Non-traditional advice needed!

[ChrisPreMDorDO]

Hi! I am just seeking some advice here on what schools to apply to and how people think that medical schools will view me. To give a quick background, I am 27 years old and I completed my undergrad with a major in secondary education and psychology, where I went on to teach high school English and substitute teach for 1 year. After a year of teaching, I realized that it was not for me. I was interested in medicine, but I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do. So for about two years, I just worked various jobs (bartending and card-dealing), and I took a few undergraduate medical school pre-requisites and did not do too well. I had a few C's and two C- grade. About two years ago, I made the firm decision that I wanted to try to go to medical school. Since then I have worked as a nurse tech and medical senior scribe, which gave me 3500+ hours of clinical experience (and counting) and clinical experience in the following settings: emergency department, hospital in-patient, and urology outpatient. As a senior scribe, I also have had some experience managing, hiring, and doing medical administrative work. Over the past year, I have recommitted to taking my pre-requisites and have decided to take the classes necessary to complete a major in biomedical science and I have retaken the two courses I got a C- in and got an A- and an A, respectively. I am concerned because of my GPA. My overall GPA is 3.09 and BCPM GPA is 3.0. Overall, I believe these to objectively be my strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:
- two sport athlete during undergrad
- Former teacher
- Real world experience working with people
- 150+ volunteer hours in both medical and non-medical areas
- 3500+ hours of diverse clinical experience
- Experience in a medical leadership position (senior scribe)
- Plenty of great contacts for letters of recommendation
- A strong upward trend in grades over the last year (lowest grade was a B+ over last 10 classes.

Weaknesses:
- 3.09 cumulative GPA
- 3.00 BCPM GPA
- Time gap in post-back coursework
- C- grades in 2 classes
- Two classes with a grade of "W"

***I have not yet taken the MCAT, but I am shooting for 505 or above.

I plan to apply to both MD and DO schools in the next cycle. Any advice on which schools I should apply to as a non-traditional student with a low GPA? Also, any other general advice that can help me have a better chance of acceptance? Any help or alternative perspectives are welcome and wanted! Thanks!

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[deleted1001426]

its really mcat dependent but if you get a sub 510 like youre projecting, Id go heavy DO and state schools+ low tier md. Just get a msar subscription and look for schools which are friendly to your state of residence and have your scores in the 10th-25th percentile. Youre also going to have to check around to make sure they dont have a hard pre secondary GPA screen.

edit: Im no expert so maybe seek out some of the adcoms advice here but unless you do exceptionally well on the mcat, youll probably be hard pressed to find much luck with allopathic schools.

 

[acstylin]

It’s pretty likely that AMCAS lowers your GPA by a small amount. That may push you sub 3.0 rendering you ineligible to apply to some schools. I’d pad that GPA a tad in the sciences to be sure that doesn’t happen.

 

[esob]

I agree on the MSAR but unless you are hitting the 512+ area on the MCAT I would probably focus almost exclusively on DO schools, especially if any of those C's are in the big gatekeeper classes (Ochem, Physics, Biochem, Stats)

 

[Ell19]

I agree with the above comments- it will mostly depend on your MCAT score as to where you apply
As a non-traditional student, having a low GPA is a bit of a disadvantage, your GPA trend over time can be a more telling story in showing medical schools that you can handle the rigor of medical school. It seems you have an overall increasing GPA trend/positive GPA trend over time??

Also are those calculated GPAs with grade replacements or just all of your grades (mainly because both DO and MD do not accept grade replacements, you have both grades count towards your GPA)

Also check out: Goro's reinvention guide

 

[ChrisPreMDorDO]

its really mcat dependent but if you get a sub 510 like youre projecting, Id go heavy DO and state schools+ low tier md. Just get a msar subscription and look for schools which are friendly to your state of residence and have your scores in the 10th-25th percentile. Youre also going to have to check around to make sure they dont have a hard pre secondary GPA screen.

edit: Im no expert so maybe seek out some of the adcoms advice here but unless you do exceptionally well on the mcat, youll probably be hard pressed to find much luck with allopathic schools.

Thanks for the advice! Any ideas on which specific schools?

 

[ChrisPreMDorDO]

I agree on the MSAR but unless you are hitting the 512+ area on the MCAT I would probably focus almost exclusively on DO schools, especially if any of those C's are in the big gatekeeper classes (Ochem, Physics, Biochem, Stats)

2 C's were Ochem 1 and 2. Thinking DO schools mainly. Any advice on certain schools?

 

[deleted1001426]

Thanks for the advice! Any ideas on which specific schools?

I’m not sure what allopathic schools have secondary stat screens. Maybe someone else here was in a similar position and can provide you with a list. You could also just buy an msar subscription and look for yourself.

As for DO schools, I’d recommend pcom and Rowansom as I had really good experiences with both. I also see a lot of positive things said about msu and dmu,kcu and western. I think that if you do decently well on the mcat you should have a pretty good shot at getting a few DO interviews so if application money is an issue maybe consider a cycle of broad DO schools as applying to most mds with a 3.0sgpa seems like it would just be a donation if you don’t have a spectacular extenuating circumstance to explain the poor ugrad performance

edit: I’m sure others have mentioned this but you’d probably be the prime candidate for a smp if you don’t mind pushing med school back a year or 2. Maybe consider applying next cycle but also throwing in some smp apps in case you’re not admitted anywhere

 

[DO_or_Die]

I would apply DO only unless you hit a very high MCAT. I think you could have a chance, just make sure that your application is perfect, by that I mean submit early, have strong letters of rec and have your PS and essays reviewed multiple times for clarity. Apply broad DO and you will more than likely get an interview somewhere.