Hey guys and gals, I was just wondering how important patient care was to most admission committees. I have three years of it, two of which working in the intensive care unit. Do you thinkk this will help even with a less than stellar gpa (3.2)????
How important is patient care?
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Probably won't matter, everyone does it.
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The most important facts in the original screenings are GPA and MCAT. It is always great to have awesome EC's but they are not what your going to be original reviewed upon. With that being said osteopathic schools are notorious about looking at the whole indivdual not just numbers. Good luck.
You should definetely try to talk up your experiences with patient care. Any experience is great and looked upon heavily. I bet there are some great stories and remarkable patients you have encountered. Try putting either great or heartbreaking experiences in your letter, and what you learned from them. The adcoms want to see a mature person who is sincere about medicine and patients.
My GPA was not spectacular either but my 3 years of phlebotomy and EMT helped out a bunch. In fact, most of the questions during my interview were related to patient and work experience. I also had great EC's that were brought up.
If you have made it this far, you will probably get in as long as you put your best foot forward.
My GPA was not spectacular either but my 3 years of phlebotomy and EMT helped out a bunch. In fact, most of the questions during my interview were related to patient and work experience. I also had great EC's that were brought up.
If you have made it this far, you will probably get in as long as you put your best foot forward.
I'll echo what was said before. Although the most important factors for selecting students are numbers (GPA, MCAT), schools look at EC's as well. Since the vast majority of applying students fall into the middle category (decent MCATS, decent GPA), ECs are often the determining factor. Unless you are one of the few with an exceptional GPA and exceptional MCATs, try to keep the focus on what you have that others dont. In my oppinion, most people applying to med school do not have 3 solid years of intense, direct patient care experience. Take what you have and make it work for you.
My GPA and MCATs were pretty good, but when I went to interviews, all that the committee wanted to talk about were my 3 years working for a full time fire dept. They dont talk about grades and test scores in an interview for very long. Since your interview will ultimately determine whether or not you are accepted, you should go with it. Use your experiences for your benefit.
My GPA and MCATs were pretty good, but when I went to interviews, all that the committee wanted to talk about were my 3 years working for a full time fire dept. They dont talk about grades and test scores in an interview for very long. Since your interview will ultimately determine whether or not you are accepted, you should go with it. Use your experiences for your benefit.
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You know, I do disagree with some of what was said above here to some extent about how important patient care is. I feel it is very important. We all have good grades, went to college and have a degree, and we all have taken the MCAT. It is what happens in addition to school and MCAT that helps to set us apart from our fellow applicants.
How many of us have worked in intensive care units? I would venture to say, not many. That is a somewhat of an unique experience and should be highlighted in your essay. It is EC's like that and for that long of time that will set you above your less than stellar GPA. Although 3.2 isn't bad if you have great ECs and LORs.
As to post grad work.... If you want to do it then go ahead, but in my opinion it won't add to your application as much as you think. What was your major? DO you have a good amount of science classes? How did you do in the upper level sciences? If you did badly in those, or if your major wasn't a science one, then by all means take a post bac science program. Be aware that some of those programs are very rigorous, requiring an enoumous amount of work in only a year. Kinda like the 1st year of med school. But if you don't do well, you could end up hurting your application. So check into it thoroughly.
Good luck.
How many of us have worked in intensive care units? I would venture to say, not many. That is a somewhat of an unique experience and should be highlighted in your essay. It is EC's like that and for that long of time that will set you above your less than stellar GPA. Although 3.2 isn't bad if you have great ECs and LORs.
As to post grad work.... If you want to do it then go ahead, but in my opinion it won't add to your application as much as you think. What was your major? DO you have a good amount of science classes? How did you do in the upper level sciences? If you did badly in those, or if your major wasn't a science one, then by all means take a post bac science program. Be aware that some of those programs are very rigorous, requiring an enoumous amount of work in only a year. Kinda like the 1st year of med school. But if you don't do well, you could end up hurting your application. So check into it thoroughly.
Good luck.
Ill graduate this summer with a BS in Health Science. As for my science grades they are decent, A's in orgo and Bio, B's in Physics, and C's in Gen Chem. i've taken other courses like Pathology, Physiology, Clinical Physiology, etc... and gotten A's. but Im not sure if those oter courses are averaged into my science gpa or not. my reasons for weanting to do a post back are two fold. First yea I would like to strenghthen my gpa, and second, I think it would be a good opportunity to be exposed to real upper level sciences liker biochem, Neuroanatomy, histology, etc.. to hopefully gimme an advantage in medical school.
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I think highlighting your patient care experiences would only help your application.
At my KCOM interview, I was asked about my experiences- specifically to describe a patient who stood out in my mind. Since I've mostly worked with COPD patients, I've seen how different people deal with having a disease that will not go away and most likely will only get worse. So I talked about a few specific people and their different ways of dealing with the same disease and how it's not for me to judge them, just to learn from them and try to help a little.
The experience of LEARNING from your patients is what can distinguish you from someone who hasn't really been in a similar situation. Being able to tolerate sick people and see gross things is one aspect of medicine, but a deeper aspect is being able to take what you see and learn about the human condition.
Even if your grades and scores aren't the best but are good enough, you will have an advantage in the applications process if you can show how you have developed your empathy and respect for people through working with patients regularly.
Good luck!
At my KCOM interview, I was asked about my experiences- specifically to describe a patient who stood out in my mind. Since I've mostly worked with COPD patients, I've seen how different people deal with having a disease that will not go away and most likely will only get worse. So I talked about a few specific people and their different ways of dealing with the same disease and how it's not for me to judge them, just to learn from them and try to help a little.
The experience of LEARNING from your patients is what can distinguish you from someone who hasn't really been in a similar situation. Being able to tolerate sick people and see gross things is one aspect of medicine, but a deeper aspect is being able to take what you see and learn about the human condition.
Even if your grades and scores aren't the best but are good enough, you will have an advantage in the applications process if you can show how you have developed your empathy and respect for people through working with patients regularly.
Good luck!
