Still on the fee assistance waiting list? Plus additional whining

[starkinthemidwest]

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Alright so:

I'm pretty poor right now, although I managed to save up $4500. Back in late May, I applied for fee assistance and got put on the waitlist. And I'm still on the waitlist, apparently. I was hoping that it would move me off of it so I could at least try paying for my programs, but apparently, that's not gonna happen. Do I need to tell them to take me off the fee assistance waitlist in order to submit?

And now some more general whining: I've been feeling awful and hopeless about applying. While yes, I have a decent MCAT (28, 12 BS/7 VR/9 PS), my GPA isn't good at all (3.10 undergrad, 3.25 grad), and while I really do want to be a doctor and I've been shadowing a DO since like February, I just don't know how realistic it is for me to even hope at all that I could do well enough to get an interview and get in at all. I have some good clinical experiences (I have over 400 hours in a rehabilitation center for the elderly taking care of medical records), but I just feel like it doesn't add up to really fix my GPA. I'm not even sure what my sGPA is cause I submitted it for the professional transcript entry.

I just have no idea if I should keep trying despite the odds or just give up before I lose more money, lol.

 

[AwayFromReality]

.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

If I were you, I wouldn't have taken the grad program. I would have spent the time and energy fixing my undergraduate (UG) GPA, 3.1. I think the admission committee with separate the undergrad and grad GPA; they will focus more on the UG gpa.

You have a good MCAT and ECs. I would wait out this cycle, and bring up that UG gpa, preferably over 3.2. I would apply next year, depending on the expiration date of your MCAT.

@Goro, what do you think?

 

[Dr. Death]

I agree with the above posters. You seem to have a good foundation with your mcat and clinical experiences. Maybe take a year to retake a couple classes, apply for the fee waiver the first day next year (I applied for fee waiver May 16th and was approved) and beef up those EC's a bit. But if your dream is med school, don't give up. You can do this you just might need another year to do it.

 

[Goro]

I concur. Improving that GPA over one more year will give you more bang for the buck. For example, as or right now, you'd be autorejected at KCUMB, and CCOM.

If I were you, I wouldn't have taken the grad program. I would have spent the time and energy fixing my undergraduate (UG) GPA, 3.1. I think the admission committee with separate the undergrad and grad GPA; they will focus more on the UG gpa.

You have a good MCAT and ECs. I would wait out this cycle, and bring up that UG gpa, preferably over 3.2. I would apply next year, depending on the expiration date of your MCAT.

@Goro, what do you think?

 

[StudyLater]

@Goro, that was a cat? It looked like a wolf, before.

Anyway, I don't see how you're hopeless. You've got a good score on The Great Equalizer and your ECs are OK, so at least you've got a shot. Apply to every school, say 259 Hail Marys, wish upon a star, and maybe it'll happen. I'm not sure how long you're willing to wait to start your career, but if I were you I'd also be seriously considering applying to some sort of midlevel/alternate graduate school. CRNA, PA, Dent, Pharm etc might all be worth consideration if you still want to have a decent involvement in healthcare but just can't seem to crack into a DO school.

I do, however, believe you really should be able to get in. If not this year, then you need to do some serious **** between now and next cycle - pump up on shadowing/get a clinical job (a "wet" clinical job), maybe jump into a one-year post-bacc thing to increase your UG gpa (not even sure if that's possible post-graduate school)? At the very least, you should be able to do some retakes. Anyway, all I'm saying is if you don't get in, have a plan on how you'll improve yourself to make it look like you're serious about getting in the next time.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

[COLOR=#ff0000]@Goro[/COLOR], that was a cat? It looked like a wolf, before.

Anyway, I don't see how you're hopeless. You've got a good score on The Great Equalizer and your ECs are OK, so at least you've got a shot. Apply to every school, say 259 Hail Marys, wish upon a star, and maybe it'll happen. I'm not sure how long you're willing to wait to start your career, but if I were you I'd also be seriously considering applying to some sort of midlevel/alternate graduate school. CRNA, PA, Dent, Pharm etc might all be worth consideration if you still want to have a decent involvement in healthcare but just can't seem to crack into a DO school.

I do, however, believe you really should be able to get in. If not this year, then you need to do some serious **** between now and next cycle - pump up on shadowing/get a clinical job (a "wet" clinical job), maybe jump into a one-year post-bacc thing to increase your UG gpa (not even sure if that's possible post-graduate school)? At the very least, you should be able to do some retakes. Anyway, all I'm saying is if you don't get in, have a plan on how you'll improve yourself to make it look like you're serious about getting in the next time.

RED: It was clearly a cat, 100% with a standard deviation of +10.
Orange: I agree with you. @starkinthemidwest, take notes and make it happen.
Blue: Do NOT apply to every school. Your donations will be appreciated if you do. Do your research on the GPA cutoff and screening of the individual schools. If you do a post-bacc, money is not on your side, and you need to pick the schools in your range, with your future stats. I will tell you right now because Im in a good mood (Finally got a girl's number at a bar 👍)

The DO-NOT-APPLY List:
PCOM (all of their matriculating students have an 8 and above in all their subsections of their MCAT; definitely screwed me over!)
LUCOM (Just dont. You can delve into other threads and see why. However, their matriculating stats are 3.4 with a 24 MCAT. Tempting huh? LOL)
CCOM and AZCOM (They prefer HIGH MCAT, +29)
OU-HCOM, OSUCOM, UNTHSC, ROWAN, NYIT (Unless you are from Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, or New York, respectively. These are home-state schools.)
RVUCOM (MAYBE! For profit school. They have an avg GPA of 3.6 with +28 MCAT. They also want you to have all A's in your upper level science courses)
KCUBM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.25, then apply. If you cant, dont apply. They will autoscreen you and thank you for ur hard working cash.)
MUCOM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.2, then apply. Same as the above.)

 

[osteohack10]

RED: It was clearly a cat, 100% with a standard deviation of +10.
Orange: I agree with you. @starkinthemidwest, take notes and make it happen.
Blue: Do NOT apply to every school. Your donations will be appreciated if you do. Do your research on the GPA cutoff and screening of the individual schools. If you do a post-bacc, money is not on your side, and you need to pick the schools in your range, with your future stats. I will tell you right now because Im in a good mood (Finally got a girl's number at a bar 👍)

The DO-NOT-APPLY List:
PCOM (all of their matriculating students have an 8 and above in all their subsections of their MCAT; definitely screwed me over!)
LUCOM (Just dont. You can delve into other threads and see why. However, their matriculating stats are 3.4 with a 24 MCAT. Tempting huh? LOL)
CCOM and AZCOM (They prefer HIGH MCAT, +29)
OU-HCOM, OSUCOM, UNTHSC, ROWAN, NYIT (Unless you are from Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, or New York, respectively. These are home-state schools.)
RVUCOM (MAYBE! For profit school. They have an avg GPA of 3.6 with +28 MCAT. They also want you to have all A's in your upper level science courses)
KCUBM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.25, then apply. If you cant, dont apply. They will autoscreen you and thank you for ur hard working cash.)
MUCOM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.2, then apply. Same as the above.)

If he can get his UG GPA up a bit it may be worth it to throw in an app at PCOM. I had a 7 subsection and was accepted.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

If he can get his UG GPA up a bit it may be worth it to throw in an app at PCOM. I had a 7 subsection and was accepted.

What kind of magic did you use? JK.

Which PCOM did you apply to?

 

[StudyLater]

Blue: Do NOT apply to every school. Your donations will be appreciated if you do. Do your research on the GPA cutoff and screening of the individual schools.

I'm just saying, if he/she wants the absolute best possible chances and isn't worried about the fees - schools do make exceptions on occasion. With that said, I was partially exaggerating.

PCOM (all of their matriculating students have an 8 and above in all their subsections of their MCAT; definitely screwed me over!)

Source needed on that.

LUCOM (Just dont. You can delve into other threads and see why. However, their matriculating stats are 3.4 with a 24 MCAT. Tempting huh? LOL)

It's a personal decision. OP might be mega-religious and totally on board with their whole philosophy, or may be even just accepting of the whole religious thing though he/she isn't religious him/herself. Some things about the finer logistical points for their classes are concerning, but jesus, some UG class policies are just straight up idiotic/nonsensical/damaging. Students are trained professionals in getting over that fact. I really don't know what sort of idea OP has about all of this, but I'm saying if I were OP (heck, this me talking as me as well) then I would thank my lucky stars if any school accepted me. I'd take whatever crap to get through that education so I could be well-trained to practice medicine. This is the most base of attitudes to have, and not everyone has this attitude, but I was assuming that this was the OP's attitude based on the fact that the OP actually doesn't even really think he/she could get into any school. I inferred from OP's post that OP would be fine going anywhere, no matter the little BS mini-obstacles (that a more emotional person might be significantly distressed about). But I can't really say anything definitively until the OP confirms his/her preferences. If OP doesn't have preferences, then OP is taking the most practical approach to this process, especially with the given stats.

CCOM and AZCOM (They prefer HIGH MCAT, +29)

OP's not really that far off, though...key word "prefer."

OU-HCOM, OSUCOM, UNTHSC, ROWAN, NYIT (Unless you are from Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, New Jersey, or New York, respectively. These are home-state schools.)

Pretty much agreed, but again, who knows?

RVUCOM (MAYBE! For profit school. They have an avg GPA of 3.6 with +28 MCAT. They also want you to have all A's in your upper level science courses)
KCUBM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.25, then apply. If you cant, dont apply. They will autoscreen you and thank you for ur hard working cash.)
MUCOM (MAYBE! If you can bring both GPAs above 3.2, then apply. Same as the above.)

I agree. OP should do the research on who's got autoscreens that will make application a definitive waste of time. I do admit I was being a tad hyperbolic with that sentence...

 

[osteohack10]

What kind of magic did you use? JK.

Which PCOM did you apply to?

Both, only got an interview at PA and accepted about 2 weeks after the interview.

 

[starkinthemidwest]

Thanks for the advice, although with the unfortunate weird decision that AADCOM seems to have made about retakes, now I'd need to go back to college and drop around 10k to retake all my classes. I just don't see that being very realistic.

Additionally, I am a reapplicant, and I'm a lady, who is married to a lady which is no longer a problem in other states thanks to that recent court decision, woo hoo. The advice here helped me skim the programs I'll likely apply to down to 8 (I may go back and recheck other schools, I dunno). I was also thinking about perhaps applying to some podiatry programs, since Rosalind Franklin has a podiatry program and I was really interested in going there. Does that seem like a good idea, or a bad one?

 

[hyperDO]

Keep in mind that you can do these retakes at a community college, which is significantly cheaper than doing them at a university.

Chiming in, I'd also think that you would benefit greatly from spending a year to retake. By the time you will be complete, it may be early/mid august. I do not think this is necessarily late, but with a low GPA and few ECs, it's going to be an uphill battle. You're going to be a reach for nearly every school, but only you can decide if you want take the gamble this year or not. It's really up to whether you want to throw the money down or not.

Also, I think podiatry is a great backup option. I worked with a podiatrist that in hindsight is essentially an orthopedic surgeon foot/ankle specialist. But make sure you shadow a podiatrist and make sure it is really what you want to do. With the way that you are jumping back and forth between ideas, it seems more like you want to rush things and get that instant gratification than make sure you are making the correct decision financially and career wise.

 

[ananasmed]

Thanks for the advice, although with the unfortunate weird decision that AADCOM seems to have made about retakes, now I'd need to go back to college and drop around 10k to retake all my classes. I just don't see that being very realistic.

Additionally, I am a reapplicant, and I'm a lady, who is married to a lady which is no longer a problem in other states thanks to that recent court decision, woo hoo. The advice here helped me skim the programs I'll likely apply to down to 8 (I may go back and recheck other schools, I dunno). I was also thinking about perhaps applying to some podiatry programs, since Rosalind Franklin has a podiatry program and I was really interested in going there. Does that seem like a good idea, or a bad one?

I'd only apply to pod programs if you see yourself being equally happy in either career. You have a real chance at DO school, and a great chance for pod school (but you will need some podiatry shadowing and a LOR from a podiatrist if you don't already have that). I'd just hate for you to be disappointed if you don't get into DO, but get into podiatry and find yourself in a situation next spring where you're deciding whether or not you should reapply to DO and turn down your pod seat since you really secretly were hoping for DO all along. Personally I think podiatry is a great career, and if it excites you, that is what matters most. One thing to note is that it could be a bad idea to apply to both the pod and DO programs at schools that offer both (MWU Arizona, WesternU, DMU). I know DMU actually explicitly prohibits you from doing this, I don't know if the other schools would care or notice, but it seems like bad form. Otherwise, knock yourself out.

 

[starkinthemidwest]

Keep in mind that you can do these retakes at a community college, which is significantly cheaper than doing them at a university.

except that AADCOM (this year at least) seems to be making some really goofy decisions wrt retakes and has only been accepting the same course from the same college, otherwise I would see this as more of a viable option.

I probably wouldn't be nearly as interested in podiatry if my mom's feet weren't such a mess that I was able to present them as a case study in my grad anatomy course lol. I'll ask her what podiatrists she's had a good experience in and ask the osteopathic doctor I'm shadowing (he seems to know almost everyone in the area) for any names or people who wouldn't mind me shadowing them.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

Thanks for the advice, although with the unfortunate weird decision that AADCOM seems to have made about retakes, now I'd need to go back to college and drop around 10k to retake all my classes. I just don't see that being very realistic.

Additionally, I am a reapplicant, and I'm a lady, who is married to a lady which is no longer a problem in other states thanks to that recent court decision, woo hoo. The advice here helped me skim the programs I'll likely apply to down to 8 (I may go back and recheck other schools, I dunno). I was also thinking about perhaps applying to some podiatry programs, since Rosalind Franklin has a podiatry program and I was really interested in going there. Does that seem like a good idea, or a bad one?

Red: That's what I did. Took out 10k of loans to do a post-bacc at my UNIVERSITY! ARGH, should of done it at a community college down the street.
Blue: More power to ya.
Green: Do you have a fear or distaste for feet? If not, you have the stats to be very competitive. I think 3.2 with a MCAT of 24 is their competitive stat. Someone can correct me on this.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

Both, only got an interview at PA and accepted about 2 weeks after the interview.

.......Adding PCOM-PA to my list.......... I have shadowed an Alumni from that school, not sure if that will help though.

 

[osteohack10]

.......Adding PCOM-PA to my list.......... I have shadowed an Alumni from that school, not sure if that will help though.

There's no harm in applying if you have the money to do so. It is a fantastic school that will provide you a wealth of opportunities as a student. Every single person I met during the interview was welcoming, informative and more than willing to answer any and all questions. The students were great and the faculty/admissions staff were so accomodating. The only reason I decided against PCOM was because the cost of living would have added quite a bit to my already mounting student loans and I loved DMU.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

There's no harm in applying if you have the money to do so. It is a fantastic school that will provide you a wealth of opportunities as a student. Every single person I met during the interview was welcoming, informative and more than willing to answer any and all questions. The students were great and the faculty/admissions staff were so accomodating. The only reason I decided against PCOM was because the cost of living would have added quite a bit to my already mounting student loans and I loved DMU.

Thanks for sharing your experience! Mind sharing your stats? PM is fine too!

 

[StudyLater]

I'd need to go back to college and drop around 10k to retake all my classes. I just don't see that being very realistic.

Maybe it's time for a reality check, then? You'd go into debt 25-30x that to be a doc. If 10k ensures you're competitive for admission, it's worth consideration. I'd happily go 50k+ into debt to ensure my admission within 2 cycles, so I'd personally do that if I was in your shoes. Even, say, 6% a year for 10 years doesn't scare me with the final salary promised (even assuming FP; though if final salary-to-debt ratio is more important, mid-level careers may prove a better option).

Additionally, I am a reapplicant, and I'm a lady, who is married to a lady

No one (who doesn't have a superiority complex) cares. I doubt even Christian schools would, but you shouldn't have to share aspects of your personal life like that with them. I'm just saying, keep options open if it'll help. Personally I think praying is slightly ridiculous, but I'd be happy to do it for four years straight before and after every single class if at the end I get to practice medicine. That's just me, personally, though.

I was also thinking about perhaps applying to some podiatry programs, since Rosalind Franklin has a podiatry program and I was really interested in going there. Does that seem like a good idea, or a bad one?

If you're cool with being a mid-level and sort of have one foot out the physician door, then yeah. Like I said, I'd be applying to midlevel stuff if I were you. I'm not you, with some decently competitive things on my resume, and I'm still contemplating pharm myself. If I don't get in this cycle, I'd probably have a legitimate opportunity to enter that career within 3 yrs (if accepted into accelerated programs). That's potentially enticing, though I've no assumptions about where I'll be welcome to work. Even as a physician, several major cities across specialties are pretty saturated. You've either got the business sense to cut in, or you drive 20 miles out and work where they need you. I have no problem doing either, though I'll probably do the latter to start.

.......Adding PCOM-PA to my list.......... I have shadowed an Alumni from that school, not sure if that will help though.

Recs from current alumni hold weight there...if the person you shadowed is willing to do it, maybe asking them for one would be helpful.




Good luck OP. You're in an interesting position; I can't wait to see how you turn out.

 

[oOKawaiiOo]

Recs from current alumni hold weight there...if the person you shadowed is willing to do it, maybe asking them for one would be helpful.

If this holds true, then I already have one in my pocket. Currently, I am doctor shadowing at a new place, and the medical director is an alumni from PCOM. I hope I could get another letter.

 

[starkinthemidwest]

So, uh, I was granted fee assistance today and I was thinking I might just apply to all the schools I had on my list since the price got drastically reduced!