TheNewGuy29
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- Joined
- Nov 30, 2018
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I will start here by saying that this is going to be quite long. This is my first post, and I made this account mainly just for this. I am putting my story and my journey through undergrad out there, and I hope you all will read this and bear with me. Please, help me out and qualm my fears of applying to medical school. I will start this by saying my degree and my GPA. I have a dual degree in Physics and Chemistry, and I have a minor in both Molecular Genetics and Mathematics. My overall GPA is a 3.51, and my "science" GPA is a 3.48. I have a lower GPA due to many early failures during my first few years in college while completing my associate's degree. I had a lot of family medical issues that helped cause my grades to plummet and for me to take on many withdrawals. However, I have recorded documentation for everything within the time frame to prove my case. This stuff spans about 4 years. I have known that I wanted to be a doctor since I was 15 years old. I am now 29. That goal has not changed in the slightest, but my journey towards medical school has been extremely unorthodox. After my AA, my first couple semesters at my state school weren't the best. In fact, they were pretty horrid. I pulled Bs, Cs, and Ds due to many personal issues including having to take on 2 jobs to help get myself and my family in a better financial situation with the move. I took an F in an immunology course and a C in the corresponding lab, and I once again, did badly in physics with only pulling a C. Things like this really started to eat away at me. After these few semesters, I had some more family and financial situations that caused me to move to another state, and when I did, I transferred back to a community college and got an AS degree. I then transferred to another state school that was academically much better than the previous 4-year, and I held a 4.0 for a little over 3 years straight all while taking many 4000 and 5000 level physics and chemistry courses in many different upper-level specialties (over 25 to be more specific). I have been going through college now for 10 years. I dropped out of high school, got my GED, went through a year of remedial courses, went through 5 different colleges, I have had to take academic breaks for financial purposes, I enlisted in the military, I got medically discharged, struggle with family medical issues, my grades slipped, I had poor academic advising experiences, but in the end, I finally graduated and from a top 30 institution at that with a fantastic upward trend. It has been one hell of a trip. Knowing the bad position I was in, I knew I had to destroy the MCAT exam, so I studied nonstop for 6 months straight, 5 days a week. When I got my score back, I got a 524. During this entire journey, I have also been busting my butt left and right in an attempt to always help people. I have accumulated a very large list of extracurricular and volunteer activities. I have over 1400 hours of clinical volunteer work through several different centers including ICU, cancer center, children's hospital, neurotrauma, etc, and I have 24 hours of physician shadowing experience. I have aided previous hurricane relief efforts up to as recently as Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Michael, I have volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for over 200 hours, I have worked with the Humane Society, animal hospitals, and several shelters for a combined total of about 2000 hours since I was a teenager, I have volunteered for several different homeless shelters and soup kitchens for a total of about 1300 hours, I have volunteered with Community Refugee and Immigration Services for 100 hours, volunteered with the Alzheimer's Association for 200 hours, and I even ran a yearly holiday clothing drive for the less fortunate and founded my own local nonprofit charity for those in poverty. Though admittedly, we are still trying to kick that last bit off the ground. During my schooling, I conducted approximately 11 months of undergraduate research in a lab, and I am now at the point where I am ready to apply. I am an Ohio resident, and my goal is to either stay with my state school, Ohio State, or go to either UPitt or UMichigan. I know this has been a lot, but with everything I have just said here, do you think I have a great shot at getting into these programs? If not, do you think I still have a great shot at getting into medical school? Perhaps, someone here could help me a school list. Thank you to everyone who made it through all of this, and I hope you all can help me!
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