I'm so excited and proud to finally be able to post here!
1. Your age and GPA and MCAT if you have it.
Age: 29
sGPA: 2.8 cGPA: 2.4 ---> 4.0 for the last 90 hours to finish my degree
BS in molecular biology
MCAT: 30
2. Your financial and work situation.
Work full-time as a medical assistant/scrub tech, don't make a whole lot, but it's more than enough for me to not be trying to make 1 jar of nacho cheese, a bag of tortilla chips and PB&J fixings last for a week and a half until I get paid again.
One of the things that nailed me early on was that I was really bad with money.... When I finally decided to go back and finish school, one of the first things I did was fix my completely messed up credit. My parents were right, you can worry about a lot of things, but there is nothing like worrying about your finances (or kids) to really stress you out. Definitely didn't want that interfering with my new game plan.
3. Your family and significant other situation.
Just me and my dog. I got out of a terrible relationship right when I started this whole thing, so it wasn't hard to close off that side of things while I got this done. My family lives in the same city as I do though. I have a phenomenal support system, there is no way I'd be writing this if I didn't have them.
4. Your plan or your path to success.
I went back to school after a 4 1/2 year break. As you can see from my GPA, I didn't do too well. I started off OK but then crashed and burned...and burned...and burned...Dismissed after 3 semesters of straight Fs. Kept trying at the local community college, but that didn't go too well either, wised up after a year and finally decided to cut my losses.
I was fortunate enough to land a my current job and fell in love with it. After a couple of years there I could feel the old ambition starting to fire up again. Went back and in 3 years finished my BS (2 yrs at CC then 1 at univ). I NAILED it. Got an A in every class I took in that entire time, but that still was only enough to make my GPA what is now. My total number of credit hrs made it impossible to pull my GPA up over 3.0 without another 5+ years of UG....forget that. I figured my huge turnaround would have to be enough for any school that wouldn't screen me out first.
I took the MCAT this past January. The score was pretty good, not what I wanted, but enough to put me above the average for my state school. I met with the dean of admissions at my state school in April, talked over my situation with her and, surprisingly enough, she encouraged me to apply EDP. So I did...and found out yesterday that I was accepted!!!
I still can't believe it. I'm going to start medical school (MD) next summer! I busted my arse getting here! I worked full time during the day then took classes full time 4 nights a week. I would leave my house at 6:30 to go to work and get home from class after 10. I studied like a fiend on the weekends and during my lunch hours at work. Right after graduation, I started volunteering since my schedule finally allowed it.
With my GPA, I really had no idea what to expect from this besides a bunch of rejections and a lot of laughs at my expense. But I kept trying because I knew I could do it and I just had to figure out how to show that on paper to an adcom. And I did! Thank God for the stars aligning for me and giving me the chance to become a doctor!
