Medical Withdraw my application post-interview and reapply this upcoming cycle? Or see how it goes?

[GoSpursGo]

I applied super late in the cycle (which was my fault) and after applying to a handful of DO schools, I received one interview to a DO school that is currently not regarded highly on SDN especially concerning COMLEX scores and matches. I also heard about issues with administration on another forum but figured since this was my only interview, I would go.

I had a great interview experience. The M1s overall seemed content with the curriculum. However, one of the deans did a Q&A and I was not impressed. I felt they were not very professional; they avoided answering 70% of the questions, after someone asked about getting into competitive residency matches as a DO they were very sarcastic and implied that one only goes into those specialties for the money, they couldn't directly answer how their school was addressing racism (despite having established programs to do so), etc. There was more, but I'm trying to avoid too much detail.

I have not received a decision regarding admission from them yet. My question is - I have a bad feeling about the administration's views and how they work with the student body, do I withdraw now to give myself time to improve my application and reapply? Or do I wait for their decision and then either go if I'm accepted or reapply if I am waitlisted/rejected? I also know that I dug this hole for myself - am I being ungrateful? Foolish? Am I overthinking?

Stats/Info for consideration:

• From the northeast, graduated in 2017 with 3.5X cGPA and sGPA
• MCAT from 2020: 510 (124/129/130/127)
• Clinical hours: +3000 hours
• Shadowing: +200 hours
• Research hours: +1000 hours, no publications but multiple presentations at national conferences
• Non-clinical volunteer: +200 hours, currently increasing
• Leadership experience in college and in professional roles
• Strong LORs

My plan to improve my application would be to take science classes to show I can handle a difficult workload or improve my MCAT C/P score, increase my volunteering hours, and rework my essays.

Ugh, this is a really tough situation, as it's impossible for us to tell whether you would be more successful with a correctly-timed application, or if this is going to be "as good as it gets." Your stats are right in that spot where it could go either way.

The honest truth is that I think the days where we can blanket say that you should take any DO acceptance and run with it may be coming to an end. There are some schools that just aren't great options. If this school is not well-regarded, and you got a bad vibe, then you wouldn't be wrong to withdraw. You also wouldn't be wrong to see what happens and attend if you're accepted. This just comes down to how you feel in your gut, TBH.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

First off, your scores on COMLEX/USMLE ultimately depends on YOU...not the school. Students at Harvard get 220s and students at DO schools get 265s.

Second, if you do have a bad feeling about a school and don't think you will be happy, I think doing a post-bac and reapplying to MD schools would be beneficial to you. Either way, you are likely to wind up with more interviews and somewhere better if you wait...BUT there's always a chance you won't. The risk is up to you.

 

[Goro]

My radar is going off with that Dean's attitude. While I understand the mission of Do schools to train Primary Care clinicians, his response was outright disrespectful tot he career goals of many DO students, including mine (and we celebrate our kids getting into competitive residencies as well).

I suspect that his attitude is entrenched in higher echelons and that you'll get lousy advising if you want to go into something PC.

Here are the DO schools I can't recommend:
NOVA
BCOM
RVU
ICOM
LMU
ARCOM
LUCOM
And BTW, brand new DO schools are to be avoided (unless it’s your only accept) until they at least graduate a class. It takes time for faculty to gel and deliver a coherent curriculum; they have limited clinical rotations sites [it takes time to build these!], the degree of oversight of clinical training will be weak; the schools are unlikely to have resources for struggling students or those with mental health needs; lastly their grads will be unknown products to residency program directors.

I suggest that with your app, take the hit and reapply this coming cycle...EARLY! You're fine ofr any DO school, and for some MD as well.

Can you PM the name of the school?