PA or MD/DO

[AspiringDoctor2018]

Hello SDN community,

I am at a crossroad - I have been stuck here for a while.

I have always had the goal of pursuing a career in medicine as a physician. Unfortunately, I don't have the best stats (i.e. MCAT: 501, BCPM 2.93, CGPA: 3.06). I graduated from college in December 2014. I didn't apply right away because my first MCAT was a 490. I retook the MCAT in August 2016 and got the 501. I applied in September 2016 to DO schools and did not get accepted. No surprise there. In the time that I have been out of school, I have continued to work as a medical scribe, scribe trainer, and I work for scribe corporate office now. I also manage a small family business. I've worked since I was in high school. I am applying as a disadvantaged student de to financial struggles. With my stats, would it be better to go into the PA route or return to school to take 12-15 science credits and retake the MCAT? I want to start working, gain more stability, and treat patients. Does anyone have any advice? In addition, will everyone share their experiences as a PA and MD/DO. The ups and downs. Thank you.

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[DoctorDragon22]

At this point your stats wouldn’t even have you in the running for PA school. You need to take a deep look at how much time you are willing to put into this. If you are truly passionate about this (and have time and money) you will really need to do a post-bacc and truly crush the MCAT. Frankly, there are too many qualified applicants out there for your stats to stand out enough. I am not trying be mean but rather trying to give you a much needed dose of reality.

 

[Faha]

You need to take sufficient additional undergraduate level science courses to increase your sGPA to 3.0 . With your current sGPA of 2.93 you will be screened out at many DO schools. It may take another year of science courses to raise your GPA so you may not be able to apply until 2020 unless you take those courses in early 2019. If you wait until 2020 you may need to retake the MCAT since your 2016 score could be expired for some schools. When you apply you will need to apply broadly and I suggest these schools:
ACOM
ARCOM
NYIT-Arkansas
ICOM
BCOM
UIWSOM
WCU-COM
LMU-DCOM
UP-KYCOM
WVSOM
LUCOM
VCOM (all schools)
PCOM Georgia and South Georgia
LECOM (all schools)
Any new schools that open by 2020 (there will be several)
Many of these schools have MCAT medians in the 498 to 502 range so your MCAT is fine for all of them. It is your sGPA that you need to work on.

 

[MedicineN'Jazz]

Hello SDN community,

I am at a crossroad - I have been stuck here for a while.

I have always had the goal of pursuing a career in medicine as a physician. Unfortunately, I don't have the best stats (i.e. MCAT: 501, BCPM 2.93, CGPA: 3.06). I graduated from college in December 2014. I didn't apply right away because my first MCAT was a 490. I retook the MCAT in August 2016 and got the 501. I applied in September 2016 to DO schools and did not get accepted. No surprise there. In the time that I have been out of school, I have continued to work as a medical scribe, scribe trainer, and I work for scribe corporate office now. I also manage a small family business. I've worked since I was in high school. I am applying as a disadvantaged student de to financial struggles. With my stats, would it be better to go into the PA route or return to school to take 12-15 science credits and retake the MCAT? I want to start working, gain more stability, and treat patients. Does anyone have any advice? In addition, will everyone share their experiences as a PA and MD/DO. The ups and downs. Thank you.

Apply to one of the conditional acceptance post baccs. 501 is high enough for you to not retake the MCAT (providing that you scored 124 and up in each subsection). If so, Drexel’s DPMS would take you and some of the DO postback (I.e PCOM and LECOM)

 

[Doc_Ock]

How bad do you want to be a physician? You could find a PA program somewhere, I guarantee it, then apply to medical school after that. It's been done.