WAMC's: 514 MCAT, 3.71 post-bacc, no MD ii's, MD vs DO?

[HugeHungryHippo]

I'm about 6 years post-bacc and decided to apply to only MD schools after receiving my 514 MCAT, which I'm now worried was a mistake. I'm a bit non-traditional and was previously pre-PA before deciding I had it in me to pursue medical school in full.

1. cGPA 3.38 (post-bacc cGPA 3.7), cBCPM 3.36 (post-bacc 3.71)
   • 51 BCPM hours, 72 post-bacc credit hours overall
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
   • 514 (128/129/128/129)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   • CA
4. Ethnicity and/or race
   • White - ORM
5. Undergraduate institution or category
   • Went to a small-ish out of state private school and completed a B.S in Psychology and Minor in Biology in 2015. After a gap year, in late 2017 I started to pursue pre-medical coursework via a DIY post-bacc at local CC's.
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   • ~2600hrs as an EMT in Los Angeles
   • ~1200hrs as a medical scribe (8 months in OR, 3 months in ED)
7. Research experience and productivity
   • Capstone Project for my degree involved ~120 hours of work that led to a paper and poster (nothing published)
   • Completed a small psych replication project for a Grant Award in 2015
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   • If Scribe work can be considered shadowing then it's the same hours as above^
   • Shadowed 2 days/20hrs of Orthopedic Operating Room
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   • I created and run a small nonprofit in 2017 that has been donating jackets, clothing, shoes, etc from retailers to homeless and low-income groups in my community (500hrs+)
   • I have spent around 50hours volunteering with a local homeless rehabilitation group to do various projects: stocking food pantry, paint/remodel houses, create donation pamphlets
   • Spent 20hrs helping retrofit an orphanage in Tijuana Mexico with am aquaponics system to supply them with vegetables
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    • I took a gap year immediately after graduating in 2015 and taught English in China for 10 months. The experience gave me a chance to reflect on my life and helped me realized how privileged/spoiled I was to have been born in the US. Although I realized I had not been a great student in college, I convinced myself that I was not a lost cause and renewed my resolve to pursue medicine after returning to the states.
    • Creation of my non-profit already mentioned^. The idea came to me while working at REI (outdoor sports retailer) - I wanted to funnel excess/unsold/used/damaged gear and clothing from the retail environment I was in and channel it to local organizations that could hand it out to the homeless or low income individuals that they serviced. So far we have donated over $100K worth of merchandise.
11. Relevant honors or awards
    • Deans list one year
    • Community Problem Solver Award (Grant award for non-profit; perhaps not relevant?)
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important

My MCAT posted 7/27/21 so all my secondaries came afterwards. Most were completed throughout August, although I somewhat desperately submitted 2 more at the beginning of October. I'm 28 and not getting any younger, don't know what else to do work/school wise post-MCAT, and I'm anxious to get in somewhere this cycle. I only applied to MD schools based off of my MCAT score and the fact that I slightly prefer the allopathic perspective. I did set up my AACOMAS account while waiting for my CMAT score though, so it is ready for me to apply to DO schools if I decide to/need to.

I tried to apply broadly but probably included too many reach schools: Georgetown (R), Penn, NYULI, Albert Einstein, Stanford, UCSD, OHSU, UMass, UNC, UVM, Kaiser, University of Utah, Rush, Keck, UNLV, UCR, UCI, UCLA, EVMS, Emory, Mayo, U of Az, Wisc. Madison, U of Colorado, Washu, Yale, California University of Science and Med, UIC, UCDavis (no secondary yet...).
Only rejection thus far is from Georgetown. University of Arizona send me an interview waitlist email weekly, and Rush sent me a "please be patient" email 2 weeks ago.
I did not apply to Texas because I didn't realize they had a separate application... I also did purposefully avoid schools in Florida and New York based on personal preferences. I would prefer to stay in California, so any school here is near a top choice. Colorado after that.

I previously applied to one PA cycle but I knew it wasn't what I really wanted. I did interview for Yales online program during that time and it perhaps over-inflated my ego about what schools might be interested in me...

Besides my undergraduate GPA, one problem with my app seems to be that I don't have any real solid research experience under a PI (although maybe my Capstone counts as research experience?), and I'm thinking that might be holding me back. I'm actively looking for research opportunities now while working at a Covid Testing site and taking a Prosection course for a certificate.

Worst performance post-bacc was in OCHEM 1. I was training as an EMT concurrently and had to skip the first 2 weeks of class, so I fell behind and eventually had to retake that course (C-->A). I'm not sure how that counts against me. All other post-bacc classes I've received mostly A's, but I'm worried that the couple of B's I received sows doubt into my abilities as a student (in reality they are related to course quality more than anything smh).

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[Mr.Smile12]

Research is overrated unless you applied to a lot of schools that are very research-focused. If it were me, your capstone will help address some questions about "research".

Based on what you have disclosed here, I don't know your "story" or journey to the decision to become a physician. I see what you did and you have done a lot. But I don't know what you have done to get a better sense of fit with the schools where you applied, especially to schools who may give you more benefit of the doubt due to postbac courses. But I don't know what you took or how that may factor in placing your application into consideration.

 

[HugeHungryHippo]

Research is overrated unless you applied to a lot of schools that are very research-focused. If it were me, your capstone will help address some questions about "research".

Based on what you have disclosed here, I don't know your "story" or journey to the decision to become a physician. I see what you did and you have done a lot. But I don't know what you have done to get a better sense of fit with the schools where you applied, especially to schools who may give you more benefit of the doubt due to postbac courses. But I don't know what you took or how that may factor in placing your application into consideration.

I hear some people say research is overrated but it's still something I feel is lacking from my application. I do wish that I included more information about my Capstone project in my Primary application - I only mentioned it on a few secondaries when the questions specifically asked for research related answers. I was thinking about adding it as an "update" to my secondaries and just including a file that says I forgot to include this "research" background in my primary application (which is true).

The "story" is basically that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life during undergrad so I was aimless and just took classes that seemed interesting, but I did not apply myself adequately. While in China, I reflected on myself and my interests and realized that I had a strong desire to help people. So I figured I should pursue a healthcare related job. Nobody in my family has every been involved in healthcare, so I simply felt I had to get my foot in the door by working basic jobs to see what opportunities were out there. As I did that -through scribing and EMTing and taking classes more seriously - I felt drawn to medical school. Physicians I worked with encouraged me and made me think it was possible. Now here I am.

I have a sense of some of the California schools' ethos, but generally when writing secondaries I tried to research the school and their programs a bit to orient my answers. Beyond that I didn't do anything special to get a sense of "fit". Do people typically approach that angle differently?

 

[Faha]

You applied to too many reach schools and OOS state public schools that accept few non residents with your stats and no connection to the state.
It is not late to apply to DO schools and I suggest these:
WESTERN
TUCOM-CA
TUNCOM
AZCOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
CUSOM
PCOM
Touro-NY
NYITCOM
LECOM (all schools)
UIWSOM

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I hear some people say research is overrated but it's still something I feel is lacking from my application. I do wish that I included more information about my Capstone project in my Primary application - I only mentioned it on a few secondaries when the questions specifically asked for research related answers. I was thinking about adding it as an "update" to my secondaries and just including a file that says I forgot to include this "research" background in my primary application (which is true).

The "story" is basically that I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life during undergrad so I was aimless and just took classes that seemed interesting, but I did not apply myself adequately. While in China, I reflected on myself and my interests and realized that I had a strong desire to help people. So I figured I should pursue a healthcare related job. Nobody in my family has every been involved in healthcare, so I simply felt I had to get my foot in the door by working basic jobs to see what opportunities were out there. As I did that -through scribing and EMTing and taking classes more seriously - I felt drawn to medical school. Physicians I worked with encouraged me and made me think it was possible. Now here I am.

I have a sense of some of the California schools' ethos, but generally when writing secondaries I tried to research the school and their programs a bit to orient my answers. Beyond that I didn't do anything special to get a sense of "fit". Do people typically approach that angle differently?

I hope you have a stronger answer than wanting to help people because there are many non medical jobs that help people too.

Of course I work in admissions, so you don't have to value my opinion about whether research is overrated... and I am a researcher by training.

 

[Doctoscope]

If you want to start medical school next year, then it'd be a good idea to apply to DO schools. Something like 60%+ of CA applicants end up leaving the state for med school (whether by choice or not), so if you absolutely HAVE to stay in CA then Western-COMP and Touro CA are probably your best bets.

If not, since you have so many reaches and schools that don't really reward reinvention, you should probably prep for a reapp.