Double Major

[jthinson123]

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Hey everyone,

I just had a quick question. Should I add another major to boost my GPA? A little background on myself.... I am a 23 year old veteran who was medically retired. Before the military, I started undergraduate school at the University of Southern Mississippi. Let's just say, I did not take school serious back then. It's something that I completely regret but hey, life moves on. I wound up with about a 2.5 GPA from only 38 credit hours. Like I said, I didn't take things serious (I partied all the time and did not devote near enough time to studying). However, discipline was definitely something I learned while in the military. I'm now at the University of Alabama and things are going great. I'm hitting the books, shadowing, volunteering, and getting involved with student life. As of now, I have all A's (I know midterms haven't even come out yet, but I'm confident that I can maintain this success). I'm hoping to end this semester, and obviously each semester with a 4.0 or around that. I am currently a Psychology major and I am minoring in Microbiology and Philosophy (I just really love these topics). I am using the Post 9/11 GI Bill as of now, but I am applying for Ch.31 Vocational Rehab soon (Post 9/11 gives you 36 months of education and Ch.31 gives you 48 months). Since I am going to do this, does it sound like a good idea if I were to add Biology as a second major? I'm not only wanting to do this because I need to boost my GPA as much as possible, but I also love Biology. It would also allow me to take more Biology classes which, at least I think, would better prepare me for medical school. Thanks for any input!

 

[esob]

1. every month you use of your post 9/11 eats up one month of your 48 months of total veteran's educational benefits.
2. If you were medically retired, it is highly advisable to get a physician to give you a letter NOW that says in his/her medical opinion your SCD will not prevent you from successfully completing medical school; med schools have technical standards and if you can't reasonably get a doc to say now that your disability won't prevent you from completing school, then you need to think long and hard about spending 4 years working toward something that you might get denied from doing because of it.
3. If you get approved for Voc Rehab, you will have to justify to a VRC how a double major will help you achieve the sole goal of Ch 31, which is entry level employment. Likely won't happen. Luckily, you can justify needing the bio classes as prereq's for most medical schools.
4. You will likely have somewhere between 60 and 80 total hrs by the time you apply; assuming you have 80 and you ace the next 42 hrs of classes, that puts your GPA at 3.29 when you apply, which is steeply below the average matriculant, and honestly, I know guys that hit 98th+ percentile on the mcat that still ended up with a couple of B's because in reality, hard science UG classes are designed to weed out people. Thus, it would be a fairer assumption to estimate a 3.2 by the time you apply. While this isn't a total NoGo, as you can see from this table (https://www.aamc.org/download/321518/data/factstablea24-4.pdf), that even with a stellar MCAT it gives you between a 15 and 20% chance at getting into an MD school (probably a bit higher because schools seems to like vets).

So, you might want to consider the following:

- how old are your grades, if they are pushing 10 years, you should highly consider relocating to a state like TX where you can use fresh start to wipe them out. It might sound far out but it will likely be cheaper than doing an SMP
- You should consider D.O. schools as a primary focus, as they reward reinvention and tend to be friendlier to non trads in general.
- Prepare yourself that you might need to do an SMP if you don't get in
- Have a backup plan
- Join the FB Ch 31 voc rehab page and visit this thread for more info and advice on Ch. 31: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...-and-vocational-rehabilitation-ch-31.1116928/

 

[jthinson123]

1. every month you use of your post 9/11 eats up one month of your 48 months of total veteran's educational benefits.
2. If you were medically retired, it is highly advisable to get a physician to give you a letter NOW that says in his/her medical opinion your SCD will not prevent you from successfully completing medical school; med schools have technical standards and if you can't reasonably get a doc to say now that your disability won't prevent you from completing school, then you need to think long and hard about spending 4 years working toward something that you might get denied from doing because of it.
3. If you get approved for Voc Rehab, you will have to justify to a VRC how a double major will help you achieve the sole goal of Ch 31, which is entry level employment. Likely won't happen. Luckily, you can justify needing the bio classes as prereq's for most medical schools.
4. You will likely have somewhere between 60 and 80 total hrs by the time you apply; assuming you have 80 and you ace the next 42 hrs of classes, that puts your GPA at 3.29 when you apply, which is steeply below the average matriculant, and honestly, I know guys that hit 98th+ percentile on the mcat that still ended up with a couple of B's because in reality, hard science UG classes are designed to weed out people. Thus, it would be a fairer assumption to estimate a 3.2 by the time you apply. While this isn't a total NoGo, as you can see from this table (https://www.aamc.org/download/321518/data/factstablea24-4.pdf), that even with a stellar MCAT it gives you between a 15 and 20% chance at getting into an MD school (probably a bit higher because schools seems to like vets).

So, you might want to consider the following:

- how old are your grades, if they are pushing 10 years, you should highly consider relocating to a state like TX where you can use fresh start to wipe them out. It might sound far out but it will likely be cheaper than doing an SMP
- You should consider D.O. schools as a primary focus, as they reward reinvention and tend to be friendlier to non trads in general.
- Prepare yourself that you might need to do an SMP if you don't get in
- Have a backup plan
- Join the FB Ch 31 voc rehab page and visit this thread for more info and advice on Ch. 31: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...-and-vocational-rehabilitation-ch-31.1116928/

Thank you for the response! I'll be sure to get a physician to write a letter stating that my SCD will not impact my ability to complete medical school. If I apply for Ch.31, I'll make sure to justify the bio classes as pre-req's. The fortunate thing is, my father did put away money for college while I was a child, so whatever left over classes I have, I think that he could help (especially since I am in-state at Alabama and the tuition isn't too bad). Also, I have definitely considered my chances at getting into an MD school my first time applying and I absolutely realize that my chances are lower due to my poor first year GPA. I will be applying to D.O. schools as well. There are two here in Alabama that I was originally planning on applying to (I'll obviously apply to more than just two though). My backup plan, if I don't get any acceptances my first time, is to apply to this program at UAB that is basically a post-bac program. It's called the "Master of Science in Biomedical and Health Sciences Program". I went to this medical scholars forum at my school and they had a medical student there, who is going to UASOM, and he used that as a backup plan after an unsuccessful first round of med school applications. I have most definitely prepared myself for what I will do if I don't get in my first time applying. If that happens, I'm definitely not giving up. Just pissed at myself for performing poorly in my first round of college. I guess you live and learn.

 

[jthinson123]

1. every month you use of your post 9/11 eats up one month of your 48 months of total veteran's educational benefits.
2. If you were medically retired, it is highly advisable to get a physician to give you a letter NOW that says in his/her medical opinion your SCD will not prevent you from successfully completing medical school; med schools have technical standards and if you can't reasonably get a doc to say now that your disability won't prevent you from completing school, then you need to think long and hard about spending 4 years working toward something that you might get denied from doing because of it.
3. If you get approved for Voc Rehab, you will have to justify to a VRC how a double major will help you achieve the sole goal of Ch 31, which is entry level employment. Likely won't happen. Luckily, you can justify needing the bio classes as prereq's for most medical schools.
4. You will likely have somewhere between 60 and 80 total hrs by the time you apply; assuming you have 80 and you ace the next 42 hrs of classes, that puts your GPA at 3.29 when you apply, which is steeply below the average matriculant, and honestly, I know guys that hit 98th+ percentile on the mcat that still ended up with a couple of B's because in reality, hard science UG classes are designed to weed out people. Thus, it would be a fairer assumption to estimate a 3.2 by the time you apply. While this isn't a total NoGo, as you can see from this table (https://www.aamc.org/download/321518/data/factstablea24-4.pdf), that even with a stellar MCAT it gives you between a 15 and 20% chance at getting into an MD school (probably a bit higher because schools seems to like vets).

So, you might want to consider the following:

- how old are your grades, if they are pushing 10 years, you should highly consider relocating to a state like TX where you can use fresh start to wipe them out. It might sound far out but it will likely be cheaper than doing an SMP
- You should consider D.O. schools as a primary focus, as they reward reinvention and tend to be friendlier to non trads in general.
- Prepare yourself that you might need to do an SMP if you don't get in
- Have a backup plan
- Join the FB Ch 31 voc rehab page and visit this thread for more info and advice on Ch. 31: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/th...-and-vocational-rehabilitation-ch-31.1116928/

I would also like to add that I already planned out my next few years and even with taking 15 hours a semester and 9 hours during the summer, I'd be graduating the spring of 2021. I'll have all of my prerequisites knocked out by the spring of 2019 and will take the MCAT at the end of that semester. So, wouldn't that put me at applying to medical school around the summer/fall of 2020? Since that will be my last year. If so, that means that between now and when I apply, I'll be taking 129 hours since I am double majoring and minoring. I went on to my school's GPA calculator and if I can average a 3.84 (I'm going to be a little more realistic than getting straight 4.0's for the rest of college, though I will certainly do my best to) for the remainder of these 129 credit hours, that would put me right at a 3.5 GPA. If I can average a 3.95, I could wind up with a 3.6 GPA by the time I apply. I know this is still below the usual GPA for MD schools, but wouldn't that at least give me a better chance?

 

[esob]

You take the MCAT in spring of your junior year, submit your app early summer, interview fall of your Jr. year and hopefully have acceptance by spring of your Sr. year; you then graduate that spring and start med school in the fall. Since it typically takes 120 hrs for a degree (or 150 for a double major), you should be at most 3/4th's of the way done by the time you apply, that would be around 112 if you are counting your double major (which I wasn't really factoring in, so it will be higher than the 80 I was figuring off the top of my head). So assuming you pull 80 straight hrs of A's to add to your 38, that puts you at a 3.52, which, while not uber competitive, if combined with a solid MCAT, military experience and an extremely strong upward trend would make a compelling application.