BCPM 3.24, cGPA 3.47, MCAT 37P

[anriar]

Howdy y'all,

I applied this year with a sGPA of 3.24, cGPA of 3.47, and MCAT of 37P.

My extracurriculars were pretty solid, and I had a year of volunteering in a clinic, a month of twice-weekly shadowing a neonatologist, and a month-long, full time internship at a hospital in Peru.

I only applied to 10 schools, and I'm now waitlisted at three of them. I have the option of finishing a master's degree in one year (I've already taken a lot of grad courses).

What do y'all think I should do? I feel like I could probably get into Ross or somewhere like that, but some friends are pushing me to finish my masters and apply again. Do you think having a master's degree will make up for a below-average GPA? Or should I just accept it and go to the Caribbean?

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[Rzarecta]

Howdy y'all,

I applied this year with a sGPA of 3.24, cGPA of 3.47, and MCAT of 37P.

My extracurriculars were pretty solid, and I had a year of volunteering in a clinic, a month of twice-weekly shadowing a neonatologist, and a month-long, full time internship at a hospital in Peru.

I only applied to 10 schools, and I'm now waitlisted at three of them. I have the option of finishing a master's degree in one year (I've already taken a lot of grad courses).

What do y'all think I should do? I feel like I could probably get into Ross or somewhere like that, but some friends are pushing me to finish my masters and apply again. Do you think having a master's degree will make up for a below-average GPA? Or should I just accept it and go to the Caribbean?

The master's wont make up for your low GPA, but it won't hurt either (as long as you did well in those classes). You had some solid interviews this season and hopefully you get in off a WL. If I were you I would reapply and this time add many more schools to the list (~40ish). Your previous list was pretty top heavy given your GPA even though you are URM with great MCAT.

 

[demayette]

Howdy y'all,

I applied this year with a sGPA of 3.24, cGPA of 3.47, and MCAT of 37P.

My extracurriculars were pretty solid, and I had a year of volunteering in a clinic, a month of twice-weekly shadowing a neonatologist, and a month-long, full time internship at a hospital in Peru.

I only applied to 10 schools, and I'm now waitlisted at three of them. I have the option of finishing a master's degree in one year (I've already taken a lot of grad courses).

What do y'all think I should do? I feel like I could probably get into Ross or somewhere like that, but some friends are pushing me to finish my masters and apply again. Do you think having a master's degree will make up for a below-average GPA? Or should I just accept it and go to the Caribbean?

You have 3.24 cGPA, 3.47 sGPA, 37P MCAT and you wanna go to Carib...Are you serious? If I were you, I would go to DO first before going to ROSS as long as you do not have a problem with the DO degre and their philosophy.

 

[dancingDO14]

You have serious chances of getting off the waitlists. If you have one school that is your top choice, send them a letter of intent. I think May 15th is the allopathic deadline for acceptance, so by late May the waitlists should be moving since people with multiple deposits will have had to withdraw from all but one school. If you don't manage to get a spot this year, I would apply more broadly next cycle, throw in some D.O. schools (keep in mind that many require a LOR from a D.O.), updated EC's and LORs. In my opinion, you have good chances in the next cycle, but seriously don't give up on the waitlists. The waiting period is torture, but MANY people get spots, even up to the day before orientaion. Good luck!

Oh I forgot- with your stats (with or without the masters), I would NOT go to the Caribbean. One year off and reapplying will be worth it to have a guaranteed US residency program that lasts 3-7 years, not to mention the large failing rate of Carib schools.

 

[Catalystik]

Your ECs, as mentioned, don't stand out much. Your clinical experience is below the 1.5 year average. You've only shadowed one doc. Do you have any research, teaching, or leadership? What about nonmedical community service? I hope you continued to build them through this year so your reapplication will show some improvements. With such discordant stats, it would help if all the other components of your application were stellar.

If you end up reapplying, send schools periodic update letters about ongoing involvement in pertinent activities. If you need to plug some holes in your activities list, get them going before submission, so they are on the application.