Medical What schools should I apply to?

[Goro]

• State/Country of Residence: NJ URM
• Ties to other States/Regions: no
• Year in School: undergrad '19, SMP '20
• Undergraduate Major(s)/Minor(s): Biology
• Graduate Degrees (if applicable): MBS '20 - interview and WL at SMP med school - they have a solid undergrad cutoff and i didnt get a chance to retake MCAT before interview because rona
• Cumulative GPA: 2.80
• Science GPA: 2.65
• Grad GPA: 3.8
• MCAT Score(s): 506 (126,127,128,125) --> 518 (131,129,129,129)
  • offered a job at kaplan and another tutoring service to work as a mcat instructor for the next year at least
• Research Experience: 1 year during masters orthopedic surgery lab work (360 hours)
• LOR: really good - med school teacher and SMP committee packet
• Clinical Experience (paid or volunteer):
  • ER scribing 1.5 years 1000 hours,
  • COVID specimen lab tech volunteer 3 months 60 hours
• Physician Shadowing:
  • 0.5 years in college 200 hours, was going to shadow a DO this year but corona
• Non-Clinical Volunteering:
  • elementary school tutor 20 hours cuz rona,
  • fraternity community service 150 hours
• Other Extracurricular Activities:
  • fraternity exec board 100 hours
• Other Employment History:
  • pizza delivery driver during summer/winter 600 hours
• Immediate family members in medicine? (Y/N): a lot
• Specialty of Interest (if applicable): would do anything as long as I am a physician but really into orthopedics/general surgery
• Interest in Primary Care (Y/N): yes
• Interest in Rural Health (Y/N): yes
• Medical School List: helppp - DO and MD please
  • MD
  • all NJ schools
    • NJMS
    • RWJMS
    • COOPER
    • seton hall
  • otherwise I dont even know where to start cuz my gpa is very low, if you have a list of schools without a GPA cutoff and accept OOS please comment it!
  • I will go to any MD school that will accept with preference for in state tuition
  • DO
    • NYIT
    • rowan
    • pcom
    • msu
    • kirsksvile
    • touro
    • LECOM
    • nova
  • Main question: I also already applied ED to NJMS so this is all just in case that doesnt work out - and for the record WAMC for NJMS?

The grad GPA...what program was that? SMP? Research MS, or something else?

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[tantacles]

Hi there,

sorry about that, forgot this was a private section, it was RWJMS MBS

Honestly, I think DO is going to be your best bet. Your MCAT score is sure to turn a few heads, but a GPA of 2.8 is going to make things almost impossible for any MD school barring a miracle. I would expand your list of DO schools that you are applying to to try to get as many interviews as you can.

 

[tantacles]

I see what you mean. and I definitely am very interested in pursuing DO and i realize it is realistically my best bet. That said even with solid LoRs and everything else do you really think i am DOA for MD. In grad school I did really well too. (And im sure this doesnt matter but my actual rutgers transcript says 3.01 cumulative because they count retakes - i failed orgo)

Is there anything more I can do at this point?

I think your chances are extremely slim. Again, your MCAT score might get you a look at MD schools, but your GPA is likely to get you a nope. Your SMP performance might help, but what would have likely helped more was a post-baccalaureate program where you could prove that you could do well in the basic sciences over a longer period of time. SMPs are most useful for their linkages and less so for improving your application for schools outside of the SMP.

My advice is to focus on DO schools.

 

[tantacles]

Thanks! I really do appreciate your advice. Of course it is disappointing to hear, but at least I know that I have a significantly better chance at DO school and hopefully will still become a physician.

I guess I could have done some more research about my actual AMCAS calculated GPA before I applied to the SMP. For context: in my defense I was not aware of the GPA cutoff for RWJMS linkage. I was only told about it after I still qualified for the linkage and received an interview and was waitlisted even though the whole way I was told by the dean of admissions herself not to even bother applying. I assume if it was a sympathy interview I would have been straight rejected, but of course I could be wrong.
When I followed up, she suggested I apply to NJMS because they do not have a similar rule. So if i knew about this prior I would have gone to Newark NJMS and done the MBS there. At this point I am in contact with the Dean at NJMS, so they know who I am and they are very familiar with the RWJMS program. I am about to finish my secondary application for my ED application . I applied ED because i knew I had slim chances anywhere out of state with my GPA, so hoping for the best.

I honestly assumed that doing really well in graduate courses would look more impressive than redoing my basic sciences in a postbac, is this false?

Any Secondary and *crossing fingers* interview advice would be appreciated. (it is not an MMI at NJMS)

Post baccs are generally better because they actually increase your undergraduate GPA. If your deficiency was not doing well in the basic sciences, doing a postbacc can often show that you can actually succeed in those.

 

[tantacles]

And this was a research MS????

Just to quote the original: "Graduate Degrees (if applicable): MBS '20 - interview and WL at SMP med school - they have a solid undergrad cutoff and i didnt get a chance to retake MCAT before interview because rona"

 

[Goro]

My MBS was a Master of Biomedical Science. The school also offers a research heavy track with a thesis called Master of Science of Biomedical Science (MSBS).

I completed the former. It was an SMP mimicking med school courses and I did have to do a research orientated capstone project which is not a masters thesis.

Thanks!

How many of your classmates made it into the parent school?

I am suspecting that your interview was the problem rather than you are MCAT or your gpas.

 

[Goro]

historically 3 get in right away and a few more later off the waitlist

So they said they guarantee 3 spots but they waitlisted/rejected everyone who interviewed this year bc the class was full. they interviewed about <20 out of 150+ from my program. from what i know 4 were accepted via WL since then. MCAT and GPA ranging all over the place so I really have no explanation for that but none below 3.0 for sure.

Unfortunately, you picked a lousy program (in terms of linkage).

I suggest the following:
Columbia
Vandy
Dartmouth
BU
Duke
Pitt
Mayo
Mt Sinai
Keck (maybe)
UCSF
EVMS
U Miami
Hofstra
Emory
Jefferson
Drexel
Albany
Tufts
NYMC
Your state schools
Rush
Loyola
Rosy Franklin
Tulane
Wake
MCW
SLU
Creighton
Wayne State
Netter
NYU.LI

Any DO program. I can't recommend Nova, Wm Carey, BCOM, ICOM and LUCOM, for different reasons. MSUCOM? Read up on Larry Nasser and you decide. LMU has an accreditation warning, which concerns me. CUHS is too new and appears to be too limited in rotations sites. UIW refuses to post their Boards scores, which is fishy.