Medical Low Science GPA at Ivy League - How should I reinvent myself?

[Goro]

Hi,
I am currently a senior at Columbia University, which is known to be particularly competitive as a pre-med. I have struggled with science throughout my life but feel incredibly passionate about addressing healthcare inequities throughout the United States, which has kept me grounded in my goal of becoming a doctor. While I understand that simply diversifying the medical profession will not address all of the issues that enable healthcare disparities, I feel I can make an incredibly positive impact as a black woman in medicine. Being pre-med has beaten me down over the years and I have considered quitting many times, but I have never been able to walk away. Medicine truly feels like a calling and I want to continue to pursue this dream but I'm unsure of how to use my gap years to my greatest advantage to strengthen my application.

I am a somewhat untraditional pre-med because I am a humanities major (my major is narrative medicine) and I have not worked in labs throughout college. Instead, I have devoted my time to opportunities that allow me to explore community-based methods of improving healthcare, such as volunteer health education for local high school students and studying abroad to study comparative public healthcare models in Vietnam, South Africa and Argentina. I have interned for biotechnology companies during the summer because I am really interested in understanding how our healthcare system functions as an industry. I hope this insight will allow me to work on healthcare policy and reform in the future because our healthcare system is ultimately a business, and important to understand as an industry. However, I recognize that it is time to pivot towards more patient-facing roles so that I can gain clinical experience.

My science GPA is 2.75 and my cumulative is 3.23. Moving forward, my plan is to apply for roles as a scribe or clinical assistant so that I can accumulate clinical and shadowing hours during my gap years. I am planning to take 2 gap years so that I can work and study for the MCAT and strengthen my application further. I want to show medical schools that medicine truly is a passion of mine, but my research interests lie outside of the traditional lab. I am also planning to apply to clinical/translational research roles but I don't know how attainable those positions will be if I don't have experience in those areas. I am also just generally nervous about my science GPA (which I am working very hard on improving in this last year), and I am wondering if I should consider SMPs. My pre-med advisor at Columbia doesn't believe I need to do an SMP and thinks I would benefit more from retaking some courses post-bacc, but I would love to hear your thoughts. What else can I do to re-invent myself? How can I position myself ideally going into the workforce if I have a mainly biotech background? How can I pivot into clinical/translational research? Are there any other gap year options I have overlooked that I should consider? Let me know your thoughts. Thank you!

Read this:

• Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention

Once COVID is over, you need ot get in shadowing and patient contact experience here in the US

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[TheBoneDoctah]

1. Yes, you NEED to get that GPA up as this will be DOA at all schools. You can do post-bac, ace a year of courses and this will show that you can handle the rigors of medical school and that you have changed

2. I wouldn’t worry as much about research. It’s good for your app, but you have many other aspects of your application that would be higher yield (MCAT, gpa, volunteer, shadowing).

3. You gotta ace that MCAT to have a shot. You are an underdog at this point and don’t want another point against you (the other is the gpa).

4. I like that you approach medicine from a different angle from the majority of medical students. I think this will work in your favor if you can do well in your post bac and show you can succeed in science courses (and your humanities major).

5. Always apply DO if you are an underdog.

 

[Goro]

Thank you for your response, would you recommend retaking certain courses in order to raise my GPA ,or is post-bac the only way to go in this scenario?

Retake only C- or worse courses. Otherwise, post-bac or SMP.

 

[TheBoneDoctah]

If you retake courses, post-bac, or SMP, you will need to crush the courses. Basically, they are your lifeline so don't ruin your extra shot.