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[deleted998929]

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[Toutie]

At this point the thing you should focus on is getting that GPA higher than it is. You need to get it up above a 3.0 if you expect to have any chance.

 

[deleted804295]

This school year; 2019-2020 is my last year of undergrad. I've decided to take a gap year after college so I can improve my application. My gpa and EC's are quite low and I am planning on taking the MCAT later this year. What should I focus on this year to increase my chances of being accepted?

Major: Biology
CGPA: 2.95
SGPA: 2.79
URM

EC: 60 hours volunteering by monitoring time outs before surgeries, 48 hours volunteering in ER, 24 hours of community service from 3 clubs, recently appointed president of a community service club, cashier for a year, competed in pageants with my platform being STEM, no shadowing, no research

Applying to SMPs. I'm not even sure with an SMP you would have much success with that GPA. Drop all your ECs, your GPA right now is lethal regardless of what career you go into.

 

[deleted998929]

Applying to SMPs. I'm not even sure with an SMP you would have much success with that GPA. Drop all your ECs, your GPA right now is lethal regardless of what career you go into.

Thanks for the advice! I was strongly thinking about doing an SMP. Drexel and Temple have a guaranteed acceptance to their medical school which I thought would be the best to join. Also I was looking into Georgetown and BU but theirs are not guaranteed. Do you know of any more SMP's with guaranteed acceptance or good reputation of getting majority of their students in American medical schools?

 

[Supraorbital_Keyhole]

The UCs have good post-baccs for underserved students. You should definitely be shooting for the best grades you can possibly get during your senior year, URM or not; sub 3.0 sGPA and cGPA will both get you screened out of a lot of schools. MCAT will be make or break as well.

More clinical hours (volunteering or not) and non-clinical volunteering could do you good; research is an option but I'd wait for whatever gap year/post-bacc you have to do that. If there's anything you're interested in, you should continue/pursue that as well; pageant angle could be interesting/unique if you frame it correctly IMO.

I strongly suggest two gap years (1 post-bacc, 1 for ECs/Research) as I think you need to focus on grades and maaaybe MCAT right now.

 

[deleted998929]

The UCs have good post-baccs for underserved students. You should definitely be shooting for the best grades you can possibly get during your senior year, URM or not; sub 3.0 sGPA and cGPA will both get you screened out of a lot of schools. MCAT will be make or break as well.

More clinical hours (volunteering or not) and non-clinical volunteering could do you good; research is an option but I'd wait for whatever gap year/post-bacc you have to do that. If there's anything you're interested in, you should continue/pursue that as well; pageant angle could be interesting/unique if you frame it correctly IMO.

I strongly suggest two gap years (1 post-bacc, 1 for ECs/Research) as I think you need to focus on grades and maaaybe MCAT right now.

Great advice thank you!! I will definitely look into the UC schools and put my main focus on grades.