Can I go to any medical school?

[remini]

I am worrying about my application status in the medical school application.

I didn't finish my application for the year 2000 class because I could not find enough recomm letters, and also I thought my application would not going to work. Last time I had GPA=3.5. I took August MCAT and have VR=7 PS=10 BS=13 Writing=K I didn't recieve any secondary from UC campus (except UCD) My research advisor professor told me that I got too low in VR and writing so I would be very disadvantageous in the application. As a result, I decided to re-apply again and retook MCAT.

Miserably, after my intensive preparation, I got even lower scores in April MCAT. VR=6 PS=11 BS=11 Writing=M My GPA also decreased to 3.4 because I finished the freshman English classes and some tough graduate biology classes. Now I had been rejected by Ohio State University and Cast Western Reserve University without the secondaries, and those schools all sent the secondaries to me last time.

Now I come to think whether my goal to study medicine is realistic. I am a U.S. citizen, but my parents brought me to Taiwan and I recieved most of my education there. As a consequence, my English is not very good. I finished a b.s. degree of psychology in National Taiwan University, but in order to make my profile more accepted in the medical school application, I had registered in the graduate program of biology in Cal Poly Pomona and finished all my premed courses at this university. My career goal is academic medicine, so I really want to enter a MD-PhD program or a MD program that is more emphysized in medical research. However, with my low GPA and low MCAT scores now, I am probably only able to be accepted by osteopathic medical schools, but since I am interested in academic medicine not primary care, maybe I should considered about PhD program if I could not go to any medical school.

Anyway, I would like to ask a few questions. (1) How low is the chance for me to be accepted by any allopathic medical school, according to my GPA and MCAT and my California residency. (2) Will my foreign background make me unfavorite for medical schools? (3) Am I wrong to choose California State Polytechnic University Pomona to be my graduate school and premed school? I have already heard many of my friends told me that I should choose UC schools not CSU schools, but my roommates always guarantee me that Cal Poly Pomona is an excellent university, and I am so confusing.

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[Arti]

Remini:

There is really no solid answer to any of your questions. Your MCAT are good, no really, you being foreign may help to explain low Verbals.
Your GPA is good, not great. If you don't get in, don't panic. My advice is to take 2 years off and work in health care related field and really put in the energy and better your English at the same time. You have the GPA and MCATs to get into some good schools, what you need is a solid application which shows other aspects of you and having a 2 year health care/ clinical science job will help you do that. When I applied I had an almost similar story to yours: My verbal and physical MCAT were 6 points apart, but I took an extra year in college, worked and contemplated and got accepted into nearly every school I applied. What matters now are not your grades or MCATS (those already put you in for secondaried to most schools), what matters now is whether you can present to admissions officers a man/woman who is mature and grown up. You could be these things already, if you write an essay, give it to 20-30 people to read and see what feeling they get, you can also email it to me at [email protected] and can give you my take on it.

P.S. you are a U.S. citizen, so you being foreign will not hurt you, but you will need to mention that you grew up in Taiwan to not only explain you Verbals but also maybe emphasez in your essay how that developed you as a person.

Good Luck and do not take MCATs again.

Arti

 

[MTY]

hi is that the univ where president chan attended?

hi, i'm also from taiwan, and i can relate your experience and background to mine. i'm also in the process of applying with a low vr score.

if you would like to talk about this, you can email me at [email protected]

i'm also from california, and currently i feel i need someone is pursuing the common goal as i am. people around me are not very supportive of my non-traditional applicant status. anyway, i don't feel comfortable discussing my personal problem on this website unless we have any psychologist here.

again, you mentioned that u received rejection from ohio state univ and case western for admission 2001 already?

mty

[This message has been edited by MTY (edited 07-14-2000).]

 

[raindodger]

remini, DONT email your personal statement to any random person online.

I'm curious about Arty, being that his bio says that he's in NY, yet has a stanford email address.

You don't know their intentions. They could actually be competing against you.

-raindodger
(a non-competitive pre-med)

 

[David511]

Remini,

A question for you. You mention you're doing (or did, I'm not sure) a graduate program in Bio at Pomona...is it a structured program where you'll be issued a degree (i.e. M.S. or MPH) or are you just taking post-baccs? Since you're interested in academic medicine, if you aren't already enrolled in a degree-earning program I think doing so would be to your benefit. Plus, such programs offer great opportunities to do research (and get the letters of rec) and will *hopefully* give you a good idea whether academic medicine is the right career path for you.

Regarding your verbal score, yeah, okay, its not great, but considering your ESL status it shouldn't count too much against you. I have a friend, currently a MS2 at a UC, who like you did much of her undergraduate schooling in abroad (Asia). Her verbal scores were also a bit low, though because of her strong science performance both on the MCAT and in school she was admitted. Your science MCAT scores are well above par and you have a decent GPA. My advice is go for a graduate degree and only retake the MCAT if you think you can repeat your initial science scores AND improve the verbal.

I wish you the best of luck.

-d

ps: I'm interested...why Academic Medicine?

 

[Arti]

Raindodger:

I went to Stanford undergrad. This year I am starting med school in New York. As of now i don't have my med school email address. But you are right people should not email random people their essays. my point is that if you have a weak verbal scores and weak English laguage skills, you absolutely must let other people read your essay, because the admission committees will judge your ability to communicate when considering you for medical school.

Arti