What are my chances? Non-trad, unique

[FM_bradley]

- Non-Traditional student
- 27 years old
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology from an average school (#4 best college in my state, but one people outside wouldn’t know)
- 510 MCAT... considered taking it again, but didn’t want to risk getting a lower score.
- 3.8 GPA, 3.65 Science GPA
- 230 volunteer hours as a firefighter
- 180 volunteer hours as an EMT
- only 1 publication and it’s based on psychology... this is where I’m confused though, because it was published in an academic article for our school. Not a legit publisher. Does this count?
- started a non-profit that donates books to local elementary schools. I’ve donated so far to 9 schools for 600+ books. This is 3 years old.

Anyways, I’m a non-trad student but interested in getting into the absolute best school possible. I was going to apply to the top 10-20 schools, but also a lot of others and all my state schools. Some DO’s. Etc. I’m going to apply to ~ 60 schools, as I really want to get in the first time around. I’m fairly confident if I retook the MCAT, I could get a higher score and have the time to study and do it again. Should I go that route to try to get into a top 10, or is a top 10 unfeasible anyways? My sister graduated with a 4.0 in Biology and didn’t get in anywhere - granted, she only applied to 8 schools and said she was fine with taking a gap year. Any opinions welcome. Thanks.

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[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? Do you have any physician shadowing or clinical volunteering hours with patient contact ?

 

[FM_bradley]

Where is your state of residence ? Do you have any physician shadowing or clinical volunteering hours with patient contact ?

Can’t beliebe I forgot that. I have 10 hours shadowing for a neurologist, but I can get that to ~ 40-50. 90% of my EMT was “clinical” I would say. A lot of gun shot wounds and broken bones. Usually never life threatening. I volunteer 6-8 hours at a time once or twice a month. I live in a small college town in GA. Most calls were because of drunk college kids.

 

[Faha]

Accumulate 50 hours of shadowing in the next month. You are not competitive for top 20 schools. The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have a 75% chance for a MD acceptance so 25% of applicants with your stats are not accepted anywhere. I suggest these schools with your stats;
Medical College Georgia
Mercer
NOVA MD
Wake Forest
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Penn State
Seton Hall
New York Medical College
Quinnipiac
Vermont
Albany
Oakland Beaumont
Western Michigan
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
I recommend that you apply to at least 8 DO schools and suggest these:
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
ACOM
LMU-DCOM
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
CUSOM
VCOM (all 3 schools)
LECOM (all schools)
Apply no later than July and submit all your secondaries no later than August.

 

[Neuro244]

Hey I was wondering if I could jump on this thread as I'm also a Non-traditional student who needs some advice with applying.

-30 years old, Non-URM
-Received my B.A. in Psychology
-Cumulative GPA I believe is a 3.8, but not sure of sGPA as AMCAS hasn't calculated it yet since I haven't submitted my primary yet.
-Resident of California and set on applying to MD schools only
-40 hours of shadowing (1 Internal medicine doctor-35 hours, 1 Family medicine doctor at UCLA Hospital-5 hours)
-Hospice Volunteer-212 hours
-I have solid clinical hours: Volunteering at a hospital (this is combining 2 different hospitals-(UCLA Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente) and 4 different roles-1012 hours.
-Physical Therapist shadowing/observation-32 hours
-Pharmacy Volunteer at Kaiser-258 hours
-Volunteer in Pulmonary Department at Kaiser-68 hours
-Undergraduate Research assistant in Psychology department (including a presentation at Western Psychological Association and at my state University)-85 hours.
-For the presentations I was co-author.
-Homeless Shelter volunteer for largest Homeless Shelter in Los Angeles-72 hours

Furthermore, I'm confident with my grades and EC's, but my situation is in regards to my MCAT test date/navigating my secondaries.

Here's my situation:

I could use some advice in regards to applying as my MCAT date has taken a back seat since I'm not ready, I have pushed it to July 24th due to consistent low scores. Everything else I've been hustling with on my primary to have finished, but am still not done editing my work/activities section, I'd say that's about 80% done, and my personal statement needs editing, so I'm hoping to submit within 8 days or so.

As mentioned above, I'm not worried about my grades or EC's, letters of Rec are solid (not one in a million, but solid letters), my personal statement will be much stronger once I edit it. The only thing holding me back at this point is my MCAT as it's a beast of a test. My dream is to stay in California, but I know I may have to go out of state realistically if my MCAT isn't high enough.

I'm not sure about the school list as I can only go based off of "how I feel I did after my MCAT" exam. Let's say I get a 507-509 MCAT, I'm definitely going to be applying to California schools (with the exception of Stanford, Loma Linda, and one of the DO schools) since I'll be within the 10-90% range of the matriculated students with a particular MCAT score for that/those schools. I think that considering everything else is strong on my application besides not knowing my MCAT score and since I'm a resident, that gives me some slight advantage. Problem is however is that CA schools screen you based on GPA/MCAT, so they won't be giving me an automatic secondary.

My questions are:

1. Considering I'm from California, does anybody have any good suggestions as to what school I can use as my "throwaway school" just for the purposes of getting my primary verified?

2. Considering I won't be taking my MCAT till July 24th (I know it's very late) but if I took it as I had planned on June, based on my performance thus far I would've gotten a 500-501 at best, what would be the best course of action to take in terms of filling out secondaries once I have my primary application verified? More specifically, I know you shouldn't apply to schools without an MCAT score (with the exception of the throwaway school), but in terms of my timeline since I won't be getting my results till August 23rd, how should I strategically plan writing my secondaries?

In addition to this, I'm planning on applying to 21 schools. 7 reach: All California, 7 mid tiers (all out of state), and 7 safety schools-low tier (all out of state). In terms of secondaries I've been told focus writing them for all the 7 low-tier schools that I would apply to regardless of my score and assuming I'd have a good chance of getting into them, which I'm fairly confident I will. How about the mid tier schools since a 507-509 is probably good enough for Mid tier schools? I probably won't write secondaries for the CA schools since A. They won't give them to me, and B. I might not get a shot with that MCAT score, but I'm hoping that my GPA and all the other parts of my application will carry me through.

Should I start writing them for the schools I want to apply to right after finishing my MCAT (assuming I feel like I scored at least a 507-509 ish) in order to still have chances of putting myself in the best position in terms of the timeline? Overall, I'm looking at the best way to use my time efficiently to maximize my chances of getting interviews/acceptances since I'll be taking a late MCAT and that puts me at a disadvantage since lots of schools are on a rolling admissions. What would be the best steps to take at this point in terms of applying/filling out secondaries and everything else in between?

If you need more information let me know and I'll post it up so you guys can help me out to the best of your ability (negative comments aren't appreciated). Thank you in advance.