Medical School Blues

[staxofflapjax]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Lately I have kinda been freaking out a bit. First off, let me say that I am generally a really good student, I study really hard and all that. However, as time nears to apply to med school, I'm worried my stats aren't up to snuff. My GPA, for starters, is a little lower than I would like it to be. About 3.13, which is waaaay low compared to a lot of people on this forum. My MCATs are atrocious tho, I scored 22K (I REALLY screwed up the essay part, don't remind me...). What medical schools should I look too? Would any Medical school even take me? What options should I do to ameliorate my situation? Should I do extra curriculars?

 

[avatarftw]

Hmm, is your science GPA higher than your non-science GPA? If it is, that helps a bit. I suggest applying DO; you can repeat the classes you did poorly in (C, C+, B-)

Also, you definitely have to retake the MCAT, 22 is pretty low for medical school. You would have a solid chance at podiatry school, however.

Lately I have kinda been freaking out a bit. First off, let me say that I am generally a really good student, I study really hard and all that. However, as time nears to apply to med school, I'm worried my stats aren't up to snuff. My GPA, for starters, is a little lower than I would like it to be. About 3.13, which is waaaay low compared to a lot of people on this forum. My MCATs are atrocious tho, I scored 22H (I REALLY screwed up the essay part, don't remind me...). What medical schools should I look too? Would any Medical school even take me? What options should I do to ameliorate my situation? Should I do extra curriculars?

 

[VikingLegacy]

baleeted

 

[staxofflapjax]

Hmm, is your science GPA higher than your non-science GPA? If it is, that helps a bit. I suggest applying DO; you can repeat the classes you did poorly in (C, C+, B-)

Also, you definitely have to retake the MCAT, 22 is pretty low for medical school. You would have a solid chance at podiatry school, however.

My science GPA is a liittle higher than my non-science GPA, but not much. I really don't wanna take the classes/MCAT again, those are hours of my life that I can never get back, LOL. Jsust thinking about taking that ordeal again makes me shiver. Is there anyway to round out my GPA or something? I was more looking for suggestions of clubs I could join or something that would make me a better candidate?

 

[DaisyBuchanan]

My science GPA is a liittle higher than my non-science GPA, but not much. I really don't wanna take the classes/MCAT again, those are hours of my life that I can never get back, LOL. Jsust thinking about taking that ordeal again makes me shiver. Is there anyway to round out my GPA or something? I was more looking for suggestions of clubs I could join or something that would make me a better candidate?

I understand not wanting to retake the MCAT, but improving your score is the quickest way to improve your whole application package. You can study hard for like 2 months for it and bump up your score a lot, whereas you'd have to take a year or more of classes to raise your GPA even a little. If you took Kaplan, you can call them and have your online resources reactivated for free to $200 and do self-study. I'd assume Princeton Review has a similar policy.

Think about it! 👍

 

[staxofflapjax]

Interviews typically offset bad scores, based on what I see around here. My questions are:
1: What unique, specific goals do you have in medicine? Are there any schools whose mission statements you match with very well, or do you just want to generally go into medicine?
2: What hardships have you encountered in your life?

I had testicular cancer at one point, but I really don't wanna bring that up in a med school interview. I get sorta uncomfortable when people talk about ball, LOL. Seriously tho, is there a way to spin that so that it could be, a valid thing, or would the cancer talk be off limits?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Basically you got 2 choices.
1) Retake the mcat and apply DO + SMP's next cycle.
Or
2)Retake the mcat and apply to SMP's this cycle ( I believe you're not late, however I could be wrong).

 

[VikingLegacy]

baleeted

 

[koennen]

My science GPA is a liittle higher than my non-science GPA, but not much. I really don't wanna take the classes/MCAT again, those are hours of my life that I can never get back, LOL. Jsust thinking about taking that ordeal again makes me shiver. Is there anyway to round out my GPA or something? I was more looking for suggestions of clubs I could join or something that would make me a better candidate?

Dude, you have a 22 MCAT, 3.1 gpa and you don't want to be bothered taking the MCAT again? Are you serious? And you think that joining some clubs will make you a better candidate??

You have zero chance of getting into an MD school, and a very slim chance of getting into a DO school. Start thinking about other career options.

 

[bagelbird]

I had testicular cancer at one point, but I really don't wanna bring that up in a med school interview. I get sorta uncomfortable when people talk about ball, LOL. Seriously tho, is there a way to spin that so that it could be, a valid thing, or would the cancer talk be off limits?

That's completely valid and is something that could really help your application if you talked about what you learned from being the patient. It shows maturity. I agree with the other peeps though about the MCAT... put your all into it, get a great score, and I think you'll be fine.

 

[staxofflapjax]

To listen to LizzyM tell it, people getting overly personal is a bad move unless you're really tactful about it. What about your goals in medicine? What exactly do you want to do, other than get a degree in doctorology and begin a career of doctoring?

I sorta just wanna make a lot of money. Plus my parents are pushing me alot, idk, LOL. How can I get into my hardships w/o being personal? Who is LizzyM?

And definately a no on retaking the MCATs, LOL, like would joining the chess club or something round out my app better or something? I am looking for real advice on extracurriculars and stuff to make me a more attractive candidate.

 

[VikingLegacy]

baleeted

 

[Drexon]

I sorta just wanna make a lot of money. Plus my parents are pushing me alot, idk, LOL. How can I get into my hardships w/o being personal? Who is LizzyM?

And definately a no on retaking the MCATs, LOL, like would joining the chess club or something round out my app better or something? I am looking for real advice on extracurriculars and stuff to make me a more attractive candidate.

My troll sense are tingling.
Not wanting to take a 22K MCAT score raises many alarms.

 

[avatarftw]

This probably sounds like a silly question, but how do you know that somebody is trolling? I always got the impression that whenever somebody has a stupid post that others say, "Dude, you're a troll!"

Maybe he/she was just ignorant with their posts and not a troll?