Med school applicant deferred from ED program, looking for target OOS MD schools worth applying to late in the cycle [FL resident]

Pre-Med & Medical School Specific Med Schools
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**Looking for target MD schools worth applying mid-end October****

Demographics**

  • US domestic
  • Residency: Florida
  • Current college: large public university (Florida), honors college, Biomedical Science major
  • Special factors: none (not first-gen, not SES disadvantaged)

Intended Major
MD applicant (Biomedical Science undergrad, graduating 2027)

GPA and Test Scores

  • Cumulative GPA: 4.00
  • Science (BCPM) GPA: 4.00
  • MCAT: 516 (129/127/131/129), retake from 510

Coursework

  • All prereqs complete (bio, gen chem, orgo, physics, biochem, genetics, cell bio), plus honors college coursework and an honors thesis in progress
  • Significant AP/IB and dual-enrollment credit from high school

Extracurriculars

  • Medical Assistant at a vein clinic: 200 hrs completed, ~500 anticipated
  • Lymphatic biology research lab: 300 hrs, ~300 more anticipated, publication under review
  • Hospital volunteer: ~140 hrs
  • Camp for children with chronic illness: ~105 hrs
  • Camp for kids affected by a parent’s cancer, including unit leader: ~120 hrs
  • Shadowing: ~67 hrs (GI, neuro, onc, surgery, family medicine at an underserved clinic)
  • Co-founder of an interdisciplinary healthcare innovation club
  • Club tennis executive board

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Personal statement built around a family member’s chronic illness, connected to research and clinical work
  • 4 LORs: research PI, clinical physician, 2 professors.
  • Submitted in mid-June.

Schools (all Regular MD, unclassified)

  • 6 Florida public schools + 1 Florida private
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Completed applications for Florida, looking specifically for out of state med schools now.

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Right now, you are applying to seven in-state medical schools. Do you have a target number in mind as to how many OOS medical schools you are looking to apply to? I believe that for most medical school applicants, the recommendation is 15-20 total.

Are you willing to move to any of the other 49 U.S. states?

These Universities Offer Free Medical School

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@WayOutWestMom

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I think when you look at med schools (public ones), they heavily favor in state applicants. So if you’re a Florida resident, you may want to look private. I’m not a med school guy - just an observation.

UTK - as I look, has an average 3.86 and I don’t know what a BCPM GPA is, but a 3.81 and a 500 - 524 MCAT range with 511 average. 71 colleges are represented - with the top being UTK, Rhodes, Vandy, MTSU, UAB, UTC, and Belmont. So they are likely preferncing in state kids. Actually, I found the data - there are 155 in state, 26 out of state.

U KY is 156 of 208 in state.

At E Carolina, only in-state applicants are accepted.

At West Virginia, more OOS students are enrolled (54%) than in state - with a 3.77 and 510 MCAT average - so maybe that’s a school to try? But they had 6100 applicants and 548 interviews so I’m not sure how that process works or if there’s still time.

So that might be a hurdle. You might look at different student profiles of various schools to see where you might fit.

In talking to another parent, I also know interviews are a part of the process.

Others can answer better than me - it’s just an observation, but maybe you need a glide year?

One other thought - how about a school like LECOM or Nova Southeastern.

Wish i could be more help but i’m guessing either private or DO is your best bet unless you can find a school that treats OOS applicants without penalty. Or perhaps another year off to enhance your application.

Good luck.

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Realistically, it’s too late to apply to MD programs this cycle. You are very, very, very late. Unless you’re a superstar (and stats and ECs say you’re not) , your application just isn’t going to going attract much attention from adcomms. The majority of IIs have been given out at most schools and the rest will be tendered before Thanksgiving. Acceptances will start being offered on Wednesday.

This is the danger of applying ED to any med school. By the time you get a decision, it’s too late to apply elsewhere.

Did you have any contact with the Admissions Dean of the med school you applied ED to prior to submitting your application? Was that contact encouraging? Do you fit the school’s mission extremely well?

If you want the best chance for an acceptance this cycle, DO schools are your best play. DO schools have a longer admissions cycle than MD schools do. An October application has a decent chance of getting interviews.

If you want to stay in FL, apply to all these DO programs: Orlando College of Medicine, LECOM-Bradenton, Burrell COM at Florida Tech, Nova Southeastern,

If you absolutely, positively are MD-only, then seek out schools that release admission decisions in one big batch in March. They tend to interview later into the the cycle. There are only handful of schools that do this and, unfortunately, they are either research intensive schools (Yale, Duke Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Columbia) --and you don’t have the CV to be competitive for them–or extremely OOS unfriendly (Southern Illinois University and Jacobs SOM at University of Hawaii)

I see one glaring hole in your application. You don’t have any non-medical community service with disadvantaged groups or communities. Many med schools screen for less than 150 hours of community service.

Service needs to be hands on and directed toward relieving the physical needs and suffering of others. Things like food pantry, soup kitchens, homeless shelter, tax preparation or job search help for homeless, clothing banks, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

Late edit– do you speak Spanish fluently? If you do, you may want to try the 3 private MD schools in Puerto Rico ( San Juan Batista, Ponce and Universidad Central del Caribe.) PR med schools are fully accredited by the LCME. (IOW, they’re aren’t Caribbean diploma mills but legit med schools that are part of US medical education.)

Also, rule out any of Catholic, religiously affiliated, or service oriented med school (Rosalind Franklin, for example) since they screen applications for not having at least 250+ hours of non-medical community service. Many applicants to those school will have a thousand plus hours of community service.

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BCPM GPA is biology, chemistry, physics, math GPA (or “science GPA”).

Note that each of the BCPM (and other) subjects is defined broadly, as listed in AMCAS® Course Classification Guide | Students & Residents

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thx

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OP might be from USF - their BSMD program suddenly became no longer guaranteed a few years back.

What about University of Puerto Rico?

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University of Puerto Rico only considers residents of Puerto Rico or individuals who have very close ties to Puerto Rico for admission. It’s why I didn’t suggest it above.

Close ties typically means graduating from HS in the territory and/or having immediate family members who live there.

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At this point, if you want to start med school in fall of '27, you need to apply to DO schools. You will get interviews, you will get in, because your stats are good, but hurry, send them in immediately. Without special factors (as you put it), it is honestly a waste of time to put in other MD applications this late, anywhere in the country. I disagree that you’re not having success because you lack volunteer hours - you have a total of 365 hours of volunteering, with children affected by chronic illness and family illness, and at the hospital.

This is not because of anything that you did not do. It’s because lots of people who have your profile are simply not getting any interviews, even people who have a slightly stronger profile than yours, from very highly selective undergrad institutions, are not getting any interviews. It’s especially difficult if you’re applying to go straight through. Med schools really seem to love seeing a gap year or two, or even more (as long as it’s spent doing something that they consider valuable). They also seem to love people who have worked a few years in something, and now have decided on medicine. And “special factors”, as you put it, absolutely DO matter.

In my opinion, it’s ridiculous to favor people who have been out in the world working for a few years, or doing two gap years of something science/med related, considering that someone who goes straight through, and does, say a 4 year residency, is going to be at least 30 years old before they can start practicing! Add in two gap years, and now they don’t start their career until they’re 32! But there’s nothing you can do about that - it is how the game is played, nowadays, and you don’t write the rules - they do.

Unless your goal is a highly selective residency, it’s just fine to go DO. You can easily get residencies in IM, FP, Peds, ED, OB/GYN, Psych, PM&R, and others. You won’t be going Derm or Plastics, but you probably wouldn’t have even from MD schools.

I would urge you to research DO schools ASAP, and throw in some DO applications now. You’ll get in, your training will be perfectly fine, you’ll be a doctor, you’ll be out and practicing by the time you’re 30.

BTW, you will find more targeted advice on student doctor network.

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I agree with this. OR you can take a glide year and do some of that missing community service, and apply much earlier for next year…like as soon as the applications go live.

Are you currently a college senior? Or when did you graduate from undergrad.

BTW…I’m not sure you can categorize medical schools as “targets” like you do undergrad schools. There are way too many variables to medical school acceptances that are determined by the schools. While your application might pass an initial screening (next year for MD schools), you still have to hope the admissions folks view the rest of your application as fulfilling what they want in a student.

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Wouldn’t any individual medical school be a “reach”? Medical school applicants usually apply to dozens and are lucky to get one admission.

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This is accurate.

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With admission rates under 15%, and most having acceptance rates in the single digits, all med school are reaches. Even DO schools which have similarly low acceptance rates.

Working as a camp counselor/volunteer is usually considered teaching or tutoring. Working with sick children is usually considered as a medical exposure experience. Neither are considered in the same light as working with more challenging clients from disparaged/disadvantaged groups.

@futureMDaspirant Have you met with your university’s health professions counselor to review your application and see what suggestions they may have about where to apply?

Do you have access to MSAR (Medical School Admission Requirements)? It’s $30 for an annual subscription. Tons of valuable information in there, including OOS friendliness of public schools, deadlines and LOR requirements. For DO schools, see AACOM’s webpages here: Apply to Medical School | AACOM

When looking for a med school, remember that the official position of AMCAS is to average multiple MCAT scores and use that as a better reflection of an applicant’s actual MCAT achievement. This means your 510 + 516 are really a 513 to adcomms.

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Assuming the worst case scenario that futureMDaspirant is not admitted to any of the seven FL medical schools. Would it be in the OP’s best interest to work on the community service and a third attempt on the MCAT to 519 or higher? Though the AMCAS may have an official position, medical school adcoms can use test scores however they see fit, such as taking the highest or most recent score to determine whether the applicant passes the initial screening & is offered an interview.

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Med schools look suspiciously at 3rd MCAT attempts. In fact some med schools will not accept/consider a 3rd MCAT score. I don’t know of any that will accept a 4th MCAT score -unless the most recent score occurs years and years after the original test date. AMCAS also has limits on the number of times a student may sit for the MCAT.

516-> 519 puts the new score within the confidence band (score ±3) of their previous score so really isn’t considered a significant improvement. Improvement would need to be 5+ points. Statistically that’s unlikely to happen. (Not saying it can’t be done, but that it’s not a common happening.)

I would strongly recommend the OP talk their advising office to see why the advisors there think the OP wasn’t accepted. They would have a much better idea where any deficiencies are in their application. I seriously doubt it’s their MCAT score holding them back.

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I was a part of the USF BS/MD program and got deferred into the regular cycle, there’s still a chance I can be accepted later in April but I wanted to at least try some other schools.

I am a college junior currently, which is why my hours in volunteering and clinical experience are not as high as they can be, the majority of my sophomore year was spent prepping for the MCAT and in a research lab.

I really set my target for MD schools, but a well-ranked DO school is something I would apply to. Unfortunately it’s pretty late in the cycle which is why I posted here.

Are there any suggestions on MD/DO schools to apply to out of state, or any good websites that detail their stats?

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@WayOutWestMom I am meeting with them later in October for a chance to review any strengths/weaknesses in my application, and seeing how my interview went.

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I’m confused. If you are currently applying to medical schools, wouldn’t you be starting fall 2027? If so…when would you complete your senior year of undergrad.

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