non-traditional perhaps; expensive post bac program w/MS? need some advice :-)

[superior olive]

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Hi all --
UG: Wesleyan
- first 2 yrs GPA 3.8.
- Then, the fall of my junior year, I was a survivor of a pretty terrible sexual assault that left me devastated and unable to really cope with school life, and I took a years' leave. The classes on record for my junior year of college were marked at the time as incomplete, and when I returned the next year I had to complete them along with doing the coursework for my fall courses. Long story short, I graduated on time (essentially doing my 4 year undergraduate in 3 years), but my GPA for my junior and senior year were like 3.1 or 3.2 or something. I was also put on psychiatric meds that really messed up my cognitive skills. 🙁
- overall UG GPA 3.4
- I graduated in May 2006. Since: worked for Gilead in scientific communications, and am working in a developmental neuro lab at UCSF. Other ECs - my family has worked to run a non profit and a hospital abroad in Iran and that has been a project I've had around my whole life. It's something that I have wanted a MD/MPH for. I got my EMT-B in CT while I was in school.

- I took the MCAT and I got a 31S the second time, and I know I could do better since all my practice tests were 37's and thereabouts, but I get terrible test anxiety. I took the test last year in July, so it'd be some work to get back into the mindset of the MCAT.
- I have also been taking classes at UC Berkeley extension (retaking some of the courses I bombed), and I got an A+ in orgo last semester, and likely will get the A+ again this semester, and I'm taking an English composition course at city college as well and am faring well.

I didn't get into any of the 5 schools I applied to this round. I'm somewhat limited in schools because I'd like to be in a place where my husband would be able to find a job. Mostly, I believe the concern was about my drop in GPA without much of a bounce back in time for them to really feel confident in my abilities. I'm wondering if it is worthwhile for me to continue doing the courses I'm doing at the local extension schools nearby, or if I should go out and pay for a post-bac program where I would get a ms certification. i was initially interested in an MD/MPH program anyways, and there seem to be a significant number of programs that would do a MS/MPH in two years. (But they are $$) However, I may have to wait a year to start such a program. Would it be better to just take more courses and do my MCATs over in the meanwhile? Hope for a publication from my lab?

In the end, its really frustrating to feel robbed of the years from the assault, and to have to make up for it even further, but that's the reality of my situation. I was at the top of my class at a great private institution, and I want to get myself back at a tier that I feel I deserve to be at. I want to hopefully be able to come back to a state school in CA and avoid a tremendous amount of student debt, so a UC school would be a plus. What would this take? Is this still possible? I'm 24 years old now, and feel the clock ticking... And yet, I can totally understand the point of view of the adcoms who want to make sure that I can handle the course load that the first years of med school will throw at me.

Help?

 

[ruraldr]

Hi Superior Olive,

Congrats on all your hard work thus far--this can be a hard process--but you are asking good questions and I wish you the best of luck in the coming application cycle.

As you indicated--being limited to only five schools to apply to makes this whole process very, very difficult for you, esp. if they are 5 CA schools.

I would think that your personal statement and secondary statements will be very important for you in 1) explaining what happened in UG, 2) making it clear that you've healed from this experience and are ready for med school. I would spend time with some trusted advisors (are you able to work with folks from Weslyan's advising group?) to make sure that you are meeting these two objectives in your writing.

Since you have a very small number of schools to target, I would reach out to this group of schools and also see if they would be willing to lend you advice. (esp. about post-bacc classes vs. MS classes). I found lots of success in doing this with my top choice schools between application cycles. They would also be able to tell you what GPA/MCAT scores to shoot for--this seems to be variable from school to school.

I personally was advised to stick with undergrad classes because those ones can affect the GPA as a whole, while the MS ones cannot. Also I think that folks generally think that grades in masters programs are more inflated then undergrad grades...however the MS will give you a more marketable degree in the future if the MD didn't work out then the post-bacc classes will.

As a final note--although you feel the clock ticking--many, many folks are older than you going through this experience. (check out the non-trad thread for some reassurance about this!) I'd focus on the goal and the learning experiences you have on the way and not worry so much about the time it takes you to get there--

 

[boboca]

Don't lose hope, you're a great applicant. Make sure you've explained the drop in gpa and why you retook the courses. It seems you'd be a good applicant for the UC PRIME programs since you want an MD/MPH...of course it's specifically geared towards working with the underserved and I dont know what you're thoughts are on that. I'll be 26 when I start med school and I was a bit worried about handling the course load and getting back into the sciences. But, during my interviews I met a lot of people who have been out of school for a while. and I think in general, non-trads are more motivated and focused in med school. I think the burn out will be less.
Maybe you can call the schools that rejected you and asked where you can make improvements on your application.

 

[dragonfly99]

superiorolive,
It seems that you are already a competitive med school applicant. Yes, your grades could be better and you need to explain the drop in your grades somehow in your application (not that you have to bare your soul necessarily, but some explanation is in order). Your overall GPA is not so low that you are going to have to do extreme things to bring it up (i.e. year or two of undergrad classes just to increase the GPA).

Your age is nothing...I was 25 when I started. Plus you are married already, so you have that support system, etc. You went to a great undergrad school. Your grades were not bad, despite all that happened. You should be confident that you can get in, if that is what you want.

I agree with advice to
a) involve Wesleyan's premed advisor(s) in your plans
b) call up any/all schools where you applied and see what advice they have about how to improve your application
c) I know you really want to stay in California, but I still think you should consider applying to >5 schools, especially since CA state schools are apparently really hard to get into.

You could probably improve on your MCAT score a little...I think it would help as much or more than getting a master's degree, in terms of getting into med school. Also, it might be better to stick it out in your lab for a year or so, and see if you can get your name on a publication.

A MPH might be a good fallback plan if you don't get into med school next year, but I'd prefer to see you do an integrated MD/MPH program b/c usually that only takes 5 years (less tuition $$ and a program better integrated with your MD perhaps) and it seems you have enthusiasm for both degrees.

 

[pietachok]

As long as you apply early in the application cylce, I don't think you need to do a Masters program at all.

Click on my MDApplicant profile and you will see that I got into med school with a worse GPA than what you have right now. My undergrad GPA was higher than the 3.4ish GPA *before* I took my postbacc--I got sick in my postbacc and dragged it down! USC was finally sympathetic. The reason It took me 3 application cycles to get in was b/c of an awful pre-med adviser who wrote me a crappy committee letter and forgot to mention I was so sick!

As long as you have two people involved in your apps you should get in somewhere:
1) someone from wesleyan who can attest to your horrible circumstances, and also to your ability to overcome them to a pretty great extent.
2) Your mentor at UCSF who can say that your capabilities exceed those of your low point on your academic record.

Ultimately, getting rid of my post-bacc adviser wasn't the only thing that finally got me into USC, it was also 2 LORs from my research mentors who said I had the intellectual and emotional makings of a dr. No masters degree is going to do that so much as LORs from someone you work with--I don't think you need to waste the money.

Apply broadly and add some D.O. schools as back-up. Look at my list of applications, and consider all of those schools, but replace all of the new york schools with the California schools if you are a CA resident. For D.O. schools, add Western instead of NYCOM...if you can afford to apply to that many, you'll get in. (And I applied *late*). I picked all my schools based on their tolerance of lowish GPAs and acceptance of out of state applicants.