Need honest advice

[godofcombat]

About Me:

I'm a CA ORM finishing my degree in biochem BS at a uni. I'm an Asian Indian male with a low GPA. I graduated undergrad with aamc cgpa 2.8 and aamc sgpa 2.9. I got an mcat score last year of 519.

ECs:

I went to emt school 3 years ago but never took the nremt so i never got licensed in time. However, i retook emt school last year before graduating, got licensed, and have been working as an EMT for this past year, and part time research assistant. I have some shadowing experience (like 40 hours) and an additional 24 hours clinical emt experience from 3 years ago. i worked as a behavior interventionist last year during school and have about 600 hours of that. I have 500 hours experience as a delivery driver from last year (not really relevant). I started a club at my uni two years, its a boxing club and i became the president for two years, it was about promoting health and wellness through boxing. We expanded this club, raised club funding by doing fundraising, volunteered and did community activities for the second year.

Main clinical experience: 1 year of EMT
Non-medical clinical: behavior intervenionist
Shadowing: 40 hours
Other: boxing club, driver

My Story:

Bad study habits, lots of procrastination for exams. I also had issues come up during my second year of college (my parents went bankrupt). They have trouble speaking english so i had to help with a lot of the bankruptcy filing stuff, which was super stressful alongside school. Then, my third year i got into an accident resulting in a traumatic brain injury and I broke my collarbone. This affected my grades and I got a lot of Ws on my transcript. After this, I found myself procrastinating more and not studying consistently and my gpa went down pretty bad. My fourth year grades were basically alll Fs or Ds because I faced financial difficulty and struggled to focus on both school and work (i worked part time as a delivery driver). A lot of my bad grades also had to do with bad study habits and lack of focus towards academics. I knew I had to change things. I had to take a fifth year at my uni for my degree. I took 46 units of upperdiv biochemistry classes last year. I got straight As and two A-. Hell yeah. This raised my GPA up to what it is now, which is sadly still terrible because I graduated with a total of 210 credits/units. I took the MCAT after that and scored 519. Despite the decent mcat score and upward trend, I feel like my recent efforts aren't really going anywhere because I'm a CA ORM and my overall gpa is still low.

Questions:

Can I get into a DO or MD school after completing a post bacc and/or SMP? What should I do about my low GPA? What should I do from here to better my chances? Post bacc? Do I even stand a chance with med school? if i take a 45 unit science class post bacc, that'll put me at most 3.15 aamc sgpa and 2.96-3.0 aamc cgpa. This still isn't a lot. How can i make progress towards getting into a US medical school, if i can even do that? Is there even a slight chance?

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[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Read Goro's reinvention thread. If you do another year of Post-Bacc and get mostly As you're probably fine to apply DO and low tier MD. Do lots of volunteering or research too. Sorry, but prob gonna be leaving Cali though.

 

[Goro]

Yes, there are DO and MD schools that reward reinvention.

 

[godofcombat]

Read Goro's reinvention thread. If you do another year of Post-Bacc and get mostly As you're probably fine to apply DO and low tier MD. Do lots of volunteering or research too. Sorry, but prob gonna be leaving Cali though.

What do you mean by low tier MD? Also what about Caribbean MD? Haven’t heard great things about it though

 

[godofcombat]

Yes, there are DO and MD schools that reward reinvention.

Thank you legend

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

What do you mean by low tier MD? Also what about Caribbean MD? Haven’t heard great things about it though

Basically US MD schools that don't require as high stats. Buy a subscription to MSAR, you can see what GPA schools require etc.

Don't go Caribbean for any reason.

 

[Dral]

The only time I'd ever consider Carib is for someone who has a lot of money, good grades and MCAT (solid good independent study habits), somehow fell through the cracks a few times, is solidly interested in primary care, and has exhausted all other avenues.

It is VERY rare to fulfill all those, and you certainly do not.

You could apply to schools as noted above and see how things go. If you don't get in, I'd start thinking about post bacc or SMP. If you really have turned around your study habits, you may do ok with the SMP route.

 

[godofcombat]

The only time I'd ever consider Carib is for someone who has a lot of money, good grades and MCAT (solid good independent study habits), somehow fell through the cracks a few times, is solidly interested in primary care, and has exhausted all other avenues.

It is VERY rare to fulfill all those, and you certainly do not.

You could apply to schools as noted above and see how things go. If you don't get in, I'd start thinking about post bacc or SMP. If you really have turned around your study habits, you may do ok with the SMP route.

My only worry is working hard to get good grades and paying off an SMP after the DIY postbacc and still not receiving any acceptances. It would be nice to know if I’m guaranteed admission into at least some DOs and low tier MDs after doing well on the SMP with my stats.

 

[godofcombat]

Yes, there are DO and MD schools that reward reinvention.

Are there really MD schools that reward reinvention from sub 3.0 GPAs? If so, what makes them choose those applicants over the hundreds/thousands of perfect applicants they receive every cycle?

Should I apply to MDs after my diy post bacc and what do my chances look like? (You can be brutally honest). Or should I not waste money on apps and save it towards an SMP? Do SMPs accept applicants with low GPAs (3.0-3.1 after diy postbacc) and why them over higher stat applicants? What are my chances at DO and MD admission with my stats after a post bacc and SMP following my current upward grade trend? What extracurriculars should I focus on? Sorry if this is too many questions, I have so much to ask

 

[Dral]

If you do well in a post-bacc, that will certainly be in your favor. The point of SMP is to be high risk-high reward.

If you take a step back, what adcoms want to know is if you can handle the rigors of medical school in terms of course work and test taking. Think of the objective parts of your app such as grades, transcripts, and MCAT score as something that helps them determine that. They want to know you will be able to handle the difficulty level of a medical school class schedule (it's more intense than anything undergrad). SMP consists of med school course work. So if you can handle that, that tells the school you are likely able to handle medical school (the full curriculum with clinical/pre-clinical courses).

In terms of a post bacc, I cannot guarantee how adcoms review apps for interview invites, but it cannot hurt to get straight As while taking several upper level science courses at the same time (vs taking one difficult course at a time). If an adcom sees that, that is another way they might be more convinced that one can handle a medical school curriculum.

Once you get an interview, things shift to more subjective things. Adcoms get to talk to you and try to figure out your impetus for wanting to be a physician. Do they still use the objective parts post-interview? I'm sure they do. However, if you get an interview, that should mean the medical school is interested in you to the point they believe you could make it through their curriculum from an objective standpoint.

 

[Goro]

Are there really MD schools that reward reinvention from sub 3.0 GPAs? If so, what makes them choose those applicants over the hundreds/thousands of perfect applicants they receive every cycle?

Should I apply to MDs after my diy post bacc and what do my chances look like? (You can be brutally honest). Or should I not waste money on apps and save it towards an SMP? Do SMPs accept applicants with low GPAs (3.0-3.1 after diy postbacc) and why them over higher stat applicants? What are my chances at DO and MD admission with my stats after a post bacc and SMP following my current upward grade trend? What extracurriculars should I focus on? Sorry if this is too many questions, I have so much to ask

You apply when you have the best possible app. You'll need a good MCAT score for MD schools.

Yes, SMPs accept students with weak GPAs. That's their target demographic. High stat applicants have no need for an SMP.