Chemical Engineer Here

[Biotechnical]

I'm a chemical engineer considering a career in medicine. I am about to wrap up sophomore year and I wanted to know what you think about my stats and chances. I'll be done all the pre-reqs once these last finals are out of the way.

GPA: 3.36
sGPA: 3.21

I should be doing some cellular research this summer with one of my professors. And I will be teaching a class this Fall and Spring (how good/unique is this on an app?). I haven't taken the MCAT yet. I plan on finding a local hospital to sign up as a volunteer with this summer too.

What do you guys think I should do over this summer and next year to strengthen my application as much as possible? And which schools should I be targeting? (I'm an NC resident)

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[Catalystik]

GPA: 3.36
sGPA: 3.21

We can't tell you schools to target when your application GPA and MCAT aren't known. Right now your stats are lower than the average acceptee to a DO med school (3.45) and far below the median for MD acceptees (3.65). With a year of straight As, you could raise your cGPA to 3.57, and with two years it could be 3.68.

You seriously need to raise your BCPM GPA and cGPA, Take upper-level science classes to do this over the next year, and even a year after that if necessary.

One summer of research is fine for scome schools, but to have more choices, consider continuing with the research through the next school year. A year of research seems about average for those who list it.

Teaching, tutoring, coaching, or TAing are all well thought of and will strengthen your application, but it would not be a unique activity.

Adcomms prefer to see longevity in clinical experience so they're sure you've thoroughly tested medicine as a vocation. Having 1.5 years seems average with a total of 150 hours. This is better than intense hours over a short time. Ideally, you'll find somewhere to volunteer close to campus for the 9 months before you apply.

Don't forget to get in some physician shadowing. I suggest 60-80 hours so your application will appeal to a wide range of med schools, split among 2-3 docs of varying specialties, of which one is in primary care.

Also consider some nonmedical/noncampus community service, even if for only two hours weekly.

 

[Biotechnical]

My degree plan has me slated to do a semester of research spring 2011, so I do have some more research experience on the way. You are right about needing to bring my GPA up, realistically I think it should be at ~3.45 at the end of next year.

So with a ~3.45 GPA, 1 year of teaching, 2 semesters of research, ~150 volunteering, 80 hours shadowing, and a 30-35 MCAT (hypothetical) am I a competitive MD applicant?

Also how much (if any) leeway do adcoms give to engineering majors? I've heard answers from none to an extra 0.5 added to the GPA (if only )

 

[Catalystik]

With an application cGPA of 3.45, you'd want a minimum 33 MCAT score. Over the last three years, this would have given you a 73.3% chance of an acceptance per data collected by AMCAS for MD schools: http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/table24-mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

You can boost your chances considerably by applying to DO schools also, or waiting for another year of GPA improvement before applying.