another worried pre-med

[bostonguy31]

hello, just came across this site and could use some help. i am worried because of some stuff at the beginning of my academic career. i could not attend college right after high school because i needed many knee surgeries because of JA, it took me over 2 years before i finally enrolled in college. during the recovery i took 4 online classes at the university of phoenix and when i finally went back to school it was only the local community college because i needed to be close to home (recovery, physical therapy). after one year i transferred to my state school and graduated with a B.S. in microbiology. for pre-reqs i only took bio 1 and english 1 & 2 at the community college. i actually ended up doing better at my state u than i did at the cc

heres the summary

graduated last year from state u 3.8 gpa B.S. Microbioloy
finishing up ScM from johns hopkins w/ 3.6 gpa (wasn't sure i wanted to go to medical school)
1st mcat was a 36, about to retake because i think they expire soon
4 yrs. hospital volunteer
some research
6 yrs. working with children cancer non-profit

a couple of questions;

will my past come back to haunt me? meaning the online classes and community college? if so, should i spend a lot of time on my personal statement discussing it?

speaking of personal statement; should i devote most of it to the surgeries that i had right after high school? it certainly affected many aspects of my life, including academic and social. i am just concerned that it was possibly to long ago to discuss now.

Thanks Guys

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[Mobius1985]

a couple of questions;

will my past come back to haunt me? meaning the online classes and community college? if so, should i spend a lot of time on my personal statement discussing it?

speaking of personal statement; should i devote most of it to the surgeries that i had right after high school? it certainly affected many aspects of my life, including academic and social. i am just concerned that it was possibly to long ago to discuss now.

Just some ideas:

Your success these last two years at a university prove you are capable of performing well in med school.

You had special circumstances to explain your early college courses, and you should definitely explain them in the Personal Statement. But they are not all of who you are, so don't let your personal medical issues dominate your essay. Keep them in their place, but they are surely a part of why you want to be a doctor, so they must be mentioned. However, I'm sure your realization that medicine is your destiny has many other facets, and they need to be incorporated as well. If you overemphasize your medical problems, you may cast doubt on your ability to function in the med school environment, so don't go into agonizing detail about your suffering (the diagnosis implies it), rather describe how you changed and matured as a person (gaining empathy, trust, hope, persistence, or whatever) and how those qualities will make you a great doctor. How accepting medical treatment, surgery, and PT lead to you current level of functioning (which is hopefully good), that you are stable and symptoms are well-controlled (don't overdo it, just mention it).

By the way, you need not specifically identify your diagnosis as adcomms are not entitled to the information. If you feel more comfortable, vague generalities will work fine.

 

[FrickenhugeMD]

The MCAT score is good for 3 years from the date you took it, and with a score like that, I would try to not take it again unless you have you.

Overall I think you have a very solid chance of getting in.

 

[zoomzoomzoom]

I'm sorry, but is this for real? If anything you life of adversity etc is going to help you. The truth of the matter is that getting into med school is extremely straight forward. A lot of schools have cut offs: you need a gpa >X and an MCAT >Y. If you meet these criteria they read your personal statement, EC's, and grant you an interview. Some schools (ie U Mich) give people interviews based solely on an applicants gpa and MCAT (similarly if your gpa and MCAT don't meet their cut off, you're rejected without them ever receiving your LOR, ECs, etc). Your MCAT score is stellar and your gpa is good. That's all that med schools care about in terms of academics. They don't care if you went to an ivy vs podunk u. They don't care if you were an electrical engineer or a nutrition major. All they care about is the final product (MCAT, gpa). After that they want to see that you've done some interesting EC's and the interview is to make sure that you're not a total nut job. I realize that applying med school is really stressful, but please don't let the people on this board intimidate you with their 45 MCAT, 4.0 gpa, and >300 hours of shadowing. A sizable fraction of the scores posted are embellished and only people who want to e-brag post things like this.

And spare me the flaming etc. I'm a third year med student at a solid med school.