My story (former reapplicant who is graduating)

[successstory]

I am writing this success story to give people struggling to get into medical school hope. I am a former re-applicant who is now graduating from medical school.

I took advantage of my "college experience" and my GPA showed it. I graduated with an abysmal sub-3.0 GPA. I applied that first time and was obviously shut down. I was lucky even to get an interview at one of my state schools, but that was clearly just a courtesy to an instate applicant. I was rejected a few days after the interview. I spoke with the dean to give me an idea of what I could improve (I'd recommend this)

By talking with the dean, I realized it was my GPA keeping me back so I decided to prove I could hack it in medical school. I entered a special masters program and worked my ass off. I did exceptionally well. The next application cycle, despite my exemplary performance in the SMP, I was waitlisted at one of my state MD schools. It looked grim initially but I was finally accepted early in the summer.

Now to all those people who think your GPA and MCAT say something about your abilities, I can tell you, you have a clean slate in medical school. Take advantage of it.

I was one of a handful of students who did not have a perfect academic record. By the end of medical school, half of those people with perfect MCATs and perfect GPAs ended up at the bottom half of the class. Despite my terrible undergraduate GPA, I did well. I hit the ground running in medical school and I quickly moved toward the top of the class.

In the end, despite starting out as one of the worst students in the class on paper, I ended as one of the best. Next year I will be going to Johns Hopkins which is best program in the country in my specialty of choice.

Now had I given up after that first year of applying, I would never have achieved what I have. Thomas Jefferson said, "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." All I can say is keep working hard and keep plugging and good things will come your way. They did for me.

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[NerdyAndrea]

Congratulations!

 

[sizillyd]

You made my day. Congrats.

 

[khushi626]

I am writing this success story to give people struggling to get into medical school hope. I am a former re-applicant who is now graduating from medical school.

I took advantage of my "college experience" and my GPA showed it. I graduated with an abysmal sub-3.0 GPA. I applied that first time and was obviously shut down. I was lucky even to get an interview at one of my state schools, but that was clearly just a courtesy to an instate applicant. I was rejected a few days after the interview. I spoke with the dean to give me an idea of what I could improve (I'd recommend this)

By talking with the dean, I realized it was my GPA keeping me back so I decided to prove I could hack it in medical school. I entered a special masters program and worked my ass off. I did exceptionally well. The next application cycle, despite my exemplary performance in the SMP, I was waitlisted at one of my state MD schools. It looked grim initially but I was finally accepted early in the summer.

Now to all those people who think your GPA and MCAT say something about your abilities, I can tell you, you have a clean slate in medical school. Take advantage of it.

I was one of a handful of students who did not have a perfect academic record. By the end of medical school, half of those people with perfect MCATs and perfect GPAs ended up at the bottom half of the class. Despite my terrible undergraduate GPA, I did well. I hit the ground running in medical school and I quickly moved toward the top of the class.

In the end, despite starting out as one of the worst students in the class on paper, I ended as one of the best. Next year I will be going to Johns Hopkins which is best program in the country in my specialty of choice.

Now had I given up after that first year of applying, I would never have achieved what I have. Thomas Jefferson said, "I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it." All I can say is keep working hard and keep plugging and good things will come your way. They did for me.

Thank you for this! I was really bummed out all day today b/c it seems like I need to do a 2nd BS...(long story) Your story made my day and feel tons better

 

[Touchdown]

I figure I would add another, since I decided to check out this board today:

In high school I was one of those annoying people who didnt need to study and got straight As. That quickly changed freshman year of undergrad. I had a sub 3.0 GPA first semister, and from there I slowly improved to a 3.2 GPA by graduating and got a 32 on my MCAT. First time around, got 2 curtosey interviews (in state school and my dad's alma mater) so I decided to do the G-town SMP. Did decent in that (lots of HPs) but not good enough to get a G-town interview, did manage 5 interviews that go around, and in the end ended up on 4 waitlists. Thought for sure I was going to have to go to the third round and set up an interview to "improve my application" with then MUO that I was going to go through on my retreat to move back in with my parents. The day after I set up that interview, got the magic phone call.

I quickly found that in medical school I was an average med student (Mr. 50th percentile) which was completly fine with me, learned a lot had some fun and this week is my final week of school. In the end, I was really glad to have that extra year I was definatly not ready for med school coming straight out of undergrad.

My advice: keep your head up and keep bettering yourself. I am a full believer in thinking things always happen for a reason, go out and find that reason and try again you can make it!

 

[chibrown01]

OP: Does that mean you took 2 years off.???
1 to do the smp and another for the app cycle?

 

[sehnsucht77]

Wonderful story. Made my day too.

 

[successstory]

OP: Does that mean you took 2 years off.???
1 to do the smp and another for the app cycle?

I applied the again before I had really started the SMP. I was placed on hold for grades from the SMP. I got an interview after those came in and I was accepted while I was finishing up the SMP.

So it was a straight shot college --> SMP --> med school without years in between.

 

[actionjazz]

After seeing and feeling the affect that these stories have on people I thought I'd post a small second hand story.

This particular doctor worked throughout his undergraduate years with two part time jobs and so by the time he finished school his gpa was abysmal and he found that he lacked the involvement in organizations and volunteering he needed. He expressed some anger at the lack of support from the faculty of the university he attended. On numerous occasions he had demonstrated desire and explained his circumstances, but he couldn't do much when they declined to write him recommendations. After his initial rejection he worked as a waiter, a truck driver, and a few other side-line jobs to get by while biding his time for the next application cycle. He ended up submitting the application again sans recommendations. I'm not quite sure how he managed this, but he applied again and this time received an interview. I believe he said something about harassing the admissions office pretty frequently with his letters and in-person appearances. Either way he got the interview, and once there proceeded to allow the anger he had accumulated from the application process unload on the interviewers and literally got into a shouting match with the admissions committee. Fortunately his conviction must have been pretty apparent because he got in. My mother's current doctor is a quiet and quirky man, but he seems thoroughly competent, so I take his story as a good sign. Keep in mind that he is from an older generation where requirements for medical school might not have been the same. Still, it's nice to hear these kinds of things from people you know.

 

[cormorant1]

Might I ask which SMP you did? I also graduated with a sub-3.0 and am currently doing well in my 2nd semester at a SMP (Tufts MBS).

 

[successstory]

I did the certificate program. While not technically an SMP (take essentially the same classes as the med students, just not with the medical students) it is designed to get you into medical or dental school just like an SMP.

Off hand, I know we have a few people who did the georgetown program and a few who did the BU program in my med school class. I would bet there are some who did the Tufts program as well.

 

[andrewsmack05]

Excuse my ignorance, I have googled SMP a couple times, but I cant figure out what that stands for can someone fill me in, please?

 

[MiniMoo]

Excuse my ignorance, I have googled SMP a couple times, but I cant figure out what that stands for can someone fill me in, please?

Special Masters Program.

 

[bl123]

Great Job Successstory! I'm curious how you let schools know you were in an smp program. did you list it in your primary application or update in the secondaries? thanks for the encouragement!