cloudyhippos
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- Oct 11, 2018
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Could use a bit of encouragement that SMPs will consider my application, let alone medical schools.
Backstory: I came back home after my brother was killed by cops towards the tail end of my first semester at college. Didn't take finals, didn't drop classes, didn't think about school at all tbh. Finished freshman year with a 0.00 GPA and 46 attempted units.
Started over at a community college about a year later. Completed my last 121 credits for a BS in Bio with a 3.7 gpa from Summer 13-Summer 15. Shadowed, volunteered, and tutored during undergrad. My sGPA would be significantly higher if not for 1 anatomy and physiology class that I was registered for during my 0.00 year. I thought DO grade replacement would be my hail mary, but I was too scared to apply right after school and that ship has since sailed.
MCAT: 4/24 and 5/16 test dates have been cancelled; we'll see when I can actually test
Clinical Experience: ~150 hours hospital volunteering in women's surgical and telemetry
Shadowing: ~75 hours shadowing hospital internist and pediatrician
Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~400 hours long term volunteering with refugee services
Work Experience: 2 months working as a lab assistant for ovarian cancer research lab, 3.5 years in cancer patient education through a major nonprofit, where I was involved in multiple special projects and served a leadership role for my last year
Teaching and Tutoring: worked as an English tutor during undergrad and 1 year teaching high school bio in a Title 1 school district currently
LOR from 2 science professors, the pedi I shadowed, and my supervisor from the non-profit
I'm planning to apply to several SMPs (BU, Georgetown, EVMS, PCOM, Temple+Drexel), but so many of these programs advertise that they want a 3.0 minimum GPA to be competitive. It would require about 60 more undergraduate credits to raise my cGPA to a 3.0, which I could do, but I would really rather spend the time learning something new if at all possible. I did great in nearly all the med school prereqs, and have As in biochemistry, histology, cell biology, physiology, medical micro, genetics etc. I could go take 60 credit hours outside of the sciences-- I'd love to study more literature and public health-- but I don't know that this would help a med school application.
I would love some guidance on whether I should try to get into SMPs where my cGPA is significantly below their desired minimum or just take 60 additional undergraduate credits, even if they're mostly lower level non-science classes.
Backstory: I came back home after my brother was killed by cops towards the tail end of my first semester at college. Didn't take finals, didn't drop classes, didn't think about school at all tbh. Finished freshman year with a 0.00 GPA and 46 attempted units.
Started over at a community college about a year later. Completed my last 121 credits for a BS in Bio with a 3.7 gpa from Summer 13-Summer 15. Shadowed, volunteered, and tutored during undergrad. My sGPA would be significantly higher if not for 1 anatomy and physiology class that I was registered for during my 0.00 year. I thought DO grade replacement would be my hail mary, but I was too scared to apply right after school and that ship has since sailed.
MCAT: 4/24 and 5/16 test dates have been cancelled; we'll see when I can actually test
Clinical Experience: ~150 hours hospital volunteering in women's surgical and telemetry
Shadowing: ~75 hours shadowing hospital internist and pediatrician
Non-Clinical Volunteering: ~400 hours long term volunteering with refugee services
Work Experience: 2 months working as a lab assistant for ovarian cancer research lab, 3.5 years in cancer patient education through a major nonprofit, where I was involved in multiple special projects and served a leadership role for my last year
Teaching and Tutoring: worked as an English tutor during undergrad and 1 year teaching high school bio in a Title 1 school district currently
LOR from 2 science professors, the pedi I shadowed, and my supervisor from the non-profit
I'm planning to apply to several SMPs (BU, Georgetown, EVMS, PCOM, Temple+Drexel), but so many of these programs advertise that they want a 3.0 minimum GPA to be competitive. It would require about 60 more undergraduate credits to raise my cGPA to a 3.0, which I could do, but I would really rather spend the time learning something new if at all possible. I did great in nearly all the med school prereqs, and have As in biochemistry, histology, cell biology, physiology, medical micro, genetics etc. I could go take 60 credit hours outside of the sciences-- I'd love to study more literature and public health-- but I don't know that this would help a med school application.
I would love some guidance on whether I should try to get into SMPs where my cGPA is significantly below their desired minimum or just take 60 additional undergraduate credits, even if they're mostly lower level non-science classes.
