Non traditional, graduate degree

[number11]

I am finishing my masters in educational psychology, and I am interested in making a sharp turn towards medicine. I did not have many classes in the 'hard' sciences as an undergraduate, and would need a minimum of ~20 hours of additional undergraduate coursework to satisfy the minimum course requirements for most medical schools. I have had many doctorate level courses in applied statistics, with around half As and Bs(HLM, SEM, ANOVA, regression, multivariate...) I have experience in psychometrics and applied statistics.

I have not taken the MCAT, but I tend to test well; my GRE scores were pretty good, so I am counting on an 'above average' score- GRE scores are around 75th percentile.

undergrad cGPA 3.0
grad cGPA 3.7
GRE 1320 - 720 quant, 600 verbal

Do I have a chance if go back and take the core science courses, get great grades and then do very well (75th percentile) on the MCATs? It would mean around 1.5 years of 6-12 hour semesters.

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[notbobtrustme]

Your uGPA is low for MD and DO.

Grad GPA is essentially worthless for medical school.

A Master's in Psychology is interesting and makes you stand out a bit, but you need the hard numbers behind that. A 3.0 uGPA is right at the cut-off for most schools. Remember, the matriculant average is around 3.6/3.7.

For your stats, you really need to score above the 90th percentile on the MCAT (33+) to have a glimmer of a chance at MD. 75th percentile is like a 29 or 30, depending on the year. That's like borderline acceptable for most schools.

 

[number11]

even if my post graduate GPA, with all the science classes is high?

 

[Catalystik]

For MD, I think you'd need to take more than 20 hours of science coursework with great grades to put adcomm minds at ease regarding your potential to excel in med school. I suggest aiming for a higher MCAT and As in a number of upper-level Bio classes, like Physiology, Genetics, Cell Bio, and Biochem. I'd aim for at least 30 credit hours. But 45 would be far more reassuring. Unfortunately, you have no guarantees that all this effort will result in the desired end point.

I assume you have research and teaching through the masters. Do you have any other relvant ECs so far?

If applying DO, you could take advantage of the AACOMAS grade forgiveness policy and retake any really low undergrad grades to erase them from your application GPA calculations (class must be same credits or more, need not have identical course title or be at same institution). This coukld raise your GPAs faster.

You'd also want to get started on clinical volunteering and some shadowing. Before you set out on this course, be sure the career is right for you.

 

[notbobtrustme]

even if my post graduate GPA, with all the science classes is high?

If you have a good set of grades in your post-bacc, which is above a 3.6, with enough credit hours, you have a fighting chance.

 

[number11]

I don't have much in the way of ECs, but I think I am going to go for it, and sign up for classes soon. I am meeting with a premed advisor at my university in a few days.

I'm going to start looking for volunteer opportunities and I will be thinking about shadowing someone soon. Id like to have at least a semester and some volunteer time under my belt before I start trying to shadow someone...

Any other tips guys?

 

[Josh7]

I don't have much in the way of ECs, but I think I am going to go for it, and sign up for classes soon. I am meeting with a premed advisor at my university in a few days.

I'm going to start looking for volunteer opportunities and I will be thinking about shadowing someone soon. Id like to have at least a semester and some volunteer time under my belt before I start trying to shadow someone...

Any other tips guys?

If you can start shadowing now then do it, there isn't a need to wait to volunteer first because volunteering is honestly useless outside of a number on your application. The tasks the hospital has you do isn't relevant to anything until you have put in enough hours to get an awesome volunteer position. Good luck and I think with a good MCAT and EC's you have a decent shot.

 

[number11]

Thanks very much for the words of encouragement and advice, everyone!