Oh and I live in NY. Hes in DC now. Undergrad was PA.
@GCmom415
WIll you son be considering DO programs also? I think he’d have an excellent chance at the NYC DO programs.
If he has to apply next cycle…which is most likely I think he will apply to Nycom and PCom. At least I hope he will. How many schools do most people here apply to?
@momworried
Another possible reason—they wanted to earn some $$ and pay down/pay off their student loans before starting med school since interest keeps accruing even if your loans are in deferral during med school & residency.
Textbook perfect applicant to MD-only might be safe with 12-15 well chosen schools.
Anyone with blemishes on their CV should apply to a minimum of 22-25 well chosen schools. (Some people apply to 40, 50 even 60 schools, but doing that many secondaries is exhausting and it’s hard to do a good job on all of them.)
If he’s going to apply to DO schools in addition to 25 MD schools, he probably needs to add 6-10 DO programs to his list.
Your s needs to ask advisors at his SMP which med schools are receptive to SMP grads. (Not all of them are.)
What is your S's legal state of residence? NY? Does he have any strong preference w/r/t school location?25 sounds about right…and I agree with at least 6 DO. Legal State is NY. He would like to stay on the east coast. There is a list of schools that the graduates of the smp hes in have gone off too…alot of them in the PA, DC and NY areas. Kinda wish he would take the MCAT again. Usually students do well after this program. I do alot of reading on Student doctor Network and have seen that.
Would be quite the miracle if he gets into the med school this cycle he is doing the SMP at. Who knows maybe god is watching over him. Hes worked very hard. Gave him great structure, Ive never seen him study so much. They take classes with M1’s so its pretty rough.
Thanks for your input.
I’m not convinced his 31 is the problem. I think the 3.3 from undergrad combined with applying late is the bigger problem. I don’t think retaking the MCAT would help because it wouldn’t improve the UG GPA, and he runs the (serious) risk of not improving his score anyway. I think he would have more luck if he applied broadly and submitted his application early (like in June), and had all of his other ducks in a row (eg CV, LORs, personal statement, etc) by that time as well.
Conventional wisdom is that UG GPA provides some measure about how the applicant would do in med school, whereas MCAT score provides some measure about how the applicant would do on boards. Assuming that’s true (it’s what my med school claims), then you can see why it would be important to have a balanced portfolio of high grades and high scores (ideally), and why having really high of one doesn’t perfectly compensate for not-as-good on the other.
Thank You for your response. I know nothing with erase his under grad GPA. I do feel if some of the med schools familiar with the program hes in now will know how hard it is to get a 3.97 thus far. Being hes taking classes with M1’s which shows he can handle the load of med school and be successful in their program as well.
He will apply broadly and early! He should know by mid may if hes admitted to the med school hes at now. Have my fingers crossed.
^I completely agree with you. A lot of times it seems unfair that med schools don’t “get” what it took to earn that GPA. Luckily for him, the med school attached to his SMP certainly understands the value of his great GPA. It sounds like he has the best chance of being admitted there anyway (from a numbers perspective) and I assume his decision to go there means that school’s at least somewhat desirable for him. So it sounds like things are headed in the best direction they can for right now!
It’s a long time down the road for him, but possibly worth noting that the feeling of “no one really “gets” the value of the work I’m doing” doesn’t really change. Med schools have such different and seemingly arbitrary grading systems that it seems very difficult for residency programs to keep up with them. I go to my state’s flagship SOM; an elite program in my state (to which I applied for residency in a popular and not particularly competitive field) was entirely unaware of how my school calculates grades, which was surprising to me, given that my school graduates more physicians than any of the other (6 total, DO included) medical schools in my state.
I really do like this University for him. We should know within the next two weeks about the interview and then decisions mid May. For now he needs to get a list together just in case. Also start thinking about a job for his Gap Year.
My D received her MCAT score yesterday. She did not quite get her goal score (1 point less than goal). She was fairly evenly distributed on the sub scores, with her verbal being slightly higher. I don’t want to say the actual score here, my question isn’t about the specific score per se.
My question is, how does one know if the MCAT should be retaken? It seems to be in line with her GPA. She is not a
superstar, but has stats that can get her into med schools if she applies to the right ones. Would retaking it help much?
She took the last of the old tests in January and is worried that her score is not high enough (it is for many schools, she is a worrier). She is also worried about retaking it as the new one and not knowing how to compare the two scores.
She is already taking a gap year. I encouraged her to not retake it and go ahead and apply to schools that match her numbers with a couple of slight reaches in there. If she does not get accepted this round, then she can consider taking it again and reapply in the next round. Does that sound reasonable?
Retaking it in no way guarantees a higher score. 1 point less than the goal score is awesome! I don’t think she should retake it. It’s just too risky. Plus, now she’d have to take the new test, which would require different prep. She should be thrilled she scored so close to her goal! It’s also impossible to know how med schools view multiple attempts, but conventional wisdom says they don’t view them favorably. You can’t pick and choose which scores to send to schools; all scores are sent. Plus, what if she did worse? That would look bad.
For what it’s worth, my practice tests were pretty consistently 34. My actual score was 30 (9/11/10). My GPA was 3.8. Of the 13 schools I applied to, I had 4 interviews (3 of them top-20) before I was accepted in December and withdrew the remainder of my applications. I went to my state flagship for undergrad and med school. I’m graduating from med school in May!
MCAT score is just one piece of the puzzle. I suspect she’s disappointed and is being a worrier. It’s not the end of the world! What’s the rest of her app look like?
^ It is hard to give advice without knowing the particular score and what state she is instate for. For example, a 3.7 32 MCAT from Texas or Ohio is good to go, but the same stats from a CA app is a more risky applicant. If she is above 33, she should be ok if she applies to a range of schools and doesn’t have her heart set on any one school or region of the country.
Best advice would be to get the MSAR and start to target 20-30 schools with her stats. If this seems like a reasonable task (in that it isn’t too hard to find this many schools given her stats), then she should apply. Of course this all rests on whether she has all the EC’s to go along with her stats.
After she comes up with a prelim list of med schools to apply to, she can post a WAMC (what are my chances) thread on SDN and ask for adcom advice. They are usually very good with giving help on preparing lists once all stats and EC’s are detailed.
Applying is really a long and stressful process-- so really use all the resources to apply to the schools where she has the most success of getting into to avoid having to reapply and live with the stress another year.
^I definitely agree with all of this advice. I was operating under the assumption that the poster had done some of that research already and thus concluded that she was competitive for some but not all schools and her score is “high enough…but she’s a worrier.” I also assumed if this “good enough” score was in line with her GPA, then her GPA is likely pretty high too. I included my personal stats so you could have another anecdote to add to your discussion!
Thanks for the input! She is instate for Iowa. She will apply there, and then have a bunch of privates on her list, wit only one or two oos publics. We are in the process of finalizing a list now. She already had a preliminary list of where she would like to go, based on her GPA and projected MCAT. We will tweak that based on actual MCAT and then decide.
Good Luck Bajamm!
@kristin572- my reply wasn’t to you. I did not see your reply and was responding to the question posted by bajamm.
Any class scheduling advice for the juniors planning to apply this upcoming cycle? How do the demands of the interview process compare fall semester vs spring semester? Any strategies?
Would it be ok to start an “under dawg” thread for this cycle. I like to see success stories…Lets say under 32. Is that an under dog?
My guess is 24. 32 will get you into DO school quite easily.