In need of guidance (strong MCAT weak GPA)

[HannahSparkle]

Good morning, good people of SDN.

I have run into a roadblock on my path to medical school and am in need of some guidance.

I am 31 years old, and a full-time 911 dispatcher working nights. I attended state school from 2009 to 2011 and essentially failed all of my classes. I went back to school in 2016 and graduated in winter, 2019 B.S. biology with a 3.5 gpa. I did this while working nights, full-time, by essentially not sleeping for the past 3 years. With state school on my academic record, my application has a 2.2 cGPA with a 519 MCAT.

I applied to 17 schools and only recieved a single II. This was from a SoCal 909 area allopathic school, and was extended only due to a religious affiliation with my undergrad program.

I am currently 0 for 17. I knew in advance that this would be an uphill struggle, but my academic philosophy of the past 3 years has been to commit fully to a medical education with optimism and some abandon.

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[Cornfed101]

I am sorry for your struggles! The biggest problem is that many schools will electronically screen below 3.0. That means a human won't even look at your application. You are not even close to a 3. How many credits do you have? Can you bring the GPA up any more? I have 250 ugrad credits so I fully understand if this is not possible. I would look into post-baccs and SMPs that have a linkage. @Goro has a good guide on reinvention that you should check out.

Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention

So you want to be a doctor, but your GPA is terrible. Is that the end? Rule #1: Take a deep breath, and stop fussing. The sky is not falling. But you are going to need to reinvent yourself. This will take both time and money. And always remember that you’re in a marathon now, not a sprint...

forums.studentdoctor.net

 

[HannahSparkle]

Thank you for your response. You are right that it would require an astronomical number of college credits to raise my GPA above 3.0. I am now researching post-bacc programs which I may be able to apply to with a poor GPA.

 

[deleted859689]

@paradoxic_toxic made a list of SMPs above. With that MCAT, some SMPs may consider you even with the low GPA.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Agreed with the commenters above, your best bet will be a post-bac or an SMP; preferably one with a linkage or at least a strong relationship with medical schools. I'd recommend an SMP over a post-bac, but the issue right now is that some SMPs might not accept you based on your GPA.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[hamiltonnyc]

Congrats on such a high mcat! That's something you should be proud of at least

 

[HannahSparkle]

I appreciate everyone's' support and suggestions! I've compiled a list of 10, single year MBS programs without a GPA requirement and which are listed on the AAMC website as "academic record-enhancers". I will submit them as soon as I get the approval from my references since it seems like most of the application services send letter requests at the time of submission, unlike the AMCAS.

Most of these programs don't seem to have "linking" to medical colleges, even when the school has a medical program. On Tufts application info, it says that most MBS graduates apply after graduation and take a "glide year". I'm not crazy about this idea, so I guess it doesn't hurt to reapply on AMCAS in June (hopefully now accepted into an MBS program) and possibly widen my applications to some lower-tier schools? Does it sound like I'm on the right track? Any other suggestions?

 

[Goro]

Good morning, good people of SDN.

I have run into a roadblock on my path to medical school and am in need of some guidance.

I am 31 years old, and a full-time 911 dispatcher working nights. I attended state school from 2009 to 2011 and essentially failed all of my classes. I went back to school in 2016 and graduated in winter, 2019 B.S. biology with a 3.5 gpa. I did this while working nights, full-time, by essentially not sleeping for the past 3 years. With state school on my academic record, my application has a 2.2 cGPA with a 519 MCAT.

I applied to 17 schools and only recieved a single II. This was from a SoCal 909 area allopathic school, and was extended only due to a religious affiliation with my undergrad program.

I am currently 0 for 17. I knew in advance that this would be an uphill struggle, but my academic philosophy of the past 3 years has been to commit fully to a medical education with optimism and some abandon.

Read htis:
Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention