Tough Call

[adrian710]

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Bottom line - My cGPA is a 3.2 and my sGPA is 3.0.

After retakes - My cGPA 3.3 and sGPA 3.1

I know I can probably get some low tier DO school acceptances with those stats and a 502+ MCAT score, applying early as possible, and very broadly (20+ schools).

I have also have 5 good LOR's (DO, MD, 3 upper level science courses)

Good EC's (volunteering 300 hours in ER and Radiology, human bio club (greek life relations), couple jobs since HS, soccer every year in college for my fraternity (captain every year), my fraternity in which I held leadership positions, tutor Italian kids in Italian club for a couple years, shadowed 1 MD facial surgeon, 1 urologist MD, and 1 neurologist DO).

What are my realistic chances of acceptance?

Should I apply also to post-bacc programs that feed into DO programs while I apply to med schools?

@Goro, could you please weigh in? Thanks.

Cheers everybody!

 

[AlteredScale]

Bottom line - My cGPA is a 3.2 and my sGPA is 3.0.

Doing retakes now for 4 classes I got C's in during undergrad. Honestly retakes are not going as I wanted. I'll probably end up with 3.0's/B's in both which still helps. Even if I kill my other two classes next semester of retakes I will have a 3.2 sGPA.

I'm looking probably looking at 3.1 sGPA and 3.3 cGPA after retakes when I apply.

I know I can probably get some low tier DO school acceptances with those stats and a 502+ MCAT score, applying early as possible, and very broadly (20+ schools). I have also have 5 good LOR's (DO, MD, 3 upper level science courses) and good EC's (volunteering 300 hours in ER and Radiology, human bio club (greek life relations), couple jobs since HS, soccer every year in college for my fraternity (captain every year), my fraternity in which I held leadership positions, tutor Italian kids in Italian club for a couple years, shadowed 1 MD facial surgeon, 1 urologist MD, and 1 nuerologist DO).

What are my realistic chances of acceptance?
Should I apply also to post-bacc programs that feed into DO programs while I apply to med schools?

Thank you!
I've posted on here before and you guys are helpful so I appreciate it. Sorry for multiple posts, just quite anxious about this entire thing.

@Goro, could you please weigh in? Thanks.

Cheers everybody!

I think you could squeeze a few interviews and hopefully and acceptance in with those stats.

A few things that might help: try and shadow a DO who performs OMM. Try and get an LOR from a superior who's watched you outside of academics. Don't emphasize the frat thing, emphasize the leadership role you played in sports and how it relates to a leadership role as a physician. Try and do more community service that goes outside of academics like tutoring.

Honestly, I would try to apply to SMPs (it's not considered a post bac unless for some reason you didn't complete the pre reqs to apply) that are affiliated with MD programs along with some ones affiliated with DO programs. Going to an MD-affiliated masters gives you some more resources that may not be found at a stand alone DO program with an MS (SMP) program.

 

[Brorthopedic]

Finish applying to DO/MD schools as early as possible and have all secondaries completed by September at the latest. If you don't have any interviews by Janurary, start looking at SMPs. They're generally not that competitive if you have a decent MCAT score so applying late wouldn't really be a problem.

 

[adrian710]

Finish applying to DO/MD schools as early as possible and have all secondaries completed by September at the latest. If you don't have any interviews by Janurary, start looking at SMPs. They're generally not that competitive if you have a decent MCAT score so applying late wouldn't really be a problem.

Do you know what route is best? SMP or Post-Bacc? Specific programs that allow entry into DO program?

 

[adrian710]

I think you could squeeze a few interviews and hopefully and acceptance in with those stats.

A few things that might help: try and shadow a DO who performs OMM. Try and get an LOR from a superior who's watched you outside of academics. Don't emphasize the frat thing, emphasize the leadership role you played in sports and how it relates to a leadership role as a physician. Try and do more community service that goes outside of academics like tutoring.

Honestly, I would try to apply to SMPs (it's not considered a post bac unless for some reason you didn't complete the pre reqs to apply) that are affiliated with MD programs along with some ones affiliated with DO programs. Going to an MD-affiliated masters gives you some more resources that may not be found at a stand alone DO program with an MS (SMP) program.

Alright, I did not understand the SMP/post-bacc distinction?

I do have community service I forgot to mention (mainly soup kitchens and some church things)

Is the frat not good to mention at all? I held a philanthropy position and judicial board position.

 

[Brorthopedic]

Do you know what route is best? SMP or Post-Bacc? Specific programs that allow entry into DO program?

I'm pretty sure NSU-COM has an MBS program that guarantees admission into medical school if you score a B or higher in all the classes.

 

[adrian710]

I'm pretty sure NSU-COM has an MBS program that guarantees admission into medical school if you score a B or higher in all the classes.

Yeah ok I think a few schools offer for sure admittance with above B grades and even more so give for sure interview if you get above 3.5 or something

 

[change4med]

Bottom line - My cGPA is a 3.2 and my sGPA is 3.0.

After retakes - My cGPA 3.3 and sGPA 3.1

I know I can probably get some low tier DO school acceptances with those stats and a 502+ MCAT score, applying early as possible, and very broadly (20+ schools).

I have also have 5 good LOR's (DO, MD, 3 upper level science courses)

Good EC's (volunteering 300 hours in ER and Radiology, human bio club (greek life relations), couple jobs since HS, soccer every year in college for my fraternity (captain every year), my fraternity in which I held leadership positions, tutor Italian kids in Italian club for a couple years, shadowed 1 MD facial surgeon, 1 urologist MD, and 1 neurologist DO).

What are my realistic chances of acceptance?

Should I apply also to post-bacc programs that feed into DO programs while I apply to med schools?

@Goro, could you please weigh in? Thanks.

Cheers everybody!

I think you can get into some DO schools if you apply broadly and don't mind going to a newer school/location you wouldn't want to live in.

I would also apply to some post bac programs as well though to be safe.. I feel the whole cycle is a crapshoot in terms of getting an II so it's better safe than sorry. I have pretty similar stats to you gpawise 3.3/3.2s after retakes and EC's (no frat, but community service stuff nonetheless!) and a 30 MCAT and I've gotten 1 interview so far, 3 pre-II holds, 1 rejection post secondary, and silence from 5 other schools. IMO I should have applied a lot more broadly; I thought quality>quantity in terms of writing my secondaries but if I could do it over I would pick any school>no school.

If you're picky about where you wanna go though, I'd definitely look into post baccs as well for those respective schools, especially since if it's a school close to home.

 

[adrian710]

I think you can get into some DO schools if you apply broadly and don't mind going to a newer school/location you wouldn't want to live in.

I would also apply to some post bac programs as well though to be safe.. I feel the whole cycle is a crapshoot in terms of getting an II so it's better safe than sorry. I have pretty similar stats to you gpawise 3.3/3.2s after retakes and EC's (no frat, but community service stuff nonetheless!) and a 30 MCAT and I've gotten 1 interview so far, 3 pre-II holds, 1 rejection post secondary, and silence from 5 other schools. IMO I should have applied a lot more broadly; I thought quality>quantity in terms of writing my secondaries but if I could do it over I would pick any school>no school.

If you're picky about where you wanna go though, I'd definitely look into post baccs as well for those respective schools, especially since if it's a school close to home.

What post-bacc programs are good ones? I would love to go to one that feeds into the DO program. I honestly would love to go to CCOM, PCOM, or NY-Touro but those are tougher schools to get in, only chance I would have to get into those schools would be post-bacc.

You killed ur MCAT well done. I would have to score 510 for a 30 MCAT. What schools have interviews you? What's pre-II holds?

Oh also if I were to apply to post-bacc programs, should I not apply to that med school then? Also, wouldn't I have to attend program before I even know if I'm going to get any interviews from other schools, etc?

@Goro

 

[change4med]

What post-bacc programs are good ones? I would love to go to one that feeds into the DO program. I honestly would love to go to CCOM, PCOM, or NY-Touro but those are tougher schools to get in, only chance I would have to get into those schools would be post-bacc.

You killed ur MCAT well done. I would have to score 510 for a 30 MCAT. What schools have interviews you? What's pre-II holds?

Oh also if I were to apply to post-bacc programs, should I not apply to that med school then? Also, wouldn't I have to attend program before I even know if I'm going to get any interviews from other schools, etc?

http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/cib/2016_cib.pdf?sfvrsn=16
Pg 18 is what I'm looking at for my post-bacc info for DO schools, tbh I don't which ones the best etc. I just started playing with the idea this week. But you should read up on them and maybe one will sound nice and you can give them a call for more information?

I've only gotten 1 interview and that was TUCOM; I think I was lucky tbh, there were really qualified applicants the day I went and I think I was offered a spot cause my secondary happened to fit their mission pretty well, not cause I had good stats. Pre-II holds are these emails you get after you submitted their secondaries and they don't reject you right away, but you weren't good enough to be offered an interview at the moment, so they put you like on a waitlist for a potential interview.

With your GPA/MCAT I think if you applied to newer schools or ones with lower averages you'd have a shot at getting in? If you really want to get get into CCOM/PCOM/TouroNY (schools I haven't heard a response from yet!) I would still apply for them and hope for the best, but you should also be practical and apply to a bunch of other schools in less populated locations (since those are 3/5 top populated cities in the US and everyone wants to go to a big city I feel- I made the same mistake of picking only schools near big cities which is why retrospectively I wish I had applied more broadly) if what you want is to get into any school.

I think you'd be very qualified for a lot of post-baccs as well, so maybe you should apply to those of the schools you really want to get into (PCOM/CCOM give guaranteed interviews if you meet criteria in their program and TouroNY offers possible acceptance? Should call for more info). My reasoning is that if you get accepted into one of those, at least you have a backup plan if you don't get into any DO program that cycle. But it's your call on whether you want to or not, they're pretty pricey. From a $$ point of view, it's probably much cheaper just doing grade replacement and restudying MCAT than a post-bacc.

 

[adrian710]

http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/cib/2016_cib.pdf?sfvrsn=16
Pg 18 is what I'm looking at for my post-bacc info for DO schools, tbh I don't which ones the best etc. I just started playing with the idea this week. But you should read up on them and maybe one will sound nice and you can give them a call for more information?

I've only gotten 1 interview and that was TUCOM; I think I was lucky tbh, there were really qualified applicants the day I went and I think I was offered a spot cause my secondary happened to fit their mission pretty well, not cause I had good stats. Pre-II holds are these emails you get after you submitted their secondaries and they don't reject you right away, but you weren't good enough to be offered an interview at the moment, so they put you like on a waitlist for a potential interview.

With your GPA/MCAT I think if you applied to newer schools or ones with lower averages you'd have a shot at getting in? If you really want to get get into CCOM/PCOM/TouroNY (schools I haven't heard a response from yet!) I would still apply for them and hope for the best, but you should also be practical and apply to a bunch of other schools in less populated locations (since those are 3/5 top populated cities in the US and everyone wants to go to a big city I feel- I made the same mistake of picking only schools near big cities which is why retrospectively I wish I had applied more broadly) if what you want is to get into any school.

I think you'd be very qualified for a lot of post-baccs as well, so maybe you should apply to those of the schools you really want to get into (PCOM/CCOM give guaranteed interviews if you meet criteria in their program and TouroNY offers possible acceptance? Should call for more info). My reasoning is that if you get accepted into one of those, at least you have a backup plan if you don't get into any DO program that cycle. But it's your call on whether you want to or not, they're pretty pricey. From a $$ point of view, it's probably much cheaper just doing grade replacement and restudying MCAT than a post-bacc.

Word yeah I feel you. Wait does it take a year to matriculate for these post-bacc programs like it does to enter med school? Like if apply to post-bacc program/masters this summer when I apply to DO schools, would I enter for Fall 2016 or Fall 2017 (talking about post-bacc, med school would be Fall 2017)?!