What are my chances?

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chessmeds

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Hi All,

I'm a nontraditional student, left a career in sales in the electronic manufacturing industry after climbing the corporate ladder and realizing it's not where I wanted to be. Ended up selling our home and 2 new cars to downsize our lifestyle and go back to school.

Went back to school 3 years ago with wife and 3 young kids in tow, graduating this summer with a B.S. in psychology and looking to apply this upcoming cycle for medical schools.

Stats:
3.85 GPA
MCAT- get my scores soon, scored 35-36 on most practice tests but felt like on actual MCAT I did worse, so expecting a low 30's score.

EC's:
Outpatient Surgery Center: volunteered around 150hrs over 1.5 years
Shadowed a D.O. general surgeon around 30hrs, planning on shadowing a M.D. family physician in May for another 15-25 hours
Chess: play competitive chess, including state champ for my class and give free lessons once a month to kids at local library
Music: play local coffee shops with friends, but I view it just as a stress-relieving hobby. I play the guitar, mandolin, and bass.
Community service: My family and I volunteer and do trail restoration locally in forests, I teach bible studies in the community for the last 4 years, we're currently being trained in a RESPITE program that takes in troubled kids in foster care for a weekend at a time to give foster families a break.

I have a passion for life-long learning and have always tremendously enjoyed working with people. I feel that medicine is the perfect career for me, it just took me a bit to figure it out.

I just ordered the MSAR to look at schools, not interested in research-heavy schools but more primary care oriented with a social mission. If I have a shot, any recommendations are appreciated!

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Hi All,

I'm a nontraditional student, left a career in sales in the electronic manufacturing industry after climbing the corporate ladder and realizing it's not where I wanted to be. Ended up selling our home and 2 new cars to downsize our lifestyle and go back to school.

Went back to school 3 years ago with wife and 3 young kids in tow, graduating this summer with a B.S. in psychology and looking to apply this upcoming cycle for medical schools.

Stats:
3.85 GPA
MCAT- get my scores soon, scored 35-36 on most practice tests but felt like on actual MCAT I did worse, so expecting a low 30's score.

EC's:
Outpatient Surgery Center: volunteered around 150hrs over 1.5 years
Shadowed a D.O. general surgeon around 30hrs, planning on shadowing a M.D. family physician in May for another 15-25 hours
Chess: play competitive chess, including state champ for my class and give free lessons once a month to kids at local library
Music: play local coffee shops with friends, but I view it just as a stress-relieving hobby. I play the guitar, mandolin, and bass.
Community service: My family and I volunteer and do trail restoration locally in forests, I teach bible studies in the community for the last 4 years, we're currently being trained in a RESPITE program that takes in troubled kids in foster care for a weekend at a time to give foster families a break.

I have a passion for life-long learning and have always tremendously enjoyed working with people. I feel that medicine is the perfect career for me, it just took me a bit to figure it out.

I just ordered the MSAR to look at schools, not interested in research-heavy schools but more primary care oriented with a social mission. If I have a shot, any recommendations are appreciated!
You might like to download this google.doc spreadsheet data (an SDN collaborative effort from 5/11), so you can fill in your own (projected) stats, and it will tell you for which US med schools you're competitive with different MCAT outcome scenarios. Next look at the in-state matriculation data before you do further research on each school for "fit," removing any from your list that take more than 85% in-state students (cut points vary, that just happens to be mine): https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmKVGWwobG5GdEx2MjlBTDE0bXFXNGFZczZqYTZKb2c&hl=en_US#gid=0

Then cross-correlate the list with the mission statements in your copy of the MSAR.

Once you know your score and have a list, it can be critiqued here for factors that aren't apparent from either of those two sources.
 
Got my MCAT score back yesterday = 32

Here is a tentative list, any/all input is appreciated. Hoping to cross a lot off if you guys see some red flags.

Southern Cal-Keck
Stanford
Colorado
Connecticut
Chicago Med-Franklin
Loyola-Stritch
Rush
Kentucky
Harvard
Tufts
Maryland
Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
Mayo
Albany
Cornell-Weill
Einstein
New York Medical OH Case Western
Cincinnati
Toledo
OHSU (in-state, would be my first choice)
Drexel
Jefferson V
Penn State
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
Vermont
Marshall-Edwards
 
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My comments in red reflect my recollections and suggest more research needs to be done. I didn't mess with some of your reaches, because dream schools are OK, too.
CA Loma Linda Be sure you've read their on-line Lifestyle Contract and can live with it.
Southern Cal-Keck
Stanford Research oriented
CO Colorado They seem to like more clinical experience than you have. Used to require 500 hours.
CT Connecticut
IL Chicago Med-Franklin
Loyola-Stritch
Rush
KY Kentucky
MA Harvard You can dream, but it's a very expensive Secondary.
Tufts
MD Maryland
MI Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
MN Mayo Seem to like a lot of research
NH Dartmouth
NY Albany
Cornell-Weill Research-oriented
Einstein
New York Medical
OH Case Western Research oriented.
Cincinnati
Toledo
OR Oregon
PA Commonwealth Aims to train docs for rural NE Pa
Drexel
Jefferson
Penn State Requires a research thesis
VA Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
VT Vermont
WV Marshall-Edwards Need strong state ties or contiguous state residency.
 
Thanks, familiar with Loma Linda, dad is alumni from dental school, my family is vegetarian and protestant so ok with their lifestyle requirements.

My father-in-law is a longtime Stanford bigwig of their linear acceleration center, would be nice to have family close but definitely a reach school.

List looks like:
CA Loma Linda .
Southern Cal-Keck
Stanford
CO Colorado
CT Connecticut
IL Chicago Med-Franklin
Loyola-Stritch
Rush
KY Kentucky
Tufts
MD Maryland
MI Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
NH Dartmouth
NY Albany
Einstein
New York Medical
Cincinnati
Toledo
OHSU (in-state)
Drexel
Jefferson
VA Eastern Virginia
Virginia Commonwealth
VT Vermont

Down to 27 schools, is this too broad for my stats or...?
 
I really don't think you need that many schools. Why not consider them further based on other factors, like curriculum type (PBL, block, traditional lecture, systems-based), grades or P/F, safety of area, rural vs city, kid issues-like quality of local schools, cost of living in the area, weather, proximity to home, etc. Why not aim for 20, not counting super-reaches.
 
I'm using this current list as a starting point for reviewing school's websites and discussing area pros/cons with my spouse, hopefully will be removing nearly 1/3 of those still listed. I'm not overly concerned with the prestige of the school, rather area/location/social mission factors are more of a draw for me

I'll revisit/bump if any school specific questions come up. Thanks for your input!
 
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