Backup Plan

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TheJadedOne

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Hey folks. Well, its not looking too good for me right now. I still have a seven schools to hear from, but was rejected from 7 without any interviews. The rejections have all came in the last two weeks, so it is getting tough. I also applied to 5 DO schools. This is my second year applying to med school. If it doesn't work out, should i go off shore next year or keep trying in the states? I know it makes it tougher for getting a residency though. My GPA is a 3.33 and MCATs are 9-bio,8-verbal and 7-physics. The last year i have spent taking more bio courses and volunteer work. The other alternative seems taking the EMT route next year and reapplying. Any advice, please?

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Welcome to SDN!! :D

hmm, I would suggest retaking the MCATS and reapplying to MD, DO and foreign schools next year. Some foreign schools are still accepting applications for 2002 matriculation, so you may want to apply there now and decide later if you get in. (I may do that)

Good luck to you! I'm still waiting to hear from 10 schools, so I know how you feel.

~Dra. Foxy
 
Like Dra. Foxy suggests, I would focus on doing really well on the MCAT. Take a course if you have to--I know it's expensive, but they have access to questions that often you can't find elsewhere. Or buy the Princeton Review stuff from a fellow applicant.

Is there any way to boost your science GPA? More classes, if you can stomach it? Often, schools do an initial screen of people by computer, and they use the science GPA (not overall GPA) as well as MCAT to determine whether you get a secondary, and then an interview. (Of course, this year, everyone got secondaries because AMCAS screwed things up so badly.)
 
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Thats all good advice, but i have in fact retaken the MCAT and did slightly better. I took the Kaplan course last summer. Unfortunatly, thats the best i can do, i really studied hard last summer. How does my EMT idea sound for next year?
 
the EMT shows that you're committed to this field and it's good experience, but with a 3.3 and 24 you'd better ONLY apply to DO schools and caribbean (Ross) because an MD school looks impossible. unless you're an underrepresented minority, and it would STILL be very hard. just apply to LOTS of DO schools, do the EMT thing if you want. sounds like great experience and i know DO schools really look for that. talk to some deans at DO schools and find out what you need to do. also, take science classes to improve your gpa (unless you wanna keep getting B's, because if you're gonna continue that sad trend, you might as well just stop this wishful thinking). so improve your gpa, even if it doesn't improve by much, if you can get almost all A's or all A's in one semester of classes (~4 classes) it shows that you've become a better student and gives the committees confidence in you (enough to interview you for sure). gluck.
 
The EMT route will do nothing to help you get into medical school. It is your grades in the sciences and your MCAT scores that are keeping the doors shut. Unless you stand back and try to analyze why you didn't do better in both, and then change, even if you get accepted abroad you might not--I said might, not won't--get back with an MD and be able to pass the four parts of the USMLE. I am a person who believes almost everyone is capable of A work and high test scores. Why that does not always eventuate is, in my opinion, unrelated to IQ but to a wide variety of situational circumstances, including poor study habits, unfocussed motivation, taking on too many hours of paid work, poor course selection and credit loads, weak test-taking skills, spending too much time on extracurriculars (of limited value for admission), and, most common, unresolved and distracting personal/family situations.

There are other options, again, none of them come with guarantees. Georgetown and some other medical schools have a one year graduate program with first year med school courses. Expensive, of course, but with a fairly high success rate. As you might guess, high success rates are also outcomes of stringent selection for admission.

Another option is graduate course work, not necessarily thesis research (your problem is course grades, not research) in biology or biochemistry. You must complete any advanced degree you start before you will be able to matriculate in medical school, although you may apply, as you can as an undergraduate, before you actually earn the degree.

Think about this, then do what you will or must.
 
some schools are nice enough to go through your application file in detail. talk with one of those admissions deans and figure out why they have rejected you.
 
TheJadedOne:

We CANNOT make the decision regarding whether you should continue to pursue medical admission or consider another health-profession for you. You need to evaluate how important practicing medicine is to you, and where you'd like to see yourself ten years into the future.

If you do in fact want to continue pursuing medical school, here's some advice: RETAKE THE M.C.A.T.! There are people that register for that exam as many as 5 times to improve their candidacy. I would STRONGLY DISCOURAGE you or any other applicant from applying to U.S. MD or DO med. schools with a 24 average MedCAT score. Imagine that if you can improve your score by just 3 points (to straight 9s), you can have a legitimate chance at Osteopathic admissions. CAUTION: If you're aware of and affected by the pre-medical bias towards Osteopathic schools, and the emphasis on Primary Care with this degree, you need to evaluate your options further, of course.

Your 3.33 GPA needs to be from a good 4-year University program; and you should have a HIGHER SCIENCE GPA. If you do not have a cumulative Science GPA (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics) of approx. 3.6 to compensate for the 3.33 (below the matriculated average), then consider Graduate courses to improve your GPA.

Also: try calling a few Med. Admissions Offices about why you'd been rejected; inquire about the information that your professors wrote about you in your Letters of Recommendations if you don't already know; and re-write your Personal statements to include new work, achievements, etc.

Remember to continue applying to your in-state Med. Schools, and out-of-state private schools that accept a large number of out-of-state applicants. Apply to approx. 30 schools--both MD and DO--total after you've retaken the MCAT.

Good luck to you.
 
btw, my backup plan was to be a teen *****. but now i'm too old. sigh

it's a joke yall :D
 
You have to take more science courses and show strong performance, I mean 4.0. You gotta get better mcat scores. I had mediocre performance undergrad also but I knew that I had to improve my stats. I did postbac and masters maintaining all A's and double digits on mcat. I was successful. This was alot of hard work and time but I will be going to med schl next year. So if you really want med school, you gotta be committed to do this. You cant runaway from the mcat and say it is too hard. Not gonna work.
 
Thanks for all of the input. I am fully committed to med school. Sorry if I made it sound otherwise. I am going to sign up to take the MCAT again in August. I also ordered a book on offshore med schools cause I shouldn?t be relying on rumors and I need to keep my options open based on fact. Also, just so you all know, I have had a 4.0 semester gpa?s for the last 5 semesters and will get straight A?s this semester as well. I just did crappy my first two years here at Purdue University. I guess I hadn?t made up my mind that this is what I wanted to do yet. You are all right, I need to keep trying and try harder. I was just looking for a quick fix, which was na?ve.
 
JadedOne,
There's a lot of people out there in the same boat as you are. And as long as you don't give up trying, you will definitely get to Medical school. Now, besides retaking the MCAT, have you thought of doing a special 1 year master program to boost your GPA? There's a couple of these programs at Hahnemann, Columbia, Finch, UPenn...etc. You should definitely look into it since some of them have direct links into affliated Medical schools. Do a search under "Special Masters" and you should come up with a couple old posts that discuss them. Hope this helps! And best of luck! :)
 
This is what i think
first your gpa is fine for DO schools. What I would do is volunteer for a DO somewhere and get a good letter of recomendation from him that will really show the DO schools you want to be a doctor. Next volunteer doing some research and then apply to either NYCOM, New England COM, or Pikesville COM. I think you would make it no prob.
best of luck
 
i agree with everyone else as far as retaking the MCAT. i know that thought is hard to swallow, but the fact that you are willing to retake in august really shows your determination. although a few people do get into med school with a 24, it is kind of a rare case. you just need to master that test, it does not mean you are not smart. i got a 24 my first time around also, and i studied my ass off for that 24! secondly, the EMT thing is good but once you have a few months experience you should really consider being an ER Tech in a hospital. i have almost 2 years of experience as an EMT on a 9-1-1 ambulance and only 9 months of experience in the hospital, and in my med school interviews they were really only interested in talking to me about my hospital experience. as far as i'm concerned, being an EMT on an ambulance is a fun job, but the clinical aspect (in terms of its actual relevance to the medical profession)is overrated. i love working in the hospital though, and it has really reinforced my decision to practice medicine. i know you can do it, and good luck to you!!
 
I think, your stats for DO schools are fine as is. IF you don't think you can improve your score, don't retake it. Istead, commit yourself to shadowing a DO or three for a while (as another poster suggested) and maybe do your EMT thing. And volunteer maybe (wide range). Bottom line, if you have mediocre stats (yours) but prove you are serious about DO school (not a last minute back up) and committed to medicine in general (EMT and volunteering) then you will get into a DO school, for sure if you apply to all of them.
If you want to get into an MD school, you MUST repeat your MCAT and improve your GPA too I'd say.
 
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