Conflicting info. for increasing chances

[NeRdyGiRl*]

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Hello! I have been receiving conflicting information as to what I should do to increase the competitiveness of my application. I'm getting confused.
Background: I graduated with a science GPA of 2.6 and overall GPA of ~2.9-3.0. My GPA is low because I had to juggle working for my families care giving business, working as a tutor, research, and a degree in biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology. In my Biochem courses I failed 1 course and got C's in 2. I retook the failed biochem course and got a B. In Math I failed calc 2. In a physio elective I got a C. In my prereq's I got C's in ochem 1&2, gen chem 1, failed bio 2 and retook it with a B. On the plus side, I did well in Bio 1, calc 1, algebra based physics, and gen chem 2. My Senior year I showed a positive trend by getting straight B's in all my upper div. science courses while doing paid research, and volunteering in the ER.
The Current Plan is: Take 1 grad science class and 3 upper division undergrad science courses get A's and B's mostly A's for a year, work as medical scribe, and then apply 2016 to a broad range of MD and DO schools.
The idea came from this website http://www.princeton.edu/hpa/post-bac-programs/2012PostbacPathsRecordEnhancers.pdf

Advice Given
-U of A medical school Med Prof. on admissions board said: care giving shouldn't count since I was working for family, I should apply when I'm 30, I should have changed my major to an easier one, and said they couldn't help me unless I had a 2.8 science gpa.
-U of A Pre Health Advisor said: ignore Med. Prof, take upper div undergrad science courses, and that I could use my family's care giving business as clinical experience
-U of A med school diversity and inclusion office said: take graduate science courses, care giving experience doesn't count as clinical, that I should find a medical scribe job, and I should retake bad grades
-Same U of A Pre Health Advisor: disagreed with the office staff, said that I should just take more upper div. undergrad science courses because I did well while taking 3 science courses concurrently, and also that care giving should count as clinical experience.
-Out of State and instate DO schools said: for the most part take grad science courses
-Kaplan Pulse said: take upper div. undergrad science courses, because it's like comparing apples to apples, grad courses are different

Do you agree with my plan or any of the advice? If not what is your opinion? I am open to questions, comments, and concerns.

 

[Goro]

poor choice making is a turn-off to Adcoms. Hopefully you have better time mgt skills now and are better able to now to determine what your priorities are. As a med student, you have to be somewhat selfish.

Background: I graduated with a science GPA of 2.6 and overall GPA of ~2.9-3.0. My GPA is low because I had to juggle working for my families care giving business, working as a tutor, research, and a degree in biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology. In my Biochem courses I failed 1 course and got C's in 2.

Grade replacement is great for DO schools, but if you are interested in an MD degree, B's wont' be good enough. You need to ace things from now on. The avg GPA for MD matriculants is 3.7.

I retook the failed biochem course and got a B. In Math I failed calc 2. In a physio elective I got a C. In my prereq's I got C's in ochem 1&2, gen chem 1, failed bio 2 and retook it with a B. On the plus side, I did well in Bio 1, calc 1, algebra based physics, and gen chem 2. My Senior year I showed a positive trend by getting straight B's in all my upper div. science courses while doing paid research, and volunteering in the ER.

This uis what Adcoms want to see.
The Current Plan is: Take 1 grad science class and 3 upper division undergrad science courses get A's and B's mostly A's for a year, work as medical scribe, and then apply 2016 to a broad range of MD and DO schools.


I agree. this is like trying to get credit for breathing.
-U of A medical school Med Prof. on admissions board said: care giving shouldn't count since I was working for family,

You should apply when you have the best possible app.
I should apply when I'm 30, I should have changed my major to an easier one, and said they couldn't help me unless I had a 2.8 science gpa.

What exactly did you do in this business?
-U of A Pre Health Advisor said: ignore Med. Prof, take upper div undergrad science courses, and that I could use my family's care giving business as clinical experience

Agree. You need to show us that you can handle medical school. Keep in mind that AACOMAS let's you replace grades for higher ones. Does wonders for the GPA. Retake all F/D/C science coursework. But avoid research-type courses, like "DNA Techniques"

-U of A med school diversity and inclusion office said: take graduate science courses, care giving experience doesn't count as clinical, that I should find a medical scribe job, and I should retake bad grades

Either grad or upper level. I recommend Anatomy, Physiology, Med Micro, Biostats, Neuroscience, Cell Bio, and/or Pharmacology
-Out of State and instate DO schools said: for the most part take grad science courses

 

[NeRdyGiRl*]

I am a certified nurse assistant, so I aide my parents who are nurses in passing meds to clients, bathing them and feeding them. The clients have developmental and learning disabilities.

 

[NeRdyGiRl*]

What exactly did you do in this business?
-U of A Pre Health Advisor said: ignore Med. Prof, take upper div undergrad science courses, and that I could use my family's care giving business as clinical experience

Thank you. This was really eye opening. I think I wasn't explaining care-giving well enough for others to understand that it is a health care related job.

 

[DrMidlife]

You won't like this.

You're underestimating the difficulty of med school and the qualifications of those who get to go.

The caregiving job is never going to get looked at, because your numbers are too low for you to be taken seriously. This is fixable, sort of, but not by taking a few classes.

Med schools will mostly never be openly discouraging to any student who wants to go to med school, because that level of truth takes more backbone and initiative than the job of med school administration pays for. Premed advisers know what to do with high-achieving kiddoes and have no clue what to do with low-GPA aspirants.

if you want to go to med school, you have to produce a multi-year mostly-science very very strong academic performance. Nothing in your story looks like that yet. Getting B's isn't making progress.

You will get crushed if you try a normal biosci grad program, because you're not prepared for that work.

You need a whole lot of A's. Every grade you get that isn't an A is a step away from med school.

You'll be told to take the MCAT. You should not take the MCAT until you've mastered the content. I suggest that's about 2 years of full time successful (that means A's) study from now.

So what you do now is one of a few things:
A) do a second bachelors in something hard like biochem, and get a 3.7+
B) or focus on DO schools and do one of the 2 year masters programs that allow you to start from way behind, and then you might get to stay at the host DO school
C) or move to Texas and spend the next decade redoing your academic record

There is a massive boatload of content on SDN about GPA redemption. You can find a whole lot of stories from current and former med students who recovered from similar damage here. People really hate it when I say "spend many hours reading" and then they either do it or disappear.

Bottom line, you have to become the expert in charge of your fate. You're not supposed to want to go to med school from a sub-3.0. So how this works out for you, or doesn't, is entirely on your shoulders.

Best of luck to you.

 

[NeRdyGiRl*]

You will get crushed if you try a normal biosci grad program, because you're not prepared for that work.

- Thank you. I understand the stats are against me. I previously gave up on becoming a physician because I knew that I showed that I couldn't handle medical school. What changed is that my cousin was able to get into medical school with 2.8 political science major. That GPA includes premed pre-reqs. She retook her pre-reqs at a community college and scored in the 90th percentile on her entrance exam. THIS IS WHY I AM SO HOPEFUL. If it weren't for my cousin I wouldn't be on this page. I'm not naive at all 🙂 Thank you for the brutal honesty.

 

[DrMidlife]

Your cousin is what I'd call anecdata. N=1. Your cousin shares none of the emotional or financial burden of your process. Neither your cousin nor you are in a position to judge your long term prospects for residency.

Many years ago I took one med student's enthusiasm for my ambition as permission to go for it. Then I did the work to understand odds and outcomes. Unfortunately I wasted an app cycle before I listened to the advice I got on SDN. I get a headache just thinking about all that lost time and money. (I'm just another N=1.)

My point: make plans after your sample size is large.