WAMC for admission

[FutureDoc1014]

Need advice

WAMC (MD and DO, MD preferred)

* ORM

* cGPA/sGPA: 3.44/3.07

(This is mostly, but not entirely, attributed to one bad semester where I had some personal family/health issues happening that I can explain, plus poor performance in Calc 2 which I can't really explain I just didn't do great and got a C+)

* 508 (127/127/126/128) - likely retaking, but base it off the 508 for now

* State of Residence: PA

* Biology Major, not a reapplicant, not non-trad, currently in my gap year getting clinical experience.

* Volunteer hours: 600 (assisting kids art classes, flag football assistance, hospital volunteering, teaching adults English as a second language, and various other things that are less prominent but make up the 592)

* ECs: Student red cross club, a club where we raised funds for pediatric cancer, dog sitting, tutoring middle/high schoolers, ski club, AED (pre-health honors society)

* Clinical hours/experience: 650 scribing, 60 hospital volunteering. Still scribing so would likely have 1200-1500+ hours by May/June

* LORs: orgo professor, 2 bio professors, volunteer supervisor

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[Goro]

GPAs are lethal for MD schools, OK for most DO programs. If you're gunning for MD, aceing an SMP or DIY postbac is needed.

Can give you us your year by year GPAs?

Why didn't you take a LOA during that one really bad semester?

EDIT: we can only advise on the likelihoods of IIs. Admission will be 100% on you.

 

[FutureDoc1014]

GPAs are lethal for MD schools, OK for most DO programs. If you're gunning for MD, aceing an SMP or DIY postbac is needed.

Can give you us your year by year GPAs?

Why didn't you take a LOA during that one really bad semester?

EDIT: we can only advise on the likelihoods of IIs. Admission will be 100% on you.

Hi, I appreciate the reply. That bad semester was bad but not sub 3.0. My goal is MD simply for an easier time with residency matching and avoiding needing to do 2 sets of licensing exams but I have no issues whatsoever with going DO. My goal is to bump the MCAT up to the 515-520 range if possible to help make up for the GPA a bit.

GPAs (fall/spring):
Y1: 3.56/3.40 --> 3.4
Summer: 3.67
Y2: 3.53/3.08 (this was the bad semester) --> 3.31
Y3: 3.71/3.56 --> 3.63
Summer: 4.0
Y4: 3.31/3.67 --> 3.49

 

[Mr.Smile12]

What feedback have you gotten from your prehealth advisors?

 

[Goro]

Hi, I appreciate the reply. That bad semester was bad but not sub 3.0. My goal is MD simply for an easier time with residency matching and avoiding needing to do 2 sets of licensing exams but I have no issues whatsoever with going DO. My goal is to bump the MCAT up to the 515-520 range if possible to help make up for the GPA a bit.

GPAs (fall/spring):
Y1: 3.56/3.40 --> 3.4
Summer: 3.67
Y2: 3.53/3.08 (this was the bad semester) --> 3.31
Y3: 3.71/3.56 --> 3.63
Summer: 4.0
Y4: 3.31/3.67 --> 3.49

I can't sugarcoat this, Beggars can't be choosy. As a reinventor, and you're going to need GPA reinvention if you're gunning for MD, you're going to still need to have do schools on your eventual school list.

 

[FutureDoc1014]

I can't sugarcoat this, Beggars can't be choosy. As a reinventor, and you're going to need GPA reinvention if you're gunning for MD, you're going to still need to have do schools on your eventual school list.

Oh yea, absolutely I am 100% applying to both. I have no problem going DO if that's where I get in lol I will go wherever I can get in. Would an MCAT of 515+ be enough to offset the GPA a little bit? Or any other things I can do aside from GPA repair? Just enough to give me a decent chance of admission to any med school, again I am not picky about it I'll go wherever I can get in.

 

[Goro]

Oh yea, absolutely I am 100% applying to both. I have no problem going DO if that's where I get in lol I will go wherever I can get in. Would an MCAT of 515+ be enough to offset the GPA a little bit? Or any other things I can do aside from GPA repair? Just enough to give me a decent chance of admission to any med school, again I am not picky about it I'll go wherever I can get in.

A a high MCAT score does not remediate a weak gpa. It me really accentuates the differences between the two

 

[Ellesandra319]

Oh yea, absolutely I am 100% applying to both. I have no problem going DO if that's where I get in lol I will go wherever I can get in. Would an MCAT of 515+ be enough to offset the GPA a little bit? Or any other things I can do aside from GPA repair? Just enough to give me a decent chance of admission to any med school, again I am not picky about it I'll go wherever I can get in.

OMS3 i've talked about it a lot on SDN but because i was pretty misinformed (my own fault) heading into med school apps, i do like to share my own anecdotal experience on here for other premeds. i had a 3.2ish sGPA and a 51x MCAT, and i got 1 MD II (brand new stateside MD that turned into a late R lol) and 3 DO II's. my state MD program had a super high II rate for in state applicants and I didn't get a II.

med school admissions has only gotten more competitive, and the data shows, if you want MD, but honestly DO to a lesser extent, you gotta do GPA repair. for someone already done with a BS with a 3.0X GPA, that's probs gonna be an SMP. all but mandatory for MD, less so for DO. i wasn't super familiar with SMP's at the time, and i was ready to start med school, so I went with the DO acceptances I had. I am applying surgery next year and absolutely don't feel being at a DO school has held me back whatsoever. the only thing i'd say is you might not get opportunities for mentorship/research as easily as you'd get at an MD program, but if you are motivated and are willing to put yourself out there and don't expect life to be handed to you on a silver platter, you'll be just fine.

and honestly, as much as I wish I would've gotten a II from my in-state MD, it makes *sense* to me now that MCAT doesn't make up for GPA. i studied for 6 months, working very part-time, for the MCAT. i lived and breathed that one exam for a short amount of time, and did well. and while that's valuable experience for studying for boards, in no way whatsoever did it come close to mimicking the unexplainably intense rigor of med school pre-clinical curriculum. in my very unprofessional opinion, MCAT = can you pass boards, GPA = can you pass preclinical. med schools wanna see that its gonna be a yes to both.

now that doesn't mean people with low GPA's can't succeed; i figured out how to study well and i've done well in med school. my GPA was also low from my first couple years of undergrad, but even though i turned it around to mostly A's and a few B's in post-bacc, it didn't repair my GPA much. i wished i could go back and erase my first 2 years of undergrad academically, but it's life. there's no reverse button. and that's why you gotta adopt the attitude that both our successes and failures in life guide us to where we're meant to be, even if it's not where we planned or wanted initially.

we don't need anymore disgruntled wish-i-was-an-MD students in DO programs, so if you really wanna shoot for MD, no harm no foul! but you gotta crush an SMP, and be ready for the fact you may not become a physician if you don't open yourself up to DO programs. for that exact reason, i matriculated a DO program, and i haven't looked back. wouldn't change it for the world!

 

[Faha]

I suggest these DO schools with your stats:
PCOM
LECOM
MU-COM
DMU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
UIWSOM
ACOM
WVSOM
UP-KYCOM
NYITCOM
Touro-NY
AZCOM
TUNCOM
For MD schools you could try these:
Commonwealth Geisinger
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
West Virginia
Albany
Quinnipiac
Eastern Virginia
NOVA MD
Belmont
Alice Walton
Ponce (St. Louis)
Rosalind Franklin
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Methodist (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)