What is your gpa in the last 60hrs? They will consider that as well. My cgpa was 2.97 but my last 60hrs was barely 3.0 and I got in.
UNT M.S. in Medical Sciences 2015-2016 (Texas)-SMP
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What is your gpa in the last 60hrs? They will consider that as well. My cgpa was 2.97 but my last 60hrs was barely 3.0 and I got in.
I think you can get away with applying as long as the last 60 hours of course work was at least a 3.0
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Is there a way to get some credits in during your time with the research? Or a gpa boosting class you could take?
Have you calculated how much the ~36 credits will help your cgpa and sgpa?
Most of the people I know that have graduated have a lot of credits built up and that amount of credits doesn't provide a significant boost to their cgpas. So while a person may get a 4.0 in a challenging graduate program, that may not be as helpful in fixing the cgpa aspect of the application.
I just called UNT and asked if there was still a possibility to be accepted from the wait list, and she said that there's a chance that some people can be, most likely, by the end of today since they're going to do a head count of those who attend orientation today. Figured I share the update for anyone else in the same boat as me. Good luck to everyone!
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Declined... what a bummer. I wish you all the best of luck, and hope that you take advantage of and appreciate the wonderful opportunity you have! Like I said, PM me and I'd love to connect on Facebook, and to see what all is going on for when I reapply this October. It's been real, y'all. Kick ass.
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Good luck to all the Medsci's I saw walking through the MET today. It's going to an interesting and stressful year for you all, but it's doable. Remember, don't blow off biostats because so many do and it ruins their chances. I'm about to finish up my first year at TCOM so if you all have any questions about Medsci or first year, you can message me. Good luck again!
Hello....am at orientation and I thought that I'd share this: there were 800 applications to the program this year for about 230 spots. Again, congratulations to everyone that was admitted. For those that will reapply, make sure you get a review of your application to improve your chances next cycle. Good luck and Good Brains in all your endeavors.
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I didn't go to orientation on Friday. What did I miss? Did we get our ID badges?
We did OrgSync sign up, we signed in and out, we listened to a few talks about the values of our school, and we went to various community service activities and we get hours for those in OrgSync. SAME Scholars also went to their meeting on Friday. Most of the things due on Monday are already in various discussions on FB and in canvas.....so you should be ok .......hope I didn't forget to mention anything important. No, our ID badges were not issued.
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Thank you!
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My cGPA of 2.99. I had a 3.4 through 2 years and did poorly my last two years so I do not have a 3.0 in my last 60 hours. What should I do?
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not med school
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Do a post-bacc program before you apply to medical school. Apply to all the post-bacc programs you can find early this cycle. Early as in within the first 2 weeks of the applications opening. In the mean time if your MCAT is also sub-par, raise it high enough to somewhat balance your GPA and build up your extracurriculars by volunteering at a hospital or shadowing a doctor.
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I hope nobody took you up on this. You got this on your own and with the help of your classmates! Good luck.
I just wanted to let you know that I read through every post on this thread! You were so encouraging to everyone. I applied to the program and was not accepted (I think my heart literally stopped beating..lol).I do wish you the best in October when you apply again. I will be doing the same! Good luck!!!
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Med Sci graduate here. I just wanted to post a few words of advice to the students who are in this program now, or to those who are doing a similar program in the future. So before I started, I knew it would be hard, but I didn't think it would be thaaat much different than undergrad. I was quite wrong... The spring semester is a killer! That being said, I graduated Med Sci with a 4.0 GPA, though sometimes I felt like I was losing it, so make with my advice what you please. I just figured I would share a few tips for making it through the year and hopefully making it to med school/dental school:
1. Make as many A's as you can, as EARLY as you can. I know this sounds obvious, but do not feel tempted to slack in the beginning with the idea that you will do better later. Those first few grades you receive are the most crucial to your med school application. I kept repeating that to myself, and eventually, I just got accustomed to the hard work and study habits I had developed, which allowed me to just keep that fire going the entire year. Veryyy few people got into med school with multiple Bs at the start of med sci (I don't know any actually, though I'm sure some lucky fellow did). If your schedule is still the same as ours was last year, Biostats, Biochem, & Molecular Cell are the ones I would definitely try to ace, because those grades will be posted before or while the bulk of interview invites are still being sent out.
2. Find the Med Sci Bible. If you have the link, share it! There were students in our year who didn't want the whole class to benefit from the dropbox of textbooks and old exams that was created for Med Scis to use specifically. They were discovered... reputation ruined.
3. Find a group of friends to take/share class notes with. A lot of times the professors will make a remark that sounds unimportant... well that tiny little factoid will probably be on the test. Not everything will be on the powerpoints, and if you have 3-5 people taking notes on the same noteable/google doc, you won't miss out on nearly as many testable details as you might miss on your own.
4. Do not argue during post exam reviews (if ya'll even have those still). Nobody will get any points back if you lose your cool.
5. If you are taking the MCAT prep course, do not mark that you're retaking the mcat on your TMDSAS app. Go ahead and mark yourself entirely complete so the application will be processed and reviewed. You may surprise yourself and still get a couple interviews. If you do better on your mcat, send the scores and call each school personally to let them know. If you don't do better, then you don't have to ever say anything (this cycle anyways. and hopefully you can get a better score before the next cycle, if you still need to). A lot of students actually did very well on the MCAT during the winter break session. A semester of hard score studying in Med Sci probably helped.
6. Probably the most important... you're going to have a lot of professors this year. Find one that you resonate with and start going to their office hours, speak with them after class, etc. Build a relationship with that professor because when Match Day comes, and you find yourselves only on waitlists, any additional letters of recommendation from the graduate school or med school professors may be enough to push you in. You'd be surprised how the professors genuinely want everyone to get where they want to be. Also try to pick somebody that maybe the majority of the class would be less likely to choose as a mentor or letter writer. 230 LORs given out by the same individual might lower their cred a little.
This is going to be a roller coaster of a year! With happy times, and straight up miserable times. If you don't already have a hobby or some ritual to keep you sane, find one. Also feel free to ask me about any class-specific advice, I'll try to steer you in the right direction. Good luck Med Scis!!
1. Make as many A's as you can, as EARLY as you can. I know this sounds obvious, but do not feel tempted to slack in the beginning with the idea that you will do better later. Those first few grades you receive are the most crucial to your med school application. I kept repeating that to myself, and eventually, I just got accustomed to the hard work and study habits I had developed, which allowed me to just keep that fire going the entire year. Veryyy few people got into med school with multiple Bs at the start of med sci (I don't know any actually, though I'm sure some lucky fellow did). If your schedule is still the same as ours was last year, Biostats, Biochem, & Molecular Cell are the ones I would definitely try to ace, because those grades will be posted before or while the bulk of interview invites are still being sent out.
2. Find the Med Sci Bible. If you have the link, share it! There were students in our year who didn't want the whole class to benefit from the dropbox of textbooks and old exams that was created for Med Scis to use specifically. They were discovered... reputation ruined.
3. Find a group of friends to take/share class notes with. A lot of times the professors will make a remark that sounds unimportant... well that tiny little factoid will probably be on the test. Not everything will be on the powerpoints, and if you have 3-5 people taking notes on the same noteable/google doc, you won't miss out on nearly as many testable details as you might miss on your own.
4. Do not argue during post exam reviews (if ya'll even have those still). Nobody will get any points back if you lose your cool.
5. If you are taking the MCAT prep course, do not mark that you're retaking the mcat on your TMDSAS app. Go ahead and mark yourself entirely complete so the application will be processed and reviewed. You may surprise yourself and still get a couple interviews. If you do better on your mcat, send the scores and call each school personally to let them know. If you don't do better, then you don't have to ever say anything (this cycle anyways. and hopefully you can get a better score before the next cycle, if you still need to). A lot of students actually did very well on the MCAT during the winter break session. A semester of hard score studying in Med Sci probably helped.
6. Probably the most important... you're going to have a lot of professors this year. Find one that you resonate with and start going to their office hours, speak with them after class, etc. Build a relationship with that professor because when Match Day comes, and you find yourselves only on waitlists, any additional letters of recommendation from the graduate school or med school professors may be enough to push you in. You'd be surprised how the professors genuinely want everyone to get where they want to be. Also try to pick somebody that maybe the majority of the class would be less likely to choose as a mentor or letter writer. 230 LORs given out by the same individual might lower their cred a little.
This is going to be a roller coaster of a year! With happy times, and straight up miserable times. If you don't already have a hobby or some ritual to keep you sane, find one.
Also feel free to ask me about any class-specific advice, I'll try to steer you in the right direction. Good luck Med Scis!!
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Hey guys,
I'm new to SDN. I have been a long time "observer" however, haha.
I am considering on applying to the UNTHSC M.S. in Medical Sciences program for the entering class of 2016 (next year). I wanted to know what you all though about my chances of being admitted to the program.
School: UT Austin McCombs School of Business
cGPA: 3.33
sGPA: 3.34
MCAT 2015 Preliminary Percentile Rank (I took the June 19th MCAT):
Great rec letters, 100+ hrs of clinical shadowing experience, unique research experience (worked on patent for new pharma development), 100+ clinical volunteer experience, lots of poverty volunteer experience, assisted professor with creation of chem 1/2 online video, president of large healthcare student organization on campus, full ride scholarship at UT.
- C/P: 74-89%
- CARS: 28-43% (my best section in all of the practice tests - super strange)
- Bio: 49-64%
- Psy/Soc: 38-53%
- Overall: 44%-54% (499-501?) (24-26?)
I did really well on a few of my last practice tests (505+). It is disappointing to receive those scores on the MCAT. I know I can do much better. I am planning on retaking the MCAT probably early on in 2016 with a whole new round of studying and EK material.
Along with applying to this program, what do you guys think my chances at DO school are? MD schools? I think that I really need to boost my MCAT scores to have a chance though. Ideally, I want to attend a Texas med school, but I would settle with something out of state if it was my only option.
Thanks for your help and I'm happy to finally be a SDN member!
Whats your GPA over your last 60 hours (separate category that they look at)? you seem like a pretty good applicant but i have no idea how to interpret that MCAT score.
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3.37 for the last 60 hours. I still have classes to take this fall (I graduate in December).
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Does seem a little low if you plan to apply to MD schools to be honest. How are you premed pre-reqs? With a business GPA of low 3's you should aim for just about all As in your bio/chem/physics courses
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I'm in one of the best/hardest undergraduate business schools in the state, but I agree - a 3.33 cgpa is considered low for MD schools. That's why I probably will end up applying for the UNTHSC SMP.
Since nearly all of my science classes are premed prereqs, my science gpa is a 3.34.
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something i learned watching things unfold last year in the MedSci program was that even if you kill it at medsci... undergrad performance is still the primary way of evaluating an applicant. good luck
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Thanks for answering my questions, closetgunner.
One more thing - I had an really rough semester the spring of my sophomore year because of a severe personal injury. This was a 2.3gpa semester for me and is a large reason why my GPA is so low (without it, my cGPA could be 3.4+). Do you think they will take this into account? This severe injury was a large reason why I decided medicine is the career I want to pursue.
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In order for them to take it into account, you need to address it in writing and explain what happened during that time. You'd be surprised how much admissions committees sympathize with your real world circumstances
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That sounds like a legitimate reason for a slow semester. Like hte above poster said... just be up front about it and explain it in writing and do your best to use it to your advantage.
Didn't get into the program as an out of state applicant mainly because I didn't even take the MCAT. I tried getting in solely off a last minute GRE attempt (can't remember my exact score, but it was awful).
I recently graduated with a B.A Chemistry undergrad, 3.6 cumulative but my last 4 semesters should be around a 3.8. I'm taking the year off to claim residency here, but in my file review they told me to take the MCAT (duh....), get more clinical hours (currently a scribe at THR FT Worth North full time), and take a biochemistry class.
Will taking one class disrupt my in-state residency status, and if so where can I take a biochem course online??
Thank you for any and all feedback!
I recently graduated with a B.A Chemistry undergrad, 3.6 cumulative but my last 4 semesters should be around a 3.8. I'm taking the year off to claim residency here, but in my file review they told me to take the MCAT (duh....), get more clinical hours (currently a scribe at THR FT Worth North full time), and take a biochemistry class.
Will taking one class disrupt my in-state residency status, and if so where can I take a biochem course online??
Thank you for any and all feedback!
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Interested in this program!
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Hi everyone, I am deeply interested in applying to this program for the summer 2016 class when the application opens up in November of this year. I am uneasy about my stats and would like some feedback to see what my chances are for this program.
-I am a Texas resident (URM), my cGPA is around a 2.91 but my last 60 credit hours ( 95% upper level science courses) are roughly a 3.64 GPA. I am a Biology Major.
-The issue is, I took the MCAT twice and scored very low on both occasions. First a 23 (8v, 8bio, 7ps) then a 496 (125, 125 on Bio and PS and 123, 123 on verb and psych)
My GPA is that low compared to my last 60 hours because of my initial grades in a CC when I did a dual high school/college program about 6-7 years ago which still affect me until today.
Please give me feedback I will appreciate any of it!
-I am a Texas resident (URM), my cGPA is around a 2.91 but my last 60 credit hours ( 95% upper level science courses) are roughly a 3.64 GPA. I am a Biology Major.
-The issue is, I took the MCAT twice and scored very low on both occasions. First a 23 (8v, 8bio, 7ps) then a 496 (125, 125 on Bio and PS and 123, 123 on verb and psych)
My GPA is that low compared to my last 60 hours because of my initial grades in a CC when I did a dual high school/college program about 6-7 years ago which still affect me until today.
Please give me feedback I will appreciate any of it!
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Hi, I'm a current medical sciences student. If you are applying for the Masters of Medical Sciences program, then those professors seem like good choices. Good luck!
Awesome, thanks for the reply! How do you like the program so far?
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It really is great, I feel as though I've been given a second chance at my dream that I nearly threw away after not getting pulled from medical school waitlists. The faculty in charge of the program care about us a ton, and the professors are great. The amount of work so far has been difficult, but manageable extremely rewarding. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a way to give them that little extra push towards being a successful applicant. I'd say the hardest part is playing "the waiting game" with medical schools while also being around 240 students also playing "the waiting game," but the anticipation is mostly remedied by the business of constantly studying and keeping up with the work. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer them without giving away too much about myself (they do actually look at these posts lol).
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Hi, can an alumni please talk about their spring semester vs the fall? I am in the program currently and so far, I have been doing well! (knock on wood.. hopefully it will continue with these next few weeks). However, all I do is study and I can't bring myself to have free time or even a social life in fear of making b's. I do take time to go to the gym, still take it easy (kinda) on the weekends but man.. is spring semester that much worse? I know dermacat said it would be tougher, but I have heard from previous other med sci students that spring semester was easier? Thoughts? also if it was tough, was it the classes? the teacher? the testing style? the questions?
if it was easier, was it because the material was less? concepts were easier? more free time?
thanks in advance!
if it was easier, was it because the material was less? concepts were easier? more free time?
thanks in advance!
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Hi, can an alumni please talk about their spring semester vs the fall? I am in the program currently and so far, I have been doing well! (knock on wood.. hopefully it will continue with these next few weeks). However, all I do is study and I can't bring myself to have free time or even a social life in fear of making b's. I do take time to go to the gym, still take it easy (kinda) on the weekends but man.. is spring semester that much worse? I know dermacat said it would be tougher, but I have heard from previous other med sci students that spring semester was easier? Thoughts? also if it was tough, was it the classes? the teacher? the testing style? the questions?
if it was easier, was it because the material was less? concepts were easier? more free time?
thanks in advance!
Hey Futurelifesaver! So I suppose it depends on where your strengths lie. I found Anatomy to be easy, but Physiology was such a struggle for me personally that I suppose it could skew my perception of the entire semester. Some others in my class felt the opposite, that Physio came more naturally and they struggled with Anatomy instead. I'll give you my honest, more-detailed opinion on the semester and I hope other alumni can chime in as well!
While you do have less courses to keep up with at a time in the Spring (blessing!), I personally felt the difficulty level and/or the time required to dedicate to each individual topic vastly surpassed courses like Biochemistry or Epidemiology. Even Histology, I felt, was easier than Physio. **Also, the Physiology and Gross Anatomy courses each have 5 units, so 5 exams for Physio (6 including comprehensive final) and 10 exams for Anatomy (5 lab and 5 written). These 2 courses run at the same time from January to early April I think, and they don't actually correlate with each at all when it comes to content (except for the cardio units, they lined up nicely). So in essence, you're pretty much always stressing about the next exam, no down time. I also found that part to be a struggle. After about April, you pretty much have minimal responsibilities for the rest of the semester.
With Physiology, its all about taking complex and abstract concepts and applying them in meaningful and clinical ways on (quite puzzling) exam questions that you can easily get tripped up on. (TIP: never just learn the fact in physio. Always know the WHY behind every fact because it will be tested even if they never touched upon it in class or the notes). YouTube videos will save your life, particularly Armando Hasudungan's channel! Do as many practice questions as you can from as many resources as possible to make sure you have the concepts down because the test questions are clinical vignettes (I considered them mystifying riddles) that were often a challenge to solve. For respiratory, GI, and renal, do the practice questions in the mosby physiology books before the exams. I have no words for endocrine.
With Gross Anatomy, while it is much easier to grasp (in my opinion), it still will take up a lot of time because despite its simplicity because there are so many details to the human body, not to mention being in the lab and learning to identify even the most ambiguous of vessels took time and practice on its own. For the written exams, if you know the functions of the muscles, you should be golden because the bulk of the written exams consisted of "What action is lost if this muscle is injured" type questions. In addition to identifying the structures (for lab exams), you should memorize the course of each structure for the written exam too (it goes over this, under this, around this, and closer to the surface at this area) because those concepts will also be tested on exams when dealing with injuries around the affected area. Its all very simple, just takes time. Also, always do the practice questions on the UMich anatomy website and the practice questions in BRS Anatomy, they were sometimes on the exam. Even if they weren't though, it is fantastic practice and the explanations posted with their questions are gold.
CRM was a joke of a class, don't even worry about it...although it was kinda annoying to have a 3 hour course with mandatory attendance always un-strategically placed before exams in other classes. No exams except the final which you will have ample preparation for just by sitting in the lecture and tuning in occasionally. The online Ethics course was also very easy and takes up virtually no time. People would write their discussion posts in a matter of minutes.
Pharmacology was a very fast and painful beating at the end of the semester, but luckily you have no other courses to focus on at that time. The pace of it will be similar to how your Immuno/Micro course will be at the end of your Fall term (if the schedule is the same as before), so you can gauge what the pace will be soon. I personally liked having these courses condensed into a very dense but short time-frame, but, in my class at least, I know my opinion on that was not the majority.
Again, it is all doable! I made it out with an excellent GPA and I'm in medical school now. My unfortunate advice is really just to keep up with the "no social life" thing for now until you get to where you want to be. That's what I did. If you find that you're comfortable, then make adjustments. Good luck! Please message me if you have any further questions on your future coursework or professors.
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I'm not sure if this has been answered on this thread already, but does anyone know what UNT's out of state policy is for this program (like what % of each class is OOS)? I am attending college in Texas, but am still considered out of state and interested in applying here. Thanks!
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I asked their offices about this too and was told that for this grad program being IS vs OOS makes no difference in terms of your chances of being admitted. So I'm definitely going to be applying
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Thanks for the info! That is good news. Good luck!I asked their offices about this too and was told that for this grad program being IS vs OOS makes no difference in terms of your chances of being admitted. So I'm definitely going to be applying
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Hi, can an alumni please talk about their spring semester vs the fall? I am in the program currently and so far, I have been doing well! (knock on wood.. hopefully it will continue with these next few weeks). However, all I do is study and I can't bring myself to have free time or even a social life in fear of making b's. I do take time to go to the gym, still take it easy (kinda) on the weekends but man.. is spring semester that much worse? I know dermacat said it would be tougher, but I have heard from previous other med sci students that spring semester was easier? Thoughts? also if it was tough, was it the classes? the teacher? the testing style? the questions?
if it was easier, was it because the material was less? concepts were easier? more free time?
thanks in advance!
I'm not sure if Medsci is still the same from when I went through it, but spring was considered more difficult than the fall mainly due to Physiology. For us it counted for 5 hours so it either helped you a lot or screwed up your gpa. The other classes were easy, but you still had to pay attention.
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Limited courses and schedule conflicts at my uni make me have to take General Physics 2 elsewhere in the summer, after I graduate in May 2016. Would this make me ineligible for applying and matriculating into UNT's program? (I don't have this question/problem with other SMPs because they tend to start later in the fall, not summer.)
Hi! Could any alumni shed some light into the number of students who got a 4.0 by the end of the Fall semester and/or the end of the school year? Also, when do most students start receiving interview invites? I'm a current MedSci, and I've managed to do well (so far lol). The program is great and the amount of support from the faculty is phenomenal. It's nearing the end of the year however and the fact that I have yet to receive an II is making me a bit anxious and overwhelmed. I know MedSci isn't a ticket to med school and that every application is unique, but since the competition is tough here, it helps to know where you stand in terms of GPA and application cycle! Thanks!
Im in the process of requesting a couple of science professors at my previous university for LORs for the UNT Med Sci program AND my medical school application next cycle. Do you all think that they can just submit the same letter for both or should the letters be written differently?
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I think it would be best to call the admissions office. According to their old site though, you need to complete it before matriculating. I don't think you'd have adequate time to study for Physics even if it was allowed, unless you opt out of the MCAT course. Good luck! http://www.hsc.unt.edu/catalog/2012-2013/94-Medical Sciences Premedical Program .htm
I sent the same letters and didn't have a problem. Good luck!
