is my plan sound?

[champSJL]

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Hello all,

I'm a career changer who decided to follow up on his dreams of becoming a doc. I graduated from the University of Texas - Austin in 2003 and started taking my pre-med courses in December of 2004. But there are a few "obstacles" if you will:

- I'm taking my pre-med courses @ a junior college. (something I've heard is not that impressive)

- my UT GPA is a 2.8. But, so far so good I've made just one B, in chemistry II. So my post-bacc / science GPA is a 3.8 and when I'm completely finished with these science courses, I'm going to have over a 3.0 overall GPA with a high science GPA.
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I know that taking classes at a juco is not very impressive to med school admissions departments so I thought of ideas to bolster my chances of getting in. What I've done / planning to do to counter my deficiencies are:

1). gain either research experience or work @ a hospital
2). definitely volunteer somewhere, whether it's medically related or just in the community
3). shadow a surgeon (I've got a few family friends that can help me with that)
4). take the April 2006 MCAT and be the very first to apply to all the med schools I can

Now, is this plan destined to help me out? Or am I headed towards disappointment and failure. Am I missing something? Can I do something to further bolster my chances of getting in?

Bear in mind that I haven't ruled out going to the Caribbean if I have to...

Anyone's responses / thoughts are GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Obedeli]

The overall 3.0 sounds a bit low. Do you have any extra stuff that makes you stand out? Military service, won jeopardy, discovered a dinosaur, etc?

 

[champSJL]

The overall 3.0 sounds a bit low. Do you have any extra stuff that makes you stand out? Military service, won jeopardy, discovered a dinosaur, etc?

unfortunately not. I see where you're going with this though, maybe something along the lines of civil work and achievements?

 

[BMW19]

unfortunately not. I see where you're going with this though, maybe something along the lines of civil work and achievements?

Apply to osteopathic schools. The typically look less at the #'s and cater more to Non-traditional applicants. Your #s are not too low for DO schools.

go to AACOM.ORG

BMW-

 

[mamadoc]

What I've done / planning to do to counter my deficiencies are:

1). gain either research experience or work @ a hospital
2). definitely volunteer somewhere, whether it's medically related or just in the community
3). shadow a surgeon (I've got a few family friends that can help me with that)
4). take the April 2006 MCAT and be the very first to apply to all the med schools I can

... Can I do something to further bolster my chances of getting in?

Um. Your list of "extras" is actually what any serious pre-med is going to do to try and put together a competitive application. It's the rare application that does NOT include volunteer experience in some sort of health-care capacity, and lots of pre-meds have done some shadowing. And you are right to recognize that community volunteering is an important attribute in a med school applicant - since medicine is a service field, you're expected to have done service in other parts of your life as well. And applying early, yes, that's always good.

Your post-bacc G.P.A. will be helpful, but as you note, it's from a junior college and when put into your overall GPA it's not as much help as you'd like. The way to get your recent science grades appreciated will be to absolutely rock the MCAT. Briefly, other things:

- consider taking at least one course at a four-year school, and getting one of your LORs from the prof for that course
- do research and get the PD to write one of your LORs

Good luck!

 

[DianaLynne]

Definitely get some serious health care experience. As a nontrad that has sampled a couple of career choices, I was challenged many times on how did I know that medicine was the right choice for me and one that I would stick with. I had been working in an ICU for about six months during interview season, I wish I had started a lot earlier.

And a lot of times you can take college classes at a major university through the Continuing Education Dept, if you're worried about Juco stuff. It's more expensive, but it's major university credits.

 

[OSURxgirl]

I think you'll need to take some upper level science course from a 4 year institution and prove you can average a 3.8 in those courses. Med committees will be less than impressed by a 3.8 from junior college. Your goal is to prove you can do well in demanding courses to prove yourself to med schools. And yes, you will need to volunteer, shadow, and get other medical experience. Research won't hurt either. Good luck to you...you are on the right track.