Help on chances of getting in.

[Rodriguez236]

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Hi ever since i was a kid I wanted to be a doctor. I got discouraged as soon as I took my first Biology class and got a border line. I have always heard that you have to have near perfect gpa to get into medical schools. I was going to a community college and working full-time so my grades suffered. After 2 years at my community college I ended up with a 2.4 gpa. I just gave up after my first semester of college. So afterwards i transfer to a small technical college to get a bachelor's degree. I was tired of going there because i realized that it wasnt what i really wanted. So after wasting a year I finally said that would give it one last try. I went to my old community college and I repeated 2 core classes. After It was time to transfer to a major university I ended with a 3.2 gpa, when the repeated courses replaced the lower grades. I went on to finish my bachelor's in economics with pre-med courses. After finishing my bachelor's I got a total gpa of 3.5 and a science gpa of 3.6. THis is not counting my gpa at the technical college which was a 2.9. If my MCAt is 31; have 2 years of volunter experience; and worked full-time at a regular job for the first 2 years of college, what would be my chances of getting into a DO school. Would it help me if I come from a a low class hispanic family.

Thanks

 

[Docgeorge]

Sounds like you can be a contender. You really should'nt have any problem espicially if you explain everything in your personal statement and your interview. Good luck.

 

[jules0328]

Hi ever since i was a kid I wanted to be a doctor. I got discouraged as soon as I took my first Biology class and got a border line. I have always heard that you have to have near perfect gpa to get into medical schools. I was going to a community college and working full-time so my grades suffered. After 2 years at my community college I ended up with a 2.4 gpa. I just gave up after my first semester of college. So afterwards i transfer to a small technical college to get a bachelor's degree. I was tired of going there because i realized that it wasnt what i really wanted. So after wasting a year I finally said that would give it one last try. I went to my old community college and I repeated 2 core classes. After It was time to transfer to a major university I ended with a 3.2 gpa, when the repeated courses replaced the lower grades. I went on to finish my bachelor's in economics with pre-med courses. After finishing my bachelor's I got a total gpa of 3.5 and a science gpa of 3.6. THis is not counting my gpa at the technical college which was a 2.9. If my MCAt is 31; have 2 years of volunter experience; and worked full-time at a regular job for the first 2 years of college, what would be my chances of getting into a DO school. Would it help me if I come from a a low class hispanic family.

Thanks

Rodriguez, I always thought the same thing, that you needed immaculate grades to be a doctor. And not to say that you shouldnt, hell, I wouldnt want someone who got all D's handling my medical chart. However, being a hispanic student myself, I can tell you that it's tough coming to this country and succeeding, especially when you dont speak the language. After 6 hard years of not knowing what I truly had a passion to do, and lying to myself about not being good enough to become an MD (grades and all), I am headed towards that direction now. Screw everyone who tells you you cant make it. Some people arent good test takers, some people tend to grasp things slower than others. And whether or not it is a language barrier or whatever you want to call it, if you feel you have a passion for the medical profession, to go full steam ahead with it.

Don't lie to yourself, and dont give up. If I were you, I would enroll in a post bacc program and get moving. Depending on where you live, you should look at CUNY-Hunter, Stonybrook, Hofstra, Columbia and there are others. Look through the threads.

Good luck! Don't give up.

 

[Amy B]

Adcoms look for an improvement in your grades throughtout your undergrad years. You have shown that improvement so that is good. As long as the other things in your application are great and if you are able to get a good MCAT score, you should be totally ready to apply to DO schools and feel like you have a chance. They will average your grades together so your overall GPA is going to be lower than what it is now, but they will see your recent grades and know that you have improved.

I would suggest writing a short paragragh in your personal essay that talks briefly about why you did poorly in the first year of college and how you have now matured and were able to do much better in the last two years.

If you haven't shadowed a DO yet, I would suggest doing so now so you can get a letter of recommendation from them to add to your application.

Oh, and you won't need a 31 on the MCAT. It would be nice, but that is higher than the average MCAT scores at MD schools. The average at DO schools is 25.

Good luck

 

[Nate]

Just a correction, they will not average your grades as Amy mentioned. AACOMAS takes the better of your grades in the same class and does NOT average in the lower. However, it still shows up on the application. AMCAS, on the other hand, will average all your grades no matter how many times you repeat the same class and so your GPA for AMCAS will be significantly lower if you retook classes. This happened to me; after some rough times senior year I retook classes so there is a rather large discrepancy between my AACOMAS and AMCAS GPAs. But remember that no medical school committee contains idiots, if they are true to looking past numbers they will see you retook classes.
It sounds to me from your writing that you know what is important for your application, I say go for it, if you really want it then you will get it. Don't think being Hispanic will make us better doctors, however, it can give us some unique perspectives and experiences, thus diversity, to bring to any class.

 

[Sense]

Hi ever since i was a kid I wanted to be a doctor. I got discouraged as soon as I took my first Biology class and got a border line. I have always heard that you have to have near perfect gpa to get into medical schools. I was going to a community college and working full-time so my grades suffered. After 2 years at my community college I ended up with a 2.4 gpa. I just gave up after my first semester of college. So afterwards i transfer to a small technical college to get a bachelor's degree. I was tired of going there because i realized that it wasnt what i really wanted. So after wasting a year I finally said that would give it one last try. I went to my old community college and I repeated 2 core classes. After It was time to transfer to a major university I ended with a 3.2 gpa, when the repeated courses replaced the lower grades. I went on to finish my bachelor's in economics with pre-med courses. After finishing my bachelor's I got a total gpa of 3.5 and a science gpa of 3.6. THis is not counting my gpa at the technical college which was a 2.9. If my MCAt is 31; have 2 years of volunter experience; and worked full-time at a regular job for the first 2 years of college, what would be my chances of getting into a DO school. Would it help me if I come from a a low class hispanic family.

Thanks

Well, I am not sure what your overall gpa exactly is. It appears it is somewhere around 3.0. Being hispanic and from a low income family will help you a lot because, especially DO schools, they are looking for diversity.

I believe if you can pull off a 26 or higher, and apply to all 22 or so DO schools, you will get in somewhere. It's just a matter of where.

 

[Amy B]

Just a correction, they will not average your grades as Amy mentioned.

I should have clarified my post. They will average all gpas together, BUT will take any retake grades in place of the worst grade. But if there are classes you didn't retake, those grades will be averaged together with the new school's grades.