Gap year!

[jefflikescake]

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Hello fellow SDNers!

I'm currently a Senior at a UC and I am very very worried about what to do next year. I've figured I would give myself 1 to 2 years after graduation to get more experience/exposure in the medical field before going to med school. I have a 3.4 GPA (science GPA is a little lower) with limited extracuricullar (shadowing a doctor next quarter and have been working at a lab for a few months). I want to get some suggestions and insight from people on here as to what to do next year. I could apply for an integrated biology masters program for my school which requires no LOR and other stuff required at other grad school programs (Does anyone else know of good programs that doesn't require LORs and standardized tests?). I want to know what people do during this year to make themselves competitive because I figured that from now on I'm going to focus on this goal of being a doctor. Any help, clarifications, suggestions, etc. will be greatly appreciated! Thank ya'll and good luck on your endeavors!

Jeff

 

[rHinO1]

Hello fellow SDNers!

I'm currently a Senior at a UC and I am very very worried about what to do next year. I've figured I would give myself 1 to 2 years after graduation to get more experience/exposure in the medical field before going to med school. I have a 3.4 GPA (science GPA is a little lower) with limited extracuricullar (shadowing a doctor next quarter and have been working at a lab for a few months). I want to get some suggestions and insight from people on here as to what to do next year. I could apply for an integrated biology masters program for my school which requires no LOR and other stuff required at other grad school programs (Does anyone else know of good programs that doesn't require LORs and standardized tests?). I want to know what people do during this year to make themselves competitive because I figured that from now on I'm going to focus on this goal of being a doctor. Any help, clarifications, suggestions, etc. will be greatly appreciated! Thank ya'll and good luck on your endeavors!

Jeff

IMO, your tactics for getting into medical school are a little off. First, you should do a post-bac by taking more undergraduate courses to raise your GPA to a 3.5+. Your next highest priority should be improving your ECs to make them comparable to other applicants.

A regular masters program will not improve your GPA, which seems to be a little too low right now.

 

[rafflecopter]

IMO, your tactics for getting into medical school are a little off. First, you should do a post-bac by taking more undergraduate courses to raise your GPA to a 3.5+. Your next highest priority should be improving your ECs to make them comparable to other applicants.

A regular masters program will not improve your GPA, which seems to be a little too low right now.

+1 to everything rHinO said. Admissions committees really only care about uGPA so getting a masters will be next to useless. Next, you need to get a bunch more ECs... They should include clinical experience, volunteer work, some sort of leadership experience, and maybe even a few hobbies. The way most people get clinical experience and volunteering is to combine them into "hospital volunteering", but a lot of admissions committees are starting to look for non-clinical volunteering as well, so consider getting involved in other organizations. Also get involved in a leadership role (president would be best) at a club on campus. If you don't swim/run/play hockey/play an instrument/speak any other languages/collect stamps/do anything artistic etc I would also take up a new hobby.

Also, you didn't mention anything about the MCAT. Have you taken it yet? It's a tough test that you should devote a considerable amount of studying to if you want to do well.