Post - addiction and a new hope for the future. Where do I go from here?

[recovering]

Without going into the nitty gritty details, I'm a 24 year old male that has finally made a breakthrough with an addiction. I've been conditioned to it since early adolescence, but given its modern nature, it has only been a recently recognizable condition. Let's call it an "internet addiction" of sorts that creates an overabundant release of dopamine. I only identified it as an addiction a little over two years ago, all that time it wreaked a silent havoc on my life that impacted an underlying desire to be a doctor.

I am pleased to announce, that today is my 365th day of abstinence, and I woke up this morning with a fire for life that I haven't since early childhood. At this point, I want to know what avenues I should pursue to ultimately attend a US allopathic school given my, a functioning addict's, academic and premed background:

- BS, 4 years. Barely scraped by with a 3.0 in Biochemistry. Splotchy physician shadowing and brief research. Uninteresting and mediocre interests. By some glory of the gods, I managed to pull of a 30 on the MCAT.
- MS, 1 year post-bacc in Biomedical science. Barely scraped by with a 3.2. Mediocre letters of recommendation. Some of which I hastily put together myself, then had the professors briefly edit.
- I was depressed and held down by the addiction, but I sent out applications out to DO and MD schools anyway. Fluffed it up with side hobbies like "programming" and "tennis". Got into one school in the Caribbean, that during the interview felt like they were trying to sell the school to me, rather than vice-versa.
- Decided not to attend; needed a long attempt of abstinence from this addiction in order to make clear headed, life-long decisions.

I am not looking for sympathy. I take full responsibility for my horrendously mediocre performance. But I will not deny how normalized and mentally healthy I have become after pounding away at a year's worth of addiction. So I want to know what I can do to improve my chances? Should I volunteer, retake the MCAT, go abroad? What's worse, how do I describe a 2 year period in which I was on my downsloap? During those two years, however, I did manage to self-teach programming and publish an app on the Apple store. So there's that.

I'd appreciate brutal honesty.

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[Goro]

Your GPA is not competitive for MD schools, and barely for DO schools. Your lackluster performance in your MS program is not looked well upon at my school; you're expected to excel in a post-bac program because they're treated as rehearsals for med school.

You might have some luck if you apply broadly, especially to the newest programs. But skip LUCOM. And if you haven't done the required ECs, like shadowing and doing clinical volunteer work, you're not getting in anywhere.

Don't retake the MCAT, it's fine. It's your GPA and ECs that need work. Retake all F/D/C science coursework and utilize AACOMAS' grade replacement policy.

Without going into the nitty gritty details, I'm a 24 year old male that has finally made a breakthrough with an addiction. I've been conditioned to it since early adolescence, but given its modern nature, it has only been a recently recognizable condition. Let's call it an "internet addiction" of sorts that creates an overabundant release of dopamine. I only identified it as an addiction a little over two years ago, all that time it wreaked a silent havoc on my life that impacted an underlying desire to be a doctor.

I am pleased to announce, that today is my 365th day of abstinence, and I woke up this morning with a fire for life that I haven't since early childhood. At this point, I want to know what avenues I should pursue to ultimately attend a US allopathic school given my, a functioning addict's, academic and premed background:

- BS, 4 years. Barely scraped by with a 3.0 in Biochemistry. Splotchy physician shadowing and brief research. Uninteresting and mediocre interests. By some glory of the gods, I managed to pull of a 30 on the MCAT.
- MS, 1 year post-bacc in Biomedical science. Barely scraped by with a 3.2. Mediocre letters of recommendation. Some of which I hastily put together myself, then had the professors briefly edit.
- I was depressed and held down by the addiction, but I sent out applications out to DO and MD schools anyway. Fluffed it up with side hobbies like "programming" and "tennis". Got into one school in the Caribbean, that during the interview felt like they were trying to sell the school to me, rather than vice-versa.
- Decided not to attend; needed a long attempt of abstinence from this addiction in order to make clear headed, life-long decisions.

I am not looking for sympathy. I take full responsibility for my horrendously mediocre performance. But I will not deny how normalized and mentally healthy I have become after pounding away at a year's worth of addiction. So I want to know what I can do to improve my chances? Should I volunteer, retake the MCAT, go abroad? What's worse, how do I describe a 2 year period in which I was on my downsloap? During those two years, however, I did manage to self-teach programming and publish an app on the Apple store. So there's that.

I'd appreciate brutal honesty.

 

[GypsyHummus]

Your GPA is not competitive for MD schools, and barely for DO schools. Your lackluster performance in your MS program is not looked well upon at my school; you're expected to excel in a post-bac program because they're treated as rehearsals for med school.

You might have some luck if you apply broadly, especially to the newest programs. But skip LUCOM. And if you haven't done the required ECs, like shadowing and doing clinical volunteer work, you're not getting in anywhere.

Don't retake the MCAT, it's fine. It's your GPA and ECs that need work. Retake all F/D/C science coursework and utilize AACOMAS' grade replacement policy.

rewinding the clock back before the MS in Biomedical Science, would it have been better for the OP to just retake all F/D/C science coursework and not go into the MS?

At this point, knowing how the committee views applications and comeback stories, what would the OP's GPA need to bumped to in order to instill confidence back into the ADCOMs and make him a viable candidate?

OP, I was in your shoes a year ago GPA wise. I did retakes and really all it takes is one A, one spark to set your academics on fire in a good way. I recommend you take a semester off and work, then do one science class you did poorly in over the summer. Ace it. No excuse. Then you get confidence in yourself and feel like you can actually tackle the material.

It is not a cheap process or quick one, but grade replacement saved my application and, God willing, will be the reason I get to be a physician.

 

[Goro]

it depends upon what the Op wanted to do at that point in time. The easiest path would have been grade replacement and go DO.

rewinding the clock back before the MS in Biomedical Science, would it have been better for the OP to just retake all F/D/C science coursework and not go into the MS?

Lots of As Even a single solid year, plus a solid MCAT can do wonders. For any post-bac work, one should be at >3.5 GPA, and the higher, the better.

At this point, knowing how the committee views applications and comeback stories, what would the OP's GPA need to bumped to in order to instill confidence back into the ADCOMs and make him a viable candidate?

 

[recovering]

Thanks for the input so far, guys. Like I said, I know my performance was less than mediocre, so I'm willing to put in the time and effort. I don't expect a quick fix bandaid.