Am I on the right track?

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

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Hey SDN-folk,

I've been having a rough few months. I know that in the grand scheme of hopefuls my issues seem minor, but I could still use any affirmation that there is still hope. Let's start with the facts:

3.13 cGPA
2.76 sGPA
24O MCAT(7P, 8V, 9B)
EC's:
-100+ hours of clinical research
-100+ hours of volunteering
-Shadowing
-Fraternity President
-Judo Club Founder, National Competitor

Other:
-NY Resident
-URM
-One M.D. LOR
-One D.O. LOR

Awful, right? I just graduated from Columbia (Neuroscience Degree) and my plan was apply to some SMP's/post-bacc's for D.O. schools and spend the summer preparing for an MCAT retake (8/22, doing Princeton Review). I was rejected from Touro-NY, NYMC, and LECOM for post-bac/master's and I think, at least in the case of LECOM, it was because of a disciplinary warning I thought I had to report. Unfortunately, I didn't learn until later that the incident was so minor that they just threw out the record. My goal was to not do anything on Long Island (where I am from), but now I am forced to move back in with my parents and apply to things around here.

Hopefully I can get into Hofstra's postbac, otherwise I'll have to go to a community college. 62 credits are science, with two C-'s in Bio II and Physics II due to me failing both finals (girlfriend got diagnosed during leukemia right before study week). I'm afraid I won't get into Hofstra because it's so late and it's meant for people who haven't done any premed coursework. If I go to community college, it looks really bad from what I understand. However, because I have so many science credits I have to do at least a year of course work in order to bump my sGPA above the screen for most schools.

So, my ideal plan now is:
-kill this MCAT (doing 36-38 on practice exams and I have two months left to study)
-do a year and summer session at Hofstra, retaking my two C-'s and doing a bunch of science credits
-do some more shadowing
-apply to SMP's early in spring for entry in fall 2014
-apply broadly and early to D.O. schools and maybe some M.D. schools

All easier said than done, but is there anything else I could possibly do? Programs that would be recommended for someone in my position?

Thanks!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

Hey SDN-folk,

I've been having a rough few months. I know that in the grand scheme of hopefuls my issues seem minor, but I could still use any affirmation that there is still hope. Let's start with the facts:

3.13 cGPA
2.76 sGPA
24O MCAT(7P, 8V, 9B)
EC's:
-100+ hours of clinical research
-100+ hours of volunteering
-Shadowing
-Fraternity President
-Judo Club Founder, National Competitor

Other:
-NY Resident
-URM (Malagasy)
-One M.D. LOR
-One D.O. LOR

Awful, right? I just graduated from Columbia (Neuroscience Degree) and my plan was apply to some SMP's/post-bacc's for D.O. schools and spend the summer preparing for an MCAT retake (8/22, doing Princeton Review). I was rejected from Touro-NY, NYMC, and LECOM for post-bac/master's and I think, at least in the case of LECOM, it was because of a disciplinary warning I thought I had to report. Unfortunately, I didn't learn until later that the incident was so minor that they just threw out the record. My goal was to not do anything on Long Island (where I am from), but now I am forced to move back in with my parents and apply to things around here.

Hopefully I can get into Hofstra's postbac, otherwise I'll have to go to a community college. 62 credits are science, with two C-'s in Bio II and Physics II due to me failing both finals (girlfriend got diagnosed during leukemia right before study week). I'm afraid I won't get into Hofstra because it's so late and it's meant for people who haven't done any premed coursework. If I go to community college, it looks really bad from what I understand. However, because I have so many science credits I have to do at least a year of course work in order to bump my sGPA above the screen for most schools.

So, my ideal plan now is:
-kill this MCAT (doing 36-38 on practice exams and I have two months left to study)
-do a year and summer session at Hofstra, retaking my two C-'s and doing a bunch of science credits
-do some more shadowing
-apply to SMP's early in spring for entry in fall 2014
-apply broadly and early to D.O. schools and maybe some M.D. schools

All easier said than done, but is there anything else I could possibly do? Programs that would be recommended for someone in my position?

Thanks!

Your plan seems solid. I'm sorry about your girlfriend


Question: so you're doing amazingly well on MCAT practices. I'm not trying to troll or sound rude but how's it going so well if your sGPA isn't so high?

 

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

No it's fine! She's in remission... and we're not dating anymore.

The biology department was very cutthroat to the extent that most people doing premed don't leave here with much higher than a 3.3 science (if they even make it past the introductory biology class). The handful of people that do well here are in medical school- it's difficult to be average, which is what happens if you're not even sure you want to do medicine. That was me during half of undergrad. To answer your question, I took the MCAT cold the first time and have put it a lot of time into learning the test and applying what I know, which is more than my GPA would make you assume. That's why my goal is to just break the 3.0 for my science and apply to schools who I think will look at the big picture, such as an above par MCAT with a good year of post-grad work.

 

[deleted248403]

You'll need a glide year between entering SMP and med school apps. You will want to apply to med school with a full year of SMP behind you

And do not do community college. There are other programs outside of long island still accepting applications

And stop making excuses about the biology department - own your mistakes. Don't put them on other people - it comes across as whiny and immature.

 

[The Helpful Aye Aye]

I'll go ahead and ignore the part about you misconstruing my explanation of how personal stress + hard department = bad grades as whining. If my mistake was dating in college, then so be it.

I'm not even thinking of touching applications until I have some definitive, better numbers under my belt. I could choke on my MCAT for all I know... at any rate, thanks for the help so far guys. If you knew the stuff that just went down with LECOM, you'd understand why I'm kind of shaky even with a fairly logical plan moving forward (and why I needed some affirmation of said plan).