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Originally posted by fintstone
Any MDs out there who can give me some advice? My daughter is a senior in college and is getting ready to start applying for medical school and I would like advice from anyone who has knowledge of the process. She has a full medical school scholarship from the Air Force for any school she can get into. The problem is, what if she cannot get into one? She only has a brief window of opportunity. Of course she loses her slot and goes to do another job in the AF if she cannot get accepted. That is still a fine opportunity, but she really wants to be a doctor.
She has about a 3.75 GPA with a Major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. I suspect that it will not help, but she has been active in school and has been a varsity cheerleader (ranked) and in Air Force ROTC for all 4 years. She has done a lot of volunteer work, including at a hospital where she has a little lab/clinical experience. She had a full ride AF ROTC Scholarship as well as the University’s Presidential Scholarship as well as several minor ones. She is leader...very fit, well spoken and attractive, so an interview would probably work to her advantage.
She did not score very well on her first attempt on the MCAT, and she just took it again a couple of weeks ago and thinks she improved significantly…but that would still put her nowhere near the top of the heap.
She needs to start applying soon and needs a strategy. She would prefer to go to the Uniformed Services School at Bethesda but would be happy to get into any school from North Dakota to Harvard. I don’t know if the fact she is military-bound afterward will work in her favor or against her. Obviously it is too expensive and time consuming to apply to all schools…so any help would be appreciated. Is there anything else like networking, etc? Thanks in advance.
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Have your daughter see a councelor at any major University to which she wants to apply, or even one close by she neither wants to attend or is affiliated with the school she's in now. They will give her an idea of what her chances are at being accepted.
Based on your posting of her qualifications, she's acceptable material at most major med schools; such as UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, Stanford and others. Keep in mind that her final score on the MCAT will be a factor, but certainly not the only one. Her interview will be important. I'd recommend, if she hasn't already, she take one of those tutoring courses for the MCAT, like Kaplan's, which teach the test taking strategy for the specific test she's going to take.
She should also keep in mind that an excellent performance in a good, but not nationally recognized top ten med school, will get her into a first class residency program which is miles more important in the long run.