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[8YearsLate]

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[SpoiledMilk]

1) Drop to 12 credits. Get the A's.

2) I think you have enough shadowing hours with the 50. Shift the hours to doing more clinical volunteering involving active patient contact by
increasing the ER hours or at hospice, etc.

3) Scientific research/Publications are pluses, but not necessary to get admitted, unless you are aiming at very top schools. I really don't know how much weight the educational publications will carry. @Catalystik can provide more expertise. But, see below...

GL!

 

[8YearsLate]

Wow, thank you! Awesome data, I have never seen that page on AAMC...

What inspires you to say drop courseload? Just a multitude of insights/acquaintances? Personal experience? I do notice it doesn't seem to be on that list. My advisors are sooo admant about the heavy courseload and I don't really get it. I know med school is intensive, but I will be getting adequate living expense loans by then so I won't have to work, be living closer, maybe roommate etc...They seem to emphasize courseload over everything. But then again, one of my advisors also told me not to do this at all, so...I guess a grain of salt is in order.

Thanks again for feedback!

 

[SpoiledMilk]

From my time reading SDN's Adcoms' advice to others, and anecdotes from other nontrad SDNers' postings.

Heavy course load makes sense if you are a traditional student. But you already have a college degree. Now, the purpose of taking postbacc science courses is for sGPA remediation. So taking a heavy course load only makes sense if you can be certain of A's and want to get into med school faster.

Remember, there are matriculates in their 30s, 40s, and even some 50s, so age is not a factor. SDN's mantra is that the journey to medicine is a marathon, not a sprint. Dropping to 12 or even 9 credits and getting an upward trend with A's will provide Adcoms with more assurance that you can handle the medical school workload. That is more important that taking 15+ credits. Getting a couple of B's in a postbacc, while not a killer, will not increase that sGPA and lower your cGPA to boot.

So take the more certain route to assure that your increase your sGPA.

 

[futuremdforme]

1. Better grades = better chances. Get the A's.
2. Shadowing is probably not that important at this point. I would not do anymore. Just continue volunteering.
3. Not sure how important, but yes if you publish in education, it still looks good and will still get discussed at interviews. I think my non-science pub came up at every interview except MMI. Writing articles is such a huge PITA, it shows you committed and were willing to do the work to take a project to completion. However, less important than GPA, MCAT, and volunteering IMO.

 

[8YearsLate]

Wow, thank you. You have both been very helpful. I dropped my course-load from 15 to 11 hours this coming semester, dropping Bio II in favor of probably taking Micro in its place in Fall. I don't need to be a fungus expert. Candida, toenail fungus. Fluconazole, urea. Bam. Done.

 

[SpoiledMilk]

You should invest in getting MSAR to check the prereqs for the schools you are interested in. I think most schools require a year (2 semesters) of general biology (Bio I and II). Micro will be considered a upper level science course, but can't be a substitute for Bio II.

 

[8YearsLate]

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[8YearsLate]

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