Am I reinvented (TX Nontrad)? 1st BS (2020) 2.77cgpa, 2.79sgpa/ 2nd BS and SMP(2025) 4.0cgpa, 4.0sgpa in both/ 515 MCAT

[BlackWidow88X]

Hey guys as stated in the title, I am a Texas non-trad in my late 20's. I will try to sum up my stats and experiences with dates to make this post more digestible. I plan on only applying in Texas. My story is essentially this - I was young and stupid in undergrad. I graduated and felt unsatisfied with my performance and there wasn't a day that passed by where I didn't want more. My experiences with humanitarian work and public health really allowed me to understand a career in medicine would be perfect. Four years working passed and I decided to give school another shot and prove to myself I can do it. I started with 12 hours at UCLA extension and did good. Got accepted in to an accelerated BS in BMS that bridged in to a regionally respected SMP and worked really hard. Took a shot at my MCAT and got a score I was happy with. Although my academics suffered early in my career, I always made it a point to work really hard outside of academics which I hope my application shows. Am I reinvented? What are the next steps and what schools should I look at?

MCAT
515

GPA
BS in Biology (2015-2020)
cgpa: 2.77
sgpa: 2.79

UCLA Extension (12 hours) (2024)
cgpa: 3.77 ( I got 1 B+ sadly)
sgpa: 3.77

BS (35 hour) in Biomedical Sciences (2024)
cgpa: 4.0
sgpa: 4.0

SMP in Med Sci (2025)
cgpa: 4.0
sgpa: 4.0

Total for all
cgpa: ~3.1
sgpa: ~3.1

Employment

• Medical Office Assistant - Home Health
  • 3 Years (2016-2019)
• COVID-19 Data Analyst
  • 1 Year (2020)
• Health Educator - Chronic Diseases
  • 1 Year (2021)
• Epidemiology Investigator - Infectious Diseases
  • 3 years (2021-current)

Volunteer Experience

• Total of 1000 hours of various community service activities completed during my undergrad career
  • 2015-2020
• 3 Time Recipient of Silver Presidential Volunteer Service Award
  • For community service completed during my undergrad career
  • Awarded for 2017, 2018, and 2019
• 4 Humanitarian medical missions to Central America
  • 2016-2019
• Board member and volunteer for a stroke support group
  • 2 years (2022-2023)
• Emergency Public Health Responder for local and regional public health emergencies
  • 2022-2025
  • Activated a handful of times

Leadership

• Led 2 Humanitarian medical missions to Central America during undergrad (previously mentioned)
  • President (2019)
  • Vice President (2018)
• Organized 3 medical missions in my hometown and performed various roles
  • Optometry Team Leader (2022)
  • Lead Data Collector (2023)
  • Medical Team Leader (2024)
• Board member of local stroke support group
  • 2022-2023

Publications and Research (I understand this is a hole in my application and I'm willing to hear advice)

• 3 semesters worth of undergraduate research revolving around zoology
  • Performed during my undergrad 2015-2020 (outdated I know)
• Co-Author for 2 Infectious Disease Guidelines for a Hospital System in Dallas area.
  • 2024 and 2025

Shadowing and Clinical Experience

• OBGYN
  • 20 hours
  • 2018
• Family Medicine
  • 200 hours
  • 2015-2020
• Emergency Medicine
  • 40 hours
  • 2024
• Ophthalmology
  • 20 hours
  • 2024
• My time during the international and local medical missions counts as additional clinical experience since I was volunteering in a clinic setting.
  • Roughly 250 hours
• 3 years as a medical office assistant (previously mentioned)

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[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums. I'm comfortable saying you have a strong reinvention academic record. I hope your SMP faculty can similarly champion your readiness to take on medical education.

Have you connected with any of the Texas admissions teams, or at least checked out any information TMDSAS has (including webinar interviews)? Have you attended recruitment sessions on campus or elsewhere? Is there a specific location around Texas you wish to practice?

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hey guys as stated in the title, I am a Texas non-trad in my late 20's. I will try to sum up my stats and experiences with dates to make this post more digestible. I plan on only applying in Texas. My story is essentially this - I was young and stupid in undergrad. I graduated and felt unsatisfied with my performance and there wasn't a day that passed by where I didn't want more. My experiences with humanitarian work and public health really allowed me to understand a career in medicine would be perfect. Four years working passed and I decided to give school another shot and prove to myself I can do it. I started with 12 hours at UCLA extension and did good. Got accepted in to an accelerated BS in BMS that bridged in to a regionally respected SMP and worked really hard. Took a shot at my MCAT and got a score I was happy with. Although my academics suffered early in my career, I always made it a point to work really hard outside of academics which I hope my application shows. Am I reinvented? What are the next steps and what schools should I look at?

MCAT
515

GPA
BS in Biology (2015-2020)
cgpa: 2.77
sgpa: 2.79

UCLA Extension (12 hours) (2024)
cgpa: 3.77 ( I got 1 B+ sadly)
sgpa: 3.77

BS (35 hour) in Biomedical Sciences (2024)
cgpa: 4.0
sgpa: 4.0

SMP in Med Sci (2025)
cgpa: 4.0
sgpa: 4.0

Total for all
cgpa: ~3.1
sgpa: ~3.1

Employment

• Medical Office Assistant - Home Health
  • 3 Years (2016-2019)
• COVID-19 Data Analyst
  • 1 Year (2020)
• Health Educator - Chronic Diseases
  • 1 Year (2021)
• Epidemiology Investigator - Infectious Diseases
  • 3 years (2021-current)

Volunteer Experience

• Total of 1000 hours of various community service activities completed during my undergrad career
  • 2015-2020
• 3 Time Recipient of Silver Presidential Volunteer Service Award
  • For community service completed during my undergrad career
  • Awarded for 2017, 2018, and 2019
• 4 Humanitarian medical missions to Central America
  • 2016-2019
• Board member and volunteer for a stroke support group
  • 2 years (2022-2023)
• Emergency Public Health Responder for local and regional public health emergencies
  • 2022-2025
  • Activated a handful of times

Leadership

• Led 2 Humanitarian medical missions to Central America during undergrad (previously mentioned)
  • President (2019)
  • Vice President (2018)
• Organized 3 medical missions in my hometown and performed various roles
  • Optometry Team Leader (2022)
  • Lead Data Collector (2023)
  • Medical Team Leader (2024)
• Board member of local stroke support group
  • 2022-2023

Publications and Research (I understand this is a hole in my application and I'm willing to hear advice)

• 3 semesters worth of undergraduate research revolving around zoology
  • Performed during my undergrad 2015-2020 (outdated I know)
• Co-Author for 2 Infectious Disease Guidelines for a Hospital System in Dallas area.
  • 2024 and 2025

Shadowing and Clinical Experience

• OBGYN
  • 20 hours
  • 2018
• Family Medicine
  • 200 hours
  • 2015-2020
• Emergency Medicine
  • 40 hours
  • 2024
• Ophthalmology
  • 20 hours
  • 2024
• My time during the international and local medical missions counts as additional clinical experience since I was volunteering in a clinic setting.
  • Roughly 250 hours
• 3 years as a medical office assistant (previously mentioned)

You have done a strong job of reinvention. In addition to learning as much as possible about the Texas schools, both MD and DO, plan to apply early and also pre-write secondary essays so that you can turn secondaries around promptly.

 

[BlackWidow88X]

Welcome to the forums. I'm comfortable saying you have a strong reinvention academic record. I hope your SMP faculty can similarly champion your readiness to take on medical education.

Have you connected with any of the Texas admissions teams, or at least checked out any information TMDSAS has (including webinar interviews)? Have you attended recruitment sessions on campus or elsewhere? Is there a specific location around Texas you wish to practice?

Hello Mr. Smile. I appreciate your input and feedback and your overall contribution to this forum. I've actually been a member around 3 years and I hoped you would reply 😆.

I've only really been in communication with my pre-medical advisor who I have a meeting with in 2 weeks where we plan on talking about my health committee letter and future steps. I haven't done any campus tours but I've done research on the Texas schools in the recent years. My focus and aim has ALWAYS been to practice in an underserved area working with Latino populations as I'm Latino myself. Additionally, my entire career has been serving Latino communities in South, Texas and Central America so I would love to come full circle and continue working with these populations as a physician. My biggest fear is being screened out automatically because of my overall low GPA. I don't really know which schools might just toss my app and which others might give me a chance. I understand I have decent non-academic experiences but I don't know how far that will take me given my gpa. My advisor tells me that schools put heavy focus on the last 60 hours but I don't know how true that is. If that's the case then I have a chance.

 

[BlackWidow88X]

You have done a strong job of reinvention. In addition to learning as much as possible about the Texas schools, both MD and DO, plan to apply early and also pre-write secondary essays so that you can turn secondaries around promptly.

I really appreciate input from someone as qualified as yourself! My plan has always been to apply early because my application will be dead in the water if I don't. Given my sketchy undergrad and overall low gpa of ~3.1 I suspect I won't exactly have schools fighting over me so I need every advantage I can get.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Hello Mr. Smile. I appreciate your input and feedback and your overall contribution to this forum. I've actually been a member around 3 years and I hoped you would reply 😆.

I've only really been in communication with my pre-medical advisor who I have a meeting with in 2 weeks where we plan on talking about my health committee letter and future steps. I haven't done any campus tours but I've done research on the Texas schools in the recent years. My focus and aim has ALWAYS been to practice in an underserved area working with Latino populations as I'm Latino myself. Additionally, my entire career has been serving Latino communities in South, Texas and Central America so I would love to come full circle and continue working with these populations as a physician. My biggest fear is being screened out automatically because of my overall low GPA. I don't really know which schools might just toss my app and which others might give me a chance. I understand I have decent non-academic experiences but I don't know how far that will take me given my gpa. My advisor tells me that schools put heavy focus on the last 60 hours but I don't know how true that is. If that's the case then I have a chance.

Has this advisor/committee worked with applicants with a similar GPA and background that you have? It would be good to know how they plan to uplift your background, purpose for medicine, and academic performance.

 

[Goro]

Apply to all TX MD schools, and any DO school.
Start list with
UIWSOM
TCOM
SAM HOUSTON
OKCOM

Any other DO school is yours. Avoid those new schools that have yet to graduate a class, the for profit schools and SOMA, LMUCOM, LUCOM, NOVACOM.

 

[BlackWidow88X]

Apply to all TX MD schools, and any DO school.
Start list with
UIWSOM
TCOM
SAM HOUSTON
OKCOM

Any other DO school is yours. Avoid those new schools that have yet to graduate a class, the for profit schools and SOMA, LMUCOM, LUCOM, NOVACOM.

Thank you for your reply Goro! Like I said to Mr. Smile, I really appreciate your contribution to this forum and your reply to my post! It's great to have someone of your experience chime in.
I know you recommended all MD schools but should I avoid applying to the obvious MD schools like UTSW and Baylor?