Application for Fall 2011. Need some help.

[Maica]

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Hi. I'm Maica, a junior and a Biomedical Sciences major. I transferred from a community college to a university and not doing too well. I expect my science gpa to be 3.2 or 3.3. Do they average the grades from both schools, because I took my premedical coursework at the community college?

-Is it ok to apply to Physician Assisting Schools as a backup?

-Are taking low level electives going to hurt your application?

Right now I'm not at all confident about applying to DO schools because of my poor performance this semester. I only recently became interested because my advisor told me of this option and PA schools. I will be taking the mcat in May.

Should I still apply if my experience is minimal, because I started last summer. I was initially interested in human services(did volunteer social work for my first two years of college) but changed my mind. So far only 100+ hours from a hospital, 100+ from a nursing home, and looking for research opportunities next semester and DO shadowing. Please be honest! (3.9 community college, 3.2 university) Would a decent mcat up my chances? I will definitely appreciate the feedback, I'm the first in my family to attend college and have no one to ask. Thank you.

 

[lawyerdoc2b]

Hi. I'm Maica, a junior and a Biomedical Sciences major. I transferred from a community college to a university and not doing too well. I expect my science gpa to be 3.2 or 3.3. Do they average the grades from both schools, because I took my premedical coursework at the community college?

-Is it ok to apply to Physician Assisting Schools as a backup?

-Are taking low level electives going to hurt your application?

Right now I'm not at all confident about applying to DO schools because of my poor performance this semester. I only recently became interested because my advisor told me of this option and PA schools. I will be taking the mcat in May.

Should I still apply if my experience is minimal, because I started last summer. I was initially interested in human services(did volunteer social work for my first two years of college) but changed my mind. So far only 100+ hours from a hospital, 100+ from a nursing home, and looking for research opportunities next semester and DO shadowing. Please be honest! (3.9 community college, 3.2 university) Would a decent mcat up my chances? I will definitely appreciate the feedback, I'm the first in my family to attend college and have no one to ask. Thank you.

It is way to early to panic about your grades. You have at least three semesters to pull them up. All grades are averaged for M.D. schools and repeat grades substitute for bad ones for D.O. schools. If you had a poor semester, find out why and fix it. You must be intelligent with a 3.9 GPA your first two years. If you need to take a step back and repeat some courses then do it.

So what if it takes an extra year of college. If you want to be a doctor then do it. If you want to apply to D.O. school then find a D.O. to shadow. You'll need a letter from a D.O. anyway so target a D.O. to shadow and do some volunteer work.

I have nothing against being a P.A. but if that is your second choice you may not be happy.

One bad semester is not necessarily fatal to your future plans. You will need to explain why. It is imptant to overcome it.

As for your MCAT, you need to practice some tests. AAMC offers one free one on-line. Take it and see how you do. Consider a prep. course.

The electives are not important except that you should consider some courses in genetics, statistics, immunology and biochemistry to help you score well on the MCAT and improve your application.

Good luck.

 

[da Vincis World]

You should probably first decide what you want to do, become a physician or a physician assisant. These are different fields and one should NOT be a backup for the other. Once you have to decide which way to go, work your ***** off and go for it...you can do it.

 

[beckhunter116]

I wouldn't completely freak out about grades yet, but you really need to figure out why you are doing worse now and improve. A few B's aren't bad but med school is competitive.

It doesn't matter what your electives are but I think that they should be upper-level classes. At my undergrad they would have been 3000/4000 level classes...unless they fill a requirement like for a foreign language or a philosophy class.

Your gpa will be calculated for all of your schools. You will have an overall gpa and a science gpa. There is an excel spread sheet on here that you can enter all of your coursework into and it will tell you what your gpa is when you put the two together. Read around on here more to get an idea of the process, ask more questions when you think of them, and good luck!

 

[Maica]

Thanks for your support. I understand what to do now and go for it. It is probably better to stick to one and devote all the time to do that. I hope repeating a course won't hurt if it does result to that, but I'll try my best. I will ask more questions as the deadline approaches, but thanks again!

 

[KunalOak]

You should probably first decide what you want to do, become a physician or a physician assisant. These are different fields and one should NOT be a backup for the other. Once you have to decide which way to go, work your ***** off and go for it...you can do it.

haha... just curious... whats the *****?

i can understand *** or ****.. but *****?

 

[Tekar]

haha... just curious... whats the *****?

i can understand *** or ****.. but *****?

lol...glad I wasn't the only one a bit confused.