Information Needed

[phosporus]

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I am a Network engineer of 5 years and am looking to change careers and become a doctor. I have a undergrad GPA of 3.15 and have none of the required sciences. I have looked into post-bacc's and they all said getting into medical school was doable.

What do you all think? Is my undergrad to low? what is the difference for post-bacc certification and non-certification (I have looked around and haven't seen this question asked)?

Any other help/information would be great.

 

[AdamB]

Depending on how many hours you have:

Lets say you had 128... if you aced all your pre-reqs then you could bring your overall up to around 3.35 and have a BCPM of 4.0. The overall would be below average but with a good MCAT I think your BCPM and MCAT would go a long way toward helping you reach that goal. If you applied broadly, I think you would land somewhere as long as the rest of your app is good as well.

All that being said... getting a 4.0 in postbac is much easier said than done. I haven't always done well in school but I have always been "ABLE" to do extremely well. When I started my pre-reqs, I never thought I would have to work as hard as I did to maintain all A's... Getting A's and B's = easy. Not ever slipping up and maintainin all A's = extremely difficult... but doable.

 

[2008orbust]

Your undergrad GPA is higher than mine.

Do your best to ace all prereqs. That will not only bring up your GPA, but show trend (some schools weigh trend heavily with non-trads). COmbine that with a competitive MCAT AND good ECs and you should have a very nice chance.

Good luck to you!

 

[sawood]

I agree with others that you stand a good chance if you can get strong grades in your pre-reqs and a strong MCAT.

I'm an engineer too, and for my undergrad I had to take physics, calculus/math, and gen chem, all of which are counted in the BCPM GPA calculation. Did you not have to take those classes in your undergrad?

The main challenges that I encountered with fininshing my pre-reqs while in a grad program: I waaayyyy underestimated the time required to memorize stuff in these 5 unit bio classes. As engineers we don't memorize much, its more about the formulas and concepts. Not only that, but bio is like a new language, so my retention in the beginning was not very good. Third, I was on the quarter system and it moves fast and is very unforgiving. There just wasn't time to catch up, and I ended up getting my only B and A- that quarter. The rest of my grades have been A's since now I know how to allocate my time better. If anything, just over-prepare for the first semester or two until you see how the classes roll.

And for your own sake, make sure that you get the best teachers possible. I'm not talking easy, actually easy would be worse. I had a very difficult Ochem professor, but the man could explain it clearly to a four-year-old, he was that good and thorough. When MCAT time came, I can't tell you how much having him as a teacher helped.

For post-bac certification, are you referring to how AMCAS classifies your classes?

Good luck. Just out of curiosity, what prompted the career switch?

 

[DrMidlife]

Same here, sort of. I was a software engineer for 15 years and started my postbac for med school a couple years ago. My overall GPA was about 3.12, and 3.0ish for BCPM because I'd taken a TON of math. I had a 3.9 over about 30 units of computer science, which raised my numbers for Texas, because they count CS as math.

I suggest that you look at one of the postbac programs that doesn't minimize the coursework. With your GPA, I would want a couple of years of full time coursework at a 3.7+ in hard science, to show a delineation between your past efforts and your current ones. Look for a program that lets you take microbiology, neurobio, biochem, etc. in addition to the strict prereqs.

Also, start volunteering and shadowing immediately, and pick activities for which you can feel some real passion.

Getting a certificate for that postbac work is pointless. I can understand why some programs offer a cert, so that there's a finish line, but nobody is going to care about that cert.

Bottom line, do whatever you need to do, including quitting your day job and taking on debt, to get killer grades. Educate yourself about DO programs as well, and be aware that DO programs are becoming just as competitive as MD.

Best of luck to you, and keep us posted.