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Not having a DO letter or shadowing won't hurt; having them will always help.I am reapplying to MD schools this cycle. Last cycle I received 1 interview invite which resulted in a WL. I am currently enrolled in an SMP at my WL school which will begin in the fall. I have decided to reapply to a limited number of MD schools (mostly in-state) during my SMP year because my application also went in late - around mid-July - last cycle. I believe this had a negative impact on my last cycle and have already submitted primary for this cycle to improve on that.
As I mentioned, I have not shadowed a DO and I know this is really important for DO schools. Should I go ahead and apply to some DO schools despite this? I would try to get the DO shadowing experience and letter during the cycle to send as an update. I am also concerned about how I will talk about my reasoning for applying DO when DO schools can clearly see I have not shadowed a DO. Currently I have an MD letter cosigned by a PA. Both MD and PA oversee a club I co-founded, but I have never directly interacted with the MD in a clinical setting. Most clinical stuff was with PA in a clinical research setting.
Stats: cGPA 3.33, sGPA: 3.17, MCAT: 515, ORM
Clinical Volunteering: 150 hours; Emergency Department
Non-clinical Volunteering: 200 hours; tutoring/mentoring, nursing home, homeless shelter
Research: 2 years full-time + 800 hours; 1 publication accepted, anticipate 2 more over the next year
Shadowing: 60 hours; pediatric oncology, pathology, emergency department (PA)
Leadership: plenty; resident advisor for 2 years, club president, started new clinical club at current position
Work: tutoring over a couple of summers, lab assistant for 2 semesters, and RA as above
Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you in advance!
With your GPAs, unles syou had a massive rising GPA trend, I think it's a waste of time and money to apply this cycle. Focus on the SMP.