Low Old Grades but High Postbac/MCAT--WAMC?

[Self]

I'm in this boat but it's so damn hard to try to figure out my chances. It's really not as easy as a simple extrapolation of probability based on past figures. Check it:

I've got a 3.1 for both cum and sci, but there is significant variation in my course work. I did horribly right out of high school (was academically dismissed from my first college), went to community college, did pretty bad but not as bad as the first college, then stopped going to school to work, the returned to community to get the A.S. with a 3.5, transferred to a 4 year, and graduated summa cum laude with a 3.93, and those are including all the upper level science courses a molecular biology major takes. You see what I mean?

I got a 35R on my MCAT. That plus my coursework of the past 2 years proves I can handle ANY medical school. I just CAN'T believe anyone is going to look at what happened in friggin 2002-2003 and make a conclusion in lieu of what's happened in 2009-2011! I just can't!

Adcoms are smart people! I'm relying on their intelligence to see that I am a student worthy of any top-tier MD school!

What do you guys think, personally? Would you say no to a 27 year old who's had a stellar academic career as of late because he had failures when he was 18??

Discuss!

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[phltz]

I'm in this boat but it's so damn hard to try to figure out my chances. It's really not as easy as a simple extrapolation of probability based on past figures. Check it:

I've got a 3.1 for both cum and sci, but there is significant variation in my course work. I did horribly right out of high school (was academically dismissed from my first college), went to community college, did pretty bad but not as bad as the first college, then stopped going to school to work, the returned to community to get the A.S. with a 3.5, transferred to a 4 year, and graduated summa cum laude with a 3.93, and those are including all the upper level science courses a molecular biology major takes. You see what I mean?

I got a 35R on my MCAT. That plus my coursework of the past 2 years proves I can handle ANY medical school. I just CAN'T believe anyone is going to look at what happened in friggin 2002-2003 and make a conclusion in lieu of what's happened in 2009-2011! I just can't!

Adcoms are smart people! I'm relying on their intelligence to see that I am a student worthy of any top-tier MD school!

What do you guys think, personally? Would you say no to a 27 year old who's had a stellar academic career as of late because he had failures when he was 18??

Discuss!

Your case seems very clear cut. Whatever else was going on when you were younger, you are an academic baller now. Other applicants with far murkier stories of academic redemption than you have had good success in the application process. A few dumb schools may screen you out because of your overall GPA, and it'll be their loss. If the rest of your app is good, I think you'll find your way into a great med school.

 

[Self]

Thanks phltz! Your words are encouraging.

 

[gman33]

What I think doesn't matter. You f'd up as a youngster and then got your game together. That kind of effort will serve you well going forward.

Admissions is not all about whether or not you can do well in med school.
Schools don't like to mess up their stats.
If they take a dude with a 3.1 gpa, it lowers the stats they like to brag about. I personally think this is a factor in the process.

Apply to a ton of schools, you should find some that will like your package.
Others will never even look at your app because you will be auto-filtered out because of the 3.1 gpa.

 

[BPlaysItCool]

I am very similar to you. With higher gpa's but a lower MCAT.

Your thrown gauntlet against the system is funny. Both because I've had the same feeling and also because it is inntately ridiculous. Not unlike swearing a blood oath of revenge against a windmill. Or signing with the Generals in the hope of turning the tide against the Globetrotters.

G might have a point. I don't know what goes into the assessment of app's. What it takes to get someone to look at you as an ongoing Human Project with forays into failures that are more glorius than any organized attempt at success.

My failures define me much more by their chaotic and deliberately disorganized philosophy than the meticulous adherence to gpa rehabilitation.

But what do you do. Tell people charged with upholding the reputation of an instituion that....?

So. Like taxes, death,the slow degradation of your soul and the hegemony of Money. You go forward. Accepting the boomaker's odds.

There's thousands vying for these spots. Who've never wandered step 1 off the well laid path. And for whatever hippyish mumbles come from one side of the mouth to the premed self help consumer, the real talk, amounts to the selection of the Well Ordered The Obedient. The Ambitious.

You don't actually think med schools are looking for wild @ss questioning types. God, I hope not. There is a powerful selection for well organized, discliplined dullards--the perfectly amenable to mind control.

Surely the cryptofascist language of Professionalism tips you off to what your standing in line for?

Your at the back of the line. Your papers are out of order. Take my advice. Keep quiet. And you might just make it. If you apply widely.

 

[TriagePreMed]

You will probably find an acceptance somewhere as long as you apply broadly. Most non-trads forget they are treated differently by admissions. Once you hit the 3.0 cut off, you have a chance to go to med school if your story is compelling as is yours.

 

[BPlaysItCool]

You will probably find an acceptance somewhere as long as you apply broadly. Most non-trads forget they are treated differently by admissions. Once you hit the 3.0 cut off, you have a chance to go to med school if your story is compelling as is yours.

Sure. But I'm just coaching him. So he doesn't get over confident. I f'd up an interview by losing focus and not realizing that my student lunch thing. Dude was peppering me with jabbing questions. Taking himself more than seriously. I didn't realize it till it was over. Overconfidence kills the cat, the dog, and the United States of America.

 

[mafunk]

not trying to highjack your thread but I'm sort of in the same situation

ABYSMAL 1.8 gpa 25 years ago (enrolled and didn't go or drop for several semesters)
3.95 GPA 15 years ago (when the bulk of my undergrad work was done)
Anticipate 3.95 postpac/science gpa

So, how is that handled?

 

[Isoprop]

I'm in this boat but it's so damn hard to try to figure out my chances. It's really not as easy as a simple extrapolation of probability based on past figures. Check it:

I've got a 3.1 for both cum and sci, but there is significant variation in my course work. I did horribly right out of high school (was academically dismissed from my first college), went to community college, did pretty bad but not as bad as the first college, then stopped going to school to work, the returned to community to get the A.S. with a 3.5, transferred to a 4 year, and graduated summa cum laude with a 3.93, and those are including all the upper level science courses a molecular biology major takes. You see what I mean?

I got a 35R on my MCAT. That plus my coursework of the past 2 years proves I can handle ANY medical school. I just CAN'T believe anyone is going to look at what happened in friggin 2002-2003 and make a conclusion in lieu of what's happened in 2009-2011! I just can't!

Adcoms are smart people! I'm relying on their intelligence to see that I am a student worthy of any top-tier MD school!

What do you guys think, personally? Would you say no to a 27 year old who's had a stellar academic career as of late because he had failures when he was 18??

Discuss!

I have a very similar story, applied last year and did pretty well in the admissions process. Here's what I learned on the way.

There are going to be a lot of schools who just say no thanks. So apply broadly to many schools. I would say at least 25 schools from a range of "tiers." I would also say the higher the US News Ranking, the higher your chances at being rejected pre-interview.

Once you get an interview, the school pretty much acknowledges that you are academically "worthy." GPA and MCAT become less important. Now, they want to see if you have soft skills to be a good fit for their school and a good doctor in general.

So yes you will have a fantastic chance at admissions if you apply strategically. Getting into a "top tiered" school, however, will be difficult and almost impossible.

A link to my stats.

 

[BPlaysItCool]

not trying to highjack your thread but I'm sort of in the same situation

ABYSMAL 1.8 gpa 25 years ago (enrolled and didn't go or drop for several semesters)
3.95 GPA 15 years ago (when the bulk of my undergrad work was done)
Anticipate 3.95 postpac/science gpa

So, how is that handled?

Like Sara Tommasi in a blue silk dress. No shoes. Driving a 1961 250 GT SWB Berlinetta, by moonlight, up the Amalfi coast. Ben Webster and Oscar Peterson playin Poutin Blues, on the radio. Left-handed cigarette mixing smoke with salty mediterranean sea air.



You'll be fine. As long as your overall gpa doesn't get you screened out.

 

[yamaraja808]

not trying to highjack your thread but I'm sort of in the same situation

ABYSMAL 1.8 gpa 25 years ago (enrolled and didn't go or drop for several semesters)
3.95 GPA 15 years ago (when the bulk of my undergrad work was done)
Anticipate 3.95 postpac/science gpa

So, how is that handled?

Depends on the school. Some may separate the two GPAs and use the uGPA as the cut off. Some may weigh the gGPA higher than the uGPA and then add the two GPAs together determine the cut off (I have notice some SDNers stating this).

This is not a well known process.