What Should I do in my year off?

[nhessong]

A little bit about myself, I applied for the Fall 2014 cycle and did not get into any schools, I did not even get an interview.

My GPA 3.00
MCAT 28
Eagle Scout
Paid EMT
Volunteer Firefighter
Have Shadowed many doctors
As well as many other EC

I am retaking the MCAT in a month and have been studying non-stop
My question is what else should I do? I have applied to several research jobs but I was also contemplating going to Paramedic School. Has anyone had any experience with this and would getting my Paramedic help? Also does anyone have any other suggestions.

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[DrMidlife]

Unfortunately you should not have applied last year. Maybe you received bad advice. Your numbers are much too low for MD or DO. Even if you are an underrepresented minority.

By all means get a better MCAT, but by all means postpone your retake. There's no rush because you can't apply for another year or two.

By all means go to paramedic school if that's what you want to do instead of being a doctor. Paramedic school does nothing for your med school app.

You have to work on that 3.0. Not optional. You should be looking at additional undergrad, such as a 2nd bachelors in biochem/neuro/molbio/etc. Take lots more classes; every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school.

You'll have a hard time getting good advice from normal premed advisers, who don't much care about low GPA cases. But on SDN there's more than a decade of discussion among those who recovered from low GPAs and made it to med school. Find the postbac forum, and the 600,000 viewer low GPA thread. Read it all. Not kidding.

Best of luck to you.

 

[jeffreylei]

Post bac programs for that GPA.
MCAT is fine for many schools but not very competitive.
Get more leadership stuff and continue doing your clinical hours.

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

Post Bacc is a good idea. Community College courses to pull up that GPA. MD is probably out of the question currently. Not sure about low tier DO.

Sounds like taking a year off and applying with a new MCAT (hopefully higher -- make sure you are scoring high on parctice exams taken under test like conditions), taking courses and bringing up your GPA, will make you stronger al around.

 

[LongTimeLurk]

use DO grade replacement to your advantage and retake classes wer

A little bit about myself, I applied for the Fall 2014 cycle and did not get into any schools, I did not even get an interview.

My GPA 3.00
MCAT 28
Eagle Scout
Paid EMT
Volunteer Firefighter
Have Shadowed many doctors
As well as many other EC

I am retaking the MCAT in a month and have been studying non-stop
My question is what else should I do? I have applied to several research jobs but I was also contemplating going to Paramedic School. Has anyone had any experience with this and would getting my Paramedic help? Also does anyone have any other suggestions.

MD definately out of question.

For DO MCAT is fine - work on that GPA, you will be screened out of most programs. take advantage of grade replacement - repeat coursework where you got C or lower and make sure to work to get an A

 

[ThisCouldBeYou]

First, your gpa and MCAT are immediately too weak to apply to med schools. You'll need to put in some serious effort to show improvement. Longer term, that means a post-bacc. At least take extra science courses, even if you don't take an actual post-bacc. Strongly consider DO. Your MCAT should also improve.

It's nice that you have "other ECs", but do not list your Eagle Scout rank at all. That was earned, more likely, when you were in high school, before age 18. Instead, get some medical/clinical hours.

 

[LongTimeLurk]

First, your gpa and MCAT are immediately too weak to apply to med schools. You'll need to put in some serious effort to show improvement. Longer term, that means a post-bacc. At least take extra science courses, even if you don't take an actual post-bacc. Strongly consider DO. Your MCAT should also improve to at least a 33.

It's nice that you have "other ECs", but do not list your Eagle Scout rank at all. That was earned, more likely, when you were in high school, before age 18. Instead, get some medical/clinical hours.

at least 33? for DO schools? no

 

[lalalaaaaaa]

at least 33? for DO schools? no

A 28 will get you into a DO program if your GPA is also at the average for the schools.

 

[DrMidlife]

Also, fyi, the "33 average" that was reported in some AAMC materials is bogus. It includes every acceptance, not just every accepted student. So people with 38's and 10 acceptances are counted 10 times. It's not useful info. See the discussion in nontrad.

That said, if after spending years to redeem your undergrad GPA you still have a below average GPA, then assume you can't also get away with having a below average MCAT. Which is about 31+ for MD, and 27+ for DO.