32 years old, about to apply.

[Spectreman]

I'm working on my applications, and would appreciate some insight on where I stand.

My under-grad is truly horrendous in every objective sense. I took about ten years to get my bachelors, went through academic probation and suspension. I have 9 failing grades on my transcripts, multiple W's including several semesters where I withdrew from all of my classes. My overall undergrad GPA is a 2.5, and probably a 2.0 science GPA. MCAT was 22. I never bothered applying except to St. George's and AUC in the Caribbean and was rejected from there.

My excuse: I really don't have a good one (no family tragedy or anything like that). I got married and started having kids in 2007 and I didn't learn how to really devote myself to school until now. I always worked full-time jobs in school and consistently put my classes at the bottom of the priority list. My employment has always been in healthcare (home health and hospice, then med/surge at a regional hospital doing patient care and unit coordinating) and I had several hundred hours of volunteering at the ER in my hospital. Good extra-curricular's, but clearly my priorities were all messed up. I finally graduated in 2014 and got a corporate job outside of healthcare that actually paid the bills. After a year of that I felt very strongly that I needed to give medical school another shot. So I quit my job and went back for post-bacc work.

I just finished a year (two semesters) of post-bacc. I took 31.5 credits and got a 3.8 GPA. My first semester was 18.5 credits and I got a 3.9, with a B+ in Molecular Bio. The next semester was 13 credits and I got a 3.7, with a B in Cell Bio. In both semesters I received A's in everything else. During the second semester I was a TA for my O-chem professor and doing research. I also did some volunteer work and took an MCAT prep-course. I'm studying the rest of May and will take my MCAT on June 2nd. I plan to have my applications go out at the same time. I'm shooting for a 507, pretty confident I can hit that mark. Since Osteopathic will take your highest of repeats, I should have a solid GPA by their standards. I know Allopathic might screen me out, but I remember hearing some schools will take just your last 32 credits for admissions purposes.

I'd really like your opinion on my situation. Do I have any chance at this point? THANKS!!

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[Goro]

For MD, I can only recommend your state school(s). You should be fine for a lot DO schools.

 

[gyngyn]

State of residence? MI has 3 schools that apparently look at most recent hours. LSU too.

 

[Spectreman]

I live in Utah and I graduated from high school in California. Personally I'm ok with DO school, I think the stigma among colleagues is lower than it's ever been and decreasing all the time. That said, I will be applying to some Allopathic schools and would like to find my best options. I heard on the OldPre-Meds podcast that Wayne State and LSU play the "32 hour rule", but since those are state schools I don't know if it's still worth applying.

Thanks for your responses! I take the MCAT on Thursday. Just finished the AAMC practice and got a 507! I know that's weak compared to many on SDN, but that's miles ahead of my 22 back in 2012 and it was my goal score. The Kaplan prep-course really helped, but very little of their psych/soc material showed up on the AAMC full-length. Gonna dig into that question pack between now and Thursday. Wish me luck!