@Goro
First, I wanted to thank you for this thread--it's amazing how you've spent so much of your own time providing advice to so many students. We all really appreciate your help!
I was wondering if you could take a look at my situation. I'm a non-traditional student, I graduated about 5 years ago with a 2.8 GPA and a humanities major, but I did take Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and Organic Chemistry and did about C+ level work (with the exception of an F in Orgo II and an A- in Physics I). I got very bored of school very quickly and spent a lot of time working as an intern at a commercial health insurance company, which partially contributed to my poor grades. I also graduated one semester early.
After graduating, I worked for that and another company for a while, and I gained deep insight into the business behind both commercial and public healthcare and payments. I don't want to get too in-depth and doxx myself but my experiences are quite unique, and I played a significant role in a major change that strongly impacted a large portion of public business for nearly all of the providers in my state. I also have paid clinical experience from work I've done on the weekends.
I recently completed a 8 lab course certificate post-bacc program with a 4.0 GPA at one of the schools in my city (not the best one, but ranked top 50 by US News); 6 of the courses, however, were courses I did poorly in previously and 2 were upper level biology courses that I hadn't taken. I've been studying for the MCAT, and while I'm not taking it for another couple of months, I got a 520 on the first official full-length exam.
I applied to and was admitted to an SMP at one of the medical schools in my city, but unfortunately it does not provide a linkage (the other SMP at a medical school in my city also does not provide a linkage). I was planning to go as I didn't anticipate being able to get 520+ on the MCAT. Of course, I don't have a score yet, but I need to accept or turn down the SMP in the next week.
My question is this: assuming I can do consistently well on the MCAT, would it be possible to get into a medical school applying this round? I know the best path would probably be to go for the SMP but that would be putting a significant financial burden on my spouse and I earlier than expected, and I don't want to drag my preparation out any longer than I have to. We would prefer to stay in our general region of the country but in the end I'll take what I can get and plan to apply broadly regarding both location and MD/DO (with the exception of the Caribbean). You've also provided several times a list of schools that reward reinvention, and I would definitely apply to all of them (except those that don't really take OOS students).
Once again, I really appreciate all of your replies, they've already helped guide my path so far and I'm sure they've done the same for many other students.
