I'm a non-trad post-bac with a decent GPA (3.8 cumulative, 3.6 science). Majored in psych, worked (paid) as a counselor at a high school (1000 hours, give or take) and then at a psychiatric center (750 hours, MD psychiatrist on staff, I dispensed and tracked medication, kept notes on patients etc) and am now cookie-cutter volunteering at a hospital. Should have a few hundred hours volunteering there by the time apps roll around, direct patient contact yadda yadda. Patient poop is stinky, CNA's are heroes in my book. Will have a very strong narrative to tie it all together, kind of a gnarly past that I will cherry-pick the hell out of.
I started a formal post-bacc program at a respectable university, and so far have gotten a B+ in gen chem, a A- in bio, and just got my grade back for the first semester of summer physics. I've never worked as hard in my life, and came out of physics I with a B-. I whiffed the final -- thought I'd set myself up for success, but really s*** the bed. Not entirely sure what happened. I'm betting that I'll average a 3.5 (alternating between B+'s and A-'s) for the remaining science classes, though I'm not certain of that. I would also bet on a low 30's MCAT.
Has my new B- put an irrecoverable blemish in my academic record? I know they say that you need to ace your postbac classes, and dammit if I'm not trying, but I think my best is about this level (A-, B+). I'm hoping that this rule of thumb primarily applies to those postbacs in academic recovery mode, which isn't me.
I'm open to DO, and would heavily weigh foreign med school (Ireland? Caribbean? Central Africa?). I'd like to be a psychiatrist, which as far as I understand opens my options for avenues to residency because it's not crazily competitive.
Also relevant: I live in CA, have less-than-stellar grades from about a decade ago in New Zealand (foreign schools aren't computed in GPA for AMCAS) and have some bouyancy in my sGPA from remedial math classes taken at community college (beginning, intro algebra, trig, precalc etc) which seem to count for sGPA. From what I read in the AMCAS guide, I'm lucky to be able to kind-of game the numbers, though I'm sure this'll be noted by ADCOM's, and my more important pre-req classes are the ones that won't be sparkling. If you have insight into the effect that the aforementioned circumstances might have on ADCOM's, I'd love to hear it.
Anyone wanna weigh in? Is my ship sinking? Should I find a nice bridge and a cardboard box somewhere?
Edit: I also graduated with both highest honors and distinction in the major, from either UC Irvine, UCSB or UC San Diego (building in a little anonymity here, all three are relatively closely-ranked)
I started a formal post-bacc program at a respectable university, and so far have gotten a B+ in gen chem, a A- in bio, and just got my grade back for the first semester of summer physics. I've never worked as hard in my life, and came out of physics I with a B-. I whiffed the final -- thought I'd set myself up for success, but really s*** the bed. Not entirely sure what happened. I'm betting that I'll average a 3.5 (alternating between B+'s and A-'s) for the remaining science classes, though I'm not certain of that. I would also bet on a low 30's MCAT.
Has my new B- put an irrecoverable blemish in my academic record? I know they say that you need to ace your postbac classes, and dammit if I'm not trying, but I think my best is about this level (A-, B+). I'm hoping that this rule of thumb primarily applies to those postbacs in academic recovery mode, which isn't me.
I'm open to DO, and would heavily weigh foreign med school (Ireland? Caribbean? Central Africa?). I'd like to be a psychiatrist, which as far as I understand opens my options for avenues to residency because it's not crazily competitive.
Also relevant: I live in CA, have less-than-stellar grades from about a decade ago in New Zealand (foreign schools aren't computed in GPA for AMCAS) and have some bouyancy in my sGPA from remedial math classes taken at community college (beginning, intro algebra, trig, precalc etc) which seem to count for sGPA. From what I read in the AMCAS guide, I'm lucky to be able to kind-of game the numbers, though I'm sure this'll be noted by ADCOM's, and my more important pre-req classes are the ones that won't be sparkling. If you have insight into the effect that the aforementioned circumstances might have on ADCOM's, I'd love to hear it.
Anyone wanna weigh in? Is my ship sinking? Should I find a nice bridge and a cardboard box somewhere?
Edit: I also graduated with both highest honors and distinction in the major, from either UC Irvine, UCSB or UC San Diego (building in a little anonymity here, all three are relatively closely-ranked)
With your overall GPAs, you're fine.
