Nontrad needs advice, am I on the right track?

[Purplie]

I graduated undergrad around 7 years ago and have a pre-med background. I was going to apply to medical school back then but kept putting off studying for the MCAT. One of my parents suddenly died at the end of my sophomore year and I developed a chronic pain disorder shortly after that. I ended up taking a gap year after college to teach English abroad through a government program. The past 5 years I’ve just been working and treating my trauma/grief and my medical condition. I’m in a much better place now and have a proper support system so I’ve started studying for the MCAT.

My plan was to focus on the MCAT for now and then after that do a post-back and gain more clinical and volunteering hours and apply next cycle (2023). Does this seem about right? My pre-med advisor told me that if I can score about a 510 then my gpa and hours are fine, but I thought it might be better to make myself more competitive.

My undergrad cgpa is 3.3, sgpa is 3.1. I’m a first gen and an ORM. All of my volunteering hours are from 7+ years ago back in undergrad. I think I have about 100 clinical volunteering hours, 50 non clinical hours, <10 shadowing hours. I did research in undergrad for a year, and for leadership I was president of my schools undergrad premed club.

If it matters, my reasons for wanting to pursue medicine are mostly from personal experience rather than volunteering/shadowing. I want to do primary care because I’ve seen firsthand how important it is. And as someone with a chronic illness I’m incredibly passionate about people advocating for their health and about encouraging people to take care of themselves physically and mentally.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[chilly_md]

I am sorry for you loss. Life has not been easy for you. Glad to hear you’re in a better place now.

I think based on your old grades, it might be a good idea to try to take some classes again to have some recent grades that show your capability as a student. See this guide from Goro:

Goro's advice for pre-meds who need reinvention (updated for 2021)

EDIT: Post in WAMC forum for recommended school lists. This thread isn't for that. So you want to be a doctor, but your GPA is terrible. Is that the end? Rule #1: Take a deep breath, and stop fussing. The sky is not falling. But you are going to need to reinvent yourself. This will take...

forums.studentdoctor.net

I don’t think you need to do any recent research, but you should get clinical experience, shadowing and non-clinical volunteering to the underserved as it would be hard to describe activities that occurred so long ago. Especially if they were not for many hours.

 

[arnim]

First of all I’m sorry for your loss, life certainly has thrown a lot at you and it’s amazing youve come out the other side ready to pursue this path when it’s the right time for YOU. Considering you’ve been out of school for some years, I think if you either did a formal post bacc or a DIY post bacc by taking upper division courses and doing well then you would show that “you’re not the student you were then” as they say here on SDN. That being said there is a path, and crush that MCAT!

 

[candbgirl]

Your GPAs are very low for MD. Depending on your MCAT you might be okay for DO. And DO is a viable option since you are interested in Primary Care. But I totally agree with @chilly_md . Your grades are old and so are your ECs. Taking several upper level science courses and doing well will help to convince ADCOMS that you can handle the course work. And your volunteering is outdated. Get some new volunteering and find a primary care doc to shadow. Good luck.