School list help and apply "late" this cycle or wait till next year?

[USN2MD]

Hi everyone, looking for advice for what to do and where to apply. Thanks!

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS:
   • AMCAS: cGPA: 2.63 sGPA: 2.73
   • AACOMAS: cGPA: 2.63 sGPA: 2.88
   • TMDSAS: cGPA: 3.35 sGPA: 3.43 (due to Academic Fresh Start which ignores coursework older than 10+ years)
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown:
   • June 21 - 514 (129/126/128/131)
   • Sep 16 - 511 (128/126/127/130)
   • Nov 14 - 24 (6/10/6)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): CA/TX
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Hispanic (Mexican-American)
5. Undergraduate institution or category:
   • BA in Psych from HPU
   • BS in Microbiology from UF
   • MS in Medical Science from UNTHSC
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): Five years active-duty Navy, five years reservists. While active did 28 months working in a family practice clinic where I did patient intake, minor procedures, ran sick-call. 18 months doing case management for injuries service members (about 300 cases).
7. Research experience and productivity: None, but starting to volunteer shortly with a PI who does Alzhimer's research. The research is bioinformatics heavy and seems willing to help me get presentations and authorships.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: None officially in-person. Did some virtual shadowing (25 hours). But often went with providers for exams during my time in the family practice clinic
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   • 40 hours Big Brother
   • 150 hours tutoring ESL and GED adult students
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):
    • Worked customer service at medical insurance provider for 3 months before going back to school to complete some prereqs
    • Worked 1 year as front desk receptionist for work-study at local Vet Center (veterans counseling)
11. Relevant honors or awards:
    • Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (very whatever to mil people, but may seem impressive to non-mil people)
    • Fleet (admiral) letter of commendation for work done during multi-national military exercise
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important:
    • Just finished a SMP where I got a 3.69, felt underperformed due to the conditions. Returning to being a student after 2 years, parent to toddler so figuring out childcare due to COVID concerns was a constant challenge. I know it's not an excuse, but maybe adcoms can be aware I faced difficulties that other students might not have faced the past year.
    • My GPA is poor mainly due to my younger years (I'm in my mid-30s now). I went to school for engineering straight out of high school and was unprepared, unmotivated and lacking resources. I was eventually academically dismissed. Eventually decided only I could afford going to back to college was the military, so I signed up. But by that time I had attempted 120+ units and had a 1.13 cGPA and a 0.9 sGPA. I've calculated how much I'd need to bring me above 3.0 and it's 130 units of As.
    • First-generation college student, first-generation American, first-generation veteran
    • Was SAHD prior to start of graduate school so I have a two year gap where that's all I did besides the reserves.

Lastly I'm not sure if it's worth it to apply this year. I am not done with any of the apps personal statements or work and activities sections, and likely won't be for couple weeks. I went from full-time student, to studying for MCAT, to having a newborn in my life. Finding time for apps has been difficult to say the least. I would be very late for AMCAS if I were to submit in next couple weeks, and maybe barely "on-time" if apply AACOMAS and TMDSAS. So debating if should try this cycle or next. If I do decide to apply might look in to consultant to just help speed process up (just primary app) as I it's hard to find time to work on things right now.


School list so far:
DO schools

• ATSU-COM
• CHSU-COM
• CCOM
• DMU-COM
• VCOM all campsuses
• KCU
• PCOM
• Western
• Touro - Nevada and California
• William Mary

All TMDSAS schools

MD Schools: Mainly all CA schools, not sure where else to apply

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[DocJanItor]

As someone who had a lower cGPA and a 3.56 in their SMP, I think you're fine. First off, you are a veteran so that automatically boosts your resume. Secondly, you have 1.5+ years of medical experience in the Navy. That definitely counts toward your shadowing. I'm not sure if that counts towards volunteering since it's a paid commitment, but someone familiar with military applicants can comment on that.

Second, a 3.69 in an SMP is good. It's not fantastic, but I don't see any reason it wouldn't be considered a success.

You're getting to the point where it's almost late to apply this year, but you're not there yet. If you had a lot of time and were really motivated, I think you could have a good shot at Texas schools this year as well as other states. If volunteering is your limitation then I would jump on that this year and be ready to apply next June.

 

[Faha]

For non TMDSAS schools consider these:
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Medical College Wisconsin
Rush
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
Arizona (Tucson and Phoenix
Colorado
Georgetown
George Washington
Drexel
Temple
Seton Hall
Einstein
New York Medical College
Vermont
Dartmouth
Quinnipiac
OSU-COM
UIWSOM
WCU-COM
ACOM
WVSOM

 

[Goro]

Hi everyone, looking for advice for what to do and where to apply. Thanks!

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS:
   • AMCAS: cGPA: 2.63 sGPA: 2.73
   • AACOMAS: cGPA: 2.63 sGPA: 2.88
   • TMDSAS: cGPA: 3.35 sGPA: 3.43 (due to Academic Fresh Start which ignores coursework older than 10+ years)
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown:
   • June 21 - 514 (129/126/128/131)
   • Sep 16 - 511 (128/126/127/130)
   • Nov 14 - 24 (6/10/6)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): CA/TX
4. Ethnicity and/or race: Hispanic (Mexican-American)
5. Undergraduate institution or category:
   • BA in Psych from HPU
   • BS in Microbiology from UF
   • MS in Medical Science from UNTHSC
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): Five years active-duty Navy, five years reservists. While active did 28 months working in a family practice clinic where I did patient intake, minor procedures, ran sick-call. 18 months doing case management for injuries service members (about 300 cases).
7. Research experience and productivity: None, but starting to volunteer shortly with a PI who does Alzhimer's research. The research is bioinformatics heavy and seems willing to help me get presentations and authorships.
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: None officially in-person. Did some virtual shadowing (25 hours). But often went with providers for exams during my time in the family practice clinic
9. Non-clinical volunteering:
   • 40 hours Big Brother
   • 150 hours tutoring ESL and GED adult students
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc):
    • Worked customer service at medical insurance provider for 3 months before going back to school to complete some prereqs
    • Worked 1 year as front desk receptionist for work-study at local Vet Center (veterans counseling)
11. Relevant honors or awards:
    • Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (very whatever to mil people, but may seem impressive to non-mil people)
    • Fleet (admiral) letter of commendation for work done during multi-national military exercise
12. Anything else not listed you think might be important:
    • Just finished a SMP where I got a 3.69, felt underperformed due to the conditions. Returning to being a student after 2 years, parent to toddler so figuring out childcare due to COVID concerns was a constant challenge. I know it's not an excuse, but maybe adcoms can be aware I faced difficulties that other students might not have faced the past year.
    • My GPA is poor mainly due to my younger years (I'm in my mid-30s now). I went to school for engineering straight out of high school and was unprepared, unmotivated and lacking resources. I was eventually academically dismissed. Eventually decided only I could afford going to back to college was the military, so I signed up. But by that time I had attempted 120+ units and had a 1.13 cGPA and a 0.9 sGPA. I've calculated how much I'd need to bring me above 3.0 and it's 130 units of As.
    • First-generation college student, first-generation American, first-generation veteran
    • Was SAHD prior to start of graduate school so I have a two year gap where that's all I did besides the reserves.

Lastly I'm not sure if it's worth it to apply this year. I am not done with any of the apps personal statements or work and activities sections, and likely won't be for couple weeks. I went from full-time student, to studying for MCAT, to having a newborn in my life. Finding time for apps has been difficult to say the least. I would be very late for AMCAS if I were to submit in next couple weeks, and maybe barely "on-time" if apply AACOMAS and TMDSAS. So debating if should try this cycle or next. If I do decide to apply might look in to consultant to just help speed process up (just primary app) as I it's hard to find time to work on things right now.


School list so far:
DO schools

• ATSU-COM
• CHSU-COM
• CCOM
• DMU-COM
• VCOM all campsuses
• KCU
• PCOM
• Western
• Touro - Nevada and California
• William Mary

All TMDSAS schools

MD Schools: Mainly all CA schools, not sure where else to apply

You're the type of students that med schools will reserve a few seats for later in the cycle!

And many thanks for your service to our country!

I can't recommend VCOM-LA nor CHSU (too new). Add OKCOM to the list

William and Mary don't have a DO school. Did you mean UIW? They're OK. Consider NYITCOM.AR and KCOM

As for CA MD schools, focus on UCSF, Keck, Kaiser, UCLA only.

 

[USN2MD]

Meant William Carey. The SMP I was in has had a decent track record with them.

Thanks @Faha and @Goro for the list recommendations. And thanks @DocJanItor for the encouragement.