Which schools to apply to?

[st3ady]

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Hello,

I just wanted some thoughts on my stats and where I plan to apply, if you think I have a shot, or if you think I should try applying to other schools.

Stats:
Undergrad cumulative GPA in General Business from University of Maryland, College Park 05': 3.0
Current Post-bac GPA: 3.87 - plan to have a 3 more As by the end of May
Kaplan MCAT practice tests: 16, 18, 19, going to do another online one tonight - Very low, I know, but I asked some of the other students in my Kaplan course and they said they were about the same. Should I post-pone my scheduled May 27th MCAT exam to July/August so I can really study over the summer? It is pretty hard to find time to study with 3 hard science courses at the same time.
Volunteering Hours at ER: 175 hours - plan to reach 250

My post-bac program allows me to apply to 15 schools, every one after 15 is a $15 fee.
Clearly my mcat scores are not so hot, and because of this I plan on applying to the following schools:

Foreign Schools:
1. Universita de Guadalajara
2. Sackler in Israel - long shot probably
3. Ben Gurion in Israel - I have family there
4. Technion in Israel

Caribbean schools:
5. AUC
6. ROSS
7. SABA
8. St. George's
9. St. Matthews
10. AUA

American schools:
11. University of Maryland - probably no shot in hell, unless I magically score a 29+ on mcat
12. Howard - I don't know if I will get accepted since I am white
13. ?
14. ?
15. ?

What are 3 more lower end American MD schools (in the event I manage to do really well on the MCAT). Thanks for your help folks!

 

[ntmed]

It doesn't make sense that you have a 3.85 post-bacc GPA, but can only score 19 on practice MCAT exams. If your post-bacc GPA is legitimate, then you should give U.S. schools a try. The reason why is that you have only a 25 to 30% chance of practicing medicine in the U.S. with a foreign medical degree (I've posted links to these stats in the past).

So IMHO, delay the your test date, find 40 hours a week to study for a solid 4 months, and then take the MCAT. After that, apply to all of your state schools and also to at least 24 U.S. medical schools that take out-of-state students.

 

[fireflygirl]

It doesn't make sense that you have a 3.85 post-bacc GPA, but can only score 19 on practice MCAT exams. If your post-bacc GPA is legitimate, then you should give U.S. schools a try. The reason why is that you have only a 25 to 30% chance of practicing medicine in the U.S. with a foreign medical degree (I've posted links to these stats in the past).

So IMHO, delay the your test date, find 40 hours a week to study for a solid 4 months, and then take the MCAT. After that, apply to all of your state schools and also to at least 24 U.S. medical schools that take out-of-state students.

I agree with ntmed - you have a good GPA and you should get the chance to prove yourself on the MCAT. I had a really rough time with the MCAT and took it twice but went up 4 points the second time. My science GPA is about a 3.5 and I scored significantly lower than what I should for my MCAT given a good history of practice exams scores, strong SATs,...etc But sometimes it happens and the trick is to figure out how to avoid that. I really think you should forego the classes and really focus on nailing the MCAT. I found a tutor helped me. I am not sure what the classes are but if they aren't pre-reqs, take them later and just focus on the MCAT.