Beginning the journey from psych.

[MattG7]

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Hi all,

I want to say that these forums have been a godsend the past couple years. A bit of background:

I did my undergraduate work at USC, majored in psychology. I had started off as pre-med/psych but went to psych. I am now in a masters program in clinical psychology, heading towards my doctorate. As I get further into the program and am doing my practicum, I realize that medicine is my true passion, not psychology. While I feel that both fields aim towards helping people, I picture my career and future life being devoted towards helping people in a medical setting.

I have not taken any of the science pre-reqs for medical school admission. I think I will apply to post-bacc programs (such as USC) for Fall 2011/Summer 2011 (not sure which yet). I am definitely committed and willing to do the hard work.

In the meantime, I'd like to start shadowing. A lot of threads have been super helpful here in terms of how to do that - I have a few local hospitals I'd like to contact, along with LAC+USC (I am applying to their CMV program for the start of 2011).

I was wondering if anyone has any advice before I dive fully into the post-bacc program. I have a few concerns regarding my pursuit of a medical career:

- My undergrad GPA: 3.03. I can definitely do better in terms of GPA - however, undergraduate was hard for personal reasons. My masters GPA is 4.00 and will continue to be so, but I am concerned that this will impact my medical school applications.
- Getting into a post bacc program. My GRE score combined is 1300, with 5.5 writing - is this decent for such programs? My first choice is USC, as I was an undergrad there and the program seems strong (along with great interconnectivity with LAC/USC and other resources). I am wondering how competitive this program is in terms of admissions.
- For shadowing, what is the best way to keep track of this experience? Does one post it on one's CV?

Anyway, that's all for now. I am very excited about this long and strenuous journey but I am confident that it is the right decision. If anyone has any comments or advice, I would be highly appreciative.

Thanks!
-Matt

 

[Helen Wheels]

- My undergrad GPA: 3.03. I can definitely do better in terms of GPA - however, undergraduate was hard for personal reasons. My masters GPA is 4.00 and will continue to be so, but I am concerned that this will impact my medical school applications.
- Getting into a post bacc program. My GRE score combined is 1300, with 5.5 writing - is this decent for such programs? My first choice is USC, as I was an undergrad there and the program seems strong (along with great interconnectivity with LAC/USC and other resources). I am wondering how competitive this program is in terms of admissions.
- For shadowing, what is the best way to keep track of this experience? Does one post it on one's CV?

Hi, Matt,

I don't know anything about how competitive formal pre med post bac programs are so I'll leave that question for someone else. Though consider that you could just do your post bac classes "on your own" i.e., just register as a nondegree student and take classes a la carte.

As for your undergrad GPA, you should be getting as close to straight As in your post bac science classes as you possibly can. This should raise your undergrad GPA (your post bac science classes will get lumped in with your previous undergrad classes on the AMCAS and AACOMAS apps when GPA is calculated). Also, adcoms love to see upward trends in grades. Bottom line, rock your post bac classes.

As for the shadowing and the CV... You don't really use a CV, per se, to apply to med school. There are fields in the AACOMAS and AMCAS applications where you will definitely be filling in info about shadowing and other relevant experiences. So, keep track of any shadowing experiences, certainly, so you can list them accurately later.

As far as your psych degree, are you planning on finishing the degree? I would at least complete the requirements for the Master's degree. The consensus on SDN (not certain how accurate this is, I'm not an adcom) is that adcoms don't like to see people drop out of grad programs as it makes them think you might not finish med school, either.

 

[MattG7]

Hi FuturePittMed,

Thanks for the advice. I was actually doing a bit of searching from your post history in terms of your decision about whether or not to take classes at a CC versus a university (because of cost and the like): do you have any thoughts after the fact about your decision?

And good to know re the GPA. I figure the amount of units will be around 40, which is a hefty amount of units that could go a long way towards increasing my GPA.

-M

 

[MattG7]

To answer your edit/question, yes, I am planning on completing the degree. I will be done by June 2011 and am planning to start the post-bacc work then. 🙂

 

[drimpossible]

I've mentioned this in other threads, but I think that admission into formal post-bacc programs is less competitive than one might think. I applied to a top program three weeks after their app deadline with a 3.2 ugrad GPA and got accepted the next day. I ultimately felt that the program was not a great return of investment, so I transferred to my local public 4-year institution. It was well worth it. I have a number of interview invites and significantly less pre-med school debt than my post-bacc peers. USC is a great school with name recognition, however, it's probably four times the cost of a public option. Are you four times as likely to get into medical school coming from USC versus option B? Check mdapplicants, but I'm guessing not.

 

[MattG7]

drimpossible,

Thanks for the note. I suppose they build up how competitive they truly are... however, I have heard that places like both Scripps and USC having 250-300 apps and taking around 30. I don't think anyone knows the true numbers but I have heard of people getting declined. I'd like to think I wouldn't, hah.

That's definitely a good point regarding pre-medical course work. I know places like CSULA offer such a program that is significantly cheaper. They don't provide matriculation rates for medical school students, though. I'm not sure how big of an advantage it is to have a USC letter of rec/USC name versus a CSULA name when applying to places like USC, UCLA, UCSF, etc.

 

[drimpossible]

It's a valid question. You might want to write the admissions directors and ask them directly. I doubt that any of them would scoff at CSULA, but who knows?

At the beginning of this process, I did a search of my target schools on mdapplicants, and viewed their accepted student stats (GPA, MCAT, & ugrad institution). I found that MCAT and GPA were far more consistent across the board than the ugrad institutions (urban ivys were right alongside large rural staties). An avg successful applicant from a numbers standpoint looked something like a 31 MCAT with a 3.7 science GPA. Where they took general chemistry seemed less heavily weighted.

 

[Helen Wheels]

Hi FuturePittMed,

Thanks for the advice. I was actually doing a bit of searching from your post history in terms of your decision about whether or not to take classes at a CC versus a university (because of cost and the like): do you have any thoughts after the fact about your decision?

-M

The CC thing comes up a lot on SDN and results in a lot of heated remarks. Yes, the CC is cheaper and they usually have evening classes which a lot of nontrads need. I found that classes were a lot smaller at CC, too, which I personally liked. Still, you risk some stigma, that some adcoms may think you were not as well prepared. Plus, as I have mentioned before, some schools have right on their website that they do not want all your science classes taken at a CC (check the Case Western and Wake Forest sites). Where you do your post bac is something you can control and why risk limiting yourself? I still say if could do it over I would take the classes at a four year school. Though when I was taking my pre reqs several years ago, at times I had work that would have made a daytime class impossible. I would probably have had to find a job that specifically would allow me to take day classes, a job with evening hours, or something. The other negative is that though a CC prof is more likely to know who you are in the smaller classes supposedly LORS from CC instructors carry little weight.

I am also thinking that if you took all your classes at a four year school large enough to have a pre med committee that they would let you use the committe for a committee letter, even if you were not in a formal post bac or degree program? Not sure about this but no CC is going to have pre-med advisors/committees.

 

[MattG7]

Thank you for the responses.

Yes, the formal bacc programs I am considering (USC and Scripps; not sure of other So-cal ones) provide a letter of recommendation from the department. Both have you sit down with a committee and essentially talk for an hour, so they can get an idea for your letter content. Both valid points regarding CCs and formal programs. As a person who came from USC, I found their career services and advisement wonderfully helpful... so I am a bit skewed in that direction. Plus, I'm a 'fraidy-cat. 🙂

I am looking into shadowing a local doctor as well as getting into contact with a couple doctors from CHLA. I believe that due to HIPPA concerns, CHLA does not allow even volunteers to "shadow" - so I am thinking of looking into LAC/USC for that.

In regards to class load, I am fairly confident in terms of my ability to take multiple classes at once. However, I feel that O.Chem and some of the science courses could be a totally different ballgame. For places such as Scripps or even informal CC programs, what have been peoples' experiences with taking multiple classes at once?

Besides shadowing, hospital volunteer experience, and perhaps some research, are there any part time jobs that people can recommend that perhaps pay a little but also look great on your resume/CV?