Getting into Medical School? No Hope?

[collegebum]

I messed up my freshman and sophmore year of college. Took courses which were wayy too hard (calc III, calc IV, etc) and now I'm a junior looking to apply to medical school but am hesitant to see if I even have a chance.

Here are my stats:
Major: Biomedical Engineering

GPA: 3.010
SGPA: ~3.00

Extra-Cirriculars
-1 year of neuroscience research (ongoing) -publication on the way
-president of Fraternity
-Founder and President of Club
-Secretary of Biomedical Engineering Society

Do I still have time to make up for it within a year or two? What can I do to better my chances? I haven't taken the MCAT so I know I have to bust *** on that...

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[COMBAT MEDIC172]

With what you listed it does not look too good. Very low GPA with little to no EC's/clinical experience. You would definitely be wasting your money at this point. You can improve your grades and EC's in about two years. Good luck!

 

[Rebs28]

With what you listed it does not look too good. Very low GPA with little to no EC's/clinical experience. You would definitely be wasting your money at this point. You can improve your grades and EC's in about two years. Good luck!

Agreed about the gpa and lack of healthcare ECs (your others look good, though, for leadership and research). I doubt you'll be able to really improve your gpa in a year, so I'd look into grad programs (maybe in neuroscience?) or SMPs, or something like that. This will help you boost your gpa.

For the MCAT, you know what you need to do.

As far as ECs go, you really do need some serious volunteering and shadowing experience. The next two or so years should give you ample time to work on this aspect of your application. I'd make sure to shadow some DOs so that you have the option of applying DO when the time comes.

So, long story short, there's definitely hope provided that you do the neccesary work. Good luck!

 

[mnbv4184]

you may want to look into one of the one year masters programs that are out there. A lot of people with grade problems go there to bring up there grades and get some medical experience.

Tulane, University of Cincinnati, Mount Sinai, and Loyola all have them to name a few.

 

[CheerleaderMD]

I messed up my freshman and sophmore year of college. Took courses which were wayy too hard (calc III, calc IV, etc) and now I'm a junior looking to apply to medical school but am hesitant to see if I even have a chance.

Here are my stats:
Major: Biomedical Engineering

GPA: 3.010
SGPA: ~3.00

Extra-Cirriculars
-1 year of neuroscience research (ongoing) -publication on the way
-president of Fraternity
-Founder and President of Club
-Secretary of Biomedical Engineering Society

Do I still have time to make up for it within a year or two? What can I do to better my chances? I haven't taken the MCAT so I know I have to bust *** on that...

we're in a similar boat, I took honors calc 3, 4, and linear alebgra along with honors chem and orgo and plenty of engineering classes. The sad part is, no one takes the time to look at that stuff, so the only person it matters to is you--for the most part

Work on that GPA (I have same science, but a higher cumulative). A lot can happen in a year actually if you play it out right.

Don't let all the SDN people talk you out of med school. They all did the same things to get to the same place, you challenged yourself beinga BME and taking challenging courses. Be proud, don't let these others kids make you feel bad because you did something different.

Definitely look into SMPs, I really like a couple of them that I see so far, you take med school classes and get a masters, so it's not a bad deal, it strengthens your credentials and is an equailzer to all these kids who think they're so much better.

On paper, we don't measure up, but don't let that ruin it for you,

Cheers

 

[flip26]

we're in a similar boat, I took honors calc 3, 4, and linear alebgra along with honors chem and orgo and plenty of engineering classes. The sad part is, no one takes the time to look at that stuff, so the only person it matters to is you--for the most part

Work on that GPA (I have same science, but a higher cumulative). A lot can happen in a year actually if you play it out right.

Don't let all the SDN people talk you out of med school. They all did the same things to get to the same place, you challenged yourself beinga BME and taking challenging courses. Be proud, don't let these others kids make you feel bad because you did something different.

Definitely look into SMPs, I really like a couple of them that I see so far, you take med school classes and get a masters, so it's not a bad deal, it strengthens your credentials and is an equailzer to all these kids who think they're so much better.

On paper, we don't measure up, but don't let that ruin it for you,

Cheers

So yesterday you knew nothing about this process, and now you are dishing out advice to others, along with a helping of your conceit with respect to other pre meds? At least tell the OP you had never heard of SMPs before a few hours ago when telling him that is the way to go...

Sheesh, toots. You really need to move along...don't you need to be at cheer practice, Torrance?

OP: why are you majoring in bme? That is a notoriously difficult major for GPA, and med schools will not give you any brownie points for it.

You have 3 years to clean up that GPA. Make the most of it...make nothing but As from this point forward. Disregard the advice to concern yourself with SMPs right now...make As...if you get that cum GPA back north of 3.5, you won't need to do an SMP or a post bacc...

 

[CheerleaderMD]

So yesterday you knew nothing about this process, and now you are dishing out advice to others, along with a helping of your conceit with respect to other pre meds? At least tell the OP you had never heard of SMPs before a few hours ago when telling him that is the way to go...

Sheesh, toots. You really need to move along...don't you need to be at cheer practice, Torrance?

OP: why are you majoring in bme? That is a notoriously difficult major for GPA, and med schools will not give you any brownie points for it.

You have 3 years to clean up that GPA. Make the most of it...make nothing but As from this point forward. Disregard the advice to concern yourself with SMPs right now...make As...if you get that cum GPA back north of 3.5, you won't need to do an SMP or a post bacc...

Big Red says: maybe if you'd read his post, you'd see that he messed up freshman and sophomore year (that's two years not one). Seems to be a trend with you not reading everything.

I said i was naive to make you all give me better advice. I knew about master's programs like the one at loyola, but not like the one at Georgetown or BU. I figured the more stupid I looked, the more helpful advice I'd get, and it worked, I played the cheerleader card too and I knew people would buy into that as well. I got what I needed and I'm just summarizing that for the OP, no need to hate. Its the summer, cheer practice doesn't start til August, so unfortunately I'm just going to have to do research until then. You honestly don't think I could manage to do all these things and not know anything about the process could you? (sorry OP for intruding on your post, but I feel like it legitimizes my advice since we are a select few who do things a bit differently than most).

he's majoring in BME because he's interested in it. Props to you for no succumbing to the typical biology or psych major, you're doing something cutting edge, relevant to today's interdisciplinary world. However, if you don't like it then yeah, maybe drop it and it'd save you the sweat.

flip don't bash us because we didn't make sure we'd get almost all A's before college even started.

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

it's going to be hard,try getting straight A's the next two semester and take the MCAT then see where you stand. good luck, you can do it if you try!

 

[airca12]

Big Red says: maybe if you'd read his post, you'd see that he messed up freshman and sophomore year (that's two years not one). Seems to be a trend with you not reading everything.

I said i was naive to make you all give me better advice. I knew about master's programs like the one at loyola, but not like the one at Georgetown or BU. I figured the more stupid I looked, the more helpful advice I'd get, and it worked, I played the cheerleader card too and I knew people would buy into that as well. I got what I needed and I'm just summarizing that for the OP, no need to hate. Its the summer, cheer practice doesn't start til August, so unfortunately I'm just going to have to do research until then. You honestly don't think I could manage to do all these things and not know anything about the process could you? (sorry OP for intruding on your post, but I feel like it legitimizes my advice since we are a select few who do things a bit differently than most).

he's majoring in BME because he's interested in it. Props to you for no succumbing to the typical biology or psych major, you're doing something cutting edge, relevant to today's interdisciplinary world. However, if you don't like it then yeah, maybe drop it and it'd save you the sweat.

flip don't bash us because we didn't make sure we'd get almost all A's before college even started.

So you're manipulative and self-congratulatory?

That's really something.

 

[CheerleaderMD]

So you're manipulative and self-congratulatory?

That's really something.

I've posted on here before and got mediocre advice. I was smart to play the cards right to get a lot of people to read my stuff and give me plenty of good advice. Manipulative? Yes. Self-congratulatory? The ends justify the means. I'm about to break 2000 views, and that's because of the title of my post--I got what I wanted. Go me!

Cheers!

 

[veaselhaufen]

I've posted on here before and got mediocre advice. I was smart to play the cards right to get a lot of people to read my stuff and give me plenty of good advice. Manipulative? Yes. Self-congratulatory? The ends justify the means. I'm about to break 2000 views, and that's because of the title of my post--I got what I wanted. Go me!

Cheers!

Well, you're not going to get medical school, which is the one that actually matters

 

[JJMrK]

I figured the more stupid I looked, the more helpful advice I'd get, and it worked, I played the cheerleader card too and I knew people would buy into that as well.

BS. You can tell yourself that all you want, but I'd bet money that you recently concocted that story after everybody took a shot at you for being arrogant and self-entitled.

 

[airca12]

I've posted on here before and got mediocre advice. I was smart to play the cards right to get a lot of people to read my stuff and give me plenty of good advice. Manipulative? Yes. Self-congratulatory? The ends justify the means. I'm about to break 2000 views, and that's because of the title of my post--I got what I wanted. Go me!

Cheers!

I think we probably have different definitions of what constitutes "smart"

After all, you didn't just con Russia into leaking its highly-confidential international espionage plans to you. This is an online forum about the health sciences. And one where, I might add, you possibly gave up some anonymity if you represented yourself accurately in your posts.

<pom poms>Good luck</pom poms>

 

[amine2086]

I've posted on here before and got mediocre advice. I was smart to play the cards right to get a lot of people to read my stuff and give me plenty of good advice. Manipulative? Yes. Self-congratulatory? The ends justify the means. I'm about to break 2000 views, and that's because of the title of my post--I got what I wanted. Go me!

Cheers!

This is just going too far. You definitely need a reality check.

 

[CheerleaderMD]

This is just going too far. You definitely need a reality check.

I could've easily written a post like this, and notice how much help he's gotten, versus how much help I've gotten. It made a difference.

 

[CheerleaderMD]

And one where, I might add, you possibly gave up some anonymity if you represented yourself accurately in your posts.

<pom poms>Good luck</pom poms>

I feel like it's still pretty anonymous, unless someone digs this out from years past or it become that epic of a thread.

 

[fMRI]

1) do well from now on
2) if the calculus classes "burnt" you, there is a possibility that your instructor(s) can explain that in your rec letter. (If you did poorly here and there, this won't be an option -- but having chosen "difficult courses" and not dropping them shows stamina.)
3) revise and do well on the MCAT (but don't count on the MCAT score alone).
4) stick to one of your extra-curricular activities, drop the others (preferably the least academic ones), get some clinical exposure by investing your time there instead.
5) don't count too much on publications, they don't compensate bad grades. (Publications can be a plus in the package, but never really make up bad grades.)

Good luck!