Reapply or no?

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Azmkv

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Hi guys I am currently in a dilemma in making decision to reapply or not. Before I elaborate on my dilemma, here is my current status:

GPA: ~3.94
MCAT 1st take - 498 (128/120/127/126)
MCAT 2nd retake 503 (129/122/126/126)
MCAT 3rd retake - 512 (130/125/129/128)

Research exp: 2 years of full-time research. One second author pub in a reputable journal (PNAS), and another 2nd author pub [hopefully] at eLife (not sure if they will accept it or not at the moment, but it's submitted and we are just waiting).

Clinical hours: 11 months of part-time Medical assistant at a doctor's office. Not so many hours because I only worked on Saturday while doing research.

Volunteering hours: Plenty. Worked with undeserved communities and volunteer at my church. Was also a volunteering coordinator at my college for 3 semesters (1.5 yrs). I also love volunteering in general :p

TA at my undergrad: 2.5 yrs

A good number of leadership positions. Involved in a good number of organizations at college. Great recommendation letters (have 7).

ORM


Here is my dilemma I need help on:
Last cycle, I applied to both MD and DO schools and received 0 ii from MD and one acceptance letter from a DO school, which I am very thankful of. I think the issue was that I applied with my first two MCAT scores. I recently retook my 3rd MCAT because I wasn't receiving any love from neither MD nor DO, and ended up doing relatively better than my previous 2 attempts (although my CARS still sucks. I could never improve significantly on CARS because English is my 2nd language and was never a fervid reader... so my comprehension is a bit slower than native speakers :/ ). After my score was released, I got an acceptance letter from a DO school.

I am wondering if I should reapply to MD or just take the DO position. I have no problem attending a DO school; it's just annoying that I studied so hard for my 3rd mcat for no reason If i were never to reapply ugh.. Anyway, I am particularly interested in Interventional radiology or Radiation Oncology, which both of the fields are highly competitive.. Although I am very grateful of DO acceptance and ready to work really hard for those dreamy specialties, I am just afraid that I will never make it cut through because It's simply not an MD degree :(
Any thoughts? I am also not sure how schools will look in to my 3 attempts of MCAT with still sub-par CARS score lol..

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I honestly think you should cut your losses and go the DO route. The only way you should even consider an MD retry is if you want to go into a super competitive specialty like radiology, derm, surgery, etc. Otherwise just make the best of your situation.
 
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100% DO especially if it's a strong program. I just finished interview season and met tons of DOs on the interview train for allopathic residency programs and next year they are combining the match for DO and MD. The line between them is getting smaller and smaller every year. I also have friends from DO schools who are at amazing academic residency programs. Granted neurosurg or ENT might be tough out of DO school, but for most things you'll be fine if you work hard and do well on boards.

Reapplying isn't a guarantee.

Ask yourself if in one year, so March of 2020, would you rather be crushing medical school at your DO program or reapplying and hoping that you get one acceptance somewhere? The answer to that seems obvious to me, but it's your call.
 
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Also, you can 100% do gen surg from DO. Much harder for a big academic program, but lots of community surg programs have DO students. You'll be fine no matter what you do though.
 
Anyway, I am particularly interested in Interventional radiology or Radiation Oncology, which both of the fields are highly competitive.
You should take the DO acceptance, in my opinion. There is obviously no guarantee that you’ll be successful applying MD with the new MCAT, and you can’t predict how much screeners and AdComs will be impressed by the new MCAT after seeing how low the two previous scores are. Plus, Rad Onc is no longer competitive, and IR can be doable (there were a number of DO matches into it in the most recent match, which is an improvement on previous years, plus, the DR -> IR route is possible, too).

(Edited for terrible spelling)
 
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