Is it worth doing a Post-bacc?

[Gaintrain14]

I graduated with a 3.42 cum. GPA, and 3.3 science GPA. I was a college athlete, had multiple club leadership positions and was heavily involved in other extracurricular activities. I have about 100 hours of physician shadowing, and 180 hours of clinical volunteer experience. I scored a 499 on my MCAT, then took a prep course and actually scored worse (498). After applying to ~20 schools (DO and MD) for two cycles I have yet to receive an interview invite, and am currently working as an EMT. Should I go for a post-bacc, or just try to retake my MCAT and apply again next cycle? Should I consider applying for PA instead?

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[Gurby]

How many DO schools did you apply to each year? There was no point in applying to any MD schools so let's just discount those.

What is going wrong on the MCAT?

How many full length practice exams did you do before your first and second attempts, from which company (EK, NS, etc), and what were your scores?

 

[Gaintrain14]

How many DO schools did you apply to each year? There was no point in applying to any MD schools so let's just discount those.

What is going wrong on the MCAT?

How many full length practice exams did you do before your first and second attempts, from which company (EK, NS, etc), and what were your scores?

I applied to 6 DO schools last year, and 9 this year. I don't really know what I did wrong on the MCAT. I can memorize pretty well, and have plenty of time to read all the passages, but I guess my reasoning skills aren't good. Even after I read the explanation for questions, alot of times I'm still not convinced the right answer was better than the one I chose (mostly regarding CARS). I took 8 full lengths total, 4 from NS, and the 4 AAMC ones. I scored as high as a 508 a few weeks out from test day, but my scores steadily declined from that point even though I kept studying, and the downward trend continued on test day.

 

[DoctorDragon22]

You are better off doing an SMP

 

[Gurby]

Not sure about SMP... I think OP is at high risk for not doing well in it, and permanently torpedoing what appears to be a salvageable DO application.

Average DO matriculant had 3.45 sGPA, 3.54 cGPA. 502 MCAT. OP is not too far off from that. (https://www.aacom.org/docs/default-...gme-special-report-2017.pdf?sfvrsn=dfb22c97_6)

The negative MCAT trend probably hurts. Applying to 6 and then 9 schools makes it look like OP did no research on how this process works, despite taking 2 shots at it and dumping a bunch of time/money/effort into those apps.

I feel like you might have a shot if you tailor your application more towards DO schools and then apply to like 30 of them. Get some DO shadowing, get DO letters of rec, develop a love for holistic patient care or whatever.

In the mean time probably take 1-2 science classes per term and get A's in them, and figure out what you're doing wrong with studying... A decent MCAT retake would go a long way. Consider hiring someone to literally sit with you and watch you study / reason through problems, because something is going wrong. Obviously the class didn't work. Find a private 1-on-1 tutor to help iron out problems with your thought process.