What do you think my chances are?

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bm2

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MCAT-24
Overall GPA- 2.99
Science GPA- 2.63

I earned a bachelors degree in biology and am currently half way through with my second degree in nursing (BSN). I am doing well in nursing school (3.5ish in my nursing courses). I have worked for over 2 years in a ER getting plenty of experience.

What are my chances of getting into any of the 9 DPM schools?

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MCAT-24
Overall GPA- 2.99
Science GPA- 2.63

I earned a bachelors degree in biology and am currently half way through with my second degree in nursing (BSN). I am doing well in nursing school (3.5ish in my nursing courses). I have worked for over 2 years in a ER getting plenty of experience.

What are my chances of getting into any of the 9 DPM schools?

You'll probably get interviews.

May I ask why you are choosing this over CRNA or NP?
 
You'll probably get interviews.

May I ask why you are choosing this over CRNA or NP?

IMO, job market is slim to none (in nursing). its hard to get the right experience necessary to get into these schools..

OP: good career choice
 
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You should be fine. I think you are going to have to be ready to discuss why nursing to podiatry in your PS and certainly in an interview.

@Ferocity...CRNA is highly competitive and requires at least 1 year of experience in the ICU, I believe. Successful applicants tend to have 4 or more years of solid experience though. I say go Anesthesiologist Assistant you want to do mid-level gas. It requires the MCAT and a very good gpa, however.

NP - The BSN to NP programs are extremely competitive as well (much more so than podiatry) and unless you do a direct entry master's, you may also need experience to be a good candidate.

Plus, why nursing if you can be a podiatrist? :D

Edit: Omar beat me to it...and much more concisely
 
Your MCAT is good. sGPA is a little low so be prepared to explain that. However, your Nursing school GPA sounds solid. As others said above, be prepared to explain the switch!
 
im choosing podiatry over crna or np because of the time after school those schools would require. im hoping that my brief nursing career will benefit me, it really gives you a good understanding of the medical professions and how they complement each other.
 
Tell them that in the interview and you should be golden!
 
im choosing podiatry over crna or np because of the time after school those schools would require. im hoping that my brief nursing career will benefit me, it really gives you a good understanding of the medical professions and how they complement each other.

I don't follow and correct me where I'm wrong.

I thought CRNA school was 3 years or 4 for DNP. You already have your 2 years of EM experience. I believe with the CRNA path you jump right into full blown money making to pay off those dreaded loans. If you do podiatry, that's 4 years school + 3 years residency + potentially another year for a fellowship.
 
I have a dog named Gizmo that could get into pod school.

Your undergrad accomplishments can be almost nill to obtain interviews and even acceptances.

The question you need to ask yourself and find a good answer to is this:
-Did the subpar sGPA and cGPA represent your full effort? If so, this is not the field for you. If they didn't, have the last couple months when you decided to turn it around changed your overall motivation and willingness to put in effort enough to work much harder than you have been for another 4+ years?

The issues with pod school aren't really ever acceptance. I'm pretty sure one of my classmates is a goldfish.
 
to become a crna you must have at least 1 year of critical care experience as a nurse. most schools want you to have about 5 or so. it is also hard to get into critical care areas like icu,cicu, and trauma icu strait out of school (they too want you to have critical care experience). the er is not considered critical care and even if it were i my experience is not as a nurse.
 
The 2.63 sGPA is going to get you screened out immediately at several schools
 
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So do you think my sgpa 2.6 will get me into any schools or am i being nieve?
 
Call the schools. They know. It's their job.

Otherwise, you're making a life-altering decision based on the opinions of pre-pod and some pod students, and that's just dumb.
 
The people who get in with low entrance gpas often fail out early. Harsh, but something that needs to be said.

Some will make it thru, but a great majority..........
 
Maybe I'm interpreting what Flyhi and Omar said, but the job market for being a nurse is excellent... current unemployment is at 2.2%

http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/NILF1111/#term=


while that may be the case, those numbers do not take into account the constant glut of new nurses, which are all competing for the same new grad postions, (ie 500 applicants for 1 position)

yes, once they have experience, or they are going directly into the army, its ok, you can get a job easily.

(just some observations from friends/relatives that are nurses)
 
MCAT-24
Overall GPA- 2.99
Science GPA- 2.63

I earned a bachelors degree in biology and am currently half way through with my second degree in nursing (BSN). I am doing well in nursing school (3.5ish in my nursing courses). I have worked for over 2 years in a ER getting plenty of experience.

What are my chances of getting into any of the 9 DPM schools?

Sorry, but I would pass. Your GPA is far too low to be considered competitive.
 
Sorry, but I would pass. Your GPA is far too low to be considered competitive.
What about in my situation.. currently at a 3.1 cgpa, 3.0 sgpa.. so not all too off from the ops.. If I score a similar score on the MCAT, do you think I would be over looked too; especially since I do not have the graduate work?
 
What about in my situation.. currently at a 3.1 cgpa, 3.0 sgpa.. so not all too off from the ops.. If I score a similar score on the MCAT, do you think I would be over looked too; especially since I do not have the graduate work?

At or above 3.0 is minimum imo. You better wow the interviewers...
 
You're a marginal applicant. Like others have said, you'd be screened out by the more selective schools with hard GPA limits. It's hard to say without an MCAT score. Get a 25+ and you'll probably land a couple of interviews. Good luck!
 
Last edited:
UPDATE:

AACPMAS has processed my transcripts and is reporting my GPA as follows:

Science GPA: total(undergrad)- 2.62, post bacc- 3.79, overall-2.82
Cumulative GPA: total(undergrad)- 2.82, post bacc- 3.52, overall 3.00
MCAT 24

Any thoughts?
Also, how long does it take to hear from schools after submission of application and calculation of GPA?
 
UPDATE:

AACPMAS has processed my transcripts and is reporting my GPA as follows:

Science GPA: total(undergrad)- 2.62, post bacc- 3.79, overall-2.82
Cumulative GPA: total(undergrad)- 2.82, post bacc- 3.52, overall 3.00
MCAT 24

Any thoughts?
Also, how long does it take to hear from schools after submission of application and calculation of GPA?

You should probably start getting emails within a week or two for an interview. Great job in your postbac. I think that may have saved you from disappointment. Goodluck!
 
It's not as much about the numbers as it is about the overarching concepts that they bring forth.

It's probably true that some schools won't accept a student with those numbers purely to keep their averages higher.

At the same time, I think a reasonable admissions committee will realize that the important thing isn't numbers, but that the student has the motivation and desire to do well with a high load science-based curriculum, and is willing to put forth the effort to succeed.

Whatever your issues were in undergrad, it seems obvious by your post-bacc numbers that you changed your attitude and worked on the problems, and were able to get yourself in line and work to succeed.

I can't promise you anything (obviously), but if it means anything at all, I would grant an interview in a heartbeat if I were on the committee, and I would hope a lot of them would think along these lines.

To maybe alleviate some of your concerns, I had an abysmal sophomore year w/ around a 2.00 GPA and sGPA, and to top it off, that was the year I took both semesters of inorganic chemistry, biology and physics.

I did what you did a bit earlier, and pulled myself together and made kick-ass grades from there on out. I had a higher MCAT score that might have helped, but overall, our trends were similar.

Something you need to consider, though, is that this issue did come up in my interview, and were I to choose an issue they seemed to care the most about, it was what happened during that year and what changed, and what I would do to make sure it didn't happen again.

My reasoning was an autoimmune disease that ran rampant and left me doubled over for days at a time, and that seemed to be a valid excuse to them (excuse, reason, whatever...excuse seems to have a bad connotation)

While your trend of poor performance was longer, your later numbers seem very much up to par.

Would you mind if I ask how long your post-bacc tenure was? The longer the better...one semester of good grades after those undergrad numbers doesn't look nearly as good as a year or two.

Either way, I think you'll at least be granted an interview. Good luck! And remember to consider your answer to why that happened and what you'll do to prevent it's recurrence. I guarantee that will come up, if not be the only thing discussed.
 
I agree that doing as well as you are is encouraging. However, I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that my concerns would be 1. the post-bacc is for the first half of a BSN, which is not that difficult, imo. You should be able to get a 3.9-4.0 in a BSN. and 2. doing a change from nursing to DPM in the middle of the degree may raise a red flag, but this should be easily overcome in an interview.

Have any of your post bacc courses been in upper level biology or chemistry? Your MCAT is a job well done, which may ending up being your saving grace.

It's just that your sGpa is pretty dismal and cum is also not impressive. Wish you the best and you should probably be ok, but I do not think it's a shoe-in based on the information provided. If the admissions numbers really are that low, then I would expect a few bites.

Good Luck :luck:
 
I'm glad other posters are weighing in their opinions but everyone needs to remember how dismal pod admissions are currently. Schools take a lot of chances on students simply because they have to if they want to fill all their seats and make the most money per year.

OP, coming from someone who works as a student helping out with admissions stuff, his comments are much more reliable than mine, certainly ;)

@ AB - do you have any idea how the numbers look this year compared to the past several as far as number of applicants? Is it 'dismal' due to the same old reasons podiatry has struggled in the past with applicants, or is there some trend going on that is more tied in with the economy/healthcare outlook?? Just curious because nursing/PA, for instance, are seeing record numbers of applicants. I think it's because people are out of jobs and want more of a quick fix for a second career than a huge commitment like medicine.
 
If pod admissions are so dismal, then does anyone NOT get accepted? Seriously though, how low is TOO low?
 
That's actually a good question. Of course there are individuals who don't get accepted, but it may not be as large as we would think. There are under 1000 apps for over 600 seats. Around 66% of applicants matriculate, but that doesn't mean those who don't aren't "accepted" somewhere. It may simply be they go through the app process and decide Podiatry school isn't for them, for whatever reason. My guess (and this is a complete guess) would be that you have nearly a 75% chance of being accepted to one of the 9 programs just by filling out the app...

Anybody who tells you that you would not be "competitive" is really out of touch with the current state of Podiatry admissions. Will every school accept you? No. There are a few that might not even give you an interview. But you will get it somewhere as long as you are semi-normal in an interview. GL
 
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