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Can anyone provide me with advice on my situation?
I'm a Pre-Med bio major and am going to enter my 4th year undergrad this fall. I did fairly well in my first few semesters but due to personal responsibilities and being overwhelmed with taking too many credits, my grades suffered sophmore/junior year. I tried to bring it back up this last semester and hope to continue to do so. These were roughly my GPA's throughout college so far: 3.76, 3.71, 3.58, 3.32, 1.70, 4.0. I got a B in Ochem I, a D in Ochem II, a C in Biochem I, and a D in Calculus. The rest of my classes are pretty much A's and B's. I think I want to retake O chem II, Biochem I and maybe Calculus, but I'm not sure. I think I can graduate this year (4 years undergrad total), but I'm thinking I might take another extra semester or two to retake these classes or new classes I think are important to my career.
Right now my cumulative GPA is 3.34 and my science GPA is 3.21. I haven't taken the MCAT yet though.
I am currently a phlebotomist at a hospital (for 3 months now) and am going to start a scribe position soon so I'll be working both jobs (both part-time) during school. I have done some research in college for about 2 semesters so far.
Once I start the scribe job and hold onto both jobs part-time, will it be enough for certain sections of applications for medical schools?
I saw some posts that said you have to have separate experiences for clinical volunteering and job shadowing, but I feel like I would have enough clinical experience from these 2 jobs to know that I want to pursue an MD degree. I've only been a phlebotomist for 4 months, but sometimes I'm drawing blood while physicians are in the room asking patients questions and it's very interesting to listen in on and hear how they interact and what questions they ask. I'm doing training for the scribe position before the actual job (you have to pass a test before actually being hired) and it seems very interesting to me. Some of the things I'm learning in training, I notice that doctors in the hospital are doing.
I have done only a few hours of volunteering through clubs at school, but not much to even put on an application probably. I also presented once at a conference at my college (poster presentation), but it didn't involve any actual experimentation or results. We mostly did our own research (as a group) and tried to answer a question that scientists don't have an answer to yet.
I just know that I want to pursue an MD, but with my GPA and experience, I don't know if I should be doing more to get the experience medical schools want me to have. It's very competitive and I don't want to be an applicant that doesn't have a chance at a great school. I haven't done much clinical or non-clinical volunteering or job shadowing, but being a scribe seems like job shadowing to me and by working in a hospital, I get direct patient contact and am getting used to the flow of a hospital.
I feel like all of the experiences I have provides me with enough knowledge that I'm serious about this career choice, but will adcoms skip over my application if these two things aren't there and because of my low GPA?
When applying to medical schools, is there a separate section for these things? If so, are we not allowed to give the same experience in multiple parts of the application?
Also I'm Middle Eastern (but considered "White" on applications because that's what category it fits in to). And I have been tutoring math (College Algebra) at my college for about 1.5 to 2 semesters so far.
UPDATE: I was unable to work the scribe job because of availability issues with classes, so I won't be able to do that unless my schedule frees up in the summer. Do I just need to shadow a doctor then? I have an opportunity to be a medical interpreter, but that won't count as shadowing, will it? People have told me they learned a lot about medicine just from interpreting. Would that be a good thing to do? Thanks.
I'm a Pre-Med bio major and am going to enter my 4th year undergrad this fall. I did fairly well in my first few semesters but due to personal responsibilities and being overwhelmed with taking too many credits, my grades suffered sophmore/junior year. I tried to bring it back up this last semester and hope to continue to do so. These were roughly my GPA's throughout college so far: 3.76, 3.71, 3.58, 3.32, 1.70, 4.0. I got a B in Ochem I, a D in Ochem II, a C in Biochem I, and a D in Calculus. The rest of my classes are pretty much A's and B's. I think I want to retake O chem II, Biochem I and maybe Calculus, but I'm not sure. I think I can graduate this year (4 years undergrad total), but I'm thinking I might take another extra semester or two to retake these classes or new classes I think are important to my career.
Right now my cumulative GPA is 3.34 and my science GPA is 3.21. I haven't taken the MCAT yet though.
I am currently a phlebotomist at a hospital (for 3 months now) and am going to start a scribe position soon so I'll be working both jobs (both part-time) during school. I have done some research in college for about 2 semesters so far.
Once I start the scribe job and hold onto both jobs part-time, will it be enough for certain sections of applications for medical schools?
I saw some posts that said you have to have separate experiences for clinical volunteering and job shadowing, but I feel like I would have enough clinical experience from these 2 jobs to know that I want to pursue an MD degree. I've only been a phlebotomist for 4 months, but sometimes I'm drawing blood while physicians are in the room asking patients questions and it's very interesting to listen in on and hear how they interact and what questions they ask. I'm doing training for the scribe position before the actual job (you have to pass a test before actually being hired) and it seems very interesting to me. Some of the things I'm learning in training, I notice that doctors in the hospital are doing.
I have done only a few hours of volunteering through clubs at school, but not much to even put on an application probably. I also presented once at a conference at my college (poster presentation), but it didn't involve any actual experimentation or results. We mostly did our own research (as a group) and tried to answer a question that scientists don't have an answer to yet.
I just know that I want to pursue an MD, but with my GPA and experience, I don't know if I should be doing more to get the experience medical schools want me to have. It's very competitive and I don't want to be an applicant that doesn't have a chance at a great school. I haven't done much clinical or non-clinical volunteering or job shadowing, but being a scribe seems like job shadowing to me and by working in a hospital, I get direct patient contact and am getting used to the flow of a hospital.
I feel like all of the experiences I have provides me with enough knowledge that I'm serious about this career choice, but will adcoms skip over my application if these two things aren't there and because of my low GPA?
When applying to medical schools, is there a separate section for these things? If so, are we not allowed to give the same experience in multiple parts of the application?
Also I'm Middle Eastern (but considered "White" on applications because that's what category it fits in to). And I have been tutoring math (College Algebra) at my college for about 1.5 to 2 semesters so far.
UPDATE: I was unable to work the scribe job because of availability issues with classes, so I won't be able to do that unless my schedule frees up in the summer. Do I just need to shadow a doctor then? I have an opportunity to be a medical interpreter, but that won't count as shadowing, will it? People have told me they learned a lot about medicine just from interpreting. Would that be a good thing to do? Thanks.
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