Or should I be a cab driver instead...?

[RocketSurgeon41]

Here goes nothing...

AZ Resident. My former underachieving self has put my new-found motivated self in a hole, but I'm trying to climb out to be at least a little bit competitive. My degree was in astrophysics, followed by a masters in education. I only realized after all that that medicine was what I really wanted. Additionally, I have tons of extras unrelated to medicine, but that have given me valuable skills/experiences

GPA
uGPA - 3.52 (Degree Astrophysics) - Comes from C+, B-, B, B+ grades in courses like quantum phy, calc III
sGPA - 3.21 - see above
gGPA - 4.00 (Educational Policy)

Since then, all A+ and A grades in all med school pre-reqs (Bio, Chm, Phy, Ochm, Biochem) - including labs

MCAT
Will take official in January - averaging around 515-520 on practice tests

Research
70 hours - Protoplanetary Disk Evolution Simulations
150 hours - NASA High Altitude Payload Development
140 hours - Carotid Artery cavernous segment Aneurysms (Leading to lead author in textbook chapter)

Extracurriculars:
120 hours - Assistant/Observer at local urgent care
130 hours - Volunteer patient discharge transporter - Large metro hospital
40 hours - Volunteer with local arboretum cleaning public parks
20 hours - Neurosugical observation/scrubbed in
Work as an ACT/SAT, Math, Science instructor
Part of game-day statistics crew for my state's NFL team (chosen to work at super bowl)
Committee Chair - Pro Football Research Association

Plan on applying to:

Missouri - Kansas City
U. New Mexico
Virginia Tech
E. Carolina
North Dakota
VCU
Jefferson
Temple
Western Mich
Arizona - Tucson
Michigan State (Tons of family there)
Central Michigan
Howard
Marshall (Wife currently lives in West Virginia)
Florida State

Thanks for the help. I look up to all of you brilliant people!

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[Chelsea FC]

are u a URM?

 

[futuremdforme]

What's your cumulative sgpa?

 

[md-2020]

If you can indeed score 515+ I see no reason why you cannot be successful. The school list needs work, but first things first go get that MCAT.

 

[Labkid]

Scoring anything close to your practice tests would be awesome so focus on that and good luck!

 

[GrapesofRath]

Hit 511+ on the MCAT and there are some lower tier schools that could be interested. It's hard to make a list without an MCAT but even as of now I can already tell you at least half the schools on that list are simply not feasible(Brody doesn't even take OOS FSU takes less than 2% OOS) but there will be a time and place to modify that after the MCAT scores are in.

 

[RocketSurgeon41]

- Not a URM
- That 3.21 sGPA is cumulative and includes those A and A+ grades from the prereqs. (Yikes!)
- I have not dedicated a lot of time to really making a solid list of schools (as you can see by my ignorance of which schools don't even take oos). I really need to work on that. I was just trying to group together some lower to lower-middle (in terms of stats) programs

I guess the long and short of it is that I'd be willing to go anywhere, just as long as I get to study medicine, heck, send me to Siberia!

 

[Goro]

Your sGPA is going to hurt. Invest in MSAR Online and target schools whose median stats are closest to your own. Pay very careful attention tot he Acceptance Information pages. Of you list, our chances are poor at OOS public schools, and best with:


VCU
Jefferson
Temple
Western Mich
Arizona - Tucson
U WV


add
U AZ-P
Oakland -B
Netter
Loma Linda (but read their list of don'ts)
Drexel
Temple
Gtown
GWU
Creighton
Loyola
Rush
Albany
NYMC
any DO schools, starting with AZCOM, TUNCOM and SOMA.

 

[RocketSurgeon41]

Your sGPA is going to hurt. Invest in MSAR Online and target schools whose median stats are closest to your own. Pay very careful attention tot he Acceptance Information pages. Of you list, our chances are poor at OOS public schools, and best with:


VCU
Jefferson
Temple
Western Mich
Arizona - Tucson
U WV


add
U AZ-P
Oakland -B
Netter
Loma Linda (but read their list of don'ts)
Drexel
Temple
Gtown
GWU
Creighton
Loyola
Rush
Albany
NYMC
any DO schools, starting with AZCOM, TUNCOM and SOMA.

Thanks for the suggestions! I figured that I wouldn't have much of a shot at places like Loyola, Rush, or GW because of the science GPA.

I did indeed purchase access to the MSAR and am going to use that to base my preliminary list off of (stats wise). Is the best way to get a snapshot of a schools' admission tendencies to look at acceptance info on the MSAR? And if so, what's a good comfortable range of OOS acceptance? 30%-50%? Higher?

 

[RocketSurgeon41]

Additionally, I've seen quite a few schools whose "Science GPA Range" include my numbers. Is that a reason for encouragement? And will admissions even give a hoot that my low sGPA was built by difficult, irrelevant physics/astronomy classes?

 

[GrapesofRath]

a) Additionally, I've seen quite a few schools whose "Science GPA Range" include my numbers. Is that a reason for encouragement?

b) And will admissions even give a hoot that my low sGPA was built by difficult, irrelevant physics/astronomy classes?
View attachment 197274

a) Yes, like people have said you have a shot at being competitive if you can get a competitive MCAT score. Acing the pre-reqs and that grade trend will help your case.

b) No.

 

[Goro]

I recommend taking a crack at school if their %s for OOS are > 18% (1/6). But keep in mind that you have to be > avg for the school.

Thanks for the suggestions! I figured that I wouldn't have much of a shot at places like Loyola, Rush, or GW because of the science GPA.

I did indeed purchase access to the MSAR and am going to use that to base my preliminary list off of (stats wise). Is the best way to get a snapshot of a schools' admission tendencies to look at acceptance info on the MSAR? And if so, what's a good comfortable range of OOS acceptance? 30%-50%? Higher?

 

[Doctor Dream]

MCAT
Will take official in January - averaging around 515-520 on practice tests

If you're actually averaging that high you can probably expect to score 520-528 on the real thing. I've never heard of anyone with a practice average that high, all the exams out currently are pretty deflated.

 

[RocketSurgeon41]

What's the best way to get a sense of admission bias? (Aside from %Acceptance on the MSAR), for example, schools like UND are very regionally favored, how can I get a sense of what schools are/are not? Should I just assume they all kinda are?