Advice needed. Apply now or later?

[jb3396475]

Freshman year was rough academically. I had a job, played a sport, and had to go home on the weekends. I was a business major at the time. At the end of freshman year, I had a 2.1 GPA. I took the following semester off to help out back home. Long story short, there was a death in my immediate family and I became driven to become a physician. I changed my major and tried to rebuild from freshman year.
Currently, I am planning on applying this upcoming June. I have to stay an extra semester to be able to graduate since I took a semester off. My GPA right now is a 3.3 and my science GPA is a 3.82. I'm scared of my regular GPA. I don't know if I should take a year off and take some post-bac classes to raise it. I did well on my MCAT getting a 517, but will it make up for my poor overall GPA?
Additionally, I have a year of research experience, a year of hospice volunteer work, a year of tutoring inner-city youth, about 100 hours of urban reinvention volunteer work, 155 hours of volunteer work at a school for the blind. I'm a Pacific Islander male and a CA resident.

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[TakotsuboOkazaki]

IMO you don't have anything in your application that would be lethal to your admission chances.

A 517 is very good and, combined with your sGPA, could very well "make up for" your cGPA.

However, I do not believe that you can apply to most MD/DO schools or be considered "complete" at those schools until you have been issued a bachelors degree from your undergrad. If you will have a transcript that reflects a completed degree by July/August of this year, then I would say go ahead.

Otherwise, you should wait. Your MCAT will still be valid next year.

 

[jb3396475]

IMO you don't have anything in your application that would be lethal to your admission chances.

A 517 is very good and, combined with your sGPA, could very well "make up for" your cGPA.

However, I do not believe that you can apply to most MD/DO schools or be considered "complete" at those schools until you have been issued a bachelors degree from your undergrad. If you will have a transcript that reflects a completed degree by July/August of this year, then I would say go ahead.

Otherwise, you should wait. Your MCAT will still be valid next year.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I'll be graduating this coming December, so I'll have a degree by matriculation.

 

[Catalystik]

I do not believe that you can apply to most MD/DO schools or be considered "complete" at those schools until you have been issued a bachelors degree from your undergrad.

This is incorrect. You do not need to complete a bachelors degree to apply to med schools. But for most, you need one in order to matriculate to a med school.