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Are my chances for MD/DO degree dead?
- Thread starter infidel10
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Hang it up. Put the shovel down. There are unlimited worthwhile career opportunities and experiences out there waiting for you. Your persistence as a premed, applied to a less-academic pursuit, could end up being something special.
Of my 5 or so classmates dismissed from my med school (with no refund for the $100k or $200k they'd paid so far) for academic problems, each one insisted that they were only off by half a percent, or if the final exam would be weighted more heavily they'd have been fine, or if they hadn't been sick for that one exam they'd have been fine, etc. Every time they said something like this, another nail went in their med school coffin. You can bounce below a minimum requirement once, maybe twice, and then you're done. If you fail a class, you may be allowed to remediate it or repeat the year, for another year's tuition, and then the number of choices you'll have for residency fall straight into the toilet. Med schools will not let you through if you can't keep up a solid academic effort, and this is why academic success is required to get in.
Second, you're expected to get A's on repeats, and those A's aren't impressive. You got 2 tries.
Third, after 5+ years of academic work that's below the acceptance level for MD and DO schools, you are in a hole that's going to take you at least 2 more years to climb out of. You're missing the multi-year strong academic effort in mostly hard science classes, which is the price of admission. You don't get a discount for time served. No, you're not going to be ready to apply next year.
If the above makes you really angry, and the real problem is that anonymous internet posters are really mean, and you're going to keep going, then for the love of all that's holy do it right and apply to the 2 year masters programs at DO schools. You need rigor and structure and supervision, for multiple years, with fewer variables.
Best of luck to you.
You might have had some DO chances with 3.2/3.0/30, but now you have recent fresh damage. You're multiple years of solid academic effort from either a DO or MD acceptance, with no basis to presume you'll produce solid work in hard science classes (in med school or otherwise).
Med school is much harder. You'd been a premed for a while. There was only one goal for you in the program, which was to get A's. This is not a character judgment - but please accept that hard science classes are not where you shine. If you continue to pursue med school, you have many miserable years of intense hard science between you and practice.
How does this differ from what you believed before the postbac? You probably had what it takes before, and that's probably not the problem. You don't thrive in the classroom. Try to accept this.
Yes, you were totally off in your studies, because you are below a defined standard that you very specifically needed to be well over. No med school will take your side that you were "close enough".
Of my 5 or so classmates dismissed from my med school (with no refund for the $100k or $200k they'd paid so far) for academic problems, each one insisted that they were only off by half a percent, or if the final exam would be weighted more heavily they'd have been fine, or if they hadn't been sick for that one exam they'd have been fine, etc. Every time they said something like this, another nail went in their med school coffin. You can bounce below a minimum requirement once, maybe twice, and then you're done. If you fail a class, you may be allowed to remediate it or repeat the year, for another year's tuition, and then the number of choices you'll have for residency fall straight into the toilet. Med schools will not let you through if you can't keep up a solid academic effort, and this is why academic success is required to get in.
First, how likely are you to get a 4.0 for the first time, all of a sudden?
Second, you're expected to get A's on repeats, and those A's aren't impressive. You got 2 tries.
Third, after 5+ years of academic work that's below the acceptance level for MD and DO schools, you are in a hole that's going to take you at least 2 more years to climb out of. You're missing the multi-year strong academic effort in mostly hard science classes, which is the price of admission. You don't get a discount for time served. No, you're not going to be ready to apply next year.
If the above makes you really angry, and the real problem is that anonymous internet posters are really mean, and you're going to keep going, then for the love of all that's holy do it right and apply to the 2 year masters programs at DO schools. You need rigor and structure and supervision, for multiple years, with fewer variables.
Best of luck to you.
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This makes you DOA at my program.
I recently bombed a Post-Bacc program with a 2.78 GPA, 27 credits of all science classes. (I managed a 3.3 GPA the second semester, and a 2.3 the first semester) I just was not ready to go into such an intense program, but I honestly think I have what it takes to succeed now. The experience taught me a lot about fixing my study habits.
Whether you missed the good grades by 1% or 20%, it doesn't matter. You need to convince Adcoms that you can handle med school, and so far, you haven't.
Edit- also I missed that B, got a C and missed another 2 A's, got a B, by 1-2% in 3 classes, so I know I wasn't totally off in my studies.
Words are easy, doing is hard. Yes, if you can ace anothe rpost-bac, then yes, you'll be more competitive.
My question is: If I retake the two classes I received Cs in (10 credits) and took another 15 credits of graduate science classes, and managed a 4.0... do I still have a chance for the next application cycle? The average science GPA in the graduate school would be 3.3 and if you factor the DO retake grad science GPA it would be 3.6. Any opinions?
I recently bombed a Post-Bacc program with a 2.78 GPA, 27 credits of all science classes. (I managed a 3.3 GPA the second semester, and a 2.3 the first semester) I just was not ready to go into such an intense program, but I honestly think I have what it takes to succeed now. The experience taught me a lot about fixing my study habits.
Whether you missed the good grades by 1% or 20%, it doesn't matter. You need to convince Adcoms that you can handle med school, and so far, you haven't.
Edit- also I missed that B, got a C and missed another 2 A's, got a B, by 1-2% in 3 classes, so I know I wasn't totally off in my studies.
Words are easy, doing is hard. Yes, if you can ace anothe rpost-bac, then yes, you'll be more competitive.
My question is: If I retake the two classes I received Cs in (10 credits) and took another 15 credits of graduate science classes, and managed a 4.0... do I still have a chance for the next application cycle? The average science GPA in the graduate school would be 3.3 and if you factor the DO retake grad science GPA it would be 3.6. Any opinions?
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