I will be done with my undergrad in three years, all my coursework will be completed by spring 2027
1 Like
Graduating early from undergrad makes you a very young first year medical student IF you get accepted. I’m not sure this is working to your advantage. But since you are graduating anyway…you can take a glide year, beef up your volunteering with disadvantaged groups, do some kind of patient facing work or volunteer work, and create a new list of colleges to apply to for the following year.
You will then be about the same age as many other applicants.
I have to ask…what is the rush here? There really is no need to graduate undergrad early, and no rush to start medical school the following fall.
My opinion.
4 Likes
Lake Erie in Pennsylvania & Michigan State are two D.O. schools that come to mind. Not sure about application deadlines. Nova Southeastern also offers a D.O. program in Florida.
1 Like
Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine has two Georgia campuses. But I’m not sure how late they accept applications and do interviews.
1 Like
What are your goals in terms of your future career? Are you interested in surgery or surgical subspecialties? Hands on patient care? Primary care?
There are DO schools that are strong in all of those.
For primary care: WCUCOM (Mississippi) , ATSU-Arizona (Phoenix), ATSU-Kirksville (Missouri), PNW-COM (Oregon), Western University of Health Sciences-California, Touro-California.
(Off topic, but the anesthesiologist I had for a major abdominal surgery recently came from Western in Pomona, CA. I know this because we were chatting before my surgery and were comparing notes about his rotation sites which included some of the hospitals my daughter worked at. D used to praecept Western med students doing rotations in her specialty at her hospital. He is considered one of the best young anesthesiologists in the local hospital system.)
For surgery and surgical subspecialties: University of North Texas (very low OOS acceptance rate), PCOM-Philadelphia, Michigan State University COM (very low OOS acceptance rate), Oklahoma State University COM (very low OOS acceptance rate), Rowan-Virtua COM (New Jersey), Kansas City University COM
What you want to do is research which DO schools have their own hospital systems attached to the med school. These programs will have a home hospital for rotations, for getting mentoring from physicians who are in your desired specialties, and opportunities to do elective sub-Is and sub-specialty rotations.
UNT-COM has at least 3-8 matches in competitive specialties every year: dermatology, orthopedics, urology, ophthalmology, ENT… Their outcomes are really impressive.
If I were to take the route of a glide year and apply in the next cycle, what are things in my application that are lacking, or is it a matter of the quantity of hours that I have in them because I only had 2 years of undergrad to get those things.
Also is a 516 still competitive for the next cycle?
You have good volunteer medical work, but I don’t see anything that shows you have volunteered or worked with underprivileged folks. IMHO that is missing.
And you are very young.
As noted by a few above…look at the missions of some of the DO schools suggested. And look at the missions of the MD schools as well. You probably would want to apply to perhaps 1/2 MD and half DO schools.
Also, you will need some info regarding reapplying to med schools where you have already been rejected…as well as how you will need to do your applications again if you choose to reapply to any of these medical schools. I don’t have this info, but @WayOutWestMom probably has some info to share.
Perhaps after your conversation with the health careers person at your college, you will hear what they suggest for you.
And…you may not want to hear this next suggestion. Every single student applying to medical school needs a plan B in case medical school doesn’t work out for one reason or another (admissions, and costs are two reasons).
Would you like suggestions of other health care related careers? If so, we can direct you to an excellent website for info.
@WayOutWestMom specifically noted this as one shortfall (I suppose at a minimum)
I saw the camps for kids with cancer/chronic illness but I assume that is not a substitute in her opinion.
Also is a 516 still competitive for the next cycle?
Your scores are good for 3 years at most med schools. (Some only accept scores that are less than 2 years old. This is something you’ll need to check when you develop your application list.)
You can reapply to schools that reject you this year, but you must show that your new application is stronger than your prior application.
Your GPA is fine. Your MCAT score is fine.
Where you probably need to improve is your ECs and in your writing.
Personal statements need to be deeply reflective on your reasons for choosing medicine. You should NOT focus your PS on the travails of family members, but how their experience affected you and shaped your decision to pursue medicine.
Secondary essays need to be fine tuned for each school. Pay attention to the nuances of the secondary questions and answer each question with specificity and details. (One size does NOT fit all even if the questions appear to be similar.) If you didn’t have several outside sets of eyes on your PS this year, make sure you get them next year. Use your HP office–that’s why they’re there.
Ask your HP advisor when you see them later in the month if you have any bad, weak or meh LORs. They may not be able to answer that question since LORs are confidential, but they may be able to give hints if there is one. Regardless, you will need “fresh” LORs for your next application cycle. Med school want recs that are less than a year old.
You need to continue with your medical exposure activities right up until you have an acceptance in hand. You need to get involved RIGHT NOW in some off campus non-medical, non-teaching, hands on community service activities that help relieve the physical suffering of others. Food banks, clothing banks, homeless shelter, Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, etc. These activities fulfill the Service Orientation competency expected of all potential med students.
Take a look at the expected competencies here: The Premed Competencies for Entering Medical Students Make sure you have some sort of activities/experiences that fulfill each of the 21 items on the list.
P.S. Your age may be working against you too. Younger-than-typical med school applicants have a more difficult time convincing adcomms that you’re doing medicine for the right reasons. Your maturity and readiness for the gritty reality of patient care and contact may be questioned. It’s up to you to prove you’re ready for all the challenges that medical training poses.
To the experts on this thread…
Would applying to one of the new DO schools be a benefit? I know that at some there is reduced or even free tuition for the first class to enter. My daughter’s BIL was a member of the first class at the school in Idaho (he was from Wyoming so did get an admission preference) and he’s doing his final fellowship this year, so I think it will be 11 years from first class to real world job next year!
Are there any new DO schools opening in the south that might give a Florida resident a preference?
New DO schools typically have lower admission standards than more established schools. New schools are anxious just to get enough bodies in seats to fill their class. The instructors may be inexperienced with teaching at med school level. Clinical sites haven’t been settled and often still under negotiation with hospital administrations. Clinical preceptors haven’t been trained and don’t know what to so with 5 med students trailing them all day long. Didactic curricula are still in flux as instructors learn what works and what doesn’t.
My own person advice–avoid new schools or schools which are piloting new curricula if you possibly can. There’s just too much chaos. Med school is hard. Why choose something that will make it harder?
New school = a school that has not yet graduated its first class. The students are all guinea pigs while they figure out how to make a med school work.
Florida has 4 DO schools. (more like 8 or 9 if you count each subsidiary campus of a bigger DO school. NSU-KPCOM, for example now has 3 or 4 campuses in different areas of Florida. LECOM has 2 campuses in Florida.) Two are fairly new: Burrell-Florida is new, but it’s fairly safe bet since it’s a secondary campus of an established school. Orlando COM is 2 years old so the jury is till out on it.
1 Like
Price is right? (free)
Cheapest isn’t always the best option.
You have to look at the positives and negatives. Some people thrive on chaos and are great at self-teaching. Others aren’t. A free education is pretty meaningless if you don’t pass your board exams.
5 Likes
If you do graduate and are not accepted this round, you need to find out how the health advisor at your undergrad will be able to help you once you graduate.
Some colors do keep LOR on file for submission. But find out what you can expect when you are no longer a student…if needed.
2 Likes
Unfortunately, med schools really do not like young applicants. They like to see maturity. It’s hard enough to get in to go straight through after 4 years of undergrad; it’s going to be even tougher after only 3 years of undergrad. In my opinion, this is ridiculous. In other countries, med students finish undergrad and med school after 6 years, at the age of 24 or even younger - in the US, even students who go straight through are not done until 26, and most take one or two gap years, so finish at 28, and then there are the “nontraditional”, who finish even later.
But this is how it is. You cannot change it. In my opinion, if you are not gunning for a competitive residency, and want to go straight through, I’d apply broadly DO right now. Look at it this way: every year that you gap, you’re losing maybe 400K in earnings, down the road. If you’re ready to go to med school, add in DO and go.
Honestly, you seem very fixated on age. Medicine requires maturity, humility, the ability to have strangers vomit on your sparkling white coat, the ability to clean an unhoused person’s gangrene without retching. If that means a year or two “older” than what you find “ridiculous”- so be it. Harping on how old the OP is going to be before earning a doctor’s salary really isn’t helpful in the current situation. And many medical school adcom’s disagree with your take- and they’ve got the data, you don’t. Producing a committed and well trained physician is their mission- not having someone graduate and head to a VC. There have been several people in the news of late (during Senate confirmation hearings, for example) who are technically MD’s but never practiced- or only practiced for a year or two before abandoning medicine. This is not a good outcome for a medical school even if the person ends up in public policy or is financing health care startups.
OP- as my mentor in college told me- don’t love anything that doesn’t love you back. Taking a glide year- or staying in college for a fourth year- is not going to impact your future materially. If you have the bandwidth to put together a few DO programs that make sense for you then terrific. And if not- fingers crossed the ED deferral turns into an acceptance. And if not- figure out something interesting and socially useful to do next year with a vulnerable population and apply again.
3 Likes