Nontraditional - BS in Engineering; advice?

[redwing634]

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I've always strongly considered becoming a Doctor, and while in college for Electrical Engineering, I took most of the pre-med requirements. I believe I just need to take Organic Chemistry to have the pre-med classes finished.

My only worry is that my GPA isn't high enough (3.0) since I was in a challenging major. There's not much I can do about it now, so while I do want to pursue a medical career (25 years old now), do I have any chance at all of getting into med school with that GPA? (have not taken MCAT yet).

Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[dmf2682]

People on sdn say your hard major will not compensate for a weak gpa. My premed advisor at my local four year university says it will. Both say the other is useless. Take it or leave it.

A 3.0 is a bit lower than the standard range for most md schools according to the msar .

Best bet is to shoot for do and take more classes to boost the gpa.

Others will add to this or have other suggestions.

Good luck.

 

[Slev]

x

 

[TylerJ]

I've always strongly considered becoming a Doctor, and while in college for Electrical Engineering, I took most of the pre-med requirements. I believe I just need to take Organic Chemistry to have the pre-med classes finished.

My only worry is that my GPA isn't high enough (3.0) since I was in a challenging major. There's not much I can do about it now, so while I do want to pursue a medical career (25 years old now), do I have any chance at all of getting into med school with that GPA? (have not taken MCAT yet).

Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Sorry, but adcoms do not take into account the difficulty of a major. I mean they may choose an EE with a 3.7GPA over someone with a biology degree with a 3.7GPA and similar ECs, etc... It's unfortunate, but part of the game, particularly considering the differences in difficulty.

With your GPA at 3.0, my suggestions are do post-bach, a DO school, or have some absolutely killer ECs. The object is to stand out, and right now, you do not.

 

[DrMidlife]

Come over to the postbac forum and find the low GPA thread. 2700 posts, 400,000 views and counting. I recommend reading the whole darned thing. If you're in a hurry, the latest post is almost certainly a "my GPA is low, what do I do?!?!?!?" conversation.

Where to find stats for US MD applicants/matriculants: https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/. Summary: about 45,000 people apply every year, about 19,000 get in, average GPA is 3.6+, average MCAT is 31+.

Best of luck to you.

 

[HipChick]

What is your science GPA looking like?

 

[pkwraith]

Rigor of major can be argued at interview. The problem is getting through the initial GPA filter to get the interview.

At the current state (assuming sGPA is around cGPA), it's certainly possible for MD, but not likely. Something to boost your GPA a couple .1 will make substantial improvements to acceptance rate.

 

[0919mmk]

I've always strongly considered becoming a Doctor, and while in college for Electrical Engineering, I took most of the pre-med requirements. I believe I just need to take Organic Chemistry to have the pre-med classes finished.

My only worry is that my GPA isn't high enough (3.0) since I was in a challenging major. There's not much I can do about it now, so while I do want to pursue a medical career (25 years old now), do I have any chance at all of getting into med school with that GPA? (have not taken MCAT yet).

Any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Yep, tough road, not impossible at all. If you can move that GPA a couple of points up (3.2 should be reachable) and then kill your MCAT, you have a fighting chance at MD schools. I had a 3.1 undergrad GPA, and got in, based mostly on a good MS GPA and good MCAT. You're more than just numbers!

 

[redwing634]

What is your science GPA looking like?

Not sure.. what is the science GPA made up of? Just Bio/Chem/Physics and related, or does it also include Math?

 

[mauberley]

Not sure.. what is the science GPA made up of? Just Bio/Chem/Physics and related, or does it also include Math?

If you're applying to MD schools, it does include math. For DO schools, it does not.

 

[redwing634]

If you're applying to MD schools, it does include math. For DO schools, it does not.

Makes sense. Since my major was heavy in math courses, and I had straight A's in them, my "Science GPA" is likely 3.5+ (Bio/chem/Physics were mostly Bs)

 

[theseeker4]

Makes sense. Since my major was heavy in math courses, and I had straight A's in them, my "Science GPA" is likely 3.5+ (Bio/chem/Physics were mostly Bs)

That helps, having a sGPA higher will look better than having a sGPA as low as your cGPA, but the grades in the pre-reqs is probably the first thing they will look at if your application ends up in the pile for adcoms to actually read through. Look into DIY post-bacs at a university, and also look into SMP's linked to medical schools, as they can give you a good shot at MD admission even with lower undergrad GPA.

Re-taking for A's is probably not the best plan to boost your GPA since I assume you don't have a handful of D's or F's pulling your grades down (correct me if I am wrong) so DO grade replacement won't be a huge help to you, but DO schools are often more friendly to non-traditional students and somewhat lower GPA's. You will definitely want to boost your GPA a bit as mentioned above, and you will definitely want to kill the MCAT, so don't take that unprepared. Whether you should re-take the pre-reqs you already have done or just take upper-level science classes depends on your pre-req grades first time around, though if you have several pre-reqs with sub-B grades (B- or below) you should probably do both, re-take the low ones and take a few semesters of upper-level classes, rocking all A's.

You can definitely become a doctor, but it will take a lot of A grade work for several semesters to be in a good position to apply.