Help. Need advice.

[athao04]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello,

So I am at a stand still when it comes to med school. I graduate with a 2.7 gpa and a 2.5 science gpa. I know, its bad. I want to apply to medical school, but I know chances are very low, which is what is deterring me away from applying. I am very embarassed to even be posting this on the forums.

How do I go about increasing my chances of getting in? Ive looked at overall GPA, MCAT scores, what I need to shoot for in terms of an MCAT score to sort of off balance my GPA.

Are there any options to increase my science gpa?

Please help me!

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Well your gpa is actually below the cut offs for most medical schools ( some don't have cut off's but your chances with low stats like that are almost non-existent). Regardless I can think of 2 routes you can take to get into medical school.

Route 1 : post-bacc and SMP. You need to get your gpa's up to around 3.0 and then study hard and score above a 30 on the mcat to get into a SMP. Do well in the SMP and then apply to DO & MD schools and hopefully you'll get in. I'd say this would take around, 2-4 years in total.

Route 2 : Retaking classes and post-bacc. You'll make use of DO school's grade replacement policies. You'll retake many classes (F's, D's, C's) and then after around a year or 2 of retaking you'll hopefully be at a 3.2 or higher Cgpa & Sgpa( preferably 3.5+), you'll then take the Mcat and study hard and get a 28+. Apply broadly to DO schools. * you can retake in post-bacc and having a 4.0 in a post-bacc will be very positive.*

However right now it's literally an impossibility unless you score a 40+ on the mcat. Even then you'll be much better off in an SMP.

Final question : are you an urm?

 

[athao04]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to get moving on retaking courses.

Im not quite sure what an urm is, so I can answer that question.

Would Caribbean schools be out of the question?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

URM or Under Represented Minority - is a special consideration status you receive if you are an African-American, Mexican-American ( Latino's of other nations do not receive this I believe), Native-American and other under represented ethnicity in our country. If you are one of those ethnicity your chances of getting into medical school increase.

Caribbean medical schools are dubious places of which you should avoid going to if you can. They might accept you with lower stats, but over 50% of your entering class will drop out or fail. This is due to them accepting more students then they have spots for classes and rotations ( if you fail the usmle its auto game over for your medical career in the Carib). As such it is not recommended to attend such an institute.

 

[athao04]

In that case, I am a URM. Ive also been looking at schools to see where it would increase my chances of getting in. At this point, I am looking for anything that would give me a bit more leverage to get in.

So, when I do retake courses, how do I present that to the university? Is it submitting two separate transcripts from two separate institutions?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Well consider URM status around a.2-.3 boost on your gpa and 3 point boost on your mcat. Alright you can start retaking class when ever you'd like, remember to retake F's and D's first because they will help your gpa shot up. Remember also to retake science courses with a C- or lower as well before applying. Continue until your gpa goes up. No retaking classes is literally just retaking classes you got a bad score in. (check if your university allows you to retake grades). So for example you got a D in chem 1 and you wanted a higher grade and are more mature now. You retake the class and get an B+, and now the grade for the class when calculated for the DO application is a B+.
During the time you're retaking class remember to allocate around 2-3 months of time for studying the mcat.


But yes, being a urm changes the playing field significantly as you can see. 🙂

 

[athao04]

Thank you Serenade. You really have given me a ray of hope! I will beginning classes this fall. Thank you.