MD & DO Reapplicant- 506, 3.63, please help

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Ozzy2017

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I am a recent Biochemistry graduate from a state college in Pennsylvania.

This past cycle, I applied to 21 MD and 4 DO. received all rejections from MD, still heard nothing from DO schools.

- 506 MCAT: ( 129, 124, 127, 126), cGPA: 3.63, sGPA: 3.59

- Immigrated to the United States six years ago, trilingual ( no Spanish, Eastern European languages), unique life story. personal statement about chronic illness in a family member and great exposure to medicine because of it. This is the main reason why I am pursuing medicine.

- Currently working in a prestigious lab at a local cancer center, will have about 1000+ hours when I reapply next cycle, don't think I'll have any publication but who knows.

Clinical experience: Volunteering in a P.A.C.U unit at a local hospital for about 100 hours.
currently volunteering at a local hospice so will have probably another 100+ hours by the time I apply in June.

Non- Clinical Volunteering: Currently volunteering with the American Red Cross, help with organizing blood donation events, calling people, transportation of blood product to the local airport.
Currently also volunteering at a local food warehouse where we package food for people in need, we also deliver it to them twice a month.
Will have probably 100-200 hours invested in those opportunities by June.

Shadowing: about 120 hours at a Pre-Med program in a local hospital, shadowed many physicians.

Leadership: Vice president of a Health Club at my local university for a year, didn't have much time to be very involved, see below.

Had to work 20-30 hours a week throughout my college career to help my parents pay for the bills and my education. Didn't have much time for extracurricular activities or non-clinical volunteering during my time at the University.

Currently, I do not have a letter from a physician, I have 2 science professors and 2 non science professors and a committee letter from my undergrad.
When I reapply, I will have a letter from an MD/PhD physician that I do research with.

Ethnicity: White, eastern European.

Please help by advising me my chances for MD vs DO, possible school list for next year. Should I retake the MCAT or go to SMP/Post-Bacc?

Thank you, everybody!

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I am surprised you have not heard anything from DO schools. When did you apply and complete your secondaries for the MD and DO schools? Which DO schools did you apply to?
 
I am surprised you have not heard anything from DO schools. When did you apply and complete your secondaries for the MD and DO schools? Which DO schools did you apply to?

Hi,

PCOM- philly (submitted secondary 08/19)
Rowan (secondary- 09/7)
NYIT ( secondary - 10/26)
Touro ( secondary - 10/28)

Based on AACOMAS, i have 3.5 sGPA and 3.7 cGPA.

For MD schools I was done with most of them in late August, but all were definitely in by labor day.
 
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@Goro I know that you are an expert on this topic, can I please get your input?
Thanks!
 
Your immigrant status might be the issue. Do you have green card or citizenship?

If yes to either, then perhaps a very lethal LOR, IAs, poorly written essays?

Hi @Goro

I was naturalized last year so I do have my American citizenship.

No IA's, never had anything below a B, no W or incompletes.

For my essays, I had help from a family friend who is a nurse, so I believe that they are average to strong.

About LOR, I did try to email my Pre-Health adviser about it but she said that due to some agreement that all students had to sign, she can't disclose any information about them. If the issue really lies with my LOR, what should I do?

And do you think I am a competitive candidate for next cycle with all the new activities that I am involved with at the moment?
 
What activities are different between the application last cycle and next year? Still surprised you did not get any love. What was your MD school list?
 
What activities are different between the application last cycle and next year? Still surprised you did not get any love. What was your MD school list?

I started doing research (never had enough time during undergrad because of work), hospice volunteering and non clinical volunteering after December graduation. I did send an update letter to all MD and DO schools and still got rejections.

MD list contained: Temple, Penn State, Jefferson, Drexel, Commonwealth, Pitt, Hofstra, Rochester, Einstein, Sinai, Quinnipiac, NYMC, Brown, Columbia, Indiana University, Tufts, George Washington, Georgetown, Wright State University, Albany and NYU.
All rejections, got the last one from Tufts last night.
 
When you reapply in June I suggest these MD schools:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Commonwealth
Albany
New York Medical College
Quinnipiac
Vermont
GW
Georgetown
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
any new private schools that open in 2018 (Seton Hall, Roseman, etc.)
For DO school I suggest applying broadly to at least 15 schools. Schools to consider include:
PCOM
LECOM (both schools)
MUCOM
WVSOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
UP-KYCOM
LMU-DCOM
ACOM
NYIT-Arkansas
RVU-Utah
UIWSOM
BCOM
If you do not receive any DO interviews next year from these schools I would be very surprised and it would indicate a red flag somewhere.
 
When did you complete?
And are all rejections pre-II or post-II?
Is english your first, second or third language?

I started doing research (never had enough time during undergrad because of work), hospice volunteering and non clinical volunteering after December graduation. I did send an update letter to all MD and DO schools and still got rejections.

MD list contained: Temple, Penn State, Jefferson, Drexel, Commonwealth, Pitt, Hofstra, Rochester, Einstein, Sinai, Quinnipiac, NYMC, Brown, Columbia, Indiana University, Tufts, George Washington, Georgetown, Wright State University, Albany and NYU.
All rejections, got the last one from Tufts last night.
 
When you reapply in June I suggest these MD schools:
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Commonwealth
Albany
New York Medical College
Quinnipiac
Vermont
GW
Georgetown
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
St. Louis
Creighton
Tulane
any new private schools that open in 2018 (Seton Hall, Roseman, etc.)
For DO school I suggest applying broadly to at least 15 schools. Schools to consider include:
PCOM
LECOM (both schools)
MUCOM
WVSOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
UP-KYCOM
LMU-DCOM
ACOM
NYIT-Arkansas
RVU-Utah
UIWSOM
BCOM
If you do not receive any DO interviews next year from these schools I would be very surprised and it would indicate a red flag somewhere.

@Faha Thank you very much!

When did you complete?
And are all rejections pre-II or post-II?
Is english your first, second or third language?

@meddesire

I was complete with all MD schools sometime between the last week of August and labor day
DO schools, 2 before labor day and 2 in late October.

All my MD rejections are pre-II and English is my third learned language but I speak it very well, I graduated from high school and University in the United States.
 
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@Faha Thank you very much!



@meddesire

I was complete with all MD schools sometime between the last week of August and labor day
DO schools, 2 before labor day and 2 in late October.

All my MD rejections are pre-II and English is my third learned language but I speak it very well, I graduated from high school and University in the United States.

With that many rejections (as opposed to silence) tells me that it might be a bad LOR or a poorly written Personal Statement. I suggest that you get personal statement feedback from multiple people other than a family friend - like a counselor, doctors, admissions counselors (e.g. people familiar with med school admissions) and also get some of the posters here on SDN to give feedback. If you ask, people with volunteer.

For the LORs, be ruthless in your selection of letter writers for next year and be blunt when you ask for them. Ask if they can give you a "strong" letter - not just any letter. Touch base with any letter writers from last year - tell them about your issue and ask if they would be honest with you. Do the think you have evidenced positive characteristics and if not, can you remedy any of that?

Good luck.
 
With that many rejections (as opposed to silence) tells me that it might be a bad LOR or a poorly written Personal Statement. I suggest that you get personal statement feedback from multiple people other than a family friend - like a counselor, doctors, admissions counselors (e.g. people familiar with med school admissions) and also get some of the posters here on SDN to give feedback. If you ask, people with volunteer.

For the LORs, be ruthless in your selection of letter writers for next year and be blunt when you ask for them. Ask if they can give you a "strong" letter - not just any letter. Touch base with any letter writers from last year - tell them about your issue and ask if they would be honest with you. Do the think you have evidenced positive characteristics and if not, can you remedy any of that?

Good luck.

@precisiongraphic

Thank you very much for your feedback.
I will try to make sure to get strong LOR for next cycle.

Do you think I should maybe contact any of the MD schools to ask for feedback (to find out precisely the weak parts of my application) or is that something that they usually not provide for applicants?
 
I started doing research (never had enough time during undergrad because of work), hospice volunteering and non clinical volunteering after December graduation. I did send an update letter to all MD and DO schools and still got rejections.

MD list contained: Temple, Penn State, Jefferson, Drexel, Commonwealth, Pitt, Hofstra, Rochester, Einstein, Sinai, Quinnipiac, NYMC, Brown, Columbia, Indiana University, Tufts, George Washington, Georgetown, Wright State University, Albany and NYU.
All rejections, got the last one from Tufts last night.

Well it seems you have done some things to improve your application in the mean time. I do not think your school list was all that great-- there are a number of reaches and low yield schools. I have nearly identical stats as you and had a successful cycle. I will the schools below that I applied to and that showed me some love. Consider adding a couple of them along with Faha's list.

Albany
Creighton
Drexel
Indiana
Loyola
Marshall---> If you are from central/West PA and can show a connection to Appalachia
WVU ---> same as above
MCW
NYMC
Oakland
Penn State
Quinnipiac
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Jefferson
TCMC
Temple
Vermont
VCU
Wake Forest
Western Michigan

Any and all DO schools you like... I am surprised you did not get love from them. If you did not have a DO letter, get one before the cycle! Try to have your app in a little bit sooner for MD! Good luck!
 
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Well it seems you have done some things to improve your application in the mean time. I do not think your school list was all that great-- there are a number of reaches and low yield schools. I have nearly identical stats as you and had a successful cycle. I will the schools below that I applied to and that showed me some love. Consider adding a couple of them along with Faha's list.

Albany
Creighton
Drexel
Indiana
Loyola
Marshall
---> If you are from central/West PA and can show a connection to Appalachia
WVU ---> same as above
MCW
NYMC
Oakland
Penn State
Quinnipiac
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Jefferson
TCMC
Temple
Vermont
VCU
Wake Forest
Western Michigan

Any and all DO schools you like... I am surprised you did not get love from them. If you did not have a DO letter, get one before the cycle! Try to have your app in a little bit sooner for MD! Good luck!

I agree. OP's school list was crazy top heavy. MCAT/GPA way too low for Pitt, Einstein, Sinai, Brown (plus they favor their own undergraduates...), Columbia, NYU. Plus the low yield schools on there.

What is essential would be a DO LOR for the DO applications. They're essential basically and would probably help an application. (plus, apply to more DO schools)
 
Well it seems you have done some things to improve your application in the mean time. I do not think your school list was all that great-- there are a number of reaches and low yield schools. I have nearly identical stats as you and had a successful cycle. I will the schools below that I applied to and that showed me some love. Consider adding a couple of them along with Faha's list.

Albany
Creighton
Drexel
Indiana
Loyola
Marshall
---> If you are from central/West PA and can show a connection to Appalachia
WVU ---> same as above
MCW
NYMC
Oakland
Penn State
Quinnipiac
Rosalind Franklin
Rush
Jefferson
TCMC
Temple
Vermont
VCU
Wake Forest
Western Michigan

Any and all DO schools you like... I am surprised you did not get love from them. If you did not have a DO letter, get one before the cycle! Try to have your app in a little bit sooner for MD! Good luck!

@Frogger27 Thank you so much for the advice, and good luck to you in medical school next fall!
 
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I agree. OP's school list was crazy top heavy. MCAT/GPA way too low for Pitt, Einstein, Sinai, Brown (plus they favor their own undergraduates...), Columbia, NYU. Plus the low yield schools on there.

What is essential would be a DO LOR for the DO applications. They're essential basically and would probably help an application. (plus, apply to more DO schools)

Thank you! I'll try my best to get that DO letter
 
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