Class, Race, Chances?

[WhispersWithWolf]

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm not posting an over asked question or anything, but I wanted to get a vague idea of my chances of getting accepted into medical school.

Back Story
For starters, I am an African-American/Jamaican female from a low income home. Fortunately I grew up in a suburb with a good high school and others consider me an excellent student (which is odd considering my grades). However because of heaps of emotional stress my grades plummeted even more during my first year of college. Fast forward I went back and received academic forgiveness and have been getting the honor roll. With my newly found confidence in math and science, I began considering psychiatry as well as biomedical engineering and biochemistry as career paths.

Real Question
What are the chances of getting into med school (specifically psychiatry) ? The reason I'm interested in psychiatry is because of my personal first hand experiences with it and the to help others. Also, I want to do research in regenerative medicine in the future. I'm an URM, poor, GPA of 3.8 with my strongest grades in STEM. And I speak a little German lol. I'm honestly more nervous about obtaining letters of recommendation and ECs than the MCAT or taking out loans etc.

I still have a while to go before I finish my Bachelors, but I want to prepare.

Thank you!

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[The Helpful Aye Aye]

Understand that your GPA calculated with grade forgiveness won't be the GPA that you apply with.

Courses removed from your transcripts or GPA as a result of academic bankruptcy, forgiveness, or similar institutional policies must also be included.
(source: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/how_to_apply/130652/entering_your_course_work.html)​

That said, lower GPA because of that isn't the kiss of death. If you've had consistent upward mobility in your grades (which it seems like you have) then that plus focusing on the type of student you are now will pull you through the GPA aspect of the process.

I'd just search around here to see how those other factors come into play in admissions!

Cheers.

 

[claduva94]

It isn't that simple. Those don't all get plugged into a formula to see if you will be accepted. Yes being a URM and Poor will help. Knowing another language will help. Great ECs will help. Gender less so. But at the end of the day if you don't have competitive stats, you will have a hard time, no matter what your background is. So at this point we can't give you chances because there is far too much to the picture that we can't see.

 

[ThatOneGuy1914]

I agree with the above posters. It's really a whole package deal. There are students with excellent GPAs and MCAT that aren't accepted because they lack in other areas of their application. What experiences do you have with medicine? ECs? Leadership positions? The more details you give, the better advice you will get.

 

[Goro]

100% concur. No med school will be doing you a favor by admitting you if you can't handle med school.

It isn't that simple. Those don't all get plugged into a formula to see if you will be accepted. Yes being a URM and Poor will help. Knowing another language will help. Great ECs will help. Gender less so. But at the end of the day if you don't have competitive stats, you will have a hard time, no matter what your background is. So at this point we can't give you chances because there is far too much to the picture that we can't see.

 

[LizzyM]

Google AAMC Table 25. This will give you objective data about where you stand in terms of likelihood of getting admitted with a given GPA (and as mentioned, every college course you attempt is counting in your GPA so grade forgiveness is not going to help improve your record for MD admission although the grade replacement policies of the DO admissions committees (adcoms) might help to get you noticed by DO schools.)

Does race help? Yes, one only need look at AAMC Table 25 and the race/ethnicity specific tables to see that it does. Also keep in mind that there are historically black colleges and universities' (HBCU) medical schools and the Puerto Rican medical schools that are admitting large numbers of under-represented minorities (URM) relative to their prevalence in the applicant pool. On the other hand, the proportion of minority candidates who are admitted (<50%) is no different than the proportion of non-URM applicants who are admitted. You still need to be better than average out of all the applicants who are "like you" to get a seat. It isn't impossible but it isn't easy.

I'd be careful about using your own experience with psychiatry to position your application as one from an applicant interested in psychiatry. Are you willing to learn things that don't seem to apply to psychiatry such as the gross anatomy of the upper and lower limb, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, histopathology of all the organ systems? Have you had any employment or volunteer service opportunities with the mentally ill? If not, I recommend you get some for your own education as well as for whatever good you might do in the community by your service. Homeless shelters are a good start as are free clinics and even emergency rooms in some locations. There are also community service organizations with a mission to serve mentally ill patients living in the community. They might be hard to find but they may welcome you as a volunteer.

 

[miamiheatfan]

Also, you don't automatically do psychiatry in medical school. You need to focus on getting into medical school before worrying about specialties. Continue to keep your grades up, make sure you get tons of clinical and non-clinical volunteering hours, do research and other leadership opportunities and when the time comes do as well as you can on the MCAT. Do all these things at an above average rate and you'll be in great shape!

 

[beachside]

Here's the link that LizzyM mentioned above. It'll tell you your chances with various GPA/MCAT scores. As others have mentioned, all of your coursework will go into calculating your AMCAS GPA (for MD schools). If you choose to apply DO, however, you can take advantage of their grade-replacement policy, and only your highest scores will count. The MD is preferable though, if you can get in.

The minority status is a huge leg-up. The rest of it (female, poor, etc) isn't very helpful, although it may be somewhat so. As the others mentioned, you still have to compete.

Getting quality EC's and recommendation letters really isn't all that hard. Just ace a few classes (like near 100%) and butter up the professor a little, and then after the semester ask for a recommendation letter. For EC's, volunteer at your local hospitals. Do a bunch of other little things that you can put positive spin on also. Meet some doctors and ask if they'd mind if you shadowed them for a day/week. Anything that you can see as an opportunity to get involved in medicine, do it; even if it's only for a short period of time.

 

[Willy38]

Hello everyone,

I hope I'm not posting an over asked question or anything, but I wanted to get a vague idea of my chances of getting accepted into medical school.

Back Story
For starters, I am an African-American/Jamaican female from a low income home. Fortunately I grew up in a suburb with a good high school and others consider me an excellent student (which is odd considering my grades). However because of heaps of emotional stress my grades plummeted even more during my first year of college. Fast forward I went back and received academic forgiveness and have been getting the honor roll. With my newly found confidence in math and science, I began considering psychiatry as well as biomedical engineering and biochemistry as career paths.

Real Question
What are the chances of getting into med school (specifically psychiatry) ? The reason I'm interested in psychiatry is because of my personal first hand experiences with it and the to help others. Also, I want to do research in regenerative medicine in the future. I'm an URM, poor, GPA of 3.8 with my strongest grades in STEM. And I speak a little German lol. I'm honestly more nervous about obtaining letters of recommendation and ECs than the MCAT or taking out loans etc.

I still have a while to go before I finish my Bachelors, but I want to prepare.

Thank you!

Basically just show that you are academically competent (grades and mcat), motivated (EC's, exposure to medicine, personal statement), and compassionate (harder to judge, interview/Letters of Rec.) As others have noted, work hard and be genuine. That's all anyone can ask of you. Best of luck !

Also, I would gain exposure to the field first. I had quite a few classmates who spent 3 years in college convinced that they would love medicine and then after shadowing extensively as a junior decided to switch fields. So make sure you love it first!