WAMC NY ORM 515/3.63

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

muzzybear

New Member
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Preferences:
1. MD/PhD
2. DO/PhD
3. MD
4. DO

Major: Psychology

sGPA: 3.45
cGPA: 3.63
MCAT: 517

ORM (Chinese)

Research:
300 hrs socio-psychology research, 1 pub
100 hrs honors thesis research on eating disorders, 1 pub on the way

Jobs:
- 1040 hrs scribing for neurologist (private practice)
- 200 hrs as EKG tech & phlebotomist for internist (private practice)
- Mentor for commuter freshmen at my undergrad for 1 yr

Volunteer:
- 100 hrs volunteering for vascular surgeon (private practice)
- 150 hrs shadowing (idk if this counts as volunteer) vascular surgeon, neurologist, internist and family med (all private practice)

Nonclinical volunteer:
- 200 hrs, taught mental health to high school classes for a few months
- 300 hrs, tutor high schoolers for SHSAT

Red flags:
- Never worked in a hospital
- Got a C in Bio first semester
- Really bad GPA in freshman year (2.91), grandpa was really sick, was working a lot, took too many credits and didn't know how to handle my classes
- Got an F in a pre-calc college class when I was in high school after house burned down, wasn't able to study for the final (I tried appealing the score but never heard back)
- Withdrew from sociology college class in high school, never retook
- Withdrew from Chem II, retook and got an A

I have a lot of issues as you can see, but my GPA has been on an upward trend since. I really love research so much and I want to do an MD/PhD program, or DO/PhD. I'm trying to get in more research and I'm currently working on an honors thesis for psychology. Is this enough for a shot at MD/PhD, or am I shooting too high?
 
Last edited:
Preferences:
1. MD/PhD
2. DO/PhD
3. MD
4. DO

Major: Psychology

sGPA: 3.45
cGPA: 3.63
MCAT: 517

ORM (Chinese)

Research:
300 hrs socio-psychology research, 1 pub
100 hrs honors thesis research on eating disorders, 1 pub on the way

Jobs:
- 1040 hrs scribing for neurologist (private practice)
- 200 hrs as EKG tech & phlebotomist for internist (private practice)
- Mentor for commuter freshmen at my undergrad for 1 yr

Volunteer:
- 100 hrs volunteering for vascular surgeon (private practice)
- 150 hrs shadowing (idk if this counts as volunteer) vascular surgeon, neurologist, internist and family med (all private practice)
- Taught mental health to high school classes for a few months
- Tutor high schoolers for SHSAT, 3 yrs

Red flags:
- Never worked in a hospital
- Got a C in Bio first semester
- Really bad GPA in freshman year (2.91), grandpa was really sick, was working a lot, took too many credits and didn't know how to handle my classes
- Got an F in a pre-calc college class when I was in high school after house burned down, wasn't able to study for the final (I tried appealing the score but never heard back)
- Withdrew from sociology college class in high school, never retook
- Withdrew from Chem II, retook and got an A

I have a lot of issues as you can see, but my GPA has been on an upward trend since. I really love research so much and I want to do an MD/PhD program, or DO/PhD. I'm trying to get in more research and I'm currently working on an honors thesis for psychology. Is this enough for a shot at MD/PhD, or am I shooting too high?
Why not straight PhD?
 
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
You could receive MD interviews with your stats and I suggest these:
All 4 SUNYs
Hofstra
Einstein
Mount Sinai
Rochester
New York Medical College
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Boston University
Tufts
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
George Washington
Virginia Commonwealth
Wake Forest
NOVA MD
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
St. Louis
Medical College Wisconsin
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Cincinnati
 
A great thread on admissions standards for MD/PhD programs:

You're low on research hours and GPA for joint degree programs and low on nonclinical volunteering for straight MD or DO.
 
A great thread on admissions standards for MD/PhD programs:

You're low on research hours and GPA for joint degree programs and low on nonclinical volunteering for straight MD or DO.
Didn't he put 500 hours of non-clinical volunteering? Unless it doesn't count as volunteering but rather as just tutoring. I do agree with the research hours and GPA though for MD/PhD programs especially.
 
Adcoms are looking for nonclinical volunteering with the disadvantaged/underserved. The bio doesn’t make clear whether that’s the case.
Okay, that makes sense. If that’s the case then I think he would need volunteering hours for the underserved.