That's a great point. I have mostly orthopedic/limb limitations. No brain trauma or PTSD. I don't think those are too bad right?
I'm not exactly sure what "orthopedic/limb limitations" means, and please don't feel obligated to detail your disabilities here on SDN. But again, you will need to be able to meet your med school's technical standards, with reasonable accommodation as needed/possible. Obviously there is quite some room for interpretation here, particularly with regard to what kind of accommodations are "reasonable." But if you go to the websites of the schools you are considering, many of them post their technical standards on line. You can read them and decide for yourself whether you can meet them, or what, if any, accommodations you believe you would need in order to be able to meet them. Again, it will be helpful to have given thought to these issues ahead of time so that you can address them as they come up.
truthDMC said:
Wow guys, thanks for the encouragement. I definitely tried to emphasize my experiences and new found motivation/discipline. And as "sawbones" noted, I've been pretty nervous feeling like everyone has incredible GPA + MCATS and they're STILL NOT getting accepted so I was worried. The other caveat is that since I have been in CA for so long, and in SD finishing school, I'm a California resident... Which seems to be the worst state to be from if you want to get into an MD school lol.
What you see on SDN is not reality, in the sense that the stats that get bandied about on our forums are not the real averages. Among matriculated med students at MD schools, the average stats are more along the lines of 3.5-3.6 GPA and 30-31 MCAT, exactly what you have. So you are not applying from a position of weakness with regard to your stats. Your stats are, in fact, average for MD *matriculants* (and above average for MD *applicants*).
You should be starting to realize by now that stats are not everything when it comes to successful med school admissions. There are some countries where they decide who gets to go to medical school by administering a national exam. The US isn't one of them. Competitive stats are important for US medical school admissions, but they are not the only thing that is important. The med school I attended could easily fill every class with people who have 35+ MCAT scores and 3.8+ GPAs. And yet, all four of the years I was on the adcom, we accepted a few people with MCATs in the mid 20s or GPAs below 3.0 whom we believed would make other important contributions to our class and to the field of medicine in general.
Keep in mind too that you will never know the whole story of why someone else did or did not get accepted. Trying to figure out why someone with high stats didn't get accepted to med school is like trying to figure out why one couple gets married while another breaks up; there is so much that goes on behind closed doors that you're never able to know. In fact, you don't even know the whole story of your own app, since you don't get to read your LORs or see your interview score sheets.
My advice is to give yourself the best possible odds of getting an acceptance by applying broadly and strategically, and then have faith in the admissions process. As the extremely low med school attrition rate suggests, adcoms are remarkably good at selecting applicants who will successfully complete their programs. Remember too that even if *you* don't always see the method in the madness, that doesn't mean there is no method. Medical school admissions, like medicine in general, is an art and not a science.
Best of luck with your apps.
🙂
