3.67 Overall GPA, 3.82 Math/Physics/Chemistry/Biology for UNC Chapel Hill?

[CaptainZappo]

Hi. I'm new the forums, but I've been trolling around for a little while and figured I would finally come out of the shadows. Anyway, I'd just like to post my stats here and see if you guys (and gals) think I have a viable chance at attending UNC med.

Basic info:

• North Carolina resident since birth
• Caucasian
• Senior physics BS major
• 3.67 overall GPA and 3.82 science (math, physics, chemistry, biology) GPA.
• 33 MCAT AAMC practice test 3 (11 biological, 12 physical, 10 verbal)
• Member of the Golden Key honors society (must be in the top 20% to join)

Volunteering/clinical:

• six months (approximately 100 hours) working with the on-call disaster response team at my local Red Cross
• three months (approximately 50 hours) at Horse Power, a therapeutic horse camp experience for children with disabilities
• two semesters (approximately 50 hours) volunteering in the ER at UNC Hospitals

Research:

• one semester of X-ray spectroscopy research in the UNC physics department with a possible publication in the works

Leadership experience

• one semester (approximately 30 hours) as the teaching assistant for an introductory biology lab

As a senior, I've finally reached the end of the road and I'm now entering the freak-out stage. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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[Catalystik]

A cGPA of 3.8 and MCAt 33 are the median stats for those accepted to UNC. A 3.73 and 33 are the median stats for those matriculating, so your MCAT is fine, but your CGPA a bit weak.

Frankly, your ECs don't leap out at me as attention getters: I'd list the TA job as Teaching, unless your have an unusual teaching style that you can describe as leadership-y. One semester of research is below average, especially for a school that I think of as strong in the research department. You have a year volunteering in an ER, but only acquired 50 hours. Your community service is better with the Red Cross and Horse Power (some will say that this activity with kids who happen to have disabilities is not clinical experience, but personally I disagree wtith that opinion). Even if this is considered clinical in nature, that leaves you with an unimpressive total of 100 hours of clinical experience.

Sorry, but I'd find it difficult to rate your chances as high for UNC, and I suspect you feel the same. Opinions may vary. Spend an extra year beefing up the above activities, and then you'll be a stonger candidate, especially if you can raise the GPA during that time. Don't forget some shadowing time. And try for a true leadership experience, if the TA doesn't really qualify.

I'm curious. Did you recently decide to apply to med schools?

 

[Appless]

i agree with the above poster, your ECs are really lacking if this is all that you have. You have very limited clinical experience, no shadowing at all, and limited non clinical. Your research is minimal at best same for leadershop. Overall i think minimal at best describes the Ecs. Now if you were working full time or something over these 4 years well thats more understandable but like i said just an honest opinion is you lack the Ec's to be super competitive. Though im not saying you have a slim chance at med school, just maybe at UNC your chances are not high. If you could improve your ECs over a year you would most certainly be a great candidate for UNC and many other medical schools.

 

[J ROD]

Yeah, your ECs are weak...

stats are good for UNC....but the lack of ECs will hurt.

I would say you are slightly below a coin flip for me.

 

[Catalystik]

The OP was accepted to Wake Forest a year ago.

 

[09ine]

Lol, well I guess he forgot about this site & his question. I'm curious to see if he got in. His status says Medical Student, but I suspect he put that during registration. 😛 I currently hold a 4.0 GPA, but I am only just entering my sophmore year of college.

If you do the math, you red cross experience is roughly 1.8 hours per day, and your volunteering in the ER for two semesters which I'm assuming were 3 months long each amounts to .9 hours per day.

Only one semester of research? Already in my freshman year in Psychology 101 I spent 2 months intensively working on a research project on deception detection during casual social interaction, we video-taped 24 participants telling truths & lies & they recorded their answers on a notepad that we didn't look at until after we reviewed the tapes to look for signs of deception. It came out well according to the Psychology staff whom I forworded my research to after our Psychology/Science Fair. Being able to detect deception is important when taking patient histories to ensure accuracy. I can't wait to do even more research.

I'm planning on majoring in BioChem or BioPhysics & Psychology, and then become a physician.

I honestly couldn't tell if that was you trying to be passive aggressive there. Good thing he got in though.

 

[Catalystik]

Whoa I didn't even have time to post my repost & delete the original. Oh well. Didn't think anyone would reply so soon. Well congrats to him. How do you know this?

You can review his past posts by clicking the screen name.