Minimum MCAT score for DO?

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hockeypucks

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I hope I'm not duplicating a thread--all the ones I could find on this topic are ~10 years old.

Anyhow, I'm waiting for my MCAT scores to come back (find out Jul 15th) and I'm wondering what my minimum score should be for applying with this MCAT (vs retaking). I'm signed up for another MCAT Aug 15th but I'd rather not do that.

I have 3.8 overall, 3.58 science and really good ECs and LORs (non-trad).

Can I apply widely with a 25/26 and hope that I can generate interest w/ good GPA and ECs? I'm a NY resident so the DO schools here tend to be more competitive it seems.

Of course, I'm preparing myself for worst-case-scenario here. Any advice would be appreciated!
 
I agree with the two above. A 25/26 will get you in the door for interviews at the very least, so long as each of your sub-scores are >7. In reading through other threads on this forum, scores of 6 and below tend to work against you quite a bit. Keep up the studying while you wait for your score to come back. Good luck!!
 
Yes, but skip the Touros and CCOM.

Can I apply widely with a 25/26 and hope that I can generate interest w/ good GPA and ECs? I'm a NY resident so the DO schools here tend to be more competitive it seems.
 
I've got same sgpa as OP. His cgpa is definitely better but any idea how much more weight his 3.8 would carry versus my 3.3 cgpa (3.8 post bacc/3.5 cgpa last 120 hours/non trad with low cgpa due to poor fresh/soph grades circa 2002-2004)?? Would a 25/26 get me in as well?
 
hockeypucks said:
I hope I'm not duplicating a thread--all the ones I could find on this topic are ~10 years old.

Anyhow, I'm waiting for my MCAT scores to come back (find out Jul 15th) and I'm wondering what my minimum score should be for applying with this MCAT (vs retaking). I'm signed up for another MCAT Aug 15th but I'd rather not do that.

I have 3.8 overall, 3.58 science and really good ECs and LORs (non-trad).

Can I apply widely with a 25/26 and hope that I can generate interest w/ good GPA and ECs? I'm a NY resident so the DO schools here tend to be more competitive it seems.

Of course, I'm preparing myself for worst-case-scenario here. Any advice would be appreciated!
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if you do not care where you go, you can get in somewhere with a 23. Score 27 and you can pretty much write your ticket
 
Goro said:
Yes, but skip the Touros and CCOM.

Can I apply widely with a 25/26 and hope that I can generate interest w/ good GPA and ECs? I'm a NY resident so the DO schools here tend to be more competitive it seems.
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Touro Nevada and Middletown can still be game with a 26.
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
What do you think it is? Gets too hot so many people avoid? lol
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I live just down the street from them. I visited at the beginning of the year. While I don't know about the facilities at the other Touros, the one here was in sad shape. It actually stopped me from applying there. That and I want out of the Vegas Culture.
 
Steele said:
I live just down the street from them. I visited at the beginning of the year. While I don't know about the facilities at the other Touros, the one here was in sad shape. It actually stopped me from applying there. That and I want out of the Vegas Culture.
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I toured Touro-CA and it isn't pretty either. Their cadaver lab is top notch though.
 
Steele said:
I live just down the street from them. I visited at the beginning of the year. While I don't know about the facilities at the other Touros, the one here was in sad shape. It actually stopped me from applying there. That and I want out of the Vegas Culture.
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I have visited Touro-NV and I don't get the dislike. Recorded lectures, no dress code, no mandatory attendance, rotations all local, average tuition, low cost of living, Jewish holidays, major airport nearby...I think it is preferable to at least the LECOM's and the rural/appalachian DO schools.
 
Vegas is a hard place to imagine living until you actually live there. Touro NV is high on my list, hoping I at least get an ii...
 
SynapticDoctah said:
asking for someone else

ca resident
urm
2.8 gpa

what mcat do they need
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With that GPA, it be tough with almost any MCAT. Your friend needs to retake any C/D/F coursework and get that well above a 3.0.
 
thegreatjaspy said:
Vegas is a hard place to imagine living until you actually live there. Touro NV is high on my list, hoping I at least get an ii...
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This. So much of this.

I have lived in Henderson for over 2 years. It's not my cup of tea. Absolutely null culture unless you are gambling. If you are one of those people who say, "Ya. It's got Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Mt. Charleston though!" then you haven't been to those places more than 3 or 4 times. Vegas is also a 5 hour drive from anything. 5 hours to LA. 5 Hours to Phoenix. 5 hours to Reno (why you would go to Reno I have no idea unless you were making your way to Tahoe). The only thing that keeps my sane in Vegas is road cycling.

Sorry, just had to have a little rant about Vegas.
 
Steele said:
This. So much of this.

I have lived in Henderson for over 2 years. It's not my cup of tea. Absolutely null culture unless you are gambling. If you are one of those people who say, "Ya. It's got Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Mt. Charleston though!" then you haven't been to those places more than 3 or 4 times. Vegas is also a 5 hour drive from anything. 5 hours to LA. 5 Hours to Phoenix. 5 hours to Reno (why you would go to Reno I have no idea unless you were making your way to Tahoe). The only thing that keeps my sane in Vegas is road cycling.

Sorry, just had to have a little rant about Vegas.
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Oh, is the road cycling good out there? I might have to pack up a folding bike next time I'm out that way...
 
Steele said:
This. So much of this.

I have lived in Henderson for over 2 years. It's not my cup of tea. Absolutely null culture unless you are gambling. If you are one of those people who say, "Ya. It's got Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Mt. Charleston though!" then you haven't been to those places more than 3 or 4 times. Vegas is also a 5 hour drive from anything. 5 hours to LA. 5 Hours to Phoenix. 5 hours to Reno (why you would go to Reno I have no idea unless you were making your way to Tahoe). The only thing that keeps my sane in Vegas is road cycling.

Sorry, just had to have a little rant about Vegas.
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The fact that Vegas/Henderson is *only* a 5 hour drive to multiple other places makes it shine in my book. You have to realize that everything is relative. The nearest somewhat-medium size city from where I live is 6 hours away. There is one road in and one road out. ANYWHERE in the lower 48 is more accessible than anything here (I'm in Alaska). That being said, I'm moving to the East coast for med school here in 2 weeks (clearly not Touro-NV), but I thought Touro was completely fine. The building is a bit unconventional, but Henderson is a nice, safe place with great schools (if you have kids), and a great cost of living! There are much worse places 😉
 
Steele said:
This. So much of this.

I have lived in Henderson for over 2 years. It's not my cup of tea. Absolutely null culture unless you are gambling. If you are one of those people who say, "Ya. It's got Red Rock Canyon, Valley of Fire, and Mt. Charleston though!" then you haven't been to those places more than 3 or 4 times. Vegas is also a 5 hour drive from anything. 5 hours to LA. 5 Hours to Phoenix. 5 hours to Reno (why you would go to Reno I have no idea unless you were making your way to Tahoe). The only thing that keeps my sane in Vegas is road cycling.

Sorry, just had to have a little rant about Vegas.
Click to expand...
I moved to Vegas about a year ago and though I would hate it. I live on the west side of town and actually find it very similar to the Orange County, CA community I grew up in, except the beach is a lot farther away.... It is a bummer that you are so far from everything, but its really only 3.5 hours for me to get back home to OC, and thats not so bad. I find the people here really nice and the desert scenery is beautiful. I do enjoy red rock casino, red rock park, and mt charleston, especially now that its hot out, but those things are significantly farther from henderson than where I am at now. Living out in henderson you're not far from Lake Mead, which is cool, but not somewhere you're going to spend every weekend. Is it the cooleset place in the world to live, nope, but its hardly the worst and for me it beats out many of the rural locations of other DO schools.
 
SynapticDoctah said:
That's what I thought. She is URM as well. Doesn't that help at all?
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Might help a bit if she was above that 3.0 threshold. There are many places where she'd be autoscreened out of and a human would never look at the application. If you can get past an auto-screen, then it all depends on the rest of the application and how she otherwise looks on paper and how she performs in an interview.
 
I had a 26 when I applied. You should be fine 🙂
 
SynapticDoctah said:
Yes she is black.
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Well, chances are definitely still against her as the average is a 3.3 for black students. The MCAT average is almost a 23. I'd say if she's desperate for this cycle to apply to all schools that screen for 2.75 instead of 3.0, but chances are definitely against her. If she's willing to wait a year, I'd say she'd be better off retaking a few courses. With just getting a 3.0 her chances would substantially increase. She should get at least a 25 to off-set her GPA. Note that this assessment assumes a balanced MCAT, good ECs and an upward trend in grades. If she's lacking on more than grades, she's basically wasting her money by applying.
 
AlbinoHawk DO said:
Well, chances are definitely still against her as the average is a 3.3 for black students. The MCAT average is almost a 23. I'd say if she's desperate for this cycle to apply to all schools that screen for 2.75 instead of 3.0, but chances are definitely against her. If she's willing to wait a year, I'd say she'd be better off retaking a few courses. With just getting a 3.0 her chances would substantially increase. She should get at least a 25 to off-set her GPA. Note that this assessment assumes a balanced MCAT, good ECs and an upward trend in grades. If she's lacking on more than grades, she's basically wasting her money by applying.
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What about Caribbean?
 
AkGrown84 said:
The fact that Vegas/Henderson is *only* a 5 hour drive to multiple other places makes it shine in my book. You have to realize that everything is relative. The nearest somewhat-medium size city from where I live is 6 hours away. There is one road in and one road out. ANYWHERE in the lower 48 is more accessible than anything here (I'm in Alaska). That being said, I'm moving to the East coast for med school here in 2 weeks (clearly not Touro-NV), but I thought Touro was completely fine. The building is a bit unconventional, but Henderson is a nice, safe place with great schools (if you have kids), and a great cost of living! There are much worse places 😉
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Sure. If you are going to compare it to Alaska. And your comment about schools? I don't think so. Clark county (and Henderson specifically) has a notoriously bad schooling. There is only a 65% graduation rate. It's the lowest in the nation for any state. I'm a science tutor at a local college in Henderson, and I was blown away by how bad the school system is.

I will give you the cost of living. I get a two bedroom two bath for 900 a month just a few blocks away from Touro. But you also have to adjust for about $150 electricity bills when summer comes unless you enjoy sitting in 110 degree weather.

It also widely depends on where you live in Henderson with regards to safety. The eastern part is much worse off than the western portion.

My initial point was that Vegas was not for me and I found Touro-NV to be relatively run-down in appearance. Maybe I have higher standards for a school that charges $47,000 per year than you do. Either way. I'm not going to argue my point anymore, and I'm leaving this as it stands.
 
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coolingglasses said:
Oh, is the road cycling good out there? I might have to pack up a folding bike next time I'm out that way...
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Yup. Check out the River-Mountain Loop. It goes from Henderson out to the Lake Mead/Hoover Damn and through Boulder city. Great ride if you can stand the heat. It's 35 miles round trip with a total elevation gain of about 2000 ft.
 
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Steele said:
Sure. If you are going to compare it to Alaska. And your comment about schools? I don't think so. Clark county (and Henderson specifically) has a notoriously bad schooling. There is only a 65% graduation rate. It's the lowest in the nation for any state. I'm a science tutor at a local college in Henderson, and I was blown away by how bad the school system is.

I will give you the cost of living. I get a two bedroom two bath for 900 a month just a few blocks away from Touro. But you also have to adjust for about $150 electricity bills when summer comes unless you enjoy sitting in 110 degree weather.

It also widely depends on where you live in Henderson with regards to safety. The eastern part is much worse off than the western portion.

I'm not going to argue my point anymore, and I'm leaving this as it stands.

My initial point was that Vegas was not for me and I found Touro-NV to be relatively run-down in appearance. Maybe I have higher standards for a school that charges $47,000 per year than you do. Either way.
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Why so hostile?! I was just pointing out that things are always relative. There are always pros and cons to every place, no matter who you are and what you like. I'll give you that the school system as a whole in the Henderson area isn't the best, but by and large, the vast majority of the public schools are rated 7-10 (which is well above average). They're not award winning, but certainly not the slums. Clearly, they realized they had a problem and have been turning it around the past couple years (10-11% increase in graduation rate alone this past year, putting them above the national average). My point is that if you have kids, there are good schools to be found there (buy or rent in the zoning of some of the best schools....not a big deal).

Utilities in every place will fluctuate widely....you could say the same about winters in Alaska. Or summers in Philadelphia (where I'm headed). Or AZ, NV, TX, etc. A bit of a moot point.

Also....I do have to raise an eyebrow at your "safety" concerns. It was named the "safest city in America" several years ago, and has been in the top 3 or 4 since. My interview group discussed this in length with several of the faculty during interview day.....mainly the juxtaposition between NV having the highest violent crime rate in the nation along with Henderson being one of the safest cities in America.

Totally understand about Vegas not being for you. In all honesty, I didn't feel that Touro-NV/Henderson was for me either, but there certainly didn't seem to be anything "wrong" with the school. Have you interviewed or visited other DO schools?! While the building was a bit unconventional, there was nothing really out of the ordinary or "run-down". I believe the value in the school is located in its professors and how the school deals with rotations. A facility is nice, but definitely has little to no bearing on your success as a student or as a physician.
 
AkGrown84 said:
Why so hostile?! I was just pointing out that things are always relative. There are always pros and cons to every place, no matter who you are and what you like. I'll give you that the school system as a whole in the Henderson area isn't the best, but by and large, the vast majority of the public schools are rated 7-10 (which is well above average). They're not award winning, but certainly not the slums. Clearly, they realized they had a problem and have been turning it around the past couple years (10-11% increase in graduation rate alone this past year, putting them above the national average). My point is that if you have kids, there are good schools to be found there (buy or rent in the zoning of some of the best schools....not a big deal).

Utilities in every place will fluctuate widely....you could say the same about winters in Alaska. Or summers in Philadelphia (where I'm headed). Or AZ, NV, TX, etc. A bit of a moot point.

Also....I do have to raise an eyebrow at your "safety" concerns. It was named the "safest city in America" several years ago, and has been in the top 3 or 4 since. My interview group discussed this in length with several of the faculty during interview day.....mainly the juxtaposition between NV having the highest violent crime rate in the nation along with Henderson being one of the safest cities in America.

Totally understand about Vegas not being for you. In all honesty, I didn't feel that Touro-NV/Henderson was for me either, but there certainly didn't seem to be anything "wrong" with the school. Have you interviewed or visited other DO schools?! While the building was a bit unconventional, there was nothing really out of the ordinary or "run-down". I believe the value in the school is located in its professors and how the school deals with rotations. A facility is nice, but definitely has little to no bearing on your success as a student or as a physician.
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Go visit anything located just south of Lake Mead Boulevard or check out the City of North Las Vegas. There is a reason why Las Vegas itself is split into Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. The disparity in Clark County is out of control. (Surprisingly, part of the reason was desegregation, which allowed all the minority communities to gamble away their money in white establishments on the Strip taking money out of their respective communities.) There are extremely safe areas and extremely unsafe areas that change within just 2-3 blocks. Take a look at the Pitman area too. SES changes very drastically dependent on area in Henderson.

Part of the reason I may be biased against Touro is the fact that the school is absolutely unwilling to assist pre-medical students. I was trying to find a DO to shadow in Henderson/Las Vegas, and found there was a big issue. Every single DO in the Las Vegas Metropolitan area I could find to contact was affiliated Touro. Touro has a no shadowing policy for anyone who is not a student with their physicians. I actually took this issue to the Nevada Osteopathic Medical Association which brought the issue up at a board meeting. The response I got from them, and I will withhold the name of the member, was, "Our issue has been that most of the physicians who are interested in taking students have become affiliated with Touro and are taking 3rd and 4thyear students. Additionally, as physicians become employees, it is not always allowed (as in the hospital) to take students. Additionally, it can be an issue due to HIPPA restrictions as well as slowing down the number of patients that can be seen during a day in a practice."

So I went to Touro directly, both on the phone and in person. They literally told me, "It's all about the process. We don't set pre-medical students up with shadowing opportunities." So I brought up the issue of the fact that there are no DO physicians in the area not affiliated with the school. I was shocked when the person actually shrugged their shoulders at me and said it wasn't the school's responsibility.

I eventually had to fly back to my home town in Indiana and use family connections to get a DO shadowing opportunity.

Ya. I got a little off topic, but seriously expletive deleted Touro-NV.


Edit: I forgot to mention. I wasn't being hostile towards you. It was mainly just expressing being fed up with Las Vegas. On another side note. Las Vegas is not known for its quality of services outside of the casinos. It's weird, and something that's hard to express. People are just flat out unmotivated to do their job properly. You will get the best service in the world at a casino/bar, but anywhere else it is just pure frustration (and I'm talking about all businesses, not just food/entertainment). Like I said, it's hard to express. It's just something that has to be witnessed first hand.
 
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