How to redeem yourself from a low GPA and get into med school:
1. Make sure the rest of your app is STELLAR and would make a crotchety old fart reviewer FIGHT for you to get to go to med school. Nontrivial years-long commitments to clinical/community/research paid/unpaid WORK. Great recommendations. Etc.
2. Be the grownup in charge. Expect no premed advisers, SDN posters, other premeds, doctors or faculty to figure this out for you.
3. Pay no attention to normal premeds and do not use normal premed experience as your yardstick. Normal premed parameters don't apply to you. Nobody you know is interesting as a yardstick, not even if you have seen their transcripts and their AMCAS and they match your numbers. For every person who makes you think you don't have to do something difficult and time consuming to get into med school, there are 100 case reports in this forum and the reapplicant forum that tell a different story.
4. Pay no attention to minimums or deadlines on med school web pages. These do not apply to you.
5. Pay no attention to the offshore or online schools. You are a foolish irrational marketing victim if you think the Carib/Poland/Mexico/UPhoenix is an answer.
6. If you are in California, New York or another high population, extremely competitive state, either move to another state, or double the time/money/effort you need to expend to get into med school.
7. Make friends with DO, which will speed things up somewhat, but will NOT get you out of the hard work to overcome your academic failings.
8a. For every standard deviation below the matriculant average GPA in your mid-target schools (such as UC Irvine for Californians, UMass for Mass people, SUNY Buffalo for NY, Drexel for OOS, etc), assume you need 1-2 years of additional 3.7+ full time undergrad upper division mostly-science. If you see "1-2 years" and immediately think "oh good, just one year" you are a fool.
8b. Or, for every science-heavy year of your past undergrad performance that was below 3.6 or so, assume you need 1-2 years of additional 3.7+ full time undergrad upper division mostly-science.
9. AFTER you have mastered the traditional med school prereq material by taking more undergrad, and have spent enough additional time in undergrad to show you can handle undergrad, which is usually quite a bit more than one year, THEN consider an SMP or maybe a rigorous reputable traditional grad program with pubs.
10. Do not make the cost of your redemption path the #1 priority. Do not make your GI Bill a priority. Do not make anything a priority other than proving your academic mettle with boatloads of fresh A's in hard classes. Yes, try to find ways to NOT accumulate debt while you're taking more undergrad, such as getting a job on campus that pays for your classes, but if you think it's going to be cheap to redeem your low GPA you are a fool.
11. If you are URM, don't be a fool: don't take a med school acceptance until you have the same large fresh pile of A's that the ORM kids need. Med school will be happy to crush you after loading you up with hundreds of thousands of debt.
12. Don't take the MCAT before you have A's in most of the prereqs as well as A's in some additional upper div science.
13. If you think the 2015 MCAT is a thing to avoid you are a fool. Avoid the first test administration in Jan/Feb, but otherwise just suck it up and plan on taking the MCAT WHEN YOU ARE READY FOR YOUR BEST SCORE ON YOUR FIRST ATTEMPT.
14. Taking the MCAT multiple times is ridiculous. Having to retake tests in med school means you FAILED and your exam scores ARE YOUR FATE so yes, your MCAT score matters. You are a fool if you think MCAT retakes don't look bad.
15. If you're willing to go DO, then retake classes until your GPAs are in acceptable range, and also consider the 2 year masters programs at DO schools which have FAR better odds than MD SMPs.
16. After you are done maximally and impressively redeeming yourself from your prior undergrad performance, you STILL have to apply early and broadly and you STILL will be mostly rejected because your past GPA is more permanent than a tattoo and averages don't rise much because MATH. Accept that you still might need multiple app years to get in.
17. If you think it doesn't matter where you go to med school, you are almost certainly wrong. It is incredibly important to minimize student debt and maximize your opportunities. If you say you don't care how much it costs or you don't want to take the time to look at the work to match well from a new/crappy school, you are a fool.
(Cue commentary from those who don't like hard work and/or are petty, entitled little punks and/or Low MCAT Rights Movement members. Bring it, little suzies, you help nobody.)
Best of luck to you.
