Please Help!!! What would you do?

[Sconniemed]

I am looking for some help in deciding what path to take. At this point I flip-flop every day, if not every hour…

The story in brief
-Bad first half of undergrad, went through tough times.
-UW-Madison, Biochemistry, Graduated May 2011, cGPA: 3.45 sGPA: 3.35
-MCAT: 31(11P, 8V, 12 B)
-Research at 3 labs including 1 at UPenn, 4 pubs, 3 poster, 1 oral abstract
-Strong LORs, vast leadership experience in scouting program, eagle scout, BLS instructor, EMT-Intermediate (>5,000 volunteer on call hours), volunteer at LGBT center, currently an FTE at a hospital as a quality analyst.

Applied late and rejected at all but 1 MD school. Waitlisted at UW and ranked ~5 positions greater than where they made it last year.

Accepted at 2 DOs (DMU and CCOM) and Tulane's SMP- Masters of Pharmacology.
I have current interests in Critical Care Medicine, Interventional Card, and Cardiac Electrophysiology. I am leaning towards EP and desire to keep that option open.

What would you do? I don't know if I want to be out another 1-2years and reapply, but don't want to limit EP or Intentional Card b/c I didn't get into a competitive enough residency after going DO. I am excited about the program at Tulane, which seems like an awesome program, city, and overall a really good fit. I was more excited after this acceptance than the DO acceptances, but I just don't know anymore…Please help!!! Would you do Tulane's SMP or go to DMU if you were in my shoes?

Best of luck to anyone on a waitlist.

I feel like they should add another risk factor for CAD, that being the number of application cycles a premed goes through

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[487806]

I am looking for some help in deciding what path to take. At this point I flip-flop every day, if not every hour…

The story in brief
-Bad first half of undergrad, went through tough times.
-UW-Madison, Biochemistry, Graduated May 2011, cGPA: 3.45 sGPA: 3.35
-MCAT: 31(11P, 8V, 12 B)
-Research at 3 labs including 1 at UPenn, 4 pubs, 3 poster, 1 oral abstract
-Strong LORs, vast leadership experience in scouting program, eagle scout, BLS instructor, EMT-Intermediate (>5,000 volunteer on call hours), volunteer at LGBT center, currently an FTE at a hospital as a quality analyst.

Applied late and rejected at all but 1 MD school. Waitlisted at UW and ranked ~5 positions greater than where they made it last year.

Accepted at 2 DOs (DMU and CCOM) and Tulane’s SMP- Masters of Pharmacology.
I have current interests in Critical Care Medicine, Interventional Card, and Cardiac Electrophysiology. I am leaning towards EP and desire to keep that option open.

What would you do? I don’t know if I want to be out another 1-2years and reapply, but don’t want to limit EP or Intentional Card b/c I didn’t get into a competitive enough residency after going DO. I am excited about the program at Tulane, which seems like an awesome program, city, and overall a really good fit. I was more excited after this acceptance than the DO acceptances, but I just don’t know anymore…Please help!!! Would you do Tulane's SMP or go to DMU if you were in my shoes?

Best of luck to anyone on a waitlist.

I feel like they should add another risk factor for CAD, that being the number of application cycles a premed goes through

Take the DO acceptance and move on. SMP is a waste of money. You'll be fine in the long run. If you reapply, you would have to address the question of whether you have been accepted before, and this will throw you in a pickle.

 

[headsortails]

I'd only do the SMP if I had enough $$$ to roll in. Otherwise, congrats on your acceptance!

 

[Xenops]

My impression is Des Moines is one of the most wonderful DO schools you could go to.

Take your acceptance and have a dance party.

 

[Sconniemed]

Thanks for your input. Who asks if you have been accepted before? I have only seen a few schools ask if you have ever matriculated before in addition to that question being on the primary.

Take the DO acceptance and move on. SMP is a waste of money. You'll be fine in the long run. If you reapply, you would have to address the question of whether you have been accepted before, and this will throw you in a pickle.

 

[dsoz]

If you were not willing to do to a DO school, why did you apply? If you were accepted, then DO IT, (did you see what I did there?)

DO students can go to any residency. When it is our year to do residency, all positions will be combined, and there will be no separate residencies.

The letters after your name don't make you who you are. Take the DO school and do the best you can. That should be enough to land you a residency that you want.

Chances are you will change your mind anyway sometime in third year.

Good luck, and great job getting accepted. You are better off than about half the people that applied this year.

dsoz

 

[La Presse]

SMP, without a doubt. OR simply bolster and delay your application 1 year and re-apply.

 

[FSU2013]

I would go DO all day, every day. Not only are you going to spend 40-50k (plus interest) on the SMP, have the expense of applying next year without any guaranteed acceptance to a "better" school, 30 years of compounding interest on the money you'd save for retirement as a first year attending, but you also loose 1 full year of income as a physician. Plus, the year of income you'd be losing would be your last year as a physician (so presumably your highest salary). It seems like unless you knew you would be accepted to a program that was >20k less in tuition a year, you'd be losing close to a half million dollars cumulatively (1 year salary, SMP tuition + compounding interest, 1 year savings as attending + compounding interest, cost of reapplying/travel for interviews, cost of moving again, etc).

Plus, I thought Des Moines was one of the stronger DO programs.

Good luck.

 

[Sconniemed]

Thanks for everyone's response! I am really worried about finding a good fit for med school. I applied b/c to both a few DO and SMPs b/c I was unsure about which program I would rather do if I didn't get into an allopathic school, albeit I am now x100 more unsure than when I applied. I actually appreciate the DO approach, but I have heard of an instance where a DO applicant wasn't selected as the chief resident because they were a DO, the words of one of the reviewers. (an MD who advocated for the applicant). This was at Penn however...

When I interviewed at DMU, it felt like a really good fit. I hit it off with my interviewer who did research in an area that I was VERY interested in and would have become a mentor to me. I was excited as research is something I want to do in med school. A month later I learned they had accepted a position at another school and would be leaving. Bubble burst. After looking at the other researchers at DMU I didn't easily identify a group that I am interested in and now I'm completely lost feeling like it's not the best fit.

If you were not willing to do to a DO school, why did you apply? If you were accepted, then DO IT, (did you see what I did there?)

DO students can go to any residency. When it is our year to do residency, all positions will be combined, and there will be no separate residencies.

The letters after your name don't make you who you are. Take the DO school and do the best you can. That should be enough to land you a residency that you want.

Chances are you will change your mind anyway sometime in third year.

Good luck, and great job getting accepted. You are better off than about half the people that applied this year.

dsoz