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All medical schools in the United States are excellent medical schools that can get you into whichever residency you want. It's my suggestion that you do both of the things you described in your post. You should both try to get off the waitlists at the schools that have waitlisted you AND you should submit another application in June in the event that you are not accepted. As many have said before me, it can color your application negatively if you receive an acceptance and don't take it.
Finally, I want to encourage you to take your father's advice, assuming you actually wish to be a physician. Since your father is a physician, doesn't it seem reasonable that he would have a better grasp of the situation?
You definitely bring up good ideas. I do agree with my dad's advice, however, my godfather went to a top 20 medical school and he seems to think that the schools that I am down to are trash and I should give it a year as it would help my chances.
You definitely bring up good ideas. I do agree with my dad's advice, however, my godfather went to a top 20 medical school and he seems to think that the schools that I am down to are trash and I should give it a year as it would help my chances.
Going to a US MD school all but guarantees you a residency spot assuming adequate performance on Step I, and prestigious fields and hospitals are accessible from any of them if your qualifications are good enough.
Why did you apply there in the first place? If you re-apply you're loosing 1 year's salary as physician, you are expending more money on a new application cycle, and you will have to explain it( I think). It's your call.
Did you apply to DO schools or just MD? If you get off the wait list, go to medical school. Getting into residency is so much more than where you went to medical school. Where you went to school means almost nothing when applying to residency. The caveat is if you went to a foreign medical school. That can be a bit challenging and is a discussion for elsewhere.
You are stressing over something that may be a moot point. You do not have an acceptance from either of the schools you are wait-listed for. Take a critical evaluation of your application and strategy. Where are there holes in your application? What can you change now (not GPA, probably wouldn't take MCAT a third time, etc)? Focus on improving your application and how you look to acceptance committees. You may not be a "top tier" candidate which may mean you have to "settle" for a "lower" school. I use those terms loosely because I think they are a misnomer. Facilities and curriculum are things you can worry about when given a choice of more than one acceptance. Having a new carpet in the lecture hall will not help you learn any better. Medical school is very much user dependent so you will be one of the biggest factors to how well you learn the material and how well you improve your residency application.
This is a little deceiving. Yes, if you go to a US MD school your chances of getting into a residency are higher than if you go to a foreign medical school. That being said, if you aren't a strong resident applicant then you may end up scrambling and the prestigious fields and hospitals will not be accessible to you.
The people with arguably the highest chances of matching into residency are the DO students. A little known secret is that they can apply to DO and MD residency programs which means they greatly increase the number of residency options available to them. The DO and MD GME entities are supposed to merge at some point (which may not happen in the end) which will make this possible for MD students, but for now DO students can apply to both MD and DO residency programs. I know a lot of friends who went to a DO school and matched into competitive residencies that were ACGME (MD) [Derm, Radiology, etc].
There are two separate matches for DO and MD residencies BUT DO students applying to MD programs can pre-match. They can sign a contract that guarantees them a spot (legally binding) in that residency before the match.
Happy to look over your application. PM me if you would like.
Go. Going forward focus on the best damn Step 1 exam you can get and aim for the best residency in the specialty of your choice. There are no guarantees in life and it would suck to be at this point next year and have no offers compared with being at the end of M1 year at this time next year.
Potentially throwing away your only opportunity to go to a medical school because you wanted to try again and land at a school with more prestige is a pretty stupid thing to do imo. Like everyone is saying, your performance in medical school is going to determine what you can do, not the school. It seems that you are still on the waitlists now, you aren't even into a school this year, a slightly better app won't even necessarily gain you more interviews due to the huge applicant pool and being a reapplicant, much less guarantee you an admission to a higher tier school.That is what I will do. I am working the waitlists the best I can and will take the bird in the hand if I am so fortunate and reapplying (so I don't make the same applying late mistake again). Would you think in your experience that with the new MCAT score, an abstract published, a year of scribing, and a few other things would make a big difference in the number of interviews/acceptances I receive or would likely not change much?