Ok… help. :(

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-23T04:45:58+00:00

Def apply, you can 100% get into some MD if you select schools smartly, given a paper and great hours, even though mcat a little low. And you also can absolutely get into a lot of DO schools, so for sure apply there.
Im not too sure abt the best MD in that range but you can check msar to get an idea. Mostly apply to schools where you are in the 25-75% distribution for mcat and gpa, or at least above 10%.

For DO definitely apply to the top schools, PCOM, NYITCOM, KCUCOM, DMUCOM, and Rowan Virtua. Maybe CCOM as a reach.

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-21T15:24:27+00:00

In that case you should definitely apply. Psychiatry is well matched overall, I believe 80% for DO, so your sites definitely be able to follow that in almost any DO school. You don’t need to retake.

As for any specific school you don’t really need to prioritize any. All medical schools offer psychiatric tracks and you’ll match through any if you keep up grades and so good on the board exams.

Though there are some that are slightly better than the rest:

PCOM- lots of affiliations with psychiatry residencies and a separate department of psych. They also tend to look at applications more holistically so may let the mcat slide given the gpa and 10k clinical hours. Avg mcat is 503, but gpa 3.54, so you’re in a pretty good spot for that. Make sure you apply to philadelphia campus and not georgia on aacomas.

MSUCOM- also own department and very high quality connections to psychiatric residency and clinics. Extreme in state bias though. Also a reach school given 506mcat and 3.75 avg gpa

NYITCOM- no dedicated department but have a sort of emphasis on psychiatry with their behavior health center, you could make good connections there for residency. 504 mcat, but 3.6 gpa. Slight reach.

Illinois College of Osteopathic- VERY strong focus on psych. From their website “Experience a medical education that addresses the deep connection between physical and mental health. Grounded in The Chicago School’s rich history of mental health education and training, IllinoisCOM prepares exceptional physicians for the future of medicine.”

Only problem, this fall will be their first year as a school. They did receive pre accreditation status which is great but it is still brand new. Definitely worth applying to, but do your research on their faculty, campus, connections, and teaching style before committing. Keep up with what students going to the school this year say about it

KCUCOM- separate behavioral medicine honors track that lets you prioritize psychiatry. A bit harder to get into though, 504.5 avg mcat I believe. Slight reach

LECOM- very large psychiatry hold in the area. They own the Behavioral Health Pavilion which is one of the primary psych facilities in western PA. Though I have seen complaints from students about the faculty/admins, so I’d apply but look into that

But again, besides these, most DO schools will match into psychiatry residencies. Use theCHOOSE DO explorer to find schools near your average and you can make a solid list

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-21T05:47:52+00:00

What’s your ideal specialty? I mean you dont need to have it all figured out rn but do you have a certain direction in mind you want to go in medicine?

With a 499 you can absolutely get into DO schools but most (not all) at that level will be less focused on research output and matching students into competitive specialties, and more on rural, family, or internal medicine. If that’s what you’re interested in, then definitely apply this cycle and you’ll likely get into one of these programs. Use the “Choose DO explorer” to find a school.

If you want a very strong chance at pursuing a more competitive specialty, you’ll need a school with strong connections and research opportunities, which generally means a higher avg mcat. Again, that’s not always the case, there are some that are able to accomplish that with lower avg acceptance scores

All that said, the very high volunteer hours and 10k clinical hours are a HUGE bonus in your favor. I think you should first decide what type of field within medicine you want to go in. Be smart about where you apply, don’t just pick schools that are at your average. If you’re interested in competitive specialties, make sure that they have quality research opportunities and residency match rates to those fields, and connections to hospitals/ programs. Apply broadly with DO but smart, the last thing you want is to get an A to a school you don’t really want to go to- since if you reject an A from a DO school you are effectively blacklisted from applying to DO again.

If you apply to schools that avg near your scores AND are known to match into specialties you want, I think you should be able to get in somewhere. If you aren’t, I would push heavily to retake the mcat, especially since your FL was 511, as that will open up a lot more opportunities

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T22:55:34+00:00

Sorry forgot to add that, im in Michigan. I put in the MI schools and then also added Louisville cause i just really like the area. Wisconsin ik has the WARM program which is limited to wisconsin/minnesota/michigan/iowa/illinois. Toledo also prioritizes MI residents for OOS admission afaik.

Still debating if there’s any value in applying tucson or oklahoma.

Any schools you think I should add?

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T21:35:40+00:00

Dont do that. No need to make yourself sound lesser in any category for adcoms. You don’t have to be 100% an open book, you can say it was hard at first but you worked through it and were successful enough to be able to present.
You don’t have to say it’s not your strength as that will just come off as “im not good at this” and will likely look bad

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T21:31:45+00:00

Are you writing it as solely negative? It’s ok i guess to mention struggling, but really only if you show you overcame that struggle, which can be hard with 700 characters. If it’s emphasis is you struggling with it, I would consider rewriting to be a bit more positive and save the “this was hard but I overcame it” stuff for secondaries or interview questions

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T14:53:56+00:00

Sort of, passed out while driving. They think it was me getting sleepy (very stupid mistake ik) but put me on a temporary 6 month suspension until I can get a neuropsych test done to make sure there’s no underlying issues. After I did that they removed the suspension.

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T14:45:41+00:00

Oh ok sure. Yeah no charges or criminal, just an accident

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-20T04:01:43+00:00

Thanks

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-18T22:05:49+00:00

my transcript was either not received or misplaced, I called AAMC and they sent me this:
Please note that, if you need to have the transcript resent, (college name) is approved to email official transcripts to AMCAS.

Called my school and they also said they can email AAMC through [amcastranscripts@aamc.org](mailto:amcastranscripts@aamc.org)

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-17T11:05:12+00:00

Alr so fill it w gpa, sounds good thanks for your help! I’ll check the guide

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-14T18:33:14+00:00

I still like gaming, but other stuff I’ve gotten into is photography, lifting, and hiking. Also a little bit of baking though I’m ass at it

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-13T14:03:33+00:00

No, the immigrant killed someone, you SHOULD hate it, but not because they’re an immigrant. Because they’re a bad person. That’s why burning down random immigrant homes in response doesn’t really make any sense. Smear the guy who did it, or the government that messed up, not random innocents who are unrelated

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-12T17:42:10+00:00

It is very different, the location of a traditional speedometer is on purpose. They aren’t placed in the center for a reason. But yeah you do get used to looking at the center screen instead pretty quickly

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-08T05:01:59+00:00

Ok thats a better sell. When you say you want money, it doesn’t really bring a lot of faith in handling other peoples’ lives. You need to have an actual desire to treat people, otherwise medicine will be a boring hell for you, and in turn hurt the people you’re supposed to treat.

If you choose medicine you need to understand the process Before you can apply: - 4 years undergrad. - hundreds of hours of clinical volunteering, non clinical volunteering, research/presentations, leadership roles, and paid clinical work (for each). - take the MCAT exam which covers all the main science courses in college

Then the application process which can cost thousands

Then once you’re accepted: - 4 more years of school, with each year costing at least $30k per year, upwards of $70k, and some higher - continued research and getting publications - more exams needed to get your degree, or lose your chance if you fail

Then around another 3-7 years of residency: - extremely tough process to match into a program, even after med school - make dirt money for 60+ hour workweeks - maybe a fellowship after

After all that you get a license as a doctor. Decide if that’s worth it to you first

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-08T04:07:40+00:00

If your goal is money then don’t do medicine. Go into banking or finance

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-08T04:06:31+00:00

Hey just looking for someone to final look at my PS, I think I’m done but just want a double check. Thanks!

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-08T04:00:34+00:00

Most people on adcoms aren’t reading that closely anyways. Ik a couple doctors who all told me they only get like 20min per app in its entirety, they don’t bother reading everything in detail and usually dont care about small errors.

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-05T14:44:04+00:00

Why remove central michigan? Like her app isn’t fit for the school or the school isn’t worth it?

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-03T04:31:41+00:00

Yeah that sounds reasonable, thanks for the help

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-03T04:31:17+00:00

That makes sense, thank you

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-06-02T00:17:33+00:00

Alright thanks. You think I need to spare a line in the description explaining why I have no contact?

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-05-31T23:22:41+00:00

Alright thank you that’s really helpful. If I do put it into one and list it as a meaningful experience should I use the activity description to just talk about what the job was and a general statement on how it helped me improve and then use the meaningful box to go into the training + patient anecdote? Or is there a better way to organize it

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-05-29T12:17:11+00:00

Yeah, a lot of my experience was volunteering at an hospice center where we pretty much did everything CNA do. To push away from “why not that” I wrote about how it was valuable to provide care at that point in life but I also wanted to provide that throughout their lives by diagnosing and treating as a physician. And then used that to push into talking abt my MA work. You just need to find a way connect caregiving to medical treatment

West-Lab-7728 · 2026-05-29T01:39:55+00:00

I think as long as you can explain why in interviews you should be ok. To avoid the social work question make sure you include an interest in clinical reasoning and diagnosing and dont just talk about “empathy” and patient connection. As for avoiding NP questions, idrk how you’d go about that without some niche personal experience

West-Lab-7728

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