In need of some advice

[MrsVINCT]

Forget I wrote anything

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[DoctaJay]

How much over a 3.0 would your GPA be? There's a huge difference when applying between a 3.3 GPA and and a 3.7+

 

[MrsVINCT]

Removing post

 

[at3142]

You can still do it. I would just apply very broadly to middle and lower tier schools. Also, beef up your ECs- maybe get a job in a clinic or hospital to have some patient care on your application. Kill the MCAT and your IN.

 

[njbmd]

There are a couple of things to consider:

First, your uGPA is going to be too low for most of the medical schools in this country no matter what you do on the MCAT. Second, dropping classes with an overall low uGPA is a real "red flag". Third, your ethnicity does not make up for your poor uGPA. At this point, you haven't shown that you can get through a medical school curriculum which is why you will be "red flagged". You are not going to be able to "drop" medical school courses when the "going get rough".

What you can do is put some years between your "drops" and your application to medical school. You can also take the MCAT, do well, and apply for a Special Masters Program (SMP) with application enhancement properties. The key for you doing this is that your uGPA needs to be above 3.0 (in the 3.2 range) and you need to do fairly well on the MCAT (22 won't cut it).

The next thing that you need to do is not drop any more classes period. Your drop pattern is killing you. If you dropped that many hours due to illness and now you are healthy, that is one thing but you have a spread out pattern which indicates that you kept signing up for too many hours; when you couldn't cut the number of hours; you bailed out. Two semesters of post-bacc isn't going to enough.

Single teen mom with family/work obligations = take less hours and master your coursework. This does not mean that you load up and drop.

For the MCAT: Studying "hard" for this test does not equal success. Studying "smart" for this test is more likely to lead to success. You need to be sure that you are preparing thoroughly and preparing correctly. With your poor uGPA, I suspect that your knowledge base for this test is not good and thus you need to significantly upgrade that in addition to taking plenty of practice tests so that you are familiar with how the MCAT poses questions.

You have loads to do in terms of preparation and a uphill battle after that. If medicine is your goal, you will set your sites there and get the job done.

 

[MrsVINCT]

There are a couple of things to consider:

First, your uGPA is going to be too low for most of the medical schools in this country no matter what you do on the MCAT. Second, dropping classes with an overall low uGPA is a real "red flag". Third, your ethnicity does not make up for your poor uGPA. At this point, you haven't shown that you can get through a medical school curriculum which is why you will be "red flagged". You are not going to be able to "drop" medical school courses when the "going get rough".

What you can do is put some years between your "drops" and your application to medical school. You can also take the MCAT, do well, and apply for a Special Masters Program (SMP) with application enhancement properties. The key for you doing this is that your uGPA needs to be above 3.0 (in the 3.2 range) and you need to do fairly well on the MCAT (22 won't cut it).

The next thing that you need to do is not drop any more classes period. Your drop pattern is killing you. If you dropped that many hours due to illness and now you are healthy, that is one thing but you have a spread out pattern which indicates that you kept signing up for too many hours; when you couldn't cut the number of hours; you bailed out. Two semesters of post-bacc isn't going to enough.

Single teen mom with family/work obligations = take less hours and master your coursework. This does not mean that you load up and drop.

For the MCAT: Studying "hard" for this test does not equal success. Studying "smart" for this test is more likely to lead to success. You need to be sure that you are preparing thoroughly and preparing correctly. With your poor uGPA, I suspect that your knowledge base for this test is not good and thus you need to significantly upgrade that in addition to taking plenty of practice tests so that you are familiar with how the MCAT poses questions.

You have loads to do in terms of preparation and a uphill battle after that. If medicine is your goal, you will set your sites there and get the job done.

Removing post

 

[Cestmoi]

Well MrsVinct, you did ask for anyone's thoughts and while each person is entitled to their opinion, you can't really get tight over a response that may not have been what you were hoping to hear, I hate to say I agree with njbmd to some extent. LOTS of other students especially minorities do encounter similar or worse problems while trying to get through school and still find a way to balance things out and make a competitive applicant. I for one had to deal with a rough start freshman year due to family/financial issues and my gpa really suffered. But I picked things up and killed it my remaining years, though the issues were still there, and my gpa was not a prob when I was applying. in the end you just have to prove that you can handle the course load and stress of med school without cracking. You don't want to sound like you're whining or expecting preferential treatment.

That's why I applaud you for working on making things better and redeeming yourself. 'more fire' to that. I must admit that it looks a little shady that you kept the trend all 4 years of undergrad. Where did you do your undergrad? I know of some girl who got in with a 2.9 ish gpa, but she went to Johns Hopkins (not insinuating anything). But a lesson I have learned from the process is that you seriously can't think about the money, if an SMP would help you, please do it. Think about the loans you would rack up from med school anyways, at least that's what I think of. If you won't spend then maybe somewhere deep down inside you're not that confident about making it, and I have to tell, I think you definitely CAN make it. And not because I have seen others do it, but because I believe some adcom will see something unique about you. I stopped comapring myself to others when I realized it was not all about numbers or ethnicity. Its all about what YOU bring to the table. Just kill the mcats, and get great LOR's. I feel like that's about how much you can influence now so go for it.

All said, I wish you the best with applications. Remember - Kill that MCAT!!

 

[MrsVINCT]

Well MrsVinct, you did ask for anyone's thoughts and while each person is entitled to their opinion, you can't really get tight over a response that may not have been what you were hoping to hear, I hate to say I agree with njbmd to some extent. LOTS of other students especially minorities do encounter similar or worse problems while trying to get through school and still find a way to balance things out and make a competitive applicant. I for one had to deal with a rough start freshman year due to family/financial issues and my gpa really suffered. But I picked things up and killed it my remaining years, though the issues were still there, and my gpa was not a prob when I was applying. in the end you just have to prove that you can handle the course load and stress of med school without cracking. You don't want to sound like you're whining or expecting preferential treatment.

That's why I applaud you for working on making things better and redeeming yourself. 'more fire' to that. I must admit that it looks a little shady that you kept the trend all 4 years of undergrad. Where did you do your undergrad? I know of some girl who got in with a 2.9 ish gpa, but she went to Johns Hopkins (not insinuating anything). But a lesson I have learned from the process is that you seriously can't think about the money, if an SMP would help you, please do it. Think about the loans you would rack up from med school anyways, at least that's what I think of. If you won't spend then maybe somewhere deep down inside you're not that confident about making it, and I have to tell, I think you definitely CAN make it. And not because I have seen others do it, but because I believe some adcom will see something unique about you. I stopped comapring myself to others when I realized it was never about numbers or ethnicity. Its all about what YOU bring to the table. Just kill the mcats, get some great clinical experience and great LOR's. I feel like that's about how much you can influence now so go for it.

All said, I wish you the best with applications. Remember - Kill that MCAT!!

Removing posts

 

[LovelyMD]

Again I appreciate the response. I am not getting tight I just get upset when people make assumptions especially when I never made such statements. The fact is that I should have never posted to begin with. Again I did not keep up the trend all four years 10 of those w's were during my freshman year and I maintained a 3.33 Gpa. I really cannot go into specifics since this is a public forum but it is extremely complicated. Again I appreciate your input the SMP is really not for me for various reasons. I disagree with the statement that LOTS of other people especially minorities are competitive look at the numbers for minorities who apply again well agree to disagree.

MrsVINCT,

On your AMCAS application, one of the things the admissions committees will see is your GPA (science, non-science, and total) for each year. That will work to your advantage if you have an upward trend (started off badly, but ended with excellent grades). But with that said, it is to your advantage to have 2+ years of high grades, rather than just one year, so that admissions committees will see that you can consistently handle a high level science curriculum.

Many people who get rejected from medical school do have competitive numbers. There is a very limited number of seats in medical schools, and inevitably many good applicants will be rejected. Although njbmd's advice may not have been what you were looking for, I think it would be worthwhile to take it into consideration since she is on an admissions committee.

 

[MrsVINCT]

MrsVINCT,

On your AMCAS application, one of the things the admissions committees will see is your GPA (science, non-science, and total) for each year. That will work to your advantage if you have an upward trend (started off badly, but ended with excellent grades). But with that said, it is to your advantage to have 2+ years of high grades, rather than just one year, so that admissions committees will see that you can consistently handle a high level science curriculum.

Many people who get rejected from medical school do have competitive numbers. There is a very limited number of seats in medical schools, and inevitably many good applicants will be rejected. Although njbmd's advice may not have been what you were looking for, I think it would be worthwhile to take it into consideration since she is on an admissions committee.

Removed posts. Sorry for bothering anyone on here.

 

[Cestmoi]

Removed posts. Sorry for bothering anyone on here.

MrsVinct these posts are only meant to be constructive. You'd have to learn to deal with criticism during residency.

PS. I will forget all of this ever happened.

 

[MSKalltheway]

You'd have to learn to deal with criticism during residency.

Not to overshadow what you said because you are completely right. But you'll get plenty of criticism as early as a 3rd year med student also, and I can promise you, a good bit of it wont be constructive

 

[xeulee]

Why did you remove the posts? A lot of people are in/went through the same situation you have. (Take a look at this thread: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=125347 )The reality is that it's hard to get into medical school and even harder if either your gpa or MCAT is lower. It's better to get advice now before you spend a lot of money and a year on the admissions process. Good luck!