3.45 GPA, 34S, WI resident

[Bouffant]

This is long and presumably boring, so I bolded the important parts.

- WI resident
- Psychology major with a religious studies certificate
- I did not decide to pursue medicine until my senior year (this is explained in detail in my personal statement). I had a mediocre GPA prior to choosing pre-med, but an upward trend. I also did poorly in a few science courses I took early on.
- Rather than graduate, I stayed on for 2 years and completed the premed prereqs. For my last 3 semesters of science prereqs I maintained a 4.0. But because of my poor starting GPA and because I have 3 years as senior status, my GPA figures do not give the big picture:
- cGPA: 3.454 sGPA: 3.453
- Freshman (at a CC): 3.63 Sophomore(transferred to 4 year):2.97 Junior: 3.23 Senior:3.65 (senior year 1: 3.55 senior year 2: 3.45 senior year 3: 4.0)

MCAT: 34S (PS = 11 VR=11 BS=12 WS=S) Only slightly lower than my practice average of 35, so I don’t believe this is worth retaking.

- ECs are not amazing, as I have had less time than average to complete them. I plan to work on these from now until I apply for 2012, and beyond. By the time I apply, I will have:
- 1 year hospice volunteering (lots of patient contact)
- 1 semester volunteering at boys and girls club science club
- 1 summer teaching a drawing class at a mental health community center
- Work experience since 15 (various customer service jobs, captioning phone calls for the hearing-impaired)
- ~50 hours of shadowing (psychiatrist at a med school; family practice DO)

Questions:
- How closely do med schools examine transcripts? Are they likely to look closely at my senior GPA?
- I have a list of schools, but curious what others might recommend. I would prefer MD over DO for this cycle.
- Any other suggestions?

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[Catalystik]

Questions:
- How closely do med schools examine transcripts? Are they likely to look closely at my senior GPA?
- I have a list of schools, but curious what others might recommend. I would prefer MD over DO for this cycle.
- Any other suggestions?

I think that your cGPA and MCAT score will pass screening criteria at many less- and medium-selective schools. From there they'll look at your year by year grades, which have a terminal upward trend. Then they'll look more closely at the course transcript and see that you ended on a high note. (Why did you dip down in Senior Year 2? They'll be able to see why, but I don't know.) Did you take or plan to take any upper-level science?

With a 3.45/34, I'd suggest you consider schools like these, which have a good OOS acceptance rate, besides your two in-state schools:

UConn, Georgetown, Miami, Iowa, Maryland, UMinn, Stony Brook, Penn State,
Loyola, RFU, UKentucky, Creighton, Albany, SUNY Downstate, Hofstra (new), Jefferson,
UIllinois, Wayne, Buffalo, Toledo, Drexel, Temple, Vermont, VCU, Virginia Tech Carilion (new),
GWU, FIU, Louisville, Tulane, NYMC, MUSC, SCarolina, EVMS,
Rush, Michigan State, Oakland (new),

 

[Bouffant]

Thank you for the response! I was hoping you’d take a glance at this thread. The list of schools you provided looks a lot like the one I have made, so that is encouraging.

Senior year 2 was my first semester taking all science courses, and I was not yet accustomed to how to study for these. I struggled, particularly in the beginning of the courses, and had a low gpa for the first semester. The second semester of that year through graduation, including summers, I had 4.0 taking exclusively science courses (because I figured out that studying for science courses requires a different studying style than humanities, at least for me ). I took upper-level science in my third senior year.


Do you have any thoughts as to whether my extracurriculars are exceedingly sparse? I had looked into psychology research frequently during undergrad, but my GPA was never high enough to participate in the research I found interesting. I am looking into more volunteering opportunities, but they relate to issues I’m interested in, and are not clinical volunteering.

 

[Catalystik]

- ECs are not amazing, as I have had less time than average to complete them. I plan to work on these from now until I apply for 2012, and beyond. By the time I apply, I will have:
- 1 year hospice volunteering (lots of patient contact)
- 1 semester volunteering at boys and girls club science club
- 1 summer teaching a drawing class at a mental health community center
- Work experience since 15 (various customer service jobs, captioning phone calls for the hearing-impaired)
- ~50 hours of shadowing (psychiatrist at a med school; family practice DO)

I wasn't blown away by your planned ECs, but you already have a plan to compensate which I approve of, namely continuing them through the application season. With the judicious use of update letters to let schools know about ongoing involvement, you will hopefully sway adcomms positively. And if worse comes to worst and you have to reapply, your second application will be better.

Do you mean 12 months of hospice volunteering, or did you mean an academic year which is 9 months? If the latter, you'd have a year total with the MH volunteering (also counts as teaching). If the former, you'd still be short of average (1.5 years). The 50 hours of shadowing is average, and could also be augmented further, maybe during school breaks when you have more time, aiming for 60-80 hours total? The B&G Club gig is good for nonmedical community service. Any leadership, maybe through work? Don't forget hobbies, sports, and artistic endeavors. And list all the jobs, of course. If you could get in any research, including psych, it would help you, but it isn't essential.

 

[Bouffant]

By the time June 2011 rolls around and I apply, I will have 14 months of hospice volunteering completed (I called it one year because I had eye surgery this summer, and my doctor told me I needed to take time away from it while I healed up, so I was out for a couple of months).

I graduated this past May, so I am just working full-time and volunteering now that my MCAT is over with. This is great for additional shadowing/volunteer time, but not so great for me finding research opportunities. I will definitely look into doing additional shadowing during this time to bump up my hours, though. I also have a couple of creative writing-related awards to list as artistic endeavors (if that counts).

I was thinking the same thing about if I don’t get in first try; with an added year for my ECs, I think my application will be much improved.

Thanks again for all the help!

 

[Catalystik]

I also have a couple of creative writing-related awards to list as artistic endeavors (if that counts).

The creative writing is the artistic endeavor. That you got awards and were recognized in that way is terrific and should be mentioned in the narrative where you describe the activity.

If you are teaching art, have you developed that talent into an artistic endeavor or avocation as well?

The hospice activity plus the MH activity are about 17 months total duration, then: good.