<insert witty advice begging here>

[nvela]

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After perusing the SDN forums for about 1/2 a year I've decided to say what the hell, I'll just register and ask for some advice.

Here's my situation. I got my BS back in 2007 but through my undergrad I was working nonstop to pay the bills and as such my gpa suffered, a 2.33 cGPA...i had proven myself academically before by graduating salutatorian out of a pretty decent sized high school. Also, got a 29 on my first mCAT try.

When I graduated in 2007 I decided that I wanted to get into med school any way possible and wanted to better my chances. Since then I've quit taking a huge pay cut to get a job as a EMT and started volunteering in the hospital as well as taking courses at a local community college.

My question to you guys is, what should I do from here?
I know my chances for getting into any school is slim but I still want to apply to some schools just to see what they would say, any suggestions as though what schools I would apply to? In addition, how can I better my prospects?

edit: oops, forgot EC: Does owning a business count? 😛 I was also very involved in my church, everything from being an altar boy to teaching sunday school. Both of these I've been doing since 2000.

 

[dragonfly99]

nvela
your MCAT Score is OK.
your work and volunteer experience is good.
Your GPA is terrible. And I do mean terrible. I mean it really, really sucks. You don't say what science courses you took, and how you did (i.e. did you take chemistry or bio, etc.?).

Here is what I would do:
1) start taking core science courses at a 4 year university (not community college). Adcoms are not dumb and they know that it will be harder to get A's at most 4 year universities than at a community college. I know that some community colleges are good and this may not be an entirely accurate perception, but that doesn't matter. You've done all this stuff to try to get in to med school. Now go and prove that you can do med school level work. The adcom won't care that much about your hard luck story of how you worked yourself through school. They might care a little if you take a year of bio, 2 years of chem and a year of physics and ace them. Do not try to work too many hours at your EMT job, or any other job, to the point that it hurts your school performance.
2) after you retake all your science classes, consider retaking the MCAT to see if you can get an even higher score.
3) apply to all of your state medical schools (MD and any DO schools that are in your state).
4) apply to a lot of DO schools and consider going to the Caribbean if you try for 1-2 years in the US and don't get in.