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Chances And School List Advice. Looking For Opinions On What My Chances Are, And What Schools To Apply To.


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Hey there, I am looking for some honest assessment.

I have gotten accepted into 2 Carribean schools (SGU and Saba), I will most likely defer if there is some chance that I might get accepted into USMD. I have also applied to USDO, Canadian friendly schools.

My current stats are as follows:

 

(using OMSAS grades)
cGPA: 3.51

1GPA: 2.71 (1 failed course)
2GPA: 3.67
3GPA: 3.76
4GPA: 3.95

old MCAT: 33 (91%): P11/V10/B12
new MCAT: 518 (97%): ChemPhys130/CARS127/B132/PS129

ECs: 2 years of volunteering at a UHN hospital, all of which was in direct contact with patients. ~350 hours in total

I have done some research volunteering, with around 250 hours in total.

I shadowed a  surgeon and a GP for 50 hours total.

I play a musical instrument at a moderately high level, and play sports.

That is pretty much the gist of my application.

I have a very marked upward trend. I was a part time student in my first year and my grades were terrible. In this year I failed one course. I think this is really holding me back right now. My next three years were successively better, going from good to excellent. In my final year my lowest grade was 87 and my highest grade was 100. I graduated with high distinction from U of T. My program was a science program but I minored in philosophy as well.
 

Like I wrote above, I applied to USDO. The following is the list of schools that I have applied to:

 

Arizona

Lincoln Memorial/Debusk

MSUCOM

Nova

TouroCOMNY

TouroCOMCali

UNECOM

WUHCOM (Western)

Kansas City

 

I am looking for advice with the USMD schools to apply to. So far this is the list I am looking at:

 

Baylor
Boston University
CA Northstate Univ COM
Central Michigan University College of Medicine
Creighton University School of Medicine
East TN State U., James H. Quillen Coll. of Med.
Florida Atlantic University Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Florida State University
George Washington University Sch of Med & Hlth Sci
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Howard University
Indiana University School of Medicine
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo
LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Loma Linda University School of Medicine
Meharry Medical College
Michigan State University
New York Medical College
Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
Tulane University School of Medicine
University of Arkansas College of Medicine
University of Illinois at Chicago-College of Medic

 

 

Are there other schools which, given the stats above, I might have a shot at? Do I have a shot at any of the USMD schools, or are my stats too low?

 

Any information or advice will be very much appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

 

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So you just applied recently to all those schools? With your stats you shouldn't have to go abroad to the carrib. Beef your ECS continually and you should get interviews in the US for summer 2018 start date.

 

I applied to those DO schools a few weeks ago, yes.

 

I will apply to USMD in June when it opens, but I am looking for feedback on the school list. I have applied to USMD before as I told you in our PM conversation but that was before my new MCAT grade so effectively this will be my first time applying with these stats. I want to make sure I apply to the right schools this time around.

 

Do you not have any other non academics? Work experience?

 

Yeah I am at RCM grade 10 for piano playing.

 

I do have work experience and that is in the app, but it's not EC so I did not mention it here. It's not a very big CV in terms of work, mainly summer jobs.

 

For DO youre missing MU-COM(Marian), and for MD Jefferson

 

I will add Marian immediately, and I will apply to Jefferson when AMCAS opens. Thanks for those two names.

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Do you think I should apply to higher tier schools for USMD, or is the list above the most realistic set of schools at which I might be able to interview? I have applied to all of those USMD schools once already, will that affect things?

 

Also, what would happen if I accept the SGU offer and go to the Caribbean, but somehow get accepted to a USMD program during the first year there. Would I be able to start in the USMD program without any issues? What's stopping people who go to the Caribbean from doing this?

 

Right now my plan is to defer the Caribbean offers, but if it would be beneficial to take (transferring credits maybe, for example) them then that's something to consider too.

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  • 3 years later...

Hey guys, wondering if any of you would mind commenting on my chances for US MD or DO schools. My stats are below. 

Year 1: 2.7/4

Year 2: 2.855/4

Year 3: 3.4/4 (first semester was 3.02 and second was 3.78)

Year 4: 3.975/4

Grad school GPA: 3.7/4

I also have two first author papers (mid-tier journal and Science) and am a co-author on a number of other papers (mid-tier and Nature Comm). I would have very strong LORs from these research supervisors. How do US schools look at publications? Would this help me out at all?

Around 6 years of research experience, lots of work experience working with people with disabilities, and a bit of volunteer and athletics. 

Haven't written the MCAT yet, wondering if it's even worth it? I've read that US schools usually look at upwards trends in GPA. I realize my first two years were pretty rough (financial and personal issues) but I got things together in the last two years and grad school. 

Thanks in advance!

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5 hours ago, Sarah31 said:

Hey guys, wondering if any of you would mind commenting on my chances for US MD or DO schools. My stats are below. 

Year 1: 2.7/4

Year 2: 2.855/4

Year 3: 3.4/4 (first semester was 3.02 and second was 3.78)

Year 4: 3.975/4

Grad school GPA: 3.7/4

I also have two first author papers (mid-tier journal and Science) and am a co-author on a number of other papers (mid-tier and Nature Comm). I would have very strong LORs from these research supervisors. How do US schools look at publications? Would this help me out at all?

Around 6 years of research experience, lots of work experience working with people with disabilities, and a bit of volunteer and athletics. 

Haven't written the MCAT yet, wondering if it's even worth it? I've read that US schools usually look at upwards trends in GPA. I realize my first two years were pretty rough (financial and personal issues) but I got things together in the last two years and grad school. 

Thanks in advance!

I would say that US med schools care a lot about research involvement, so it's great that you have papers (let alone two first author papers in reputable journals)! What do your science and cumulative AMCAS GPAs look like for your undergrad?

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US schools do like to see an upwards trend, but only relative to other similar GPAs, and you still need to meet a threshold. (For instance if there are two 3.6 students they will prefer the one who got 3.0 in first year and 4.0 in fourth year vs the reverse). They only use undergrad GPA and have both total and sicence/math GPAs so if you can calculate these for yourself we can better advise you.

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14 hours ago, Sarah31 said:

Hey guys, wondering if any of you would mind commenting on my chances for US MD or DO schools. My stats are below. 

Year 1: 2.7/4

Year 2: 2.855/4

Year 3: 3.4/4 (first semester was 3.02 and second was 3.78)

Year 4: 3.975/4

Grad school GPA: 3.7/4

I also have two first author papers (mid-tier journal and Science) and am a co-author on a number of other papers (mid-tier and Nature Comm). I would have very strong LORs from these research supervisors. How do US schools look at publications? Would this help me out at all?

Around 6 years of research experience, lots of work experience working with people with disabilities, and a bit of volunteer and athletics. 

Haven't written the MCAT yet, wondering if it's even worth it? I've read that US schools usually look at upwards trends in GPA. I realize my first two years were pretty rough (financial and personal issues) but I got things together in the last two years and grad school. 

Thanks in advance!

Do the MCAT and find out, if you can get a very strong score, and have a strong enough non-academics you may be able to swing it. if you can explain well and are compelling in your personal statements about the life circumstances you had in year 1/2 and how you grew from it etc, it could work out. 

Won't know until you take the MCAT and really knock it out of the park though.

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21 hours ago, JohnGrisham said:

Do the MCAT and find out, if you can get a very strong score, and have a strong enough non-academics you may be able to swing it. if you can explain well and are compelling in your personal statements about the life circumstances you had in year 1/2 and how you grew from it etc, it could work out. 

Won't know until you take the MCAT and really knock it out of the park though.

Assuming same credits in each year, their ballpark cumulative GPA is 3.2-3.3 which would be below acceptance for almost all American applicants, let alone Canadian, so realistically they will need to improve their undergrad GPA.

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11 hours ago, bearded frog said:

Assuming same credits in each year, their ballpark cumulative GPA is 3.2-3.3 which would be below acceptance for almost all American applicants, let alone Canadian, so realistically they will need to improve their undergrad GPA.

Totally, but an upward trend, a masters, and strong non-academics(unclear if OP has this), coupled with a top MCAT score *might* squeek an applicant an interview or two at a USMD, and similarly at USDO programs.  It purely relies on getting a killer percentile MCAT score to get a look, and a very strong personal statement based on life experience/non-academics. Not saying OP has that, but never know!        Theres been numerous similar cases on these forums over the years, and in real life from my undergraduate university. 

An extra year of 4.0 undergrad coursework certainly would help, or better yet a 2nd focused undergrad degree.         

 

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