MD c3.3 GPA, s3.2 or so, Texas resident, studying for MCAT

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

Looking for some guidance, plan to apply next year June 2013.



c3.3 GPA, science GPA around there, true "undergrad" GPA maybe 3.2, 180 semester hours, PharmD degree at a top 5 pharmacy school = 2 years prepharm then 4 years pharmacy school
Grades didn’t matter in pharmacy school – so I was happy with my B’s and didn’t try that hard

After graduation:
Pharmacy practice residency for 1 year- did 1 month rotations in areas of: internal medicine, infectious diseases- general consult service, cardiology, medical intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, research, medical intensive care unit at another hospital, nephrology, infectious diseases with the BMT/cancer ID team.

-duties included: rounding with the teams daily, working up every patient on the service, provided drug recommendations on treatment, dosage, interval, side effects, monitoring, and treatment duration, dosed vancomycin/aminoglycosides, served as a resource for the physician team and more

Next was a specialty residency in Critical Care for 1 year – did 1 month rotations in the areas of: medical intensive care (2 months), surgical/trauma intensive care, solid organ transplant service, emergency medicine, infectious diseases, cardiac intensive care unit, nutrition (writing TPNs), CT surgery intensive care, research.
-duties were the same as the pharmacy practice residency

After my residencies were complete I worked as a clinical pharmacist in the medical intensive care unit where I was responsible for all 24 patients and rounded daily with the MICU team. Did that for 2 years. Now have a job where 1/3 of my time is in the ED as a clinical pharmacist working along side the attendings and residents - this ED part started 3 months ago so just starting to get to know the physicians

So to sum it up-
Clinical/patient/physician experience: thousands and thousands of hours
Leadership: supervising an average of 6 people compromises about 1/3 of my 40 hour week currently, so tons of hours
Research: presented my research project as a poster at Society of Critical Care Medicine Annual Congress in 2009 and another poster for a different research project in 2010 at SCCM, also several posters at national pharmacy meetings
Nonclinical volunteer: assistant Girl Scout troop leader in 2006 (about 60 hours), community choir, church choir, and going to start again with Girl Scouts soon
LOR: I work with some EM attendings that are faculty at the top 20 med school our hospital is associated with and so I'm hoping that I can get letters from them when the time comes
Interviews: I have had over 40 interviews when searching for residency positions and actual pharmacist positions so I think my interview skills are good if I can get any

So obviously I need to kill the MCAT to make up for my GPA. Anything else I should be doing?

Originally Posted by MackandBlues

Looking for some guidance, plan to apply next year June 2013.



c3.3 GPA, science GPA around there, true "undergrad" GPA maybe 3.2, 180 semester hours, PharmD degree at a top 5 pharmacy school = 2 years prepharm then 4 years pharmacy school
Grades didn’t matter in pharmacy school – so I was happy with my B’s and didn’t try that hard

After graduation:
Pharmacy practice residency for 1 year- did 1 month rotations in areas of: internal medicine, infectious diseases- general consult service, cardiology, medical intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit, research, medical intensive care unit at another hospital, nephrology, infectious diseases with the BMT/cancer ID team.

-duties included: rounding with the teams daily, working up every patient on the service, provided drug recommendations on treatment, dosage, interval, side effects, monitoring, and treatment duration, dosed vancomycin/aminoglycosides, served as a resource for the physician team and more

Next was a specialty residency in Critical Care for 1 year – did 1 month rotations in the areas of: medical intensive care (2 months), surgical/trauma intensive care, solid organ transplant service, emergency medicine, infectious diseases, cardiac intensive care unit, nutrition (writing TPNs), CT surgery intensive care, research.
-duties were the same as the pharmacy practice residency

After my residencies were complete I worked as a clinical pharmacist in the medical intensive care unit where I was responsible for all 24 patients and rounded daily with the MICU team. Did that for 2 years. Now have a job where 1/3 of my time is in the ED as a clinical pharmacist working along side the attendings and residents - this ED part started 3 months ago so just starting to get to know the physicians

So to sum it up-
Clinical/patient/physician experience: thousands and thousands of hours
Leadership: supervising an average of 6 people compromises about 1/3 of my 40 hour week currently, so tons of hours
Research: presented my research project as a poster at Society of Critical Care Medicine Annual Congress in 2009 and another poster for a different research project in 2010 at SCCM, also several posters at national pharmacy meetings
Nonclinical volunteer: assistant Girl Scout troop leader in 2006 (about 60 hours), community choir, church choir, and going to start again with Girl Scouts soon
LOR: I work with some EM attendings that are faculty at the top 20 med school our hospital is associated with and so I'm hoping that I can get letters from them when the time comes
Interviews: I have had over 40 interviews when searching for residency positions and actual pharmacist positions so I think my interview skills are good if I can get any

So obviously I need to kill the MCAT to make up for my GPA. Anything else I should be doing?

I suggest you add some office-based primary care shadowing. Your nonmedical community service is weak, so consider maybe a second gig that helps those in need. Your GPAs will be a big hurdle to overcome. Have you considered completing the TCOM SMP-like program to give yourself a better shot at MD schools in-state?

Thanks for your feedback - will add some office based primary care shadowing and get involved in more community activities. I had not considered an SMP until you mentioned it.

TCOM's program comes at a bargain rate relative to true SMPs, and with terrific academic performance could make an MD acceptance much more likely to happen.

Thank you, I will look into the program. What about taking a couple upper level biology classes over the next year while working full time even though a's wont touch my gpa? Or should i just save my money and not bother?

Originally Posted by MackandBlues

Thank you, I will look into the program. What about taking a couple upper level biology classes over the next year while working full time even though a's wont touch my gpa? Or should i just save my money and not bother?

That might be helpful for nonTexas DO med schools, but for Texas MD&DO, I don't think it will do enough for you to be worth the effort, unless TCOM feels some recent As in upper-level Bio will make you more competitive for acceptance into their program. Why not do some on-line research on their criteria, see if there is any info in SDN's Postbaccalaureate Programs forum about them, and maybe call if you have further questions.