Nontrad in help

[Phitenks]

First off, if this needs to be in the nontrad section, sorry. Seeing as how I am wondering about my chances, I thought this would fit here.

Right now, I'm extremely EXTREMELY nervous. I wish to apply for med school in 2010, but I don't know if I have any hope of getting accepted.

Grades/scores: Graduated in June 2007 at UCSD with a 3.43 GPA with a BCPM at 3.42. MCAT is 32O.

EC's: Did undergraduate research for an O Chem lab for awhile. To be honest, it's been so long that I'm not sure I can write anything substantial. I pretty much made amino acid and sugar derivatives so my PI can use them for his experiments.

LOR's: Besides a guaranteed one from my Vietnamese teacher, I got nothing. Even from the prof I did research under, he took a position at another college and the few e-mails I attempted to write to him have never been replied.

Since graduation: I became a provider and took care of my grandma as she's recovering from cancer (this is a key point in my PS). Other than that, I work at Princeton Review as an O Chem instructor, training to become a phlebotomist (waiting for signatures to send in my app to the state), and work with an organization to raise money and aide to the poor in Vietnam (I even went to Vietnam at the end of 2nd year to distribute supplies to villages).

I'm also about to volunteer at a hospital, but haven't started yet.



So, yeah. To me, I have a chance, but I'm not too sure. I'm trying to finish up my PS in order to ask other people for LOR's, but in the mean time, I'm stressing out like no other. Any help would be GREAT.

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[Mobius1985]

It seems like you just decided becoming a physician might be a good idea. It's good you're not planning to apply for 1.5 years, since that's about the amount of sustained community service and clinical experience you'll be expected to have (you can combine the two elements by volunteering in a position where you have face-to-face interaction with sick people). You have a leadership experience, but a ?minimal research experience. Your MCAT is good, but not quite enough to compensate for your low GPA at MD (allopathic) med schools, especially considering you are probably living in California, which has very-selective state schools. Can you take additional upper-level science and math classes through a local four-year school to assure adcomms that you have what it takes to do well in a science-intense curriculum like med school? This is also a good route to getting your badly needed Letters of Recommendation. Of course, you need to get straight As, or you'll do nothing to raise your low GPA.

If you don't feel you can raise your GPA, your stats as they are would be competitive at a DO (osteopathic) med school. They tend to put less emphasis on research, so you wouldn't need to improve on your current experience, if it's as minimal as you imply. If you had any low grades and repeat the class, the DO application service will replace the first grade when figuring your application GPA.

 

[Phitenks]

Thanks, Morbius. But I realized I made one typo that drastically changes what I'm trying to say...

"I wish to apply for med school in 2010" is wrong. What I meant to say is I wish to apply in 2009 to GET INTO med school Fall of 2010. So that 1.5 years is actually a few months.

Nevertheless, I appreciate your encouragement and help. But since this changes my situation, what do you think now?

 

[Mobius1985]

I think you'd be wasting your money to apply to allopathic schools with a subpar application this coming June. You might check in the pre-osteo forum and ask their perspective about your lack of clinical volunteering and recent excellent grades (if true). You might have a chance there, if you start clinical experience immediately, but I think they would also prefer evidence of sustained interest in medicine as a profession. See: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=514416

 

[J ROD]

The lower than average GPA along with an average MCAT and lack of clinical will make a MD in Cali hard to get.

You have a shot if you wait a year and build up your clinical significantly and raise the GPA to a 3.5-3.6 with extra classes.

 

[Phitenks]

J DUB and Mobius - Thank you very much for your input. Even though I've been on these boards for a short amount of time, I know Mobius really does care about the health community and always gives advice.

I was actually able to get in touch with the professor I did research for and he's willing to write a letter of rec (yay!). And here is yet another question - should he write about my time in the labs only, or can he also put talk about my efforts in his class (forgot to mention I was in his O Chem class then asked for a research position)?

It feels like I can kill two birds with one stone - one letter to talk about two things. But I don't know if clumping those two things is such a wise decision.

 

[Mobius1985]

I was actually able to get in touch with the professor I did research for and he's willing to write a letter of rec (yay!). And here is yet another question - should he write about my time in the labs only, or can he also put talk about my efforts in his class (forgot to mention I was in his O Chem class then asked for a research position)?

The more description his letter can give about your motivations, work ethic, class performance, personality, insightful questions, problem solving skills, plans for the futute, etc. the better the impact of the letter will be. The only downside would be if you didn't get an A in that class, behaved immaturely in class, never asked questions, asked too many stupid questions, missed classes, etc.