African American, Low gpa(exactly 3.0 cumulative) , haven't taken MCAT yet. Options to improve?

[Ziggy213]

Right now I'm feeling a bit discouraged from my original plan from applying for med school this coming June but I just want to confirm if it's still worth a try. I'm open to SMPs or post baccs as well.


As of now I'm currently studying for the MCAT this coming January and my practice scores on the aamc tests are coming up nicely. My most recent score was a 505. I'm starting to feel increasingly confident of reaching my desired score once the test cycle reopens.

My problem however is my GPA. Much of it was due to class retakes and since DO schools no longer do that grade replacement policy, that put a huge dent in my GPA after recalculating everything.

In addition to my MCAT studies I'm also basically being an learning assistant for with my friend's father who is an internist for around 100 hours. He let's me participate and learn than just observe. I'm thinking of using the experience to become a scribe in the near future once I get my hours done.

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[Ziggy213]

Also forgot to mention I am a recent graduate and have already done my pre-reqs during undergrad. But most of them came up short.

Is there a way I can also improve my competitiveness overall as a future applicant?

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[Luftwaffle]

It depends on your MCAT score and your sGPA. Assuming you do fairly well on the MCAT (above 510) and have a sGPA over 3.0 you could probably go ahead and apply in June focusing mostly on the DO schools and the HBCU MD schools.
I have similar stats, but my sGPA is sub 3.0 (cGPA= 3.2, sGPA= 2.96, MCAT=509) and to my profoud shock, I've got 5 II so far. (4 MD, 1 DO) I did apply to a good deal of schools tho (around 28, 16 MD, 7 DO, around 5 TX state MDs). Still, going this route is a risky option, in terms of your chances of success. My experience is entirely anecdotal and maybe there's something in my file that's really compelling? Also I haven't even been accpeted yet, only waitlisted once so...

If you want to feel significantly more confident going into the application process I would suggest taking a year off to do something to remedy your GPA, so either a post bacc (which could possibly take more than 1 year depending on how many credits you need to take, but will probably be cheaper and safer in terms of the difficulty of the coursework) or if you for sure want to get it done in a year, an SMP. I've attached a file to help you calculate the number of units you'd need to get to a desired GPA, it says "science GPA" but you can def use the table to calculate cGPA if you just enter all of your courses.

A note on SMPs though. They tend to be pretty expensive (like 30k on the "cheap" side) and they are also quite high risk, like if you do one and get an "ok" GPA (so something sub 3.5, some would say even sub 3.7) that does not bode well for your future application chances.
Tl;dr: SMPs are high risk (not doing well can screw your future apps) but high reward (doing well can substantially demonstrate your academic abilities, and also provide you a good foundation for the learning skills you'll need for med school)