My Situation & Plan - Please Advise

[HTX]

I know, another "What Are My Chances" thread, but I hope the SDN community can provide me with some advice and direction based on my situation. Please bear with me as this post is quite lengthy (scroll to the end for the summary)...

Background: I graduated in May 2009 from UT-Austin with a BBA. My undergraduate GPA was an horrendous 2.54. Long story short, I allowed myself to be distracted from my studies when I could and should have been more focused and dedicated - my fault and I'm trying to overcome that. Since graduating, I have been working (self-employed) and am currently working on an MBA in Health Care Administration (GPA is currently 3.6). I have always been interested in pursuing medicine (took three years of Health Science classes in high school, including two years of shadowing in various departments at a local hospital). Over the past year my grandparents have been in and out of the hospital, and the entire experience made me explore the possibility of medical school. After evaluating my life goals I am firmly committed to becoming a doctor, but need advice on whether I am on the right track with my plan to become a competitive applicant to US MD & DO schools.

Pre-med & MCAT: I will begin taking pre-med classes in January 2011, and my projected course schedule will look like this:

Spring 2011 - General Chemistry I, Physics I, and Statistics
Summer 2011 - Biology I and General Chemistry II
Fall 2011 - Organic Chemistry I, Physics II, and maybe Calculus (previously taken)
Spring 2012 - Biology II, Organic Chemistry II, General Biochemistry
Summer 2012 - Anatomy & Physiology

I can realistically raise my cumulative undergraduate GPA to a 3.2 overall if I can manage about a 3.7 science GPA.

I'm conflicted about the MCAT, however. In an ideal world, I'd love to be able to take it in time to apply to enter medical school in 2013, but considering my course load in Spring 2012 I doubt that will be possible. But, my plan right now is to study starting in December 2011 and reevaluate after a month or two once I start taking classes. I will probably end up waiting until 2013 to take the MCAT, and in that case I will probably take Genetics and another upper-level science course in Fall of 2012. My target score is a 35.

EC Work: This is probably where I need the most advice. How many volunteer/clinical hours would make me a competitive applicant? Obviously, the more time I have to devote to studying the better, but I still want to spend a sufficient amount of time volunteering. Based on the following opportunities, which two would be my best option?

Work - A family friend is a practicing physician and runs his own private practice. He offered me a part-time job at his practice where I would essentially shadow and be a scribe for him. I will work around 15-20 hours per week while taking pre-med courses, and 30-40 per week between now and January 2011.

Medical-Related Volunteer - I've been in contact with three local hospitals about volunteering. They have positions where I would be working directly with a physician and interacting with patients. I'm hoping to volunteer around 4-8 hours a week during pre-med, and double that from now until January 2011.

Non-Medical Volunteer - Planning to spend a total of 8 hours per month volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. Not specifically because of medical school (I've been wanting to do this for a while now). I might even try to volunteer a little bit at a local animal shelter - I've done it before and loved it.

Obviously I realize that I need to devote enough time to studying and ensure nearly straight A's in pre-med coursework and get a high MCAT score. But out of those three options, which two do you think I should really focus on? Or should I focus on all three to make my application more competitive as a non-trad?

End Result:

If I can successfully implement my plan, this is what my application should look like:

cGPA: 3.2
sGPA: 3.7
MCAT: 35

1000+ hours working/shadowing
400+ hours volunteering at local hospital
150+ hours volunteering with Habitat for Humanity & Animal Shelter

Based on this, will I be a competitive applicant? Anything I am missing or neglecting? Should I forget about Habitat for Humanity and spend that time volunteering at the hospital?

Any and all advice/comments are appreciated!

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[Pons Asinorum]

Any and all advice/comments are appreciated!

First thing you need to do is get involved with the classes and see how much time it requires from you to make straight A's. That is the most important thing to you, far far beyond the importance of choosing the "right" EC's. You need to make a 4.0 in all of your new course work, because you GPA (in what many people consider a cake major) puts you at a huge disadvantage. After you figure out your class hour/study hour ratio to make a 4.0, then you need to start figuring out a path to the MCAT. Congrats on expecting to make a 35, but the statistics for making a 35 with your GPA aren't strongly correlated. That's up to you to make work, and you can if you figure out the right way to balance class and MCAT. Those two will decide whether you get into an MD program, how many hours of Habitat volunteer time you have will not. I recommend spending some quality time reading through the SN2ed's 3-month (or 4-month) study plans in the MCAT forums. Best of luck. You can definitely get there, and many here on the forums have from your position.

 

[katiemaude]

You have an ambitious plan and I think you can work it if you have that level of determination.

I agree with Pons - I wouldn't count on the 35 MCAT. You still have to learn the basic material, so there's really no way of knowing what you'd get. On the other hand, it's good to have an idea of what you would like to accomplish.

So focus on getting A's your first semester. Start the volunteering now with 4 hrs a week. See how you do. If by this spring, you're rockin it with your classes, pick up a scribe shift with the doc over the summer.

Take it slow at first. You want to build confidence in yourself. I waited til my second semester to start volunteering and I was *exhausted*. I also overdid it with the science classes and freelance writing assignments (my previous profession). Give yourself the best possible shot to do well.

I'd wait a couple semesters before picking up yet another volunteer gig.

 

[HTX]

Thanks for the advice!

I know I need to focus primarily on my GPA and MCAT, and I am already working on that. I have approximately four months until I start taking pre-med classes, so I borrowed my friend's undergrad biology, chemistry, and physics textbooks (she's in med school now) and I'm going through the text as completely as I can. I figure at the very least I'll have a decent idea of how much time I need to devote to ensure I understand the material thoroughly enough to earn A's.

The real reason I'm asking about the volunteering opportunities is that I'm not sure how many hours I would need to be competitive... I mean, since I have four months of basically nothing I think I can at least volunteer 8 hours a week now so that I can cut down to four or less once I start classes (to devote more time to studying) and not have to worry about not having enough volunteer work once I start applying.

Basically, my question is what is a good target number of volunteer hours I should strive for?

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Basically, my question is what is a good target number of volunteer hours I should strive for?

Nobody on here can give you a number based on anything other than conjecture, but I would say if you could manage to average 4 hours of volunteering a week from now till the time you submit your app, with meaningful experience, both medically and non-medically related, you would be more than solid on that portion of your app. But I can't stress enough to you as a person starting off on the path with nothing set in stone, what will get you into medical school is your GPA and MCAT, not having 200 hours of homeless shelter work vice 400 hours of homeless shelter work. I would further recommend picking up something like the ExamKrackers set of MCAT prep books and starting to get comfortable with those, instead of reading through your friend's textbooks. Start familiarizing yourself with the topics that make up the bulk of testable material on the MCAT, so that when those topics come up in your future classes, you can add a little asterisk in your brain or notes that that topic is particularly useful. This isn't "studying" per se, but just familiarizing yourself with the topics, which are not everything in your gen chemistry or physics book by any means.