MD & DO What are my chances?

[lmarsee]

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Majoring in neuroscience, my cumulative gpa will be around 3.77 and sgpa around 3.8
I have two withdrawals one in a business class and one in o2, also had to take off a semester due to medical issues, concerned the number of withdrawals may be a red flag.
Extracurriculars are pretty weak: clubs here and there but no leadership positions, volleyball/basketball intermural sports, rock climbing and cycling, lots of hours working with area 10 on aging (meals on wheels, soup kitchen etc.)
LOR: strong from MD, pretty weak from professors
will be taking the MCAT in July, is this too late in the cycle?
Have shadowed a few doctors and worked a summer in a cardiology office and winter in the OR holding room as a transporter. I plan on spending most of my summer in summer school and prepping for the MCAT, just want advice as to how my chances look...specifically for DO schools but may apply to a few MD schools as well.

Thanks 🙂

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Not too bad depending on the MCAT. The grades are rock solid, dont worry about the W's on the transcript. I had a couple (along with a couple fails even lol) and still have a couple acceptances. If you really want to strengthen the DO side of things try and get a DO letter. It will help your cause and it will broaden the number of schools you can apply to. At some schools it is a requirement, at others it is a strong recommendation. A few weeks of shadowing a DO will help - if you can shadow a DO PCP and get a letter then you get bonus points lol.

If the rest of your app is together and you are submitting late August/early September, you should still be good. Its obviously not as ideal as June, but it does not necessarily take you out of the running. Just be ready to really pull all of that stuff together as quickly as you can after getting your MCAT scores. Once you get past like October and November, things start slowing down dramatically, so its best to get all of your app in before that time. Otherwise just rock the MCAT and plan accordingly to your score. Its ok to have a couple reach schools, but if you dont want to go a second cycle its probably best to be smart and apply to a solid number of schools in your range.

 

[Goro]

Numbers are great.

, my cumulative gpa will be around 3.77 and sgpa around 3.8

They won't. It's far more prudent to withdraw than to try and bull your way through when you can't function well.
I have two withdrawals one in a business class and one in o2, also had to take off a semester due to medical issues, concerned the number of withdrawals may be a red flag.

Just get in the patient contact experience. You're not trying Harvard.
Extracurriculars are pretty weak: clubs here and there but no leadership positions, volleyball/basketball intermural sports, rock climbing and cycling, lots of hours working with area 10 on aging (meals on wheels, soup kitchen etc.)

Apply with weak LORs is not wise; a bad LOR will keep you out of med school.
LOR: strong from MD, pretty weak from professors

Nope. Not al all.
will be taking the MCAT in July, is this too late in the cycle?

MCAT will make or break you. Come back when you have a score!
Have shadowed a few doctors and worked a summer in a cardiology office and winter in the OR holding room as a transporter. I plan on spending most of my summer in summer school and prepping for the MCAT, just want advice as to how my chances look...specifically for DO schools but may apply to a few MD schools as well.

 

[Vain Brother]

i would add a corollary to goro's assurance that the july MCAT is not too late: make sure you submit your primary (to a single throwaway school) well before that, so that you are already verified before your MCAT comes back. then you can finalize your list based on your MCAT score