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- Sep 1, 2014
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Generally, I'm wondering if there are many schools that ignore very old undergraduate GPAs because my first degree hurts me pretty badly. Please see my explanation below. If you can name any specific schools that don't care about my decade-old GPA, I would greatly appreciate it.
A little more details about my stats:
Overall averages:
cGPA: 3.4
sGPA: 3.7
2001-2005: Business degree with some computer science coursework at the top state school in my home state:
cGPA: 3.2
sGPA: 3.2 (only 6 BCPM courses in those 4 years)
2011-2014: (Incomplete) major in Biology at a "lesser" state school:
cGPA: 3.9 (all BCPM courses; 20 courses if you don't count labs separately, 30 if you do)
sGPA: 3.9
I don't have plans to complete this degree because everyone has advised that it would not help me, and I've had a greater interest in putting effort into research (see below) after I completed my MD pre-reqs.
MCAT: (31) 11/11/9 first attempt, then (31) 11/10/10 second attempt, and waiting for my third result but not feeling like I did any better.
So, depending on how a school might look at my GPA, my "LizzyM" score is either 65 or 70. Obviously that's a pretty big difference. As I see it, that puts me somewhere between average and the lower end of top tier schools. I know my MCAT isn't really competitive for a lot of top tier schools. I'm not interested in them in particular except for the fact that they generally have more resources for research opportunities, and I'd like to continue with research while working on my MD, or possibly take a year off between second and third year. Also, my fiancee wants to apply to many top tier schools for her own reasons (very justifiable), and if she did better than she thinks on her MCAT last month, she'll be very competitive. Needless to say, we applied to all the same schools (mostly reaches). However, after her MCAT we started looking for more realistic options outside of the state schools we already applied to.
Anyway, my early grades were not a reflection of my potential. In high school, I completed an IB diploma with a handful of AP courses (high scores on all my exams), which gave me 30 hours of college credit and a 100% tuition scholarship. With all my general education requirements out of the way thanks to IB and AP, and with a naive 18-year-old worldview, I hardly strayed from business and computer science classes. I had too much fun in college, but I never got in trouble. I just didn't really try. I know that sounds bad, and yes, I worded a brief explanation in my personal statement as positively as I could without lying. After college, I worked for 6 years mostly applying computer skills to website development (programming, database design) then a couple business related jobs that involved crunching numbers (very unfulfilling work).
After a few years of complete boredom, I returned to school in my home town's state school (not as prestigious or well known or as big as my first; we don't have a football team). I knew that I had much more interest in science than business or computers, but I wasn't sure about med school until after shadowing physicians, which I loved. Since my return to school, I completed about 70 hours of all BCPM classes (two B's in labs, one B+ in a lecture, all A's otherwise).
My coursework includes numerous upper levels and some directed studies working in labs: genetics, general chemistry, analytical chemistry, and molecular biology (over 3,000 hours total). For two of those projects I presented posters at a few regional conferences, one national conference, and one international conference in Europe. No publications though. Two small projects were not intended to lead to publication (internal teaching use only). One project was to secure additional data needed for resubmitting a grant proposal. My most involved project is an extremely time consuming genetic screen that implemented a previously untested method, and it took nearly 2 years just to confirm the novel mutation we created. We only started the work on that gene, which should lead to a paper eventually, earlier this year. On my application I described the type of lab work I did, what I learned from it, and how I benefited from attending research conferences.
I have also been a TA in both chemistry and biology teaching labs (about 500 hours total), and I've done some private tutoring for the past couple years (about 200 hours).
At less than 100 hours each, my shadowing and volunteer work isn't good compared to most applicants. Part of the reason for that weakness is poor advice from my school's advisors, and surprisingly, every doctor I shadowed said that I was welcome back any time, but they suggested I see a variety of specialists rather than watch them do the same thing every day. No, I didn't specifically address this anywhere in my application.
Does anyone have other general advice for a not-so-typical applicant? I still have time for some secondaries from schools who are waiting for my most recent MCAT before they send me their application. Then there are some of the not quite reach schools my fiancee and I added this week, so we're waiting for those secondaries, too: Drexel, Temple, Hawaii, Alabama (Birmingham), and Louisville. One of my research professors has a connection with Louisville.
Thanks in advance!
A little more details about my stats:
Overall averages:
cGPA: 3.4
sGPA: 3.7
2001-2005: Business degree with some computer science coursework at the top state school in my home state:
cGPA: 3.2
sGPA: 3.2 (only 6 BCPM courses in those 4 years)
2011-2014: (Incomplete) major in Biology at a "lesser" state school:
cGPA: 3.9 (all BCPM courses; 20 courses if you don't count labs separately, 30 if you do)
sGPA: 3.9
I don't have plans to complete this degree because everyone has advised that it would not help me, and I've had a greater interest in putting effort into research (see below) after I completed my MD pre-reqs.
MCAT: (31) 11/11/9 first attempt, then (31) 11/10/10 second attempt, and waiting for my third result but not feeling like I did any better.
So, depending on how a school might look at my GPA, my "LizzyM" score is either 65 or 70. Obviously that's a pretty big difference. As I see it, that puts me somewhere between average and the lower end of top tier schools. I know my MCAT isn't really competitive for a lot of top tier schools. I'm not interested in them in particular except for the fact that they generally have more resources for research opportunities, and I'd like to continue with research while working on my MD, or possibly take a year off between second and third year. Also, my fiancee wants to apply to many top tier schools for her own reasons (very justifiable), and if she did better than she thinks on her MCAT last month, she'll be very competitive. Needless to say, we applied to all the same schools (mostly reaches). However, after her MCAT we started looking for more realistic options outside of the state schools we already applied to.
Anyway, my early grades were not a reflection of my potential. In high school, I completed an IB diploma with a handful of AP courses (high scores on all my exams), which gave me 30 hours of college credit and a 100% tuition scholarship. With all my general education requirements out of the way thanks to IB and AP, and with a naive 18-year-old worldview, I hardly strayed from business and computer science classes. I had too much fun in college, but I never got in trouble. I just didn't really try. I know that sounds bad, and yes, I worded a brief explanation in my personal statement as positively as I could without lying. After college, I worked for 6 years mostly applying computer skills to website development (programming, database design) then a couple business related jobs that involved crunching numbers (very unfulfilling work).
After a few years of complete boredom, I returned to school in my home town's state school (not as prestigious or well known or as big as my first; we don't have a football team). I knew that I had much more interest in science than business or computers, but I wasn't sure about med school until after shadowing physicians, which I loved. Since my return to school, I completed about 70 hours of all BCPM classes (two B's in labs, one B+ in a lecture, all A's otherwise).
My coursework includes numerous upper levels and some directed studies working in labs: genetics, general chemistry, analytical chemistry, and molecular biology (over 3,000 hours total). For two of those projects I presented posters at a few regional conferences, one national conference, and one international conference in Europe. No publications though. Two small projects were not intended to lead to publication (internal teaching use only). One project was to secure additional data needed for resubmitting a grant proposal. My most involved project is an extremely time consuming genetic screen that implemented a previously untested method, and it took nearly 2 years just to confirm the novel mutation we created. We only started the work on that gene, which should lead to a paper eventually, earlier this year. On my application I described the type of lab work I did, what I learned from it, and how I benefited from attending research conferences.
I have also been a TA in both chemistry and biology teaching labs (about 500 hours total), and I've done some private tutoring for the past couple years (about 200 hours).
At less than 100 hours each, my shadowing and volunteer work isn't good compared to most applicants. Part of the reason for that weakness is poor advice from my school's advisors, and surprisingly, every doctor I shadowed said that I was welcome back any time, but they suggested I see a variety of specialists rather than watch them do the same thing every day. No, I didn't specifically address this anywhere in my application.
Does anyone have other general advice for a not-so-typical applicant? I still have time for some secondaries from schools who are waiting for my most recent MCAT before they send me their application. Then there are some of the not quite reach schools my fiancee and I added this week, so we're waiting for those secondaries, too: Drexel, Temple, Hawaii, Alabama (Birmingham), and Louisville. One of my research professors has a connection with Louisville.
Thanks in advance!
