 3.9 with a significant amount of science classes.
AACOMAS - 3.89cu, 3.93sci
MCAT: 516 balanced
Clinical Exposure:
Hospital ER volunteering: 200hrs ~ 1yr
Nursing Home: 150 hrs ~ 1.5yr
Shadowing: 125hrs broad spectrum
General Volunteering:
Volunteered through company that I owned and cleaned cancer patient's homes: 300hrs ~ 1yr
Elderly Companion (leadership): 150hrs of direct elderly contact ~ 2 years
International non-profit (leadership): 500hrs ~1yr
Leadership:
Founder of a company that I expanded from 1 location to 3 across 2 states over a year. I sold to a competitor after that year.
Founder of an elderly companion group that consisted of intercollegiate chapters and any one in the community that wanted to volunteer.
Founder/President of a non-profit that dealt with my local, national, and African communities.
Hosted multiple running and cycling events across a couple states raising money for different charities.
Research:
2.5 years 3 non-medicine related projects; 1 Math, 2 Chemistry.
2 poster presentations but they are insignificant.
Ill have a strong personal statement for why medicine. I've read multiple times on sdn that if you can see yourself doing anything else but medicine don't choose this route. Well, I've had many experiences with different fields, so I have a strong reason for why I want to be a physician.
I'll have a gap year and I'm trying to decide if I should continue taking classes to raise my GPA further even though it'll make a minute difference. Teach for a year..do an SMP, do more research.. I don't know. Thanks for any advice you can offer!
Red Flags:
A slew of W's/F's for non attendance, which includes a few multiple "retakes".
Low GPA/High MCAT dilemma.
GPA:
AMCAS - 2.94cu, 2.63sci *Most recent 3yr mean GPA - 3.9 with a significant amount of science classes.
AACOMAS - 3.89cu, 3.93sci
MCAT: 516 balanced
Clinical Exposure:
Hospital ER volunteering: 200hrs ~ 1yr
Nursing Home: 150 hrs ~ 1.5yr
Shadowing: 125hrs broad spectrum
General Volunteering:
Volunteered through company that I owned and cleaned cancer patient's homes: 300hrs ~ 1yr
Elderly Companion (leadership): 150hrs of direct elderly contact ~ 2 years
International non-profit (leadership): 500hrs ~1yr
Leadership:
Founder of a company that I expanded from 1 location to 3 across 2 states over a year. I sold to a competitor after that year.
Founder of an elderly companion group that consisted of intercollegiate chapters and any one in the community that wanted to volunteer.
Founder/President of a non-profit that dealt with my local, national, and African communities.
Hosted multiple running and cycling events across a couple states raising money for different charities.
Research:
2.5 years 3 non-medicine related projects; 1 Math, 2 Chemistry.
2 poster presentations but they are insignificant.
Ill have a strong personal statement for why medicine. I've read multiple times on sdn that if you can see yourself doing anything else but medicine don't choose this route. Well, I've had many experiences with different fields, so I have a strong reason for why I want to be a physician.
I'll have a gap year and I'm trying to decide if I should continue taking classes to raise my GPA further even though it'll make a minute difference. Teach for a year..do an SMP, do more research.. I don't know. Thanks for any advice you can offer!
