WAMC: looking for some guidance this cycle and possible school list

[carelessspeaker]

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

If you want MD, take the extra gap year. Your stats and ECs are all borderline or low. You need to retake the MCAT and accrue more hours to improve your chances at MD but you probably have a shot at DO this cycle.

 

[candbgirl]

So you were planning to apply in May? Your ECs are pretty weak. Your 200 hours of shadowing is overkill . You only need about 50 hours total. I’d leave the NP shadowing out, unless you did it to rule out pursuing that career path.
You are on the low side of clinical experiences. You really need to up that by 100 hours. You seem to have no nonclinicalvolunteering to the unserved/underserved in your community. Check out food banks, soup kitchens or homeless shelters. Habitat for Humanity is another option. Activities that take you out of your comfort zone and have you interact with people very unlike yourself is what you are looking for. Special Olympics is okay but 20 hours is pitiful. You need at least 150 hours of nonclinical volunteering. Your tutoring goes under teaching/tutoring not leadership.
Your GPAs are average for matriculated students. YourMCAT is low for MD schools(as you know). Another Gap year can only help you build a better and stronger application.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Tell me more why tutoring second grade students is leadership.

504 is good for DO programs. Have you looked at Campbell, VCOM, PCOM? If you graduate early, what is your next step?

What did your prehealth office recommend? You want that letter to speak well about your fitness for medical school, and I would be surprised if they supported you fully for allopathic programs.

Your call to include side hobbies. We can't read your mind here on the internet (yet).

 

[carelessspeaker]

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[Mr.Smile12]

So I thought tutoring would fall under leadership because it was serving as a role model or mentoring a younger student in way. Because it is also an international school with a lot of first generation kids in disadvantaged parts

No it's not equivalent to being an ex-board member of a club or serving as a representative for your dorm or student body. This is mentoring, and not all leaders are mentors.

But titles don't tell me much about your leadership as much. I want to know situations where you had to make tough decisions, even against your peers. I want examples of strategic thinking and making measurable progress towards a desired goal.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Talking to my advisor she said in order to be recommended via committee letter they were looking for a 496 and 125+ in all subsections for allopathic, however I do know that is not very competitive for MD overall

So it covers all bases including DO and podiatry. Have you looked at podiatry?

 

[Goro]

So I’m an ORM (Asian), 3.76c/3.7s, but 504 MCAT.
ECs:
hospice for clinical 100hr, Research 100hrs, Leadership-tutoring second graders 60hrs,

shadowing 200hrs in Ortho surg, general surg, family med, plastic surg, internal med, and Nurse practitioner at local care clinic(5hrs)

Special Olympics volunteer (20hrs)- have time to rack this up to 50 by application submission

Ofc have side hobbies as well, but not sure how much that really factors in. Getting a committee letter and physician LORS also- so confident about LOR quality

Honesty worried about my MCAT dragging me down, not necessarily afraid to retake it bc I feel I could have studied much better and had some test day issues. But it would force me into 2 gap years, as I am graduating early so one is inevitable anyways, so ofc trying to avoid it unless I have to.

I was wondering if anyone has any success with similar stats or advice in general? I put together a school list but am seeking additional input and advice.

Also NC resident if that helps!

Just saw your thread.

ECs are weak. Get in 50+ more hrs of clinical exposure (I have a high regard for people with hospice experience) and same for nonclinical volunteering.

For schools, I suggest:
Tulane
SLU (maybe)
Albany
Wayne State
MCW
Loma Linda (only if you are SDA or a very devout Christian)
Rosy Franklin
Uniformed Services University/Hebert (just be aware of the military service commitment)
Your state school(s).
Any DO program. Include UNECOM if you’re from the NE, OSUCOM if you’re from the Plains states and PacNW if you’re from that region. I can't recommend LMU, ARCOM, RVU, BCOM, SOMA, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. Avoid those new schools that haven't graduated a class yet, if at all possible.

 

[theoceanman]

So I thought tutoring would fall under leadership because it was serving as a role model or mentoring a younger student in way. Because it is also an international school with a lot of first generation kids in disadvantaged parts

Since one gap year is inevitable I planned on continuing my clinical along with EMT work. I also applied as a clinical RA full time paid position at MUSC so it depends whether I get that or not.

2 gap years I planned on of course building clinical and non clinical volunteering as well as retaking the MCAT

Also, if the tutoring would not be leadership. What are typical leadership roles for premed students generally?

Talking to my advisor she said in order to be recommended via committee letter they were looking for a 496 and 125+ in all subsections for allopathic, however I do know that is not very competitive for MD overall

And yes I have looked at those schools, I do plan on applying to them.

Thank you for the response!

I believe getting some further community service experience to get a better mission-fit at DO schools would be recommended. They usually target specific populations, such as rural or underserved individuals, and it would help polish your application further to show commitment to those groups of people.

 

[chilly_md]

Bulk up clinical hours and non-clinical volunteering. Include ECU to the above and try these DO programs:

Campbell
VCOM
LECOM (all campuses)
PCOM (all campuses)
DMU
Marian
WCU
West Virginia
ACOM
UIWSOM
KCOM
NYIT-AR

 

[carelessspeaker]

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[chilly_md]

So basically need help understanding if my thought process makes sense or I am wasting time…

With step recently going p/f does it makes sense for me to apply DO if I am dead set on ortho? Or take another gap year for MD? My process is would I rather struggle/spend more time applying for an MD school or worry about matching ortho later on? Or would you just go ahead and apply DO and MD? All of my ortho mentors are DO docs so the original plan was to follow that route but then I was thinking should I take more time to build an MD app?

I have moved your question back to your WAMC thread since it requires context to answer.

Even with a year of EC’s, it would not be advisable to apply MD only. Many who plan on doing ortho who go to an MD school end up doing something else as well. You will have to be flexible about speciality regardless of where you matriculate to school.

 

[macrophagefanatic]

Being that you're an NC resident, If you were planning to apply this year with a 504, I'd suggest maybe adding ECU (Brody SOM) to your list because they're very holistic with their admissions. Median MCAT is 508 but they've had a fair number of people admitted with lower MCAT scores than yours (including sub-500). Mission fit is obviously a huge factor, though, so I would recommend researching to see if you think you'd be a good fit for what they typically look for. If you wait to apply and improve your MCAT, add UNC. They have a large class size that is going to increase even more over the next few years from 190 to around 230. They also tend to offer roughly 40% of in-state applicants an interview. If you could increase your MCAT score to 510+ and strengthen some of the other areas of your application mentioned in previous replies, you'd have a good shot there.

 

[candbgirl]

So basically need help understanding if my thought process makes sense or I am wasting time…

With step recently going p/f does it makes sense for me to apply DO if I am dead set on ortho? Or take another gap year for MD? My process is would I rather struggle/spend more time applying for an MD school or worry about matching ortho later on? Or would you just go ahead and apply DO and MD? All of my ortho mentors are DO docs so the original plan was to follow that route but then I was thinking should I take more time to build an MD app?

Only Step 1 is p/f unless it’s been changed recently. And there is way more to building your application for residency than Step scores. Have you looked at Podiatry? It might be a nice alternative for you. (And Pod patients are very grateful.)Ortho is tough even for the best applicants. So putting all of your focus on applying ortho when you haven’t even applied to med school could be counter productive.At this point you should want to get into med school. Any med school.
Have you worked on improving your application since your original post last March?
Good luck.