WAMC- gpa 3.6. mcat 504 (plan retake)

[anonima]

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting.

I'm a current senior graduating next winter. This last cycle has been rough, I applied with those stats (3.6, 504) to 18 MD schools (6 in state-MI). I think this cycles is not gonna be it. But what about next cycle. Hopefully with a slight increase in gpa, planning to retake mcat in May 2021 and plan to have all my stuff in early. I also plan to add more hours of clinical work or shadowing. I'm banking on getting in by basically applying broadly also applying DO broadly.

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[candbgirl]

If you could expand your information with the WAMC template you might get more and better information. We really know nothing about your application so there is really nothing we can.

 

[anonima]

Yeah that was a little vague, here is more info

1. cGPA: 3.61 and sGPA: 3.37 as calculated by AMCAS. I have some more classes to finish so hopefully I will raise GPA but it probably wont go up significantly.
2. MCAT: 504 (126,123,126,129) I usually get higher score on the bio section. plan a retake during may 2021
3. State of residence : MI
4. Ethnicity and/or race: white/arab. ORM
5. Clinical experience: I have 80 clinical and volunteer hours. Plan to add more this winter.
6. Research experience: I have a year's worth of undergraduate research (300hours)
7. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: I have 50 hours shadowing. Want to add DO shadowing this winter.
8. Non-clinical volunteering: not much here, some hours with fundraisers and food packaging (30 hours).
9. Anything else not listed you think might be important: I'm a first gen immigrant, moved to the US during highschool

I think my biggest mistake was not applying DO and finishing secondaries in sep and oct.
My school list has been: 6 MD schools in MI. Case wester, northeast ohio, toledo, wright, loyola, rosiland, University of illinois, Indiana, Tulane, MCW.
Also I have a specific question I wanted to ask, would not having DO shadowing until recently be suspicious to many DO schools? I plan to apply broadly.

 

[candbgirl]

Thanks for adding to your description. From what you have shared you probably shouldn’t have applied this cycle. You have pretty weak ECs, a low sGPA, a cGPA that is below average and an MCAT that really isn’t competitive for MD. Did you use the MSAR to develop your school list?
Roughly expected ECs are 50 hours of shadowing as long as you have some primary care shadowing. 200+ hours of clinical experiences ( can be paid or volunteer) as long as you have face to face contact with patients. And 200+ hours of nonclinical volunteering focused on serving the unserved/underserved in your community.
DO schools won’t care if your letter is recent.
ADCOMS will expect to see significant improvement in your application when you reapply. So unless you have been busy plugging the holes in your application you probably should think of not reapplying until 2022 or even 2023. This would give you a chance to work on your application and study for the MCAT retake. Although if you are comfortable with DO your MCAT is probably okay now.
Good luck.