Is this a good game plan?

[Safavi]

I have been working as an aide at a psychiatric hospital for half a year now and shadowing doctors and nurses to figure out what I want to do in the field of medicine. My problem is, I graduated with a worthless degree and have been struggling to find jobs. This experience made me grit my teeth and try to fulfill my long repressed dreams of entering medicine. I visited several medical schools over the past year and have a relationship with one of them- UMDNJ-SOM. I know I can't ever hope of getting into an allopathic school, but I am aiming for osteopathic.

Here are my stats:
3.8 GPA Community College (64 credits)
3.1 GPA The College of New Jersey (64 credits) * (I had to retake a couple of courses to get this).
GRE: 80% Verbal 60% Quant 95% Writing
Shadowing IM Doctor, Dermatologist, and Psychiatrist
Working at Psychiatric Hospital

Here is my game plan. I am about to go per diem at my hospital and enroll in a post baccalaureate in pre-professional studies at William Paterson University. My idea is that I will aim for medical school, but if I don't make it, I can become a PA. I am also going to apply to NJCU's Accelerated Nursing Program one year into my post-bacc as a second layer back up plan. Regardless, I will be looking to apply to medical school several times- presumably first without my RN, then with an RN. I will be studying the Kaplan MCAT Premier while taking my courses at WP. Given the ease of William Paterson and the toughness of TCNJ, I assume I can make a 3.7-3.9 at WP, especially now with my back against the wall. I wonder if this is a good game plan or it is just insane. Caribbean is not really an option for me as I am poor and not willing to take the chances of going through medical school without finding a residency. The reason I did poorly at TCNJ was mainly due to a large family dispute that sent me into clinical depression. There is an upward trend in my grades, but it was too late and the degree was unrelated to medicine. The cost of this whole endeavor will be around 30K for post-bacc and 30K for accelerated nursing. As a per-diem assistant at my hospital, I can get a job there as an RN once I graduate, as this has happened with many of my friends from work.

Reading this, you'll wonder why I'm aiming for DO, PA, and RN. Simply because I need a back up plan. And another. And another. And I have a nagging self-doubt about medical school- not about doing well, but about getting in with my previous academic history.

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[hallowmann]

I'm a little confused. Have you taken any of the prerequisite courses? If so, just take the MCAT and apply DO early and broadly. If not, do either the post-bac program you mentioned or an informal post-bac at the cheapest University you can find and just complete the prerequisites.

I'm not sure what your current cumulative and science GPAs are (I'm assuming ~3.45), but if you get >3.5 in the prereqs, you'd probably be around a 3.5 total, and with an MCAT from 26-28 you'd be in a good position for a lot of DO schools.

Honestly, its really too early to tell, but if you do well in the post-bac and MCAT, just apply early and broadly and you should be fine. So in other words, your plan sounds good, and while its good to have backups, if you do well, you won't need them.

Also, how many courses did you have to retake? If your AMCAS GPAs after the post-bac are even around 3.4 and you get a 30+ on the MCAT, I would even say apply MD, because while difficult it wouldn't be out of the picture.

 

[Goro]

It would help us get a sense of you if you gave us your cGPA (we don't care how you did at indvidual colleges.).

Also, GRE is meaningless to medical school AdComs. For DO schools the avg applicant has a 3.4 GPA and a 26+ MCAT. Bare minimum to be competitive will be 3.0-3.2, and MCAT of 23-24.

I have been working as an aide at a psychiatric hospital for half a year now and shadowing doctors and nurses to figure out what I want to do in the field of medicine. My problem is, I graduated with a worthless degree and have been struggling to find jobs. This experience made me grit my teeth and try to fulfill my long repressed dreams of entering medicine. I visited several medical schools over the past year and have a relationship with one of them- UMDNJ-SOM. I know I can't ever hope of getting into an allopathic school, but I am aiming for osteopathic.

Here are my stats:
3.8 GPA Community College (64 credits)
3.1 GPA The College of New Jersey (64 credits) * (I had to retake a couple of courses to get this).
GRE: 80% Verbal 60% Quant 95% Writing
Shadowing IM Doctor, Dermatologist, and Psychiatrist
Working at Psychiatric Hospital

Here is my game plan. I am about to go per diem at my hospital and enroll in a post baccalaureate in pre-professional studies at William Paterson University. My idea is that I will aim for medical school, but if I don't make it, I can become a PA. I am also going to apply to NJCU's Accelerated Nursing Program one year into my post-bacc as a second layer back up plan. Regardless, I will be looking to apply to medical school several times- presumably first without my RN, then with an RN. I will be studying the Kaplan MCAT Premier while taking my courses at WP. Given the ease of William Paterson and the toughness of TCNJ, I assume I can make a 3.7-3.9 at WP, especially now with my back against the wall. I wonder if this is a good game plan or it is just insane. Caribbean is not really an option for me as I am poor and not willing to take the chances of going through medical school without finding a residency. The reason I did poorly at TCNJ was mainly due to a large family dispute that sent me into clinical depression. There is an upward trend in my grades, but it was too late and the degree was unrelated to medicine. The cost of this whole endeavor will be around 30K for post-bacc and 30K for accelerated nursing. As a per-diem assistant at my hospital, I can get a job there as an RN once I graduate, as this has happened with many of my friends from work.

Reading this, you'll wonder why I'm aiming for DO, PA, and RN. Simply because I need a back up plan. And another. And another. And I have a nagging self-doubt about medical school- not about doing well, but about getting in with my previous academic history.

 

[Safavi]

My cGPA is 3.45 now, but with the post bac (which I need since I don't have all my prereqs ) I project that it will be 3.5 to 3.6. The reason my confidence is shot is because I did well at community college but did horribly at TCNJ, and most certainly ad coms don't care about community college grades. So I'll be contending with a 3.1... For DO. MD has no grade replacement so I'd have a 2.9 from TCNJ.

 

[Safavi]

My cGPA is 3.45 now, but with the post bac (which I need since I don't have all my prereqs ) I project that it will be 3.5 to 3.6. The reason my confidence is shot is because I did well at community college but did horribly at TCNJ, and most certainly ad coms don't care about community college grades. So I'll be contending with a 3.1...and that is for DO, for MD due to no grade replacement policy I'd have a 2.9 from TCNJ.

Fixed... Phone typos.

 

[Cuongoff]

FYI you can edit the post without having to post another one.

Also, is there anyway for you to do the postbacc at a medical school? For instance, I know VCOM has a postbacc program and some of the students from the program ended up going to VCOM. idk if there's a separate admissions process for postbacs students but it might end up looking good to the admissions committee

Fixed... Phone typos.

 

[Safavi]

FYI you can edit the post without having to post another one.

Also, is there anyway for you to do the postbacc at a medical school? For instance, I know VCOM has a postbacc program and some of the students from the program ended up going to VCOM. idk if there's a separate admissions process for postbacs students but it might end up looking good to the admissions committee

Umdnj doesn't have such a program... St George's does but again Caribbean is out of the question for me... Too much risk and too expensive. My post bac isn't affiliated with any medical schools- it's essentially matriculation as a second degree bio student, this way I don't get second class status when registering for classes. Rutgers has one that is affiliated with umdnj but its non matric and you get last dibs on classes, I'm afraid of having to push back my plans a whole semester for just one class. WP also has pre med advisors who write letters for you and guide you, which would be harder to get if I went unstructured.

I'd love to go to Rutgers program as it is formal and affiliated with uMDNJ but my GPA will probably bar me from getting in and if I do, I might not get into the classes I want.

 

[hallowmann]

Umdnj doesn't have such a program... St George's does but again Caribbean is out of the question for me... Too much risk and too expensive. My post bac isn't affiliated with any medical schools- it's essentially matriculation as a second degree bio student, this way I don't get second class status when registering for classes. Rutgers has one that is affiliated with umdnj but its non matric and you get last dibs on classes, I'm afraid of having to push back my plans a whole semester for just one class. WP also has pre med advisors who write letters for you and guide you, which would be harder to get if I went unstructured.

I'd love to go to Rutgers program as it is formal and affiliated with uMDNJ but my GPA will probably bar me from getting in and if I do, I might not get into the classes I want.

If you ONLY want to go to UMDNJ that may restrict things a bit and you'll probably have a tougher time (its still doable, just not as easy as getting into any DO program). Its definitely better to go to a school that has some form of linkage going for it, especially if you are looking at only one program. Don't worry about SGU, you won't need it, and there are many cheaper post-bacs around.

I'm not sure why you think your GPA will keep you out of a lot of places. Even without grade replacement, you probably have >3.3, which should definitely be above the cutoffs for most post-bac programs. If you really have lost confidence, I would take some time and see exactly why you did so much worse at the University as compared to the CC, but really you aren't in a terrible situation. If you do well in the pre-reqs, you are looking at a GPA of at least 3.5 or 3.4 without grade replacement. Just make sure you study hard and do well. With a 3.5, and an MCAT ~28 you should be in a good spot for UMDNJ, and many other DO programs. It helps if you have good grades in most of your pre-reqs, and that you are non-trad.

Also, if you are open to other programs, I know LECOM has a relatively cheap post-bac (~$14k) for 1 year that I think can turn into a 2yr masters (many places have similar programs, I just think LECOM is one of the cheaper ones). I think if you get above a 3.2 and 24, you are guaranteed an interview at LECOM.

 

[Safavi]

I'm local to New Jersey because I'm taking care of my father for the time being and working at the hospital... I'm looking to get into any osteopathic program really, I've looked at PCOM too, it's just UMDNJ SOM and I have a relationship- the Admissions staff there know me as I have been there many times and have ten or so friends including one close friend going there. The reason I did bad at TCNJ was a mixture of adjusting to workload and depression brought on by family circumstances, but there is a significant upward trend an I did get into deans list which is not an easy feat at TCNJ. I think I will do well at WP simply due to the disparity in academic standards... And I will be studying for mcats from day one as well as investing in a Kaplan course. I'm a person who goes all out lol.

The performance issue may just be my sense of worry. The MCAT is what worries me the most as I'm traditionally not strong with long standardized tests. But I'll study for it like my life depended on it and a 25-29 doesn't seem out of reach at all.