My main question is as the title suggests. This has been asked countless times before, but none of the threads really apply to my situation.
I graduated from a T10 university last year with a non-science bachelor’s (social science). When I entered undergrad I didn’t have a clear idea of which career path I would take, and I wanted to explore different options because I was a first-gen college student with a limited scope of what career paths existed.
Ultimately, I decided to pursue pre-med beginning in my sophomore year, majoring in a social science with a focus on public health. I began the science pre-reqs at that point and did fairly well in those that I took (A’s and a couple B+’s). Right before the start of my junior year, though, one of my parents died during the pandemic, and I (mistakenly) decided just to keep trucking along like business as usual instead of taking a LoA. It was quite the bad idea, and my grades started to suffer because of increasingly poor study habits due to the grief coupled with the lockdown isolation, which did not fare well in the rigor of science courses particularly.
Grade Trend:
Freshman - 3.69 overall, 3.33 sGPA, 3.88 other GPA
Sophomore - 3.78 overall, 3.63 sGPA, 4.00 other GPA
Junior - 3.31 overall, 2.67 sGPA, 3.95 other GPA
Senior - 3.61 overall, 2.60 sGPA, 4.00 other GPA
Cumulative - 3.60 overall, 3.12 sGPA, 3.95 other GPA
I’m currently in my first of however many gap years working in public health, which I am very happy to be doing, and I hope to eventually pursue a MD/MPH. I’m trying to decide whether I should just focus on doing well on the MCAT (haven’t taken it yet) and apply next cycle (2024-2025 cycle), do a 2 year post-bacc program to improve sGPA and trend, or do a SMP - both of which I would plan to start in Fall 24.
I’ve reached out to advisors at my undergrad, and they recommend applying next cycle, but I am quite concerned with my sGPA and the trend and don’t want to shell out a bunch of money just to have an unsuccessful cycle when I could potentially improve my chances. I have no concerns about my EC’s, LoR’s, research, or clinical experience, although I could (and plan to) do more shadowing.
Any advice/personal experience would be appreciated.
I graduated from a T10 university last year with a non-science bachelor’s (social science). When I entered undergrad I didn’t have a clear idea of which career path I would take, and I wanted to explore different options because I was a first-gen college student with a limited scope of what career paths existed.
Ultimately, I decided to pursue pre-med beginning in my sophomore year, majoring in a social science with a focus on public health. I began the science pre-reqs at that point and did fairly well in those that I took (A’s and a couple B+’s). Right before the start of my junior year, though, one of my parents died during the pandemic, and I (mistakenly) decided just to keep trucking along like business as usual instead of taking a LoA. It was quite the bad idea, and my grades started to suffer because of increasingly poor study habits due to the grief coupled with the lockdown isolation, which did not fare well in the rigor of science courses particularly.
Grade Trend:
Freshman - 3.69 overall, 3.33 sGPA, 3.88 other GPA
Sophomore - 3.78 overall, 3.63 sGPA, 4.00 other GPA
Junior - 3.31 overall, 2.67 sGPA, 3.95 other GPA
Senior - 3.61 overall, 2.60 sGPA, 4.00 other GPA
Cumulative - 3.60 overall, 3.12 sGPA, 3.95 other GPA
I’m currently in my first of however many gap years working in public health, which I am very happy to be doing, and I hope to eventually pursue a MD/MPH. I’m trying to decide whether I should just focus on doing well on the MCAT (haven’t taken it yet) and apply next cycle (2024-2025 cycle), do a 2 year post-bacc program to improve sGPA and trend, or do a SMP - both of which I would plan to start in Fall 24.
I’ve reached out to advisors at my undergrad, and they recommend applying next cycle, but I am quite concerned with my sGPA and the trend and don’t want to shell out a bunch of money just to have an unsuccessful cycle when I could potentially improve my chances. I have no concerns about my EC’s, LoR’s, research, or clinical experience, although I could (and plan to) do more shadowing.
Any advice/personal experience would be appreciated.
