What are my chances? Texas Resident.

[texasbball]

Hello! I just got my new MCAT scores this week and was beyond ecstatic with them. This will be my 3rd time applying and was hoping to get a list of schools narrowed down, especially some of the DO schools. Here are my stats:

Texas Resident ORM
Undergrad: Top Texas school
Major: Neuroscience/Psychology
cGPA: 3.31; sGPA 3.10 (strong upward trend overall, last ~80 hrs are a 3.7 GPA)
MCAT:
2011: 31Q (10/9/12/Q)
2017: 513 (127/128/129/129)

Shadowing:
20 hrs ED physician, scheduled to shadow a Neurologist next month

Research:
1 year in a lab working on sequencing genes
no publications

Volunteering:
30 hrs working in a free medical clinic at triage
80 hrs at a hospital in both ED and Neurology PCU
15 hrs community

Extracurriculars:
2 yrs campus EMT at standby events, community outreach
3 yrs AMSA
1 yr Archery Club

Work Experience:
2 summers at a grocery store
2 years part-time in events
4 years (10,000+ hrs) as an EMT in both Inter-facility and 911 settings

LOR
All are fairly strong: PI, 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, work supervisor, 1 (maybe 2) DO physicians

Is there anything I need to improve upon my application now? Perhaps more doctor shadowing, or non-medical volunteering?

School list:
UTSW
UTMB
UT-Houston
UT-San Antonio
UT-Austin
Texas A&M
TCOM
TTUHSC (received ii here my last application cycle, not accepted)
TTU El Paso
UT-RGV
Baylor (it's a reach, I know)
Tulane
Rosalind Franklin
Virginia Tech Carillion
Drexel
OU
OSU
The Commonwealth MC
FAU
Hofstra
UNLV (grew up in the area)

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[texasbball]

Thanks! I've gotten an allergist/immunologist MD to say ok to me shadowing him. I don't have any strong ties to South Texas besides a distant family member who lives along the coast south of Houston. I do deal with Spanish speaking patients on a regular basis though. I feel like not being able to communicate with them directly and instead having a family member or another first responder to translate for me is doing them a disservice though, so I am eager to learn. Plus seeing some of the disease processes caused by reduced access because of this bothers me, like untreated diabetes -> renal failure.

 

[texasbball]

Any other schools to add to my list? Or remove? What about my overall chances this cycle? Should I wait it out, since its my 3rd application?

 

[texasbball]

I have been, and still am. I'm about 50 hrs into my post-bac with 3.7 overall. I'm not bent on the MD initials, I'm just not familiar with the DO schools that are most friendly to OOS applicants.

 

[all things possible]

As a Texan, you should also look into shadowing a primary care physician. All of your shadowing hours are done with specialists.

You don't have to speak Spanish or be from the South Texas area to get an interview with UTRGV, however they are looking for commitment to working with underserved populations.

30 hours of volunteering with the free clinic is not alot.

I applied 3 times as a Texan resident with no luck the first 2.

Though DO schools are more forgiving towards lower gpa applicants, I believe they greatly value commitment to working with disadvantaged populations.

EDIT: Also, I hope you're not applying back to back cycles

 

[texasbball]

As a Texan, you should also look into shadowing a primary care physician. All of your shadowing hours are done with specialists.

You don't have to speak Spanish or be from the South Texas area to get an interview with UTRGV, however they are looking for commitment to working with underserved populations.

30 hours of volunteering with the free clinic is not alot.

I applied 3 times as a Texan resident with no luck the first 2.

Though DO schools are more forgiving towards lower gpa applicants, I believe they greatly value commitment to working with disadvantaged populations.

EDIT: Also, I hope you're not applying back to back cycles

I work for a major urban 911 ambulance service, as a result I work a lot with the indigent, elderly and the homeless. So far, I've applied to the EY 2013 and 2015 cycles.

 

[all things possible]

I work for a major urban 911 ambulance service, as a result I work a lot with the indigent, elderly and the homeless. So far, I've applied to the EY 2013 and 2015 cycles.

I would add some more significant non clinical volunteering then (preferelably with underserved communities as well).

Volunteering with undeserved populations is different than having a job in which you just so happen to service undeserved populations as those are your primary patients.

My stance still stands on finding a primary care doctor to shadow like family med, peds or internal, etc.

Do you speak Spanish or have worked with Spanish-speaking populations before? Have you worked with lower income individuals in the community (rather than your job as an EMT)?

I believe these are assets to have in Texas, especially for schools like UTRGV, Texas Tech El Paso, UTHSCSA, UTMB. The areas surrounding these schools have high Hispanic populations and actively recruit individuals with commitment to serving highly disadvantaged communities.

Honestly Texas is huge on GPA, even slightly more so than MCAT so anything that can greatly improve your chances is vital.

I recommend:

1. All Texas schools including TCOM (maybe exclude maybe exclude Baylor with their $100 secondary app fee)
2. Rosalind Franklin (low-yield FYI)
3. UNLV (area ties)
4. Loyola
5. PCOM
6. BCOM
7. LECOM
8. Incarnate
9. MSUCOM
10. VCOM (All 3)

You can also use the MSAR to help sharpen the list and see if your cPGA comes close to the 10th percentile of certain schools.

You probably will have a way better chance at DO but I wouldn't say MD is out of the question.

I also applied three times and can completely empathesize with you.

PM me if you want more info about what I did to change some things the 3rd time around.

 

[all things possible]

I would get rid of MSUCOM. They too prefer instate or in the area applicants

Even with a 513 MCAT?

 

[all things possible]

I believe so yes. The 513 is great but instead of applying to MSUCOM I would maybe consider OSUCOM if you really want more schools to add to your list. The general consensus is that OSU is also not advisable because of how heavily they favor in state but I just saw a student from OSU on SDN post that they interview out of state applicants with high MCATs like that and they advised another poster (from a northeastern state) to go ahead and apply. Not sure how fruitful it would be as I'm not a student there!

Good to know. Hopefully the OP looks more into regional biases.

One thing I can say for sure as a Texan is that there are some biases against Texans for OOS MD schools.

 

[all things possible]

Yes for sure! I too am a Texan and got no love from the out of state MD schools. Still waiting to hear back from Rosy but you are right, it's definitely low yield and looking unlikely at this point. ☹️

Good luck!!!

 

[kamakazi5]

I'm not sure if adcoms would look at it the same way but having so few non-clinical and shadowing hours between the first time you applied and now 4 years later sticks out like a sore thumb.

I think Texas is a lucky state but only with average or better GPA. Pretty much any DO school would be fine outside of the OOS public schools.

 

[Lord Kek]

Hello! I just got my new MCAT scores this week and was beyond ecstatic with them. This will be my 3rd time applying and was hoping to get a list of schools narrowed down, especially some of the DO schools. Here are my stats:

Texas Resident ORM
Undergrad: Top Texas school
Major: Neuroscience/Psychology
cGPA: 3.31; sGPA 3.10 (strong upward trend overall, last ~80 hrs are a 3.7 GPA)
MCAT:
2011: 31Q (10/9/12/Q)
2017: 513 (127/128/129/129)

Shadowing:
20 hrs ED physician, scheduled to shadow a Neurologist next month

Research:
1 year in a lab working on sequencing genes
no publications

Volunteering:
30 hrs working in a free medical clinic at triage
80 hrs at a hospital in both ED and Neurology PCU
15 hrs community

Extracurriculars:
2 yrs campus EMT at standby events, community outreach
3 yrs AMSA
1 yr Archery Club

Work Experience:
2 summers at a grocery store
2 years part-time in events
4 years (10,000+ hrs) as an EMT in both Inter-facility and 911 settings

LOR
All are fairly strong: PI, 2 science professors, 1 non-science professor, work supervisor, 1 (maybe 2) DO physicians

Is there anything I need to improve upon my application now? Perhaps more doctor shadowing, or non-medical volunteering?

School list:
UTSW
UTMB
UT-Houston
UT-San Antonio
UT-Austin
Texas A&M
TCOM
TTUHSC (received ii here my last application cycle, not accepted)
TTU El Paso
UT-RGV
Baylor (it's a reach, I know)
Tulane
Rosalind Franklin
Virginia Tech Carillion
Drexel
OU
OSU
The Commonwealth MC
FAU
Hofstra
UNLV (grew up in the area)

You're gonna need a lot more volunteer hours OP. I applied this cycle with very similar stats to yours and only got a lot of waitlists from my interviews. Anyone with <3.5 GPA has it tough in Texas due to their bias for high GPA's, even a higher MCAT may not help you in that regard. You need something on your application that's gonna thoroughly impress the adcoms.

 

[texasbball]

I'm not sure if adcoms would look at it the same way but having so few non-clinical and shadowing hours between the first time you applied and now 4 years later sticks out like a sore thumb.

I think Texas is a lucky state but only with average or better GPA. Pretty much any DO school would be fine outside of the OOS public schools.

Do you think it's even advisable to apply this cycle then with so few hours for shadowing an volunteering? I'm concerned that there will more applicants with 513 score in the upcoming cycles. I'm wanting to make this my final cycle and make my application as competitive as possible, since I've seen that reapplicants chances drop off precipitously after their 3rd cycle.

 

[Lord Kek]

Do you think it's even advisable to apply this cycle then with so few hours for shadowing an volunteering? I'm concerned that there will more applicants with 513 score in the upcoming cycles. I'm wanting to make this my final cycle and make my application as competitive as possible, since I've seen that reapplicants chances drop off precipitously after their 3rd cycle.

Take a gap year. You're gonna need 200+ hours of volunteering and at least 50+ of shadowing. I'm in the exact same situation as you are OP.

 

[texasbball]

Bump.