Things I wish I knew at the beginning.

[LessthanHopeful]

Great thread! I've had so many "if only I'd known this earlier" moments that I've lost count!

I very much agree with what's been said thus far, and I'd like to add a few things:
-You really need to get clinical experience right when you start thinking about doing the whole "med school thing" (this is LOOOOONG before you're ready to apply). Do something on a sustained basis - shadow on a regular basis; start volunteering at a local clinic or hospital; etc. and STICK WITH IT . . . . unless it's a bad experience - then find something else you can stick with and politely move on. This experience should accomplish several things for you: (a) help reinforce your desire to practice medicine and help you know whether you're good with being around sick people (seriously, there are lots of people who think they want to go into medicine, then realize they don't like being around sick people!) (b) help boost your understanding of the healthcare industry/health professions in general (c) show the ADCOMs that you have more than a vague idea of what your getting yourself into (d) give you some real-life experiences to discuss in your PS/secondaries (e) give you an opportunity for a great LOR - particularly if you've been at it for a couple years (f) If it's a volunteer position, show that you're an altruistic person.

- If you're like me and have to work during the post-bacc process, try to get or switch to a job that has some clinical exposure. Remember that you need to be able to "smell the patients" though. I thought I did a good thing getting the job I currently have - my paycheck comes from a medical school, after all! However, I have zero patient interaction or lab work with this job. I've certainly learned a lot, but in retrospect, I wish I'd done my homework and hunted around a bit more. FYI - if you're near a med school, "clinical research patient coordinator" positions are great jobs to get! They often require very little background/training/degrees/etc., and you get both patient and physician contact. Good stuff! (It's the job I'm currently trying to get!)

- If you do have a clinical job, remember to do volunteer work as well. It doesn't have to be medical/clinical - it could be at an animal shelter, Habitat for Humanity, etc. I was told by an asst. dean of admissions at a particular school that volunteer work is critical - if you have a stellar app but no volunteer work, they just plain aren't going to admit you. (They have to eliminate based on something, folks!)

- Develop good study habits!! (I'm still working on this .) This will not only help you get good grades in your post-bacc classes (which is ESSENTIAL; oh, and good grades = A's), but you're gonna need them for the MCAT and med school as well.

- Start studying for the MCAT earlier than you think you should and DO NOT take it unless you feel very ready and confident (AAMC practice tests should help you gauge this). Oh, and don't let the money you'll lose by cancelling/voiding be a motivator for taking the test when you shouldn't. That money is chump change in this process, but the score lasts FOREVER!

- One final thing. This is personal, but I regret having worked full-time throughout this post-bacc process. Yes, I would have had to take out some loans, but I wish I had cut down to part-time. Full-time job + evening classes + volunteering, etc. = exhaustion + zero desire to study during your very few "free" hours (hence my bad study habits!).

Thank you for all of this valuable information! I am so glad (and somewhat despondent) to have discovered this site.
I do have questions of my own regarding some personal stuff...but I do believe that everyone has shared generously; the least I can do is, well, the same. Here goes:

I'm 26, have a Masters in Theology; my cGPA is 2.8, my applied GPA is 3.6 (these were online classes, three of which resulted in an "F" due to a computer virus; I did retake the courses and got A's, however). I do not have ANY premed prereq's out of the way yet (an enormous blessing, in my opinion, and have just begun taking classes as CU Boulder.
After reading so many of the posts on here, I have to admit that I am totally hopeless. With my current GPA, even though I have not taken any science classes, even if I do extremely well, I'll have to go to school for another 9 years in order to get it above 3.7!
I currently work at a hospital as an EMT and lab assistant. I have not volunteered or shadowed at all, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I want to become a doctor.
But I must ask, is this even possible at this point?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[rguil15]

Thank you for all of this valuable information! I am so glad (and somewhat despondent) to have discovered this site.
I do have questions of my own regarding some personal stuff...but I do believe that everyone has shared generously; the least I can do is, well, the same. Here goes:

I'm 26, have a Masters in Theology; my cGPA is 2.8, my applied GPA is 3.6 (these were online classes, three of which resulted in an "F" due to a computer virus; I did retake the courses and got A's, however). I do not have ANY premed prereq's out of the way yet (an enormous blessing, in my opinion, and have just begun taking classes as CU Boulder.
After reading so many of the posts on here, I have to admit that I am totally hopeless. With my current GPA, even though I have not taken any science classes, even if I do extremely well, I'll have to go to school for another 9 years in order to get it above 3.7!
I currently work at a hospital as an EMT and lab assistant. I have not volunteered or shadowed at all, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I want to become a doctor.
But I must ask, is this even possible at this point?

Hello, this is my first post. I hope this helps you...

I'm 28, Mechanical Engineer, 2.89 gpa (over 170 hrs as well), married and just resigned from my job of 3 years at a large Refinery. Praise Jesus. (Nothing like quitting a job you hate after careful planning/budgeting/sacrificing/praying).

I recently (last friday) visited the Medical School in my state that I would like to attend. I had immense anxiety before the meeting with the Chair of admissions before I arrived based on my current undergrad GPA. I was fully prepared for this man to crush my dreams.

The funniest thing happened, something no one else has said to me or made known in any kind of verifiable way...

He told me, and I quote, "We have a policy here, if you go back and take 32 hours or more of science classes, that's the GPA you come to the table with. That's the GPA we use for admissions here". In effect, what have you done lately, that's what we're interested in here. He didn't even bother looking at my transcript. First words out of his mouth were "Oh your an engineer, well let me tell you, Engineers typically do VERY well in Med School here. Get the other parts of your application competitive and you'll be in great shape".

All this to say...Hope is not lost, these little nuggets of gold (truth/chance/freedom) are out there but it may take some work on your part (like driving 7 hrs and taking a vacation day from work) to get them. So GO, go talk to the people who actually decide who gets in med school and see what they have to say, don't get too bent out of shape about the quasi-bogus-sometimes- helpful-only-take-in-moderation stuff on this forum.

PM me if you need more encouragement. We can talk more offline.

 

[n3xa]

CremasterFlash gets over9000 Internet points for that handle.

 

[bcd051]

Guess I'll add mine.

Education
3.39 Undergrad (3.2 Science) BS in Health Science
4.0 Graduate (60 Hours) Master of Health Administration

In my personal statement I address this, but there is a dichotomy to my undergrad grades as well. The beginning of both my 3rd and 4th year (Fall Semester) I broke my ankle which required surgery during the Winter Break, and I wasn't mobile until a month or two into Spring Semester. In addition, I stopped taking ADHD meds and had some severe anxiety issues.

Work/Life
200+ hours shadowing opthalmologist
4000+ hours (2.5 years full-time) in a hospital anatomical pathology lab
In that 4000 hours:
200+ in direct patient contact during needle aspirations
Attended weekly tumor boards
Selected to work on hospital committee as lab representative
500+ hours working at a Cancer Center directly with two department heads a local medical school
50+ hours volunteering/shadowing
Working currently as a research assistant, and have been published as a co-author on Health Information Technology article

Letters of Recommendation
1 Undergrad Professor
2 Pathologists that I worked for
2 Grad School Professors
Director of Cancer Center

On the MCAT, I've taken two full-lengths and got a 29 first time, and a 33 the second. I'm actually really nervous, hoping that I'll get accepted to either Saint Louis University or University of Missouri.

What you guys think?

 

[n3xa]

Stop watching TV shows like House/Scrubs/ER/etc. They only set you up for disappointment. No grip on reality is strong enough to subconsciously resist hotness and drama presented for maximal entertainment. That will not be your life.

The only great thing that I will take with me along this path is rocking out at dark o'thirty to BBD's "Poison" or Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight."

On my Walkman. Wat.

 

[NightGod]

The only great thing that I will take with me along this path is rocking out at dark o'thirty to BBD's "Poison" or Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight."

On my Walkman. Wat.

[youtube]s4ySWgBFEyg[/youtube]
That song is like a virus...

 

[sublime1996525]

Awesome thread. Marking this!

 

[DoctorRock25]

Definitely marking and sharing this thread!

 

[EHCMD]

This was great. However, it is possible to use it to your advantage:

- When on SDN, read 10 times more than you post.

- Use the search function extensively to find out about any specific topic you're interested in.

- When you do ask a question, make sure that you ask it in any other forum than the Pre-allo. If you think that a pre-med can answer your question, then you have not done your homework enough. If you're short on time and want to ask questions that are not that important to you, ok, fine.

- Make sure that you are not limited only to one subforum. Read threads in the Allo, MCAT, and even Residency suforums. I have learned so much from there.

- When you go to any forum, sort all the threads by the number of replies, views, and rating. Usually the most viewed threads are the most useful ones.

- DO NOT rely on your memory. When you see something interesting on SDN, WRITE IT DOWN in a word processor and put the hyperlink as to where you saw the information. Right now I have a 24 page Word document consisting of 10,035 words (over 50,000 characters) that consist of nothing but useful infromation I have gathered from SDN over the past eight months. That information is not completely organized yet, but once my application cycle arrives, I will post the entire document.



A link to this thread, along with some of the recommendations here, goes into my file right now.

Excelsius,

Hope you don't mind me asking, but did you ever post this 24 page Word document that you speak of? And if so, where is it? I'd be interested in seeing it.

Thanks

 

[drdan83]

I wish I new about AMCAS in high school.

 

[n3xa]

[youtube]s4ySWgBFEyg[/youtube]
That song is like a virus...

 

[medicalmuscle]

i wish i knew...

drugs + addiction = fail

 

[n3xa]

i wish i knew...

drugs + addiction = fail

....!

 

[alethiologist]

I also enjoyed reading this thread so far, wonderful advice. I recently posted in the Allo-what are my chances section of the forum. I'm a post-bac and so far my gpa is at a 3.4 bio 102 B+ bio lab A- (school doesn't give A+). I am also in full year of summer chem (inorganic 1 and 2 and labs) and I am pretty sure I'll only get B's. There are not many post-bacs in my program since I go with mainly undergrads. The sad thing is I felt so much more confident going into the summer chem but I guess since I have not seen this stuff in 12+ years might have something to do with me not doing well...I don't want to destroy my chances. Do I slow down? Or can I make up the classes by taking more electives than just the pre-reqs (e.g. biochem, cell biology, genetics, pharmacology) and hope to raise my grades? I'm registered to take ochem 1 and phys 1 at the same time with labs in the fall (work part-time). I also commute 1hr 20min each way. Any advice? I figured you guys might have some good insight. Sorry for posting in the chance thread already.

Alot of community colleges have intro to chem and non majors science courses that can really help you get a foundation on things you haven't seen since high school. I attempted Gen Chem I last fall and had to withdraw, which was a huge blow to my ego. This summer I took an Intro to Chem course at a local cc and it made a world of difference. I wish I had listened to myself and just taken the introcourse in the first place knowing I hadn't taken Chemistry since 1995-6.

 

[Bluesun]

Hello, this is my first post. I hope this helps you...

I'm 28, Mechanical Engineer, 2.89 gpa (over 170 hrs as well), married and just resigned from my job of 3 years at a large Refinery. Praise Jesus. (Nothing like quitting a job you hate after careful planning/budgeting/sacrificing/praying).

I recently (last friday) visited the Medical School in my state that I would like to attend. I had immense anxiety before the meeting with the Chair of admissions before I arrived based on my current undergrad GPA. I was fully prepared for this man to crush my dreams.

The funniest thing happened, something no one else has said to me or made known in any kind of verifiable way...

He told me, and I quote, "We have a policy here, if you go back and take 32 hours or more of science classes, that's the GPA you come to the table with. That's the GPA we use for admissions here". In effect, what have you done lately, that's what we're interested in here. He didn't even bother looking at my transcript. First words out of his mouth were "Oh your an engineer, well let me tell you, Engineers typically do VERY well in Med School here. Get the other parts of your application competitive and you'll be in great shape".

All this to say...Hope is not lost, these little nuggets of gold (truth/chance/freedom) are out there but it may take some work on your part (like driving 7 hrs and taking a vacation day from work) to get them. So GO, go talk to the people who actually decide who gets in med school and see what they have to say, don't get too bent out of shape about the quasi-bogus-sometimes- helpful-only-take-in-moderation stuff on this forum.

PM me if you need more encouragement. We can talk more offline.

This gives me a lot of hope .

Which medical school did you visit? I wonder if this sort of policy is at all commonplace.

 

[Deanwvu]

This thread is awesome.


Well done OP!!

 

[augeremt]

I've been keeping a similar compilation as Excelsius, but in blog format instead of a Word document, with labels to topics and schools. I don't have nuggets of wisdom bullet-point style, but rather posts and articles relating to med school admissions, some non-trad specific, some not. It's not as extensive as Excelsius' since I just started the pre-med journey a year ago, but hopefully it's useful to you guys:

http://gathermd.blogspot.com/

Fair warning:
Since I'm kinda sorta making it public now by posting the link on SDN, I'm going to have to take off the MSAR stats that were posted on there and useful to me (didn't feel like looking them up every time I started getting interested in a particular school so I just wrote them on there) because I don't want to get sued. And I'll probably have to take off a couple other things if people get picky about my copying/pasting articles and SDN posts, even though I give them credit every time. But for now, almost everything I've compiled for myself is accessible to the public.

Also, there are no personal or floofy journal posts on this blog. I can give you a link to that one if you're interested in my personal non-trad journey. It's not that exciting.

Lastly, I update it somewhat regularly, more often during exam and finals periods than any other time (I'm a procrastinator). And usually the topics are random and reflect my interest at the time. There's no real rhyme or reason to what I post and when I post. If you have any specific requests, feel free to PM me, post here, or comment there. I'm sure I just haven't thought of them yet and will find them intriguing enough to look into them.

I've been debating posting this for a while now since I like the anonymity of my blog and I fear having to take some really useful stuff off the internet due to copyright issues, people getting mad, etc. But I figure if someone else had done this I would've loved to have had access to it so I shouldn't be hogging my information. Also, if it's been posted on SDN, it's already out in the interwebs and my posting it again won't make too much of a difference. We'll see what happens with the other content. Enjoy.

 

[Holderlin]

TS. You just beat him with this thread.

 

[PSYCHDR40]

I've been keeping a similar compilation as Excelsius, but in blog format instead of a Word document, with labels to topics and schools. I don't have nuggets of wisdom bullet-point style, but rather posts and articles relating to med school admissions, some non-trad specific, some not. It's not as extensive as Excelsius' since I just started the pre-med journey a year ago, but hopefully it's useful to you guys:

http://gathermd.blogspot.com/

Fair warning:
Since I'm kinda sorta making it public now by posting the link on SDN, I'm going to have to take off the MSAR stats that were posted on there and useful to me (didn't feel like looking them up every time I started getting interested in a particular school so I just wrote them on there) because I don't want to get sued. And I'll probably have to take off a couple other things if people get picky about my copying/pasting articles and SDN posts, even though I give them credit every time. But for now, almost everything I've compiled for myself is accessible to the public.

Also, there are no personal or floofy journal posts on this blog. I can give you a link to that one if you're interested in my personal non-trad journey. It's not that exciting.

Lastly, I update it somewhat regularly, more often during exam and finals periods than any other time (I'm a procrastinator). And usually the topics are random and reflect my interest at the time. There's no real rhyme or reason to what I post and when I post. If you have any specific requests, feel free to PM me, post here, or comment there. I'm sure I just haven't thought of them yet and will find them intriguing enough to look into them.

I've been debating posting this for a while now since I like the anonymity of my blog and I fear having to take some really useful stuff off the internet due to copyright issues, people getting mad, etc. But I figure if someone else had done this I would've loved to have had access to it so I shouldn't be hogging my information. Also, if it's been posted on SDN, it's already out in the interwebs and my posting it again won't make too much of a difference. We'll see what happens with the other content. Enjoy.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[chrissyxf]

The one thing I'll share is this:
Don't let anyone make you feel bad, weird, or stupid for the path you've taken to get to medicine. I was in one of those 8 year BA/MD programs and <gasp> dropped out after my BA. I went back to that school for my SO's 5th year (my 4th year) and thought, when I saw my old classmates, I'd be full of regret because everyone around me was like, see? told you you'd come back to medicine. way to waste the last 4 years! Guess what? When I saw them walk through the gates, I was happy for them but, more importantly, I was happy I was NOT one of them. I needed the time to discover who I was outside of school and I have had so many experiences, lived in great places, and met some really amazing people that I would have never gotten the chance to meet had I continued on my prior path. Granted, it would have been easier; I would have never had to taken organic 2, physics 2 OR the MCAT but I also wouldn't have learned how much I really wanted this. Be proud of your path and the obstacles you've overcome to get to where you are!

 

[Drogo]

Alot of community colleges have intro to chem and non majors science courses that can really help you get a foundation on things you haven't seen since high school. I attempted Gen Chem I last fall and had to withdraw, which was a huge blow to my ego. This summer I took an Intro to Chem course at a local cc and it made a world of difference. I wish I had listened to myself and just taken the introcourse in the first place knowing I hadn't taken Chemistry since 1995-6.

Yeah I'm so glad I'm taking precaution and building up some strong bases for subjects I know will be a huge pain for me later.

 

[NuttyEngDude]

The one thing I'll share is this:
Don't let anyone make you feel bad, weird, or stupid for the path you've taken to get to medicine. I was in one of those 8 year BA/MD programs and <gasp> dropped out after my BA. I went back to that school for my SO's 5th year (my 4th year) and thought, when I saw my old classmates, I'd be full of regret because everyone around me was like, see? told you you'd come back to medicine. way to waste the last 4 years! Guess what? When I saw them walk through the gates, I was happy for them but, more importantly, I was happy I was NOT one of them. I needed the time to discover who I was outside of school and I have had so many experiences, lived in great places, and met some really amazing people that I would have never gotten the chance to meet had I continued on my prior path. Granted, it would have been easier; I would have never had to taken organic 2, physics 2 OR the MCAT but I also wouldn't have learned how much I really wanted this. Be proud of your path and the obstacles you've overcome to get to where you are!

 

[lunate76]

chrissyxf

that is a great thing to say! i am sure there are some people who feel this way and not so proud of the paths they have taken...but hey, it is your personal path and there is no right and the only way to get to where you want to go.
Do what is BEST for you. explore, discover, learn, be passionate, try new things, and make mistakes))

 

[AnotherGasMan]

I wish i'd known I was going to go back to it 10 years after finishing high school. And how much my first undergrad scores would haunt me for years to come.

Do well out of the gate - regardless of what you think you're going to do.

 

[alienwares]

1) Just because you did well (or okay) in undergrad the first time around, do not get sloppy with your pre-reqs. I nearly dropped grades in Ochem and Physics by getting overconfident and then having to spend the rest of the semester playing catchup. Double bonus: if you do well on all of the early material, the later tests/final are ten times less stressful.

2) Plan your post-bacc sequence VERY carefully. I had to scramble to get shadowing experience and that made the beginning of this spring very unpleasant. It's much easier to address gaping holes with a year to spare than a month.

3) In addition, take a very light courseload if you're planning on taking the MCAT in the spring and/or haven't had some of your pre-reqs in several years. Even if the courses + MCAT together aren't too much to handle, bad things can happen that can throw a wrench into things. There was a very serious health crisis in our family that began this past spring, and it added a lot of stress on top of an already-rough semester. We made it through... but not all of my hair did.

4) Before you start doing ANYthing, make a list of the pre-req classes and the necessary activity categories (Healthcare volunteering, non-HC volunteering, leadership activities, research, etc) and evaluate yourself in those. For every area you're weak in, immediately write down some concrete activities you can begin in order to help rectify those weaknesses. Then do them.

 

[Shreyasthegreat]

Great post! Will be very helpful for me in the near future!

 

[alienwares]

Now that I've started interviewing, two more:

Do LOTS of practice interviews before you have any real ones. Now that I've interviewed at a few places, I'm realizing that some of the interviews I thought went really well... may or may not have. A lot of my answers were wordier and less focused than they had to be, and I think I could have cut down on that if I had been better-prepared.

While you should try to go for the earliest possible interview dates, try to have an interview or two before your "top" schools (if you are so lucky to have that option). I am pretty sure I did very poorly in my very first interview due to nervousness, but after that I calmed down a bit.

 

[MeowMix]

Great advice here. I'll just add: don't waste money on one of those professional premed consultants who used to be an admissions person. I think i spent $300 to get professionally discouraged from applying. I ignored her 8 years ago, sailed through applications, admissions, med school, residency. All her predictions turned out to be crap.

 

[Late Bloomer]

Hello, this is my first post. I hope this helps you...

I'm 28, Mechanical Engineer, 2.89 gpa (over 170 hrs as well), married and just resigned from my job of 3 years at a large Refinery. Praise Jesus. (Nothing like quitting a job you hate after careful planning/budgeting/sacrificing/praying).

I recently (last friday) visited the Medical School in my state that I would like to attend. I had immense anxiety before the meeting with the Chair of admissions before I arrived based on my current undergrad GPA. I was fully prepared for this man to crush my dreams.

The funniest thing happened, something no one else has said to me or made known in any kind of verifiable way...

He told me, and I quote, "We have a policy here, if you go back and take 32 hours or more of science classes, that's the GPA you come to the table with. That's the GPA we use for admissions here". In effect, what have you done lately, that's what we're interested in here. He didn't even bother looking at my transcript. First words out of his mouth were "Oh your an engineer, well let me tell you, Engineers typically do VERY well in Med School here. Get the other parts of your application competitive and you'll be in great shape".

All this to say...Hope is not lost, these little nuggets of gold (truth/chance/freedom) are out there but it may take some work on your part (like driving 7 hrs and taking a vacation day from work) to get them. So GO, go talk to the people who actually decide who gets in med school and see what they have to say, don't get too bent out of shape about the quasi-bogus-sometimes- helpful-only-take-in-moderation stuff on this forum.

PM me if you need more encouragement. We can talk more offline.

Great advice! Only the actual people making these life-changing decisions can give you crystal clear admissions info. There can be alot of motivational, inspirational, knowledgeable information on this site, but there is alot of negativity, false info, and discouragement as well. Take what helps you and put it in your pocket, leave the rest! Good luck.

 

[CremasterFlash]

hi guys, i periodically get PMs for the name of the essay editing company that i used so i figured i'd just send it along: i used essayedge.com, they did a great job but that was several years ago, YMMV.

good luck all! it's worth it.

 

[loochi]

--Don't just not spend time on pre-allo, don't spend any time here either.

--Use sdn with full isolation precautions. Search facts and things you need to know, decontaminate yourself, and split.

--get yourself a paid adviser. I'm using Mededits with Dr. Freedman. You want that type of relationship--both an advocate and a professional--who will talk to you straight.

--Don't hang out with premeds. Well maybe a buddy or two, but treat them all like psychotic little ambitious sociopaths they are, and your less likely to be subsumed into a stressful culture. Age will not make you immune to other people's stress. Go to class and get the hell out of there. Study by yourself if need be.

--Don't let other people describe for you what is possible for yourself. No matter how sensible they sound. You have to be f'n weid to want to do this anyway so as a semi-religious fanatic you don not need sensible advice. If wanted a sensible life you wouldn't be doing this at this age.

Favorite post I've read so far. haha

 

[starstarie]

One thing i really wish id known before: prewrite all of your secondaries. Finish your first major draft of your AMCAS PS in May and write all secondaries while editing your PS. You'll submit AMCAS in June and start getting your secondaries in July. Even if you waste some time bc a few of the prompts change, it is way better this way. I thought the hardest part was over after my PS and had a rude awakening when 24 secondaries came rolling in. With a FT job there was no way I could turn them over in a few days. It took me ab an ave of 2.5-3 wks to get them back in and I lost a lot of time because of it.

 

[cbarne01]

I'm from Canada and haven't really followed the US system - is there somewhere that the secondary prompts are listed? How would you prepare for this?
Tks!

 

[Prettypuff1]

Spend as little time on the Pre-Allo board as possible. There are some seriously malevolent psychotic little bastards on that thing. And a lot of bad/misleading information.

cf

Best advice yet.. according to some posters anything less than a 5.0 uGPA and 50 on the MCAT and you're not getting in anywhere

 

[VictorAlpha]

Stop watching TV shows like House/Scrubs/ER/etc. They only set you up for disappointment. No grip on reality is strong enough to subconsciously resist hotness and drama presented for maximal entertainment. That will not be your life.

I am embarrased to be in a group (pre-meds) who this advice is useful for. This should all go without saying.

 

[derpymd]

Here's some more tidbits of advice for those that have full time jobs during the day and plan on taking classes at night:

1. Plan ahead to see when classes are actually being offered at Colleges in your area. You may run into a situation where colleges just simply do not offer Lab based Science courses after 5pm.

2. Work out class schedules ahead of time. Make sure that the schedule you have for this year will work out next year as well. Example: Don't get stuck only being able to take one class during the Fall/Spring semester because the OChem and Physics courses you need both meet on the same nights as the same time. Many colleges will keep schedules viewable from previous semesters. Use these to plan ahead since most classes tend to be offered at the same days/times year after year.

3. Realize that you may have to take courses at various local colleges due to when courses are being offered. (If you have this luxury.)

 

[MedWonk]

Guess I'll add mine.

Education
3.39 Undergrad (3.2 Science) BS in Health Science
4.0 Graduate (60 Hours) Master of Health Administration

In my personal statement I address this, but there is a dichotomy to my undergrad grades as well. The beginning of both my 3rd and 4th year (Fall Semester) I broke my ankle which required surgery during the Winter Break, and I wasn't mobile until a month or two into Spring Semester. In addition, I stopped taking ADHD meds and had some severe anxiety issues.

Work/Life
200+ hours shadowing opthalmologist
4000+ hours (2.5 years full-time) in a hospital anatomical pathology lab
In that 4000 hours:
200+ in direct patient contact during needle aspirations
Attended weekly tumor boards
Selected to work on hospital committee as lab representative
500+ hours working at a Cancer Center directly with two department heads a local medical school
50+ hours volunteering/shadowing
Working currently as a research assistant, and have been published as a co-author on Health Information Technology article

Letters of Recommendation
1 Undergrad Professor
2 Pathologists that I worked for
2 Grad School Professors
Director of Cancer Center

On the MCAT, I've taken two full-lengths and got a 29 first time, and a 33 the second. I'm actually really nervous, hoping that I'll get accepted to either Saint Louis University or University of Missouri.

What you guys think?

The GPAs should be boosted to at least a 3.5, and obviously get a solid MCAT score (30+). Grad GPA doesn't seem to carry as much weight as undergrad GPA. Everything else looks pretty solid. I don't know what either of those schools look for specifically, but I'm assuming being they take mostly/only instate, so that should help you (you are a Missouri resident, right?). I see a post-bacc in your future.

 

[derpymd]

I see a post-bacc in your future.

Washington University in St. Louis offers a Post-Bacc program in Missouri.

http://ucollege.wustl.edu/areas/special_programs/premed

 

[EvolutionaryRevolutionary]

Stop watching TV shows like House/Scrubs/ER/etc. They only set you up for disappointment. No grip on reality is strong enough to subconsciously resist hotness and drama presented for maximal entertainment. That will not be your life.

Lol those are my favorites!

 

[HesyRa]

The only word of caution that I have about EK is that it does not improve your ability to use information in a given passage efficiently, which in my opinion is a huge part of your success on the MCAT.