I'm a P1 having second thoughts about my career choice and want to consider my options. I am currently enrolled in an accelerated three year pharmacy program that is based off a Pass/No pass curriculum. Since I have below avg undergrad stats for medical school (3.0cum/2.86science) I would somehow have to present my first year pharmacy school grades as the main centerpiece of my application. Considering I am taking Pass/No Pass classes how should I go about including this in my app? Is there a way I could submit my pharmacy transcript to AMCAS? I'm about a week away from finishing my first semester and it looks I'll make the dean's list due to my high exam scores.Would admission committees even care about what I did in my P1 year or is my undergrad GPA more important? Assuming I have excellent interview skills, good personal statement and LORs from my pharmacy school dean/pharmacy professor/and a surgeon what is the lowest possible MCAT score I can receive to still get an acceptance somewhere? Which MD schools would you guys recommend I try to aim for?
MD Current Pharmacy student with low undergrad GPA
- Thread starter iggles
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Don't even think about medical school until you can prove that you can survive a medical school curriculum.
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With your undergraduate stats, you won't get accepted to any MD program without taking at least an addition year of coursework regardless of your MCAT score. Are you only looking at MD prorgrams?
D
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Med schools will look at all of your grades. Undergraduate grades are the most important.
And how do you suggest I do that?
Would a year of pharmacy school courses not have the same effect?
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A year of pharmacy school courses does not have the same effect.
Therefore, you have at least a year of work ahead of you to show that you can handle intense science coursework; Unfortunately, your time in pharmacy school does not suffice, especially since the coursework is Pass/No Pass.
Out of curiosity, have you taken a practice MCAT?
Therefore, you have at least a year of work ahead of you to show that you can handle intense science coursework; Unfortunately, your time in pharmacy school does not suffice, especially since the coursework is Pass/No Pass.
Out of curiosity, have you taken a practice MCAT?
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SMP or a post bac, and acing either.
And how do you suggest I do that?
Not one that's P/F.
Would a year of pharmacy school courses not have the same effect?
And how do you suggest I do that?
Not one that's P/F.
Would a year of pharmacy school courses not have the same effect?
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Hey you're like me! I'm applying to DO school .Pharmacy school is not my cup of tea at all, it isn't hard, i find the material absolutely boring and having done some health fairs, I do not want to do this for the rest of my life. I took a cold run on the MCAT, no studying, and got a 26. I wonder if I should retake it though? How are your stats?
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You wanna get that undergraduate GPA up fast. Do you have a bachelor's degree? If you do, and assuming you have ~120 credits of 3.0 GPA, it will take you ANOTHER 120 credits of 4.0 GPA to get your AMCAS GPA to a "competitive" 3.5. If you don't wanna do all that work, take advantage of the D.O. grade replacement policy and re-take classes that gave you a hard time, i.e., B- or lower. This option would be great if you got off to a rocky start and you have a bunch of C's that you want "replaced."
Your undergrad grades are SO much more important than pharmacy school grades. There are well-qualified PhD's that want to apply medical school; they did well in their graduate studies but not so well in their undergraduate years, so they're taking a step back and taking extra undergraduate classes to get that GPA up. PharmD students won't be given preferential treatment either - just take a look at some of the older threads using the search function. Maybe, your decision to enter and opt out of pharmacy school would be a good talking point during the interview and even your personal statement - but it doesn't hold too much weight otherwise.
Assuming you apply to a US allopathic medical school with your current 3.0 undergraduate GPA, you probably want an MCAT in the upper 30's to compensate. Even so, you still have a lot to overcome - so keep your options open and apply to reputable US DO schools also - nothing wrong with this route unless you're dead set on dermatology or neurosurgery at this point... And last of all, don't apply to a caribbean MD university . . .
