Actuary looking to go into medicine w/ bad GPA

[Physicsisphun]

I've been out of undergrad and working for two years. Looking for a career change. I'll need to go back to school and finish up some pre-med classes which is just as well since my undergrad cGPA and sGPA were both in the range of 3.0 to 3.1. Part of the reason for the low GPA was the curriculum (math/physics double major) but much of it was due to a lack of motivation back in my college days.

In the pre-med courses I happened to complete during my undergraduate career (Chem I, Physics I and II, Calc I & II) I got straight A's. Pretty sure I can get close to straight A's in the rest - even OChem - if I apply myself. This will take an academic year plus a summer semester and I intend on filling in the rest of my schedule with other courses for GPA purposes. Obviously this is all easier said than done but I know that my work ethic now is far superior to what it was.

Regarding the MCAT, standardized tests never bothered me. In fact they have bailed me out before, and I am used to the rigor of the actuarial exams. At the same time... I figure I'd need to rock the heck out of this in order to get into a US medical school. I know it'd be stupid to count on a 35+.

Is this at all a reasonable plan or am I just going insane? If I get a solid GPA (say 3.8+) in my post-bac courses, how high would my MCAT score need to be? Hoping for any US MD school mainly because I'd like to specialize.

Thanks in advance....

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[Catalystik]

If you graduated with 120 credit hours of 3.0 and took another 30 hours of 4.0, you'd end up with an undergrad GPA on your med school application in the neighborhood of a 3.2. An MCAT goal of 35+ is reasonable and give you a 38%+ chance of acceptance to an allopathic program. An MCAT score of 38+ gives you a ~50% chance (per AMCAS data from the last three years).

Your chances will actually be a bit better than those numbers due to your Non-Trad status, and even moreso if you've already got a rich history of giving back to the community and other interesting experiences.

As a backup plan, you might consider simultaneously applying to an SMP (Special Masters Program) which is an expensive way of overriding a low GPA. See the Postbaccalaureate Programs forum for details.

Also, consider applying to DO med schools which historically are more academically forgiving.

I'd strongly suggest you also take some upper-level Bio courses too, to show adcomms you can perform well in classes like those you'd take in med school (Biochem, Physiology, Genetics, Call Bio, eg).

If you haven't, it's time to start some medical volunteering so as to test the waters, so to speak, and be sure all this effort will take you to a place you want to be. As you read these forums widely, you'll become acquainted with the other usual and customary ECs as well.

 

[Physicsisphun]

Thanks for the input! (and apologies for the late response, lol).

Fortunately I already have about a thousand hours spread over two years of volunteering at a hospital. Those hours were divided among volunteering as a greeter, in the hospital pharmacy, visiting with patients, etc. No shadowing yet but I aim to have near 100 hours of that by the time I apply.

In addition to that I tutored math and science in an inner-city public school in NYC for a year while in undergrad. I have another hundred hours volunteering for Habitat building houses. And I am a photographer in my spare time, but that's probably just a glorified hobby rather than a legit EC... I've sold some of my work but not much.

Unfortunately that's it. No research since high school and no leadership positions per se. Been kind of worried about the lack of diversity in my EC's - it's all volunteering + tutoring, basically.

 

[Catalystik]

I am a photographer in my spare time, but that's probably just a glorified hobby rather than a legit EC... I've sold some of my work but not much.

Unfortunately that's it. No research since high school and no leadership positions per se. Been kind of worried about the lack of diversity in my EC's - it's all volunteering + tutoring, basically.

Your photography would be better listed under Artistic Endeavors since you've shared your work publically.

I wouldn't worry about the research so much, but if an opportunity comes your way, at least trying it for a semester would be good.

And leadership shouldn't be hard to find in an organization, since no one else ever wants to step up to the plate.

The shadowing plan is fine (try to get a few specialties if you can), and the clinical experience and teaching are terrific.

 

[postbacpremed87]

I am a post-bacc. How much do Adcoms favor non-trads/post-baccs? Is it purely the maturity factor, that we are a little older than traditional pre-meds? What would you say is the increased percentage?

If you graduated with 120 credit hours of 3.0 and took another 30 hours of 4.0, you'd end up with an undergrad GPA on your med school application in the neighborhood of a 3.2. An MCAT goal of 35+ is reasonable and give you a 38%+ chance of acceptance to an allopathic program. An MCAT score of 38+ gives you a ~50% chance (per AMCAS data from the last three years).

Your chances will actually be a bit better than those numbers due to your Non-Trad status, and even moreso if you've already got a rich history of giving back to the community and other interesting experiences.

As a backup plan, you might consider simultaneously applying to an SMP (Special Masters Program) which is an expensive way of overriding a low GPA. See the Postbaccalaureate Programs forum for details.

Also, consider applying to DO med schools which historically are more academically forgiving.

I'd strongly suggest you also take some upper-level Bio courses too, to show adcomms you can perform well in classes like those you'd take in med school (Biochem, Physiology, Genetics, Call Bio, eg).

If you haven't, it's time to start some medical volunteering so as to test the waters, so to speak, and be sure all this effort will take you to a place you want to be. As you read these forums widely, you'll become acquainted with the other usual and customary ECs as well.

 

[leggo]

I think its more because non-trads generally have more rich and interesting experiences than pre-meds who just finished college. This could come from work, volunteer etc, that they did once they finished school.