3.31 GPA, Very sad MCAT

[weeels]

So I've basically been a reader of the forum for about maybe 2 years or so, and now I'm a 4th year at UCSD and that time has come for me to post a what are my chances thread.

So. Here's the deal. My first two years at UCSD were not too great. Not bad, but just not good either. I wasn't very motivated and was really questioning whether the medical field was something that I wanted to really do or just something I felt I should do for my mother. I mean, I was interested in science and the medical field, I just found it really hard to throw my heart into it. So I spent my first two years getting mostly B's in my lower division science classes. Started volunteering at a hospital, long story short, I spent 4 hours sitting and talking with a dementia patient and that was one of the main factor that motivated me to pursue a career as a physician


GRADES
I started my junior year with a 2.99 GPA and began my senior year with a 3.31 currently awaiting my Fall quarter grades. I'm hoping by the time I graduate I'll have a 3.5 or at least a 3.45 (just found out I got a B+ in OChem lab, darn it)

Basically my grades have been an upward trend. I've gotten Provost Honors two quarters in a row, hoping this quarter will be my third.

MCAT
I spent the past summer (2.5months) studying for the MCATs which I thought wasn't enough time. I got a 25, PS11 V4 BS 10. Now, here's the thing. This may be considered a huge excuse, but I was literally the last person to enter the testing room because I couldn't find the place. So I rushed in at 2pm. Had to go through the entire picture/fingerprint/whatever process. Start the test probably 2:30pm. Well, by the time I started Verbal, everyone was doing the Writing, so I really couldn't concentrate on Verbal with all that typing after spending my studying time in complete isolation, hence my 4. I've already signed up to retake my MCAT

ECs
Volunteered in the ER of one hospital for 70+ hours

Volunteered 100+ hours in a local health clinic that gave free healthcare to the under-served (shadowed a family doctor, and a dentist for a bit)

Volunteered 100hours in a radiologist office (shadowed a radiologist a bit, hung out with x-ray tech and did some transporting)

Worked in a Plant Biology research lab at UCSD for a year

Was in choir in HS/president (don't know if that counts), continued to take choir through college, going to take concert choir next quarter

Since last June to present, I've been volunteering at a internship at another hospital that has allowed me to travel to different departments such as Med/Onc, Telemetry, Intermediate Care Unit, CCU, and currently in Surgery. At this program I have over 200clinical hours and I've joined the leadership team with 100+ hours in that.

I've struggled with my sexuality my entire college career and recently came out. I'm planning on volunteering at my school's LGBT center and trying to get some volunteering done with an HIV organization in SD.

BASICALLY. If you took the time to read this, I would really appreciate your opinion on what my chances are of getting into a US MD school. I would really only like to do MD and will pretty much apply anywhere I have a chance. I've already signed up to retake my MCAT. So I have any chance at all?

Caribbean is my backup. Should I just give up and go Caribbean?
Thank you for your time!

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[rubisco88]

So I've basically been a reader of the forum for about maybe 2 years or so, and now I'm a 4th year at UCSD and that time has come for me to post a what are my chances thread.

So. Here's the deal. My first two years at UCSD were not too great. Not bad, but just not good either. I wasn't very motivated and was really questioning whether the medical field was something that I wanted to really do or just something I felt I should do for my mother. I mean, I was interested in science and the medical field, I just found it really hard to throw my heart into it. So I spent my first two years getting mostly B's in my lower division science classes. Started volunteering at a hospital, long story short, I spent 4 hours sitting and talking with a dementia patient and that was one of the main factor that motivated me to pursue a career as a physician


GRADES
I started my junior year with a 2.99 GPA and began my senior year with a 3.31 currently awaiting my Fall quarter grades. I'm hoping by the time I graduate I'll have a 3.5 or at least a 3.45 (just found out I got a B+ in OChem lab, darn it)

Basically my grades have been an upward trend. I've gotten Provost Honors two quarters in a row, hoping this quarter will be my third.

MCAT
I spent the past summer (2.5months) studying for the MCATs which I thought wasn't enough time. I got a 25, PS11 V4 BS 10. Now, here's the thing. This may be considered a huge excuse, but I was literally the last person to enter the testing room because I couldn't find the place. So I rushed in at 2pm. Had to go through the entire picture/fingerprint/whatever process. Start the test probably 2:30pm. Well, by the time I started Verbal, everyone was doing the Writing, so I really couldn't concentrate on Verbal with all that typing after spending my studying time in complete isolation, hence my 4.

ECs
Volunteered in the ER of one hospital for 70+ hours

Volunteered 100+ hours in a local health clinic that gave free healthcare to the under-served (shadowed a family doctor, and a dentist for a bit)

Volunteered 100hours in a radiologist office (shadowed a radiologist a bit, huge out with x-ray tech and did some transporting)

Worked in a Plant Biology lab for a year

Was in choir in HS/president (don't know if that counts), continued to take choir through college, going to take concert choir next quarter

Since last June to present, I've been volunteering at a internship at another hospital that has allowed me to travel to different departments such as Med/Onc, Telemetry, Intermediate Care Unit, CCU, and currently in Surgery. At this program I have over 200clinical hours and I've joined the leadership team with 100+ hours in that.

I've struggled with my sexuality my entire college career and recently came out. I'm planning on volunteering at my school's LGBT center and trying to get some volunteering done with an HIV organization in SD.

BASICALLY. If you took the time to read this, I would really appreciate your opinion on what my chances are of getting into a US MD school. I would really only like to do MD and will pretty much apply anywhere I have a chance. I've already signed up to retake my MCAT. So I have any chance at all?

Caribbean is my backup. Should I just give up and go Caribbean?
Thank you for your time!

I went to a UC also. Maybe you can guess which one . What's your BCPM GPA? I think if you can get your cGPA and sGPA up to a 3.5 and a 32 MCAT or above, you'll have a decent shot if you apply wisely and broadly to lower and mid tier schools. I don't think you will have much of a shot at the UCs unless Riverside opens, but your chances OOS private schools should be a bit better. Make sure you have strong LORs and spend quality time on your PS and secondaries. If you can't get your GPA up to a 3.5 and have <30 MCAT, I don't think you'll have much of a chance at MD schools.

I have similar stats...a 3.6cGPA/3.5sGPA. However, I am a Texas resident and think my best shot are Texas schools. I will be applying to all TX schools, a few lower/mid tier MD OOS schools, and probably 4 DO schools (including Western). I guess I'll see what happens when I apply ><.

You definitely have a shot of DO schools and I know many people at UCSD going the DO route, especially Western. It's a pity med school admission is sooo competitive for CA residents. I wouldn't go Carribean if I were you. You will have a harder time matching/getting a residency spot in the states than DO students.

 

[weeels]

Thank you for the response! Which US med schools should I try applying to? Can anyone name a few for me?

 

[gmcguitar4]

I'm sorry but a 4 in verbal is an auto screen out from most md/do. You need to retake it. Don't concentrate on the writing part at all. I'd say practice it 2-3 times a week before the exam.

 

[shaggybill]

Unfortunately, the poster above me is right. The 4 in verbal is going to get you screened out even at DO schools. What were you scoring on practice exams?

On the bright side, if you retake, you can afford to lower your PS and BS scores by a couple points, and as long as you get your VR score above a 6-7 you should be good to go.

 

[MMPman]

I will add my advice since I also got a 4 in verbal with my first MCAT attempt. First of all, I would not attempt the MCAT again until you are at least consistently scoring 9's on the verbal section.

Your GPA and verbal score are two red flags on your application. I would suggest waiting a year to apply and improve both aspects. I waited and I went from probably not getting into any DO schools to having 6 MD interviews, two coming from top institutions.

Have you considered a special masters program? Unless you really kill the MCAT on your next attempt (35+), I do not think a 3.45 GPA and a 30-32 MCAT will make you very competitive for MD schools, especially living in California.

I would say to not give up hope yet. I scored a 22 my first attempt and a 32 (13/9/10) the second time. My GPA was higher, but doing well in a SMP would show ADCOMS your academic abilities.

Like others have previously mentioned, do NOT choose the Caribbean over a DO school. I think that would be a huge mistake.

Also, look to add some non-medical volunteering to your resume.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[weeels]

Well on practice exams I had been getting 8,9,10s on verbal. So I figured it was probably because I couldn't concentrate due to everyone else typing during the writing section. I don't see myself jumping to a 35+ anytime soon. I would do an SMP, but I really don't want to waste one year doing the SMP and then another year waiting just to see IF I can get in. I really don't want to waste time. Besides it's probably too late to apply to start applying to SMPs right now.

Why would choosing a Caribbean school over a DO school be a mistake? According to the threads on here, DOs have just as hard of a time matching to residency as Caribbean students right? And that's honestly, the main issue right?

 

[gmcguitar4]

I would do an SMP, but I really don't want to waste one year doing the SMP and then another year waiting just to see IF I can get in.

Agreed. Just take courses at a local undergrad school. Take upper level bio courses and get A's in them. I would suggest retaking science courses you did really bad in b/c getting A's in those will help your MD and really help your DO. With DO grade replacement you will also save a ton of time in the struggle to increase your GPA

Why would choosing a Caribbean school over a DO school be a mistake? According to the threads on here, DOs have just as hard of a time matching to residency as Caribbean students right? And that's honestly, the main issue right?

Wrong. DO's have a hard time matching into MD residency's, not their own. Caribbean schools will make it difficult to match into and MD residency, period. If you can't match then you have problems. For DO, you can take both the COMLEX and USMLE and apply to both residency's.

In my opinion, if you look at medical schools around the country I would say they are a learning institution first and then a business(maybe not GW). But Caribbean schools are businesses first then learning institutions. So 1) they don't care about you individually as much. 2) they make it very hard to match into residency.

.

 

[1TB4RKSB4CK]

Not even, a surprisingly good amount of DO's match into MD residencies.

 

[MedicalBeast]

if you retake the Mcat and improve the verbal, you have a decent chance at getting in to an MD or DO school.

you have a lot of clinical experience, your grades arent the best but an upward trend is great.

getting into any medical school in the us is a big big achievement and its getting harder and harder even with awesome stats. I know you said you aren't considering DO but im telling you straight up you are a fool if you don't apply to both MD and DO.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Stop making excuses and retake the mcat. Sorry dude, but they have headphones. No med school is going to accept the 4 or the accompanying excuse. You have to retake. And US MD/DO>>>>>>caribbean.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Stop making excuses and retake the mcat. Sorry dude, but they have headphones. No med school is going to accept the 4 or the accompanying excuse. You have to retake. And US MD/DO>>>>>>caribbean.

+1

No US med school (MD or DO) will take a VR of 4.

 

[blue0rchid]

bring a pair of earplugs next time. I wore the earplugs, then their headphone. Complete silence!!!

 

[weeels]

Stop making excuses and retake the mcat. Sorry dude, but they have headphones. No med school is going to accept the 4 or the accompanying excuse. You have to retake. And US MD/DO>>>>>>caribbean.

Okay, I clearly stated that I signed up to retake it. I would appreciate if everyone would read my entire post before making statements that I'm already aware of or am planning on doing.

PS. I used the headphones. I am planning on bringing my own earplugs along with the center's headphones so thank you Inphan for that advice.

 

[pinipig523]

Why would choosing a Caribbean school over a DO school be a mistake? According to the threads on here, DOs have just as hard of a time matching to residency as Caribbean students right? And that's honestly, the main issue right?

DOs have a much easier time matching than Caribs do. Especially when so many residency programs won't even interview a Carib med student.