What's the best thing I could do on my year off?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

allied32

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2014
Messages
27
Reaction score
1
I am currently a senior biopsychology major with a chemistry minor at a private liberal arts college. (I still have to take classes next fall so I am planning on taking the MCAT in the winter/spring of next year.

I transferred from a state university after 2 years (3.8 GPA, honors program). and now have a 3.2 GPA. overall I have a 3.5 cum and 3.3 science. I had a terrible my first semester at my new college (Fall of junior year), but my grades have since been a lot better. My two semesters junior year (had to take intro classes again which killed me because they are "weed out" classes and basically impossible to get an A) I got a 2.9 and 3.1 respectively followed by a 3.4 my first semester of senior year.

I was a college athlete and a member of our pre-health society on campus.

Off campus I am starting to volunteer at hospice, and I have around 20 hours at a nursing home just doing activities with the residents. I also just got interviewed to be a big sister for big brother/big sister. I should hear back in a week regarding that. I am a direct support professional and have been working there for 4 months and plan to do that until med school (20-25 hours a week). If you don't know what it is, I basically help people with mental disabilities (kind of like a CNA).

I have no research, but my school requires it for my major so I will be doing my own project for one semester. It really doesn't interest me, but if you think it will help I will be able to talk to a professor about it.

Should I go for my master's, continue getting health care experience and volunteer hours, or join Americorps, etc...?

Members don't see this ad.
 
I wouldn't get a master's. If your intent is medical school, a master's would be a waste of time/money IMO. It's basically an EC. Just focus on where your app is weak, maybe get a job and continue to strengthen your app.
 
I wouldn't get a master's. If your intent is medical school, a master's would be a waste of time/money IMO. It's basically an EC. Just focus on where your app is weak, maybe get a job and continue to strengthen your app.
I didn't know if it would be a good idea because my GPA took a hit when I transferred, and I already have a job where I am gaining clinical experience. I just wasn't sure which parts of my app was weak because I'm kind of new to this. Thanks!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Your cumulative/science is similar to mine and I didn't have a lot of success this application cycle with a 31 MCAT. I'm currently a second semester senior - planning on doing a masters/post-bacc premedical program that focuses on getting their students into medical school + demonstrate academic potential. Then going to keep working on clinical volunteering/service opportunities.

I would get in more research depending on the schools you want to go to (research focused for example would be a school like Vanderbilt and they look for recommendations from your PI/possible publications vs. primary care focused - Cooper. They would look for more volunteer with underserved populations/clinical volunteering). Your required research won't mean too much unless you can get a recommendation from the mentor - I have required capstone project as a chem major too and it's not going to go on my AMCAS as research.
 
I didn't know if it would be a good idea because my GPA took a hit when I transferred, and I already have a job where I am gaining clinical experience. I just wasn't sure which parts of my app was weak because I'm kind of new to this. Thanks!

From AdCom members I asked from 2-3 different schools - they all thought that to best improve my specific application package - the uGPA part could be remediated through success in a grad school program although one associate dean thought I could just take courses separately rather than taking a full time program. I'm choosing a full time program because it'd be great to get the MCAT prep support/faculty support/clinical volunteering opportunities through their programs.
 
I didn't know if it would be a good idea because my GPA took a hit when I transferred, and I already have a job where I am gaining clinical experience. I just wasn't sure which parts of my app was weak because I'm kind of new to this. Thanks!
A master's GPA doesn't affect your undergrad GPA, and it is largely disregarded to to generally being significantly inflated. Unfortunately, the only way to improve your undergrad GPA is to take more courses or retake courses you did poorly on and go DO.
 
A master's GPA doesn't affect your undergrad GPA, and it is largely disregarded to to generally being significantly inflated. Unfortunately, the only way to improve your undergrad GPA is to take more courses or retake courses you did poorly on and go DO.

I didn't say it would affect your uGPA. It's counted separate in apps. But it would remediate your prev. mediocre uGPA showing that you can take challenging science courses and perform well among medical students in some programs.

I don't think he's limited to just DO schools - it'll depend largely on his MCAT score + what he does in his gap year to strengthen weak parts of his app.
 
I didn't say it would affect your uGPA. It's counted separate in apps. But it would remediate your prev. mediocre uGPA showing that you can take challenging science courses and perform well among medical students in some programs.

I don't think he's limited to just DO schools - it'll depend largely on his MCAT score + what he does in his gap year to strengthen weak parts of his app.
I was replying to the OP not you. I agree that it's considered separately. I disagree about remediation. Master's programs are notorious for inflation and I think most adcoms treat them as such. If you want to take hard science courses, enroll in a post-bacc or take single courses at a local uni.

Edit: Also, I never said he was limited to DO. But if he want's to retake courses he did poorly in and replace the older courses, then DO is the only way to go.
 
I was replying to the OP not you. I agree that it's considered separately. I disagree about remediation. Master's programs are notorious for inflation and I think most adcoms treat them as such. If you want to take hard science courses, enroll in a post-bacc or take single courses at a local uni.

Edit: Also, I never said he was limited to DO. But if he want's to retake courses he did poorly in and replace the older courses, then DO is the only way to go.
So, is my GPA what I need to fix? The only courses I did bad in were intro courses my junior year that I had to take because my other intro courses didn't transfer over which sucks but there's nothing I can do about it now. I have done well in upper level bio and chem courses.
 
So, is my GPA what I need to fix? The only courses I did bad in were intro courses my junior year that I had to take because my other intro courses didn't transfer over which sucks but there's nothing I can do about it now. I have done well in upper level bio and chem courses.

You've got a below average cGPA and sGPA, but I don't think they're going to prevent you getting in. A lot will come down to the MCAT. If you can get a 30+ (or whatever the equivalent is) you should have a decent shot at some MD schools and a good shot at DO schools. If you can boost your GPA to 3.6+, you'll have a much better shot. Good job with the recent upper level courses, keep doing that. A positive trend is helpful.
 
Yea, I may just take more undergrad science courses in my time off to hopefully get my GPA up there. Thanks for the advice!
 
Top