Medical What should my next steps in reinvention be?

[GoSpursGo]

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Thanks for taking the time to provide advice and guidance!

For context: I’m a first-gen, low SES, Asian student from CA who did a one year post-bac after graduating from college. My GPA trends upward my senior year and I did a one year, 27 credit post-bac program and earned a 4.0 sGPA during the post-bac.

AMCAS Application:
GPAs: 3.01 sGPA / 3.15 cGPA
MCAT: 508/510

Extracurriculars:
I have over 2,500 hours in working with urban underserved populations at a FQHC, public health advocacy work, and correctional medicine.
I also have around 900 hours of clinical volunteering at a free clinic and public hospital (this was at least 3 years ago while I was still in college).

I had a few questions about what my next steps should be. My advisor recommended a one year post-bac program after graduation and I was ecstatic to have completed the program with a 4.0! Doing poorly in college destroyed my self-confidence, but I felt like the post-bac really helped me find my groove and regain the self-confidence to tackle academics. I scored a 508 on the MCAT and applied to medical schools in 2018, but did not receive any interviews during that cycle. I retook the MCAT (got a 510) and reapplied in 2020. The current cycle is almost over, and I still have not had any interviews.

At this point, I’m starting to think about next steps. I’m hoping to reapply in 2022 and am aiming for MD schools. I’m studying to retake the MCAT because I know I can score at least a 515+.

I'm not sure if I should continue with more GPA repair? I had to take out loans for my first post-bac program and am hesitant to put more money towards a second post-bac program or SMP. However, I’m worried that because my post-bac was completed in 2018, it will seem like a lot of time has elapsed when I reapply in 2022. Would this hurt my chances if I don’t do more GPA repair and just focus on crushing the MCAT? If GPA repair is a must, I’m wondering if I should do post-bac vs. SMP? With the post-bac, I could live at home and continue my current clinical work. The SMP seems out of reach for me because of cost and needing to relocate to a program/finding new clinical connections.

I feel like we need to see your school list. I suspect you could score a spot somewhere, but the CA schools are probably out of reach. You need to apply broadly to DO schools all over the map.

Beyond that, it’s hard to recommend a 3rd MCAT attempt as it’s rare to significantly improve after 2 fairly equal scores, and a third similar score (or a worse score) would show poor judgement. I would probably favor an SMP for you if you did have to go that route as you’re also getting close to diminishing returns on taking additional post bacc credits.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

So you applied this last cycle with the 4.0 post-bac on your record, correct? I agree that we need to see your school list? I have a feeling it's gonna be shifted towards the heavy side. As a 2x MCAT taker and a post-bacer, you NEED to have DO schools on your list. I would not retake the MCAT.

 

[Goro]

Thank you so much for the prompt response! I applied with a 4.0 for both application cycles. The only improvement between these two application cycles is 508->510 MCAT and a lot more clinical hours working in correctional healthcare. Here's my school list:

First application cycle:
NY Medical College
Albert Einstein
Drexel
Tufts
Dartmouth
UCD
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCR
UCSF
Boston University
Mount Sinai
Albany
Brown
Rochester
USC

Second application cycle:
Kaiser
UCR
UVM
UCD
UCLA
UCSD
UCI
UCR
UCSF
Sidney Kimmel
St. Louis University
Albany
Emory
Rochester
Cornell
Yale
Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine
Cooper
Dartmouth
USC
Mount Sinai
University of Michigan
Brown
NY Medical College

After using a GPA calculator, I found that my sGPA could go from a 3.01 to 3.26 if I do a 33 credit post-bacc.

Oh my!
Reinventors targeting MD schools need a 513+. Many of those schools were donations.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Most of these schools on your list are donations. You are not competitive at any of the UC schools nor most of the schools on this list. If you apply with this list it is likely you will again not get accepted. You need to be realistic with your list.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Yeah I’m sorry but I agree with my colleagues. Your school list was entirely unrealistic. You need to focus mostly on DO schools.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Your list should be all mid to low tier MD and then DO schools. Can you send us an updated list?

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

Thank you all for the information!! I'm really grateful for all the support and guidance. Being first-gen and low-income, it's been so hard to trying to navigate this path (especially transitioning to college), and I'm just really overwhelmed with the prompt and informative responses.

I'm going to apply broadly to DO schools for my next application cycle in 2022. This is the DO school list I have so far from browsing through SDN threads:

TUCOM-CA
WESTERN
TUNCOM
AZCOM
UIWSOM
ATSU-KCOM
KCU-COM
DMU-COM
MU-COM
CUSOM
LECOM
Touro-NY
ACOM

I'm still very much interested in MD schools and will see what my practice exam scores look like to determine if I can safely retake the MCAT. In terms of MD school list, I've put together a list of mid to low tier MD schools based on other SDN posts to see the school list of individuals with similar stats to me + the list of schools friendly to reinventors from Goro's awesome guide + schools with missions/programs that align with my application's focus on community health, correctional medicine, and social justice. This is what I have so far:

Rush (my LOR's alma mater, strong urban underserved focus)
UMass (strong correctional medicine focus, and eventual career goal of working with incarcerated patients)
Einstein (strong focus on social justice/social medicine)
All CA schools except Loma Linda, Stanford, and USC (I'm a CA resident)
Tulane
Loyola
Hofstra
SLU
Albany
Quinnipiac
Seton Hall
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Creighton
Oakland Beaumont
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Tufts
Wayne State
Central Michigan
Wake

For my next gap year before reapplying in 2022, is there anything else that I can do to make myself a more competitive applicant? I'm currently studying for the MCAT now and will know in a few months if a retake is on the table or not. I plan on doing more non-clinical volunteering and shadowing, continuing my work in public health advocacy/correctional medicine, and maybe taking a few additional post-bac classes. Do you think that going from a 3.01 to 3.25 is worth taking 30 credits?

Again, thank you all so so much!

DO schools look good. Is MU Michigan or Marian? Also, look into price of
AZCOM.

 

[Goro]

As of right now, you should NOT have MD schools on your list. And even after reinvention, most OOS public MD schools do not reward reinvention, except for Wayne State and EVMS. Central MI rarely takes OOS anyway.

Invest in MSAR Online and pay very careful attention to the IS/OOS ratios of applicants to interviewees and matriculants. The schools don't need the donation money; take your mom out for Mother's Day once COVID is over.