Low SMP GPA - How screwed am I?

[nontradmeddork]

Brief background: Nontrad AA female. 26 years old. My undergrad gpa is a 3.0 and my current SMP gpa is a 3.2. 513 MCAT. I have 200+ volunteer hours and 6k+ hours worth of work experience in the medical field with patient contact. Not interested in top 20 schools.

I would like advice on whether to retake biochemistry which was the only bad grade (C) I received in my SMP my first semester. The rest of my grades are As, B+s & Bs. Pros? I retake the class, get an A and a science LOR. Also possibly (read this hopefully) deter any questions about me receiving a C in the class. Cons I have to pay $2700 for the one class and my advisor is telling me even if I get an A in the class it wont change much. She also suggested I get another Masters which felt like a kick to the gut.

Any advice is appreciated.

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[Faha]

Where is your state of residence ? What was your undergraduate sGPA? When are you planning to apply ?

 

[DocJanItor]

Brief background: Nontrad AA female. 26 years old. My undergrad gpa is a 3.0 and my current SMP gpa is a 3.2. 513 MCAT. I have 200+ volunteer hours and 6k+ hours worth of work experience in the medical field with patient contact. Not interested in top 20 schools.

I would like advice on whether to retake biochemistry which was the only bad grade (C) I received in my SMP my first semester. The rest of my grades are As, B+s & Bs. Pros? I retake the class, get an A and a science LOR. Also possibly (read this hopefully) deter any questions about me receiving a C in the class. Cons I have to pay $2700 for the one class and my advisor is telling me even if I get an A in the class it wont change much. She also suggested I get another Masters which felt like a kick to the gut.

Any advice is appreciated.

Retaking would be a waste of money. New masters is a waste of time and money. You still have a chance since your MCAT is good and you are urm. But you'll need to apply broadly and have excellent ECs, letters, and statements.

 

[nontradmeddork]

Where is your state of residence ? What was your undergraduate sGPA? When are you planning to apply ?

Residence is in NY, Usgpa is a 3.0 and June 1st, 2022

 

[nontradmeddork]

Retaking would be a waste of money. New masters is a waste of time and money. You still have a chance since your MCAT is good and you are urm. But you'll need to apply broadly and have excellent ECs, letters, and statements.

The only EC I have is working for crisis text line and the 6k+ clinical hours because I work. This may be a silly question but my genetics professor from my SMP offered to write me a LOR but I received a B in the class, is that frowned upon?

 

[Faha]

You are fine to apply now and your MCAT of 513 should help. I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Albany
New York Medical College
Einstein
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
UCLA Drew
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
George Washington
Miami
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Indiana
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
If you are applying this year apply this month and submit all your secondaries by late August. If your Genetics professor will give you a good LOR then take it.

 

[nontradmeddork]

@Goro does this advice "There is no need to retake a C unless you are very weak on the material and you need it for MCAT. Never, ever retake a B or B-." apply to SMP? Its literally my only C and my advisor is making me feel like I failed and im never going to get in.

 

[nontradmeddork]

You are fine to apply now and your MCAT of 513 should help. I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Albany
New York Medical College
Einstein
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
UCLA Drew
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
George Washington
Miami
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Indiana
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
If you are applying this year apply this month and submit all your secondaries by late August. If your Genetics professor will give you a good LOR then take it.

A lot of these schools, in addition to DO schools are on my list. I plan to apply June 1st, 2022 I didnt want to rush my application and wanted to give myself the best chance being that schools are rolling admissions.

 

[Goro]

@Goro does this advice "There is no need to retake a C unless you are very weak on the material and you need it for MCAT. Never, ever retake a B or B-." apply to SMP? Its literally my only C and my advisor is making me feel like I failed and im never going to get in.

It's not worth it

 

[Goro]

You are fine to apply now and your MCAT of 513 should help. I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Albany
New York Medical College
Einstein
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
UCLA Drew
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
George Washington
Miami
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Indiana
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
If you are applying this year apply this month and submit all your secondaries by late August. If your Genetics professor will give you a good LOR then take it.

I agree with the wise Faha

 

[Faha]

A lot of these schools, in addition to DO schools are on my list. I plan to apply June 1st, 2022 I didnt want to rush my application and wanted to give myself the best chance being that schools are rolling admissions.

Yes, June 2022 would be ideal.

 

[nontradmeddork]

It's not worth it

Really appreciate this. You and @Faha just saved me $2700 that I can use towards applications

 

[stinkycheeseperson]

ur advisor sounds like a jerk.

do you have hobbies or any other jobs after high school?

 

[nontradmeddork]

ur advisor sounds like a jerk.

do you have hobbies or any other jobs after high school?

She's on the admittance committee to my schools medical school so idk if it was tough love or .....she was having a bad day but I started crying soon as the conference call ended. Hobbies? I traveled extensively because my friend works for a major airline and made me her companion. Basically I got to see the world for damn near free. I also worked in an OR, medical billing and urology office at a major hospital in NY. I worked for Apple...Nike... Gucci prior to that but I'm assuming I wouldn't mention those on my application? Im doing crisis text line which I love and I volunteer teaching students popular health care issues within lower income communities at a local high school.

 

[DocMcFly]

You are fine to apply now and your MCAT of 513 should help. I suggest these schools with your stats:
All 4 SUNYs
Albany
New York Medical College
Einstein
Howard
Meharry
Morehouse
UCLA Drew
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
George Washington
Miami
Tulane
TCU-UNT
Creighton
Loyola
Indiana
Medical College Wisconsin
Oakland Beaumont
Wayne State
If you are applying this year apply this month and submit all your secondaries by late August. If your Genetics professor will give you a good LOR then take it.

I would consider adding Rutgers NJMS and RWJ to the list too.

 

[middchild6]

You should definitely apply with your current stats. NY has so many great medical schools where you’ll also get the benefit of being in state.

My MCAT was lower than yours, my gpa and scigpa were higher, and I was a couple years older than you are when I applied and I got into my state school out West. I didn’t apply to any DO schools because I really didn’t know much about the process. The only area where you could possibly improve on is your ECs and LORs which you can get with shadowing or asking former professors (even if you got a B in their class). I would ask your SMP to write a committee letter but I’m sure that was part of the deal in going there.

You will end up where you are supposed to & you’ll do great.

Best of luck!

 

[stinkycheeseperson]

She's on the admittance committee to my schools medical school so idk if it was tough love or .....she was having a bad day but I started crying soon as the conference call ended. Hobbies? I traveled extensively because my friend works for a major airline and made me her companion. Basically I got to see the world for damn near free. I also worked in an OR, medical billing and urology office at a major hospital in NY. I worked for Apple...Nike... Gucci prior to that but I'm assuming I wouldn't mention those on my application? Im doing crisis text line which I love and I volunteer teaching students popular health care issues within lower income communities at a local high school.

You can put all that stuff on there.

 

[nontradmeddork]

You can put all that stuff on there.

Just to clarify, its ok to add the retail jobs even though they didnt contribute to my journey in medicine and essentially only gave me great customer service skills? Dr. Gray talks about telling a story for each activity but I dont think there's anything to tie into medicine.

 

[nontradmeddork]

You should definitely apply with your current stats. NY has so many great medical schools where you’ll also get the benefit of being in state.

My MCAT was lower than yours, my gpa and scigpa were higher, and I was a couple years older than you are when I applied and I got into my state school out West. I didn’t apply to any DO schools because I really didn’t know much about the process. The only area where you could possibly improve on is your ECs and LORs which you can get with shadowing or asking former professors (even if you got a B in their class). I would ask your SMP to write a committee letter but I’m sure that was part of the deal in going there.

You will end up where you are supposed to & you’ll do great.

Best of luck!

I really appreciate this!

 

[stinkycheeseperson]

Just to clarify, its ok to add the retail jobs even though they didnt contribute to my journey in medicine and essentially only gave me great customer service skills? Dr. Gray talks about telling a story for each activity but I dont think there's anything to tie into medicine.

Idk what a gray is

Customer service is v importante. You dont have go tell a story unless its for your most meaningful, just do a resume for he other. Check out the amcas activités threads

 

[Osminog]

You have at least a 75% chance of MD admission if you apply broadly, based on past admission data for black applicants. Just to be safe, apply to a handful of DO programs in your region (NYITCOM, Touro-NY, PCOM, LECOM, UNECOM).

 

[nontradmeddork]

You have at least a 75% chance of MD admission if you apply broadly, based on past admission data for black applicants. Just to be safe, apply to a handful of DO programs in your region (NYITCOM, Touro-NY, PCOM, LECOM, UNECOM).

I actually have 3/5 of these on my list already. I also was going to apply to Rowan in NJ. Will add LECOM and UNECOM.

 

[CantFindMeNowAdcoms]

Just to clarify, its ok to add the retail jobs even though they didnt contribute to my journey in medicine and essentially only gave me great customer service skills? Dr. Gray talks about telling a story for each activity but I dont think there's anything to tie into medicine.

You don’t have to tie everything to Medicine. If you can, try to show impact on customers or the team. Did sales go up while working? Were you a high performing employee? Employee of the month?

I have a couple “normal” jobs on my W/A and used them to show my impact (without trying to sell them how increasing sales by 7% above the national average would somehow make me a better doctor because I’m hard working). If possible, I think numbers and stats work well for these sorts of W/A.

I’m sure others have insights and may disagree.