Curious as to how I should proceed

[henzmeister]

I'm not quite sure where I should post this, but after reading this forum for a couple hours today I figure this would be the best place to start.

I just graduated with a bachelor's degree in biological sciences which took me 6 years to complete. I have what can simply be described as an obscene amount of withdrawals on my transcript for 3 years of school; 18 in total, 10 being from "medical and compassionate" withdrawals granted by my school. I doubt it matters, but I was granted the medical withdrawals for depression for one year, then illnesses/death in the family for the other. I know some of you just cringed reading that, I even cringe thinking about it because I know that basally guarantees that I wouldn't get in anywhere, even if I did complete an SMP.

I finally learned how to manage these problems and earned a 3.6 GPA during my last two years in school (while working a full time job) which consisted almost exclusively of the most difficult upper division biology courses I could take and managed to bring myself up to:

• sGPA: 3.49
• cGPA:3.47

As far as ECs go, I basically have none. I volunteered in an emergency room and shadowed a doc during my first year of school in another city, but that's about it. I just began to finalize a volunteer stint in another hospital's ED, so I've at least begun working on getting more hours there but I doubt it counts much considering I'm already outside of school.

What I understand is that as it stands now, with the withdrawals and the abhorrent lack of ECs, is that my only feasible options would be to potentially earn another bachelor's degree or get a masters degree (either MS in Biology from the school I attend now or from a SMP) while simultaneously doing as much volunteer work and shadowing as I can muster while working full time (though, I would probably stop working would if I got into a masters program). I also understand my best bet would be to go DO if I did decide to do any of this because of how disastrous my undergrad was.

I know that I have really dug myself into a deep hole. One of the few things that motivated me the past couple years was believing that earning a place in any medical school was even a possibility for me, as I've always wanted to enter the health professions but figured it was well beyond my reach because of the damage my handling of the aforementioned circumstances did to my academic reputation. I was too nervous even ask for opinions about my situation, but then I thought about what working in tech support/IT for the rest of my life would be like and realized how unfulfilling it would be.

I'm not saying I'd be applying in a year or two, because from what I've read on the pre-med forums its not even possible. I just need some legitimate constructive criticism, even if it means I'd have to aim for going to medical school in the Caribbean.

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[popopopop]

Lol, your grades are fine. There are people who got accepted to MD programs with much lower grades than you. In fact, there's a huge thread specifically for low gpa applicants who've made it. Your upward trend in grades definitely helps, and you have a legitimate excuse for your poor performance.

My advice is not waste time with a degree if you already got the pre-reqs, although you can risk it with an SMP. There's two sides to that coin, but for me an SMP is only a last resort after applying. You need to focus on your ECs, clinical exposure, then destroy the MCAT. I'll be surprise if you don't get in somewhere if your MCAT ending up being 30+. Where do you work btw? Can you work less? No one's going to tell you to go to the Caribbean here.

 

[henzmeister]

Where do you work btw? Can you work less?.

I work for my university's IT department supporting classroom/computer lab hardware, software, and AV systems, and I support and train faculty and students on classroom response systems (clickers). Its a reasonably flexible student worker job that I get to hold on to until the beginning of the fall semester (or I can keep it if I become a non-degree seeking graduate, but that's basically a waste without being in a degree program)

I'm not too worried about my grades holding me back, its mainly the W's.

 

[popopopop]

Call all the schools you plan to apply to and see what they think about the W's and it'll give you a definite answer. Do you know a Charles? I think he does a job in Arizona exactly like yours.

 

[Platonic]

Have you been withdrawing a lot in the last two years? If you have a stretch of semesters under your belt with no W's, you should be okay imo with a good MCAT. This could be considered an upward trend in your performance.

MCAT is key for you though, no doubt about that.

 

[Goro]

Your numbers are fine for any DO program, but on the very low end of acceptible for MD programs.
:

• sGPA: 3.49
• cGPA:3.47

This will actually get you rjected as much as an MCAT score of 0/0/0. You need to show us that you know what you're geting into, and that you know what a doctor's life is like. So, start volunteering, and start shadowing!


As far as ECs go, I basically have none. I volunteered in an emergency room and shadowed a doc during my first year of school in another city, but that's about it. I just began to finalize a volunteer stint in another hospital's ED, so I've at least begun working on getting more hours there but I doubt it counts much considering I'm already outside of school.


It's possible but you have to work for it. The multiple W's should be addressed in any PS. You'll just have to take them on the chin and see how an application cycle shakes out, providing you do well on MCAT.



I know that I have really dug myself into a deep hole. One of the few things that motivated me the past couple years was believing that earning a place in any medical school was even a possibility for me, as I've always wanted to enter the health professions but figured it was well beyond my reach because of the damage my handling of the aforementioned circumstances did to my academic reputation. I was too nervous even ask for opinions about my situation, but then I thought about what working in tech support/IT for the rest of my life would be like and realized how unfulfilling it would be.


Bulk up your Ecs and start prepping for MCAT. No need to apply to Caribbean diploma mills.

I'm not saying I'd be applying in a year or two, because from what I've read on the pre-med forums its not even possible. I just need some legitimate constructive criticism, even if it means I'd have to aim for going to medical school in the Caribbean.[/QUOTE]

 

[henzmeister]

Thank you all for the constructive advice. Taking care of my EC deficiency and preparing for the MCAT will become my top priorities. I'll also talk to some of the biology professors with whom I built a rapport to see if they'd be willing to write a recommendation (better to ask now while they still remember who I am, right?).