Need to improve application, please help

[redwings54]

Hello, so here is my quandary. I have searched all the forums and have asked questions before, but I haven’t gotten much concrete advice other than to keep plugging. I graduated from a top Liberal Arts college with a chem. degree and minor in philosophy. I was an RA, chem. TA, research assistant for two years with a publication, volunteer at an elementary school and captained our rugby team. I had fun in college but because of a lot of personal stuff I went through and the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with myself, my GPA suffered at the expense of me trying to find out who I am. My GPA is 3.05 with a science GPA of 2.79 I won a prestigious fellowship upon graduation studying holistic medicine so I have tons of experience in that field plus shadowing of both DOs and MDs. I took the MCAT twice, 25 first time and 24 second. Second time I was working full time, had 6 people pass away in my life in 10 months and found out my dad had cancer 2 weeks before the test. Needless to say, I should have been more prepared, but I wasn’t. Currently, I am pretty sure I am getting a job working as a phlebotomist and lab assistant at our local hospital, and I am working on two publications on medical anthropology from my fellowship. In the meantime, I am substitute teaching.

So that is the background, here are my questions for the future. I know I need to either do a postbac or a Masters to become more acceptable academically, but I don’t have the money or mental stability to take off time and just complete a year or two of school. My CC has a bunch of classes that my undergrad didn’t have, with schedules that I can fit around work, but the classes would be from a CC and might not mean as much as I took them at Harvard Extension or BU. I am from NH, about 1.5 hours from Boston so commuting down there would be very tough to work as well. I also took my MCATs after sophomore and junior year respectfully so they might be not eligible if I don’t apply soon.

So here are my two main problems: Low GPA and low MCAT.

Other problems: no colleges near me to do a Masters at and still work, and CC would look bad and might not raise my GPA enough

So please help. I love medicine and love the thought of helping other people. I have worked my whole life with the goal of being a doctor, MD or DO now because I love their philosophy. Thank you in advance for your support and encouragement. Keep smiling.

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[scrappysurfer]

Hello, so here is my quandary. I have searched all the forums and have asked questions before, but I haven’t gotten much concrete advice other than to keep plugging. I graduated from a top Liberal Arts college with a chem. degree and minor in philosophy. I was an RA, chem. TA, research assistant for two years with a publication, volunteer at an elementary school and captained our rugby team. I had fun in college but because of a lot of personal stuff I went through and the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with myself, my GPA suffered at the expense of me trying to find out who I am. My GPA is 3.05 with a science GPA of 2.79 I won a prestigious fellowship upon graduation studying holistic medicine so I have tons of experience in that field plus shadowing of both DOs and MDs. I took the MCAT twice, 25 first time and 24 second. Second time I was working full time, had 6 people pass away in my life in 10 months and found out my dad had cancer 2 weeks before the test. Needless to say, I should have been more prepared, but I wasn’t. Currently, I am pretty sure I am getting a job working as a phlebotomist and lab assistant at our local hospital, and I am working on two publications on medical anthropology from my fellowship. In the meantime, I am substitute teaching.

So that is the background, here are my questions for the future. I know I need to either do a postbac or a Masters to become more acceptable academically, but I don’t have the money or mental stability to take off time and just complete a year or two of school. My CC has a bunch of classes that my undergrad didn’t have, with schedules that I can fit around work, but the classes would be from a CC and might not mean as much as I took them at Harvard Extension or BU. I am from NH, about 1.5 hours from Boston so commuting down there would be very tough to work as well. I also took my MCATs after sophomore and junior year respectfully so they might be not eligible if I don’t apply soon.

So here are my two main problems: Low GPA and low MCAT.

Other problems: no colleges near me to do a Masters at and still work, and CC would look bad and might not raise my GPA enough

So please help. I love medicine and love the thought of helping other people. I have worked my whole life with the goal of being a doctor, MD or DO now because I love their philosophy. Thank you in advance for your support and encouragement. Keep smiling.

My only concern: if you lack the mental stability to take time off for a year of school, you should probably think long and hard before entering a field that will require 4 years of school plus a residency.

With that said:
Post-bac. I have a friend with a 2.7 GPA doing a post-bac. He has been out of school for a while and didn't have time to work and study for the top MCAT score. I also know people with lowish GPA's (3.1) and high MCAT at decent med schools like UCSD.

ps. New Hampshire is absolutely gorgeous. My grandparents live there.

 

[tacrum43]

Hello, so here is my quandary. I have searched all the forums and have asked questions before, but I haven’t gotten much concrete advice other than to keep plugging. I graduated from a top Liberal Arts college with a chem. degree and minor in philosophy. I was an RA, chem. TA, research assistant for two years with a publication, volunteer at an elementary school and captained our rugby team. I had fun in college but because of a lot of personal stuff I went through and the fact that I wasn’t comfortable with myself, my GPA suffered at the expense of me trying to find out who I am. My GPA is 3.05 with a science GPA of 2.79 I won a prestigious fellowship upon graduation studying holistic medicine so I have tons of experience in that field plus shadowing of both DOs and MDs. I took the MCAT twice, 25 first time and 24 second. Second time I was working full time, had 6 people pass away in my life in 10 months and found out my dad had cancer 2 weeks before the test. Needless to say, I should have been more prepared, but I wasn’t. Currently, I am pretty sure I am getting a job working as a phlebotomist and lab assistant at our local hospital, and I am working on two publications on medical anthropology from my fellowship. In the meantime, I am substitute teaching.

So that is the background, here are my questions for the future. I know I need to either do a postbac or a Masters to become more acceptable academically, but I don’t have the money or mental stability to take off time and just complete a year or two of school. My CC has a bunch of classes that my undergrad didn’t have, with schedules that I can fit around work, but the classes would be from a CC and might not mean as much as I took them at Harvard Extension or BU. I am from NH, about 1.5 hours from Boston so commuting down there would be very tough to work as well. I also took my MCATs after sophomore and junior year respectfully so they might be not eligible if I don’t apply soon.

So here are my two main problems: Low GPA and low MCAT.

Other problems: no colleges near me to do a Masters at and still work, and CC would look bad and might not raise my GPA enough

So please help. I love medicine and love the thought of helping other people. I have worked my whole life with the goal of being a doctor, MD or DO now because I love their philosophy. Thank you in advance for your support and encouragement. Keep smiling.

Well you sure have an interesting background. That's a plus because you'll stand out. However, if you would be okay with going the D.O. route, you could probably get accepted somewhere (Please don't flame me D.O. people, I checked up on this and there are several profiles on mdapplicants.com that have similar GPA and MCAT who got accepted with a 3.0/25). It also helps if you're an under represented minority. However, many of these did do some wort of post-bacc work.

One red flag: what do you mean you don't have the mental stability?

 

[CalGoldenBear]

ok so this might not even be helpful because you did mention that your two main problems are low gpa and mcat, BUT if you manage to pull them up a decent amount, apply to columbia. they LOVE rugby players (apparently the dean of admissions is really into rugby).

like i said, this may not be helpful because columbia has really high averages.

but you should definitely consider the DO route... i know someone who got in with a 25 on his mcat. and the DO philosophy is really great.

good luck.

 

[Kazema]

I see two options for you.

1) Study your butt off this summer for the August MCAT and aim for about a 30 or so; this will put your MCAT score above the average for DO schools to make up for your sub-average GPA. With your ECs that would make you at least competitive for DO schools; then you could apply for the coming cycle. However your science GPA may still keep you out unless you kill the MCAT (Really kill it, like 35+).

2) Do the post-bac, retake the MCAT next April, and apply next year. If you do well in the post-bac and can improve on the MCAT you'll have a much, much greater chance of getting into either an MD or DO program.

I'm sorry to say that I really don't see much more than those two options for you - taking classes at your local CC probably won't cut it. You could just apply this year with your current stats; there's a chance that with your ECs you'd get in.

 

[45408]

Boost your MCAT or do a post-bacc. Or both. Sorry.

 

[Kazema]

Wanted to mention one last thing; I don't mean to be a bastard but you need to not just provide explanations for your low GPA and low MCAT scores - you need to prove that the past is the past and that if given the opportunity now, you'll succeed. Without that second part, your explanations may be taken as excuses; you can't just give excuses for everything that doesn't go right, even if those excuses are valid.

And as prowler said, the best way to do that is by boosting either your GPA or your MCAT.