Advice/Critiques wanted on postbacc plans

[cariocaunc]

Hi fellow postbaccs,

I'm looking for any advice or suggestion on my postbacc plans

About me:
Age: 22
Background: Asian male, first-generation, family income below poverty line
Undergrad: B.A. in Anthropology from a Top 10 Public U.S. University
Cumulative GPA: 3.46 *major upward trend
Science GPA: ~2.5 *extenuating circumstances (I have only taken chem 101 [albeit 3 times w/ a D, D, C, respectively] and chem 102 [A])
Research: ~400 hrs in basic research/lab assistant roles
EC: lots of leadership positions such as being a coxswain for the crew team and forming a new frat on campus

*Extenuating circumstances: parents disowned and financially cut me off (nothing illegal)--led me to be really depressed, being at risk for being homeless, and also worrying about how I was going to afford college. But I have gotten therapy and medication since then.

My plans:
I have an interview coming up very soon for a Masters of Physiology program at an in-state college. So I plan on restarting back at chem 101--haven't seen chem since being a freshman--and then later doing the upper division grad courses to complete the masters and maybe a thesis if I'm feeling lucky. Lastly, of course, I plan on studying my ass off for the MCAT and scoring high.

Giving all these factors, if I:
-ace my masters program and pre-reqs
-continue research
-start volunteering, shadowing, maybe scribing
-scoring highly on the MCAT

Will I have a decent shot at getting into medical school? Also will med school be understanding of my extenuating circumstances if I mention it?

Thanks for reading my long post!

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[dial1010usa]

Why do you want to spend 3 years in masters? You can do science classes at community college or state college that will save you some money. You can work at the same time and work on your EC.
Are you going to MD or DO route?

 

[cariocaunc]

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[brew]

I would just try to ace all your med school prereqs and do well on the MCAT afterwards. If you can get both to cGPA and sGPA ~3.5 then I see no reason to take a SMP. There are some structured postbacc (career-changer) programs that have linkages to medical schools, but I'm not sure how it would work with having taken some science courses and also doing badly in some of them. I would research this a bit if this is something you are interested in or just take the classes at a 4 year university.

Also, if all the sciences classes you took are the same units... then shouldn't it be [D(1.0)+D(1.0)+C(2.0)+A(4.0)]/4 = 2.0 sGPA? I would think Chem 102 would be the same units as Chem 101.

And lastly, I'm not sure if you have the right definition for SMP. A SMP is where you take classes that are medical school classes or very similar to medical school classes. Without the prereqs, I don't think you will be doing very well. If it is a program that offers prereqs and graduate level courses, it probably isn't an official SMP.

 

[cariocaunc]

I would just try to ace all your med school prereqs and do well on the MCAT afterwards. If you can get both to cGPA and sGPA ~3.5 then I see no reason to take a SMP. There are some structured postbacc (career-changer) programs that have linkages to medical schools, but I'm not sure how it would work with having taken some science courses and also doing badly in some of them. I would research this a bit if this is something you are interested in or just take the classes at a 4 year university.

Also, if all the sciences classes you took are the same units... then shouldn't it be [D(1.0)+D(1.0)+C(2.0)+A(4.0)]/4 = 2.0 sGPA? I would think Chem 102 would be the same units as Chem 101.

And lastly, I'm not sure if you have the right definition for SMP. A SMP is where you take classes that are medical school classes or very similar to medical school classes. Without the prereqs, I don't think you will be doing very well. If it is a program that offers prereqs and graduate level courses, it probably isn't an official SMP.

Thank you for the clarification. Yeah, I assume it's an unofficial SMP since the school I'm doing it at doesn't have a medical school, but the program is specifically tailored towards students who want to increase their chances getting into professional programs like MD, etc. However, I will get either a MA or MS (if I complete the thesis) of Physiology once the program is over with.

I forgot to include that I have also taken Calc 1-3 and stats, which I factored into the sGPA.