I applied last year with little success. Applied to 13 allopathic schools, one II, was put on hold, and am currently on a wait list at my in-state public school. I got a 35 MCAT (5/2013, 12 - BS, 13 - PS, 10 -V) this was the third time I sat for the exam, once in 2007, the other in 2012. The other two scores were 29. I originally enrolled in 2004 with 35 hours from AP courses, had some serious family issues, was eventually suspended from school in 2008 after I left school without withdrawing from courses. My ugrad GPA was around a 2.0 (train wreck). I took over running my family's company when my father was no longer able to do so in 2008. I worked for a while until I could go back to school in 2011. Since my time back, I finished all my degree requirements for a degree in Biology while still working full-time. My GPA since my return was a 3.9 (one B in an ecology course) with 85% of the coursework in upper level science courses (biochem, neuroscience, embryology, immunology, animal phys, ecology). My cumulative is up to a 2.65 after some grade changes but AMCAS shows 2.35 cumulative, 2.39 sci cumulative gpa. I have ~100 hours of shadowing, ~ 50 hours of clinical community service, ~200 hours of non-clinical volunteering hours. I'm the founder of an annual blood drive, elected member of a city-wide organization, and am vice president of a non-profit organization that gives scholarships to students interested in pursuing medicine. I applied and was accepted to my state university to do an MPH that would start in the fall of 2014. I was also interested in the SMP at Cincy until I saw the price tag. The MPH would be two years but if I apply and am accepted to my state school, I could finish the second year during med school. I've been thinking about doing early decision at the school I was wait listed, but am afraid that I'll be out in the cold if they don't accept me. What should I do? Is an MS in medical sciences a better option for me? Is the SMP the only option? At this point anymore ugrad courses will have minimal effect on my cum gpa. HELP! I'm 28 years old.
HELP!!! Advice for a non-traditional reapplicant.
- Thread starter BZ414
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You won't like this.
You don't seem to understand how much damage you're carrying, and how bad your odds are.
You needed 3 takes to get a good MCAT.
You're arguing with how AMCAS calculates GPAs.
You only applied to 13 schools.
You're not considering DO schools.
You keep working full time during school (do you want to run a business or do you want to go to med school?!?)
You're balking at the cost of one of the least expensive SMPs, into which you are not at all likely to get accepted.
You're looking at an MPH as a solution (it's not).
You've done about a year of 3.9 work and you're expecting that to balance multiple years of 2.0 work.
You seriously got lucky with your state school.
You should aggressively and politely go after a feedback session from the school that has you waitlisted, and you should overdo everything they advise. If they say more undergrad, do it, if they say full time, do it, if they say more clinical, do it. If that school doesn't give you a local-kid boost, then you have to move on to either DO schools or move to Texas and do academic fresh start. Count yourself lucky if they give you any advice at all.
Best of luck to you.
You don't seem to understand how much damage you're carrying, and how bad your odds are.
You needed 3 takes to get a good MCAT.
You're arguing with how AMCAS calculates GPAs.
You only applied to 13 schools.
You're not considering DO schools.
You keep working full time during school (do you want to run a business or do you want to go to med school?!?)
You're balking at the cost of one of the least expensive SMPs, into which you are not at all likely to get accepted.
You're looking at an MPH as a solution (it's not).
You've done about a year of 3.9 work and you're expecting that to balance multiple years of 2.0 work.
You seriously got lucky with your state school.
You should aggressively and politely go after a feedback session from the school that has you waitlisted, and you should overdo everything they advise. If they say more undergrad, do it, if they say full time, do it, if they say more clinical, do it. If that school doesn't give you a local-kid boost, then you have to move on to either DO schools or move to Texas and do academic fresh start. Count yourself lucky if they give you any advice at all.
Best of luck to you.
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What about DO? What are your AACOMAS cgpa and scga - if you have retakes they could bring it up to a respectable level for DO school. More remotely, any chance of getting some of your courses from the first go-round at college reassessed as W rather than F, and would this bring your gpa up for AMCAS?
The problem with a two year MPH is 1) grad grades won't help, however good, and 2) breaking off a course half way through is going to look bad to adcoms, and your plan of doing your second year of MPH on top of the med school curriculum is unrealistic.
The problem with a two year MPH is 1) grad grades won't help, however good, and 2) breaking off a course half way through is going to look bad to adcoms, and your plan of doing your second year of MPH on top of the med school curriculum is unrealistic.
Thank you for your honesty, thats what I was looking for. In terms of my state school, I met with the advisor in the med admissions office prior to the semester I returned. I asked her directly if it was possible for me to gain admission to medical school and was told that if I wanted to get in, I would need to finish with a high GPA and do well on the MCAT. I did both of those things. I met with the same person prior to applying last year and was told that I had "dotted my i's and crossed my t's." So I was just going on what I was told by admissions. In hindsight, I should have met with more than one schools admissions office to see if they agreed with what I had been told. I'm now applying to the SMP program at UC and keeping my fingers crossed for admission (long shot, I know). It seems like that is my only shot at redeeming my gpa as quickly as possible. In terms of feedback from my state school, I was told "Your gpa is not going to change, apply early and make it clear to the adcom what was going on at the time in your life and that you have learned from your mistakes." I interviewed in November last year and was told that I should apply earlier and get an earlier interview date. With regard to the MPH, I would completing a variation on the combined MPH/MD 5 year degree. Both the MD admissions told me that would be ok contingent upon being accepted to med school in the upcoming cycle.
