3.38 cGPA 32 MCAT

BenzylAcetate · Jul 5, 2011

Going through and finalizing my primary and wanted to see if anyone had suggestions on other schools to apply to.

Major: Biomedical Engineering at a large state school
cGPA: 3.38
sGPA: 3.2 or so, depending upon what is calculated into it, definitely lower than my cGPA
MCAT: 11/11/10 (VR/PS/BS) with an O in writing
Illinois Resident

-Summer of research which ended in third author on a patent
-Summer of hospital work (300+ hours)
-Couple of interesting engineering courses focused on developing medical devices for developing areas of Africa
-Planning some shadowing for later this summer, after application submission
-3 year commitment to club sport which required 10 hours or so a week, every week of undergrad

Ideally I want to stay in state, but I feel like I might be shooting myself in the foot if I apply to so few schools. With my less than stellar GPA and "good but not great" MCAT I know Northwestern and University of Chicago are out of the picture, that leaves me with

-Loyola
-Rosalind Franklin
-Rush
-U of I
-SIU

I had also considered

- University of Wisconsin
- Baylor
- Loma Linda

Thoughts?

sector9 · Jul 5, 2011

Well I wouldn't add Baylor. They heavily favor Texas residents and your GPA is nowhere near their average.

Do you have a strong upward trend in your grades?

This is a situation where you need to apply to D.O. schools unless you are serious about spending 1-2 years taking additional courses and boosting your EC's. Your EC's sound weak as far as time length.

muhali3 · Jul 5, 2011

Yeah, to be brutally honest, I think it would be a waste to apply. Your stats are low. Your ECs are very brief and are stereotypical apart from the "club sport".

I'd say the quickest way to raise your chances would be to get a higher MCAT score (35+). A better way would be to apply to pseudo-SMPs (academic record enhancers) or to do something interesting like Americorps or Teach for America.

Or, more realistically, you could just do a post-bacc and boost up your GPA to 3.5ish while continuing with the volunteering, shadowing, research. Establish connections with your teachers and get some killer LORs.

Probably not what you wanted to hear. But I think it's the best thing to do.

BenzylAcetate · Jul 5, 2011

Sector 9 - Most recent semester was a 3.88, the reason for the low gpa was I overloaded myself the second semester of my sophomore year and ended with a <3.0 gpa while taking 19 credits. Thanks for the input about baylor.

muhali - That's more or less what I was expecting, thanks for the honest response. I was planning on looking into a post-bacc if I was rejected or ultimately decided not to apply this year.

sector9 · Jul 5, 2011

BenzylAcetate said:
Sector 9 - Most recent semester was a 3.88, the reason for the low gpa was I overloaded myself the second semester of my sophomore year and ended with a <3.0 gpa while taking 19 credits. Thanks for the input about baylor.

muhali - That's more or less what I was expecting, thanks for the honest response. I was planning on looking into a post-bacc if I was rejected or ultimately decided not to apply this year.

You're in the 38.7% acceptance bin based on pure numbers.

Your upward trend will help you. However, the weak EC's will hurt.

Feel free to apply if you like, but start doing some of the things mentioned in case you don't get in. And apply D.O. too.

I don't have schools to recommend, but your best bet is your state schools.

BenzylAcetate · Jul 5, 2011

sector9 said:
You're in the 38.7% acceptance bin based on pure numbers.

Your upward trend will help you. However, the weak EC's will hurt.

Feel free to apply if you like, but start doing some of the things mentioned in case you don't get in. And apply D.O. too.

I don't have schools to recommend, but your best bet is your state schools.

Mk, I originally thought my state schools would be the most realistic option, but wanted to make sure there wasn't something else I was overlooking. Will look into applying D.O. as well.

TriagePreMed · Jul 5, 2011

As it is, you will probably not get into any Osteopathic school either. The reason for this is your extremely weak EC. DO schools accept students with lower stats provided they have proven outside of school their dedication to medicine.

sector9 · Jul 5, 2011

TriagePreMed said:
As it is, you will probably not get into any Osteopathic school either. The reason for this is your extremely weak EC. DO schools accept students with lower stats provided they have proven outside of school their dedication to medicine.

That's true, but I was thinking his MCAT of +5 over D.O. average might appeal to a D.O. school. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about D.O. schools though

TriagePreMed · Jul 5, 2011

sector9 said:
That's true, but I was thinking his MCAT of +5 over D.O. average might appeal to a D.O. school. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about D.O. schools though

DO schools could easily bring their numbers up. Look at PCOM vs WesternU. PCOM being the oldest has some of the lowest averages. This is because they prefer a certain "type" of student. In general, DO schools are looking for people committed to primary care and second career individuals. To find these people is hard, so the best way to find them is by what they've done to show a genuine interest.

startswithb · Jul 5, 2011

Only 1 summer of hospital work? Your commitment to medicine is in question.

Get more clinical experience, take upper level biology courses and get As.

3.38 cGPA 32 MCAT

BenzylAcetate

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sector9

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muhali3

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BenzylAcetate

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sector9

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BenzylAcetate

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TriagePreMed

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startswithb

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