What are my chances? Do I have a shot?

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Hey guys,

I'm pretty new here and I apologize for spamming the forums with this thread I just wanted a little insight before I apply to Pod school this coming August for the Fall 2013 incoming class.

Stats:
cGPA: ~2.9
sGPA: ~2.7
MCAT: 28P (Verbal 10, Physical Science 9, Biological Science 9)

I have three letters of recommendation (one from a Pod and two science faculty) and plenty of volunteer hours at a local ER. I also have experience working in research at my local University and have spent 4 years working as an officer for an Honors' Society on my campus.

I don't have a legitimate excuse for that poor GPA so I won't even bother. I do have a strong uphill trend during my last year though (3.3+ each quarter for three quarters).

So what do you guys think? If I apply broadly this coming August do you think I have a shot at landing a couple interviews?

Originally Posted by EK18

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new here and I apologize for spamming the forums with this thread I just wanted a little insight before I apply to Pod school this coming August for the Fall 2013 incoming class.

Stats:
cGPA: ~2.9
sGPA: ~2.7
MCAT: 28P (Verbal 10, Physical Science 9, Biological Science 9)

I have three letters of recommendation (one from a Pod and two science faculty) and plenty of volunteer hours at a local ER. I also have experience working in research at my local University and have spent 4 years working as an officer for an Honors' Society on my campus.

I don't have a legitimate excuse for that poor GPA so I won't even bother. I do have a strong uphill trend during my last year though (3.3+ each quarter for three quarters).

So what do you guys think? If I apply broadly this coming August do you think I have a shot at landing a couple interviews?

I bet if you apply at all 9 schools you'll get some interviews.

If I may ask, is your GPA speckled with low grades, or is it a consistent "B-"? In other words, do you get A's and D's or a lot of B-'s?

Originally Posted by MaxillofacialMN

I bet if you apply at all 9 schools you'll get some interviews.

If I may ask, is your GPA speckled with low grades, or is it a consistent "B-"? In other words, do you get A's and D's or a lot of B-'s?

Cool, thanks for your response.

I did decent first year and finished with around a 3.2, but I started to struggle during my second quarter of Sophomore year all the way until my first quarter of Senior year. So I guess it's more like A-/B+ first and last years and lots of Cs in between. I got Ds twice but I retook one of the classes and got a B+. I was going to retake the other but I didn't want to put the extra stress on my schedule since Pod schools don't have grade forgiveness and average out all of your grades.

Pretty solid MCAT score, so while some of the programs with stricter admissions will weed you out, I don't think you'll have a problem getting in somewhere.

Make sure you have a reason for why you had poor grades when you did, and what you'll do to make sure it doesn't happen again. If you have to make one up, whatever, but be prepared to answer questions about it because it /will/ come up, guaranteed.

Your overall trend still isn't great, but the MCAT will offset some of that at least in demonstrating that you can do okay in the classes, though you might have problems with them thinking you aren't motivated enough for school. I can't stress enough that you need to have good (meaning well thought out) answers for your interview, because they'll likely ask something like, "what makes you think you'll succeed here?" "What happened in this semester to change your mind?"

Originally Posted by bobdolerson

Pretty solid MCAT score, so while some of the programs with stricter admissions will weed you out, I don't think you'll have a problem getting in somewhere.

Make sure you have a reason for why you had poor grades when you did, and what you'll do to make sure it doesn't happen again. If you have to make one up, whatever, but be prepared to answer questions about it because it /will/ come up, guaranteed.

Your overall trend still isn't great, but the MCAT will offset some of that at least in demonstrating that you can do okay in the classes, though you might have problems with them thinking you aren't motivated enough for school. I can't stress enough that you need to have good (meaning well thought out) answers for your interview, because they'll likely ask something like, "what makes you think you'll succeed here?" "What happened in this semester to change your mind?"

Gotcha, so it all comes down to the interview. I don't think I'm a very good interviewee so that's definitely something I'll need to work on. I'll be sure to expect the questions about why my grades suffered in certain quarters and I'll have solid answers prepared.

Thanks for your response.

The best bet you have is to just be honest. Most of the problems arise when you try and think about what they /want/ you to say, and not just answer truthfully. Things get a bit easier when you have legitimate opinions and answers, so search your mind and find the answer as if you asked yourself.

I understand what you mean, I hate interviews, and have problems with tested patient interactions and have a tendency to draw a blank, so before the interview I just wrote down a whole list of things that seemed applicable based on my application, and just made sure I knew the answers so it wouldn't be as likely to disappear when I needed to search my brain for them.

The thing of it is, you really do need to have an answer as to what will be different in pod school, because if there isn't one, you're going to have some serious issues. Be able to explain to /yourself/ why this is the career path for you, and be brutally honest about it.

Now, if you got bad grades because you sat in your room and smoked weed all day, then maybe leave that out and credit them to "personal problems" and having a lack of motivation because you didn't know your course, and had a hard time being motivated without knowing what you were doing (still true, no?), but by and large, honesty is the best policy. It's far better to have a less-than-desirable answer than it is to be caught in a lie.

You'll do fine; most everyone is nervous, but once you get rolling a little bit and get a rhythm and realize "Hey! I really DO want to be here and know why!" then things get a bit easier. Most admissions interviews aren't that bad, and you can look at the student doctor interview section here and get a GREAT idea as to what to expect from each school.

You'll do fine if you know the answers for yourself, and be sure to look honestly at your application and try and think from a interviewer's perspective what parts look good, and what parts need an explanation. Most of the questions are pretty straight forward, and they're not looking to screw with you, they really just want to know why you're there, and why you think you'll succeed.

Long response, I know, sorry! Good luck and godspeed!

Lol no need to apologize. I appreciate the time you took to write such a detailed response on my behalf. I think I'm just scared that being honest is what's going to keep me from being admitted. I don't want to come off as lazy or unable to work hard.

Originally Posted by EK18

Lol no need to apologize. I appreciate the time you took to write such a detailed response on my behalf. I think I'm just scared that being honest is what's going to keep me from being admitted. I don't want to come off as lazy or unable to work hard.

I can relate to that, lol. I had an interview at my school a few weeks ago for free tuition my senior year. One of my friends had won the scholarship last year and her advice was to be honest, because the panel just really wants to get to know you. I took the advice to heart, and was WAY too honest. I left the room thinking, "well, I didn't get that scholarship." But, it was good practice for pod school interviews and now I realize that complete honesty isn't always the best. For instance, to the question, "how would your friends describe you?" your answer shouldn't be "insane party animal" regardless of the authenticity of this response.


And that's pretty much the story of how I lost about $20k in half an hour...

Absolutely. Apply and you'llget in somewhere