Orgo 2 grades just posted...

[newtonjc]

Will be taking the MCAT Sept 10, and retook Organic Chem 2 this summer. Last semester ended it with a D+, due to an intensive research block (a post-doc in our research team had quit, and I had to comprehend and finish a CdSe Nanocluster Synthesis manuscript). I registered to retake the course this summer, and was simultaneously awarded a research scholarship. The research scholarship resulted in two poster presentations, two publications and a mentoring opportunity with the American Chemical Society - Project SEED high school students. Unfortunately, I ended up raising the grade from a D+ to a C.

I'm out of time (graduating in December) and applying for schools as soon as this MCAT grade is posted. My cGPA and sGPA are both ~3.6, and I'll be ending my undergraduate with 5 publications (1, possibly 2, national and 4 with the university for research scholarships), 3 poster presentations (1 ACS Regional presentation, 2 with university), president of the student veterans organization (which led to a series of other positions, such as member of student veterans honors society selection committee) and an OIF veteran still currently serving. I've been certified as a Combat Lifesaver and a member of a Mass Casualty Response Team in Iraq with the military, and on the civilian side worked ~2,000 hours as a Patient Care Technician in surgery, volunteered ~100 hours in the VA Physical Medicine department, and am currently employed by the VA and put on a national grant to redesign the systems they are using to sterilize reusable surgical equipment. I intend to observe a DO (and hopefully convince him to write my LOR) over the next couple of months.

I'm applying for graduation with a General Studies degree, Honors notation and Demonstrated Proficiency in Research notation. I've won Top 100 at my university twice.

Is this C going to kill my chances? I'm hoping the research and EC's will distract adcoms from the Orgo 2 blemish...

My preferred schools are AZCOM and SOMA, but am pretty much willing to go anywhere accredited. I'll also be applying for IUSM, as I'm an in-state and have some rapport with the adcoms here, but DO is my ideal route.

Thanks, any advice is appreciated!

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[Eric01]

I'm not well acquainted with the process, but if you look around this board you'll find current medical students who got a C in Orgo, also many other people who have gotten C's in other classes as well. People with multiple C's getting into medical school as well. If anyone of the adcoms even ask about this one course you just say what you wrote here about the post bac dropping out and the research project being dumped on you. I don't honestly see it as that big of a deal given that your gpa is around a 3.6 which is at or slightly below the average of most medical schools.

 

[luvofgod]

First off, your extracurriculars are amazing! So jealous
For your organic chem grade, I wouldn't worry as much if you think you did well on the mcat for that section. Your stats are great and it would really depend on your mcat score. How do you think you did? If I were you, I would apply to about 8 DO schools. It's a good idea to apply to your state schools...maybe you should apply to some other medical schools as well, you never know what might happen. Good luck!

 

[Catalystik]

If your AACOMAS 3.6 GPA includes that second C in OChem, I think you'll be fine despite the downward grade trend. You might consider redeeming it next semester with a better grade in Biochem and sending in a new transcript to AACOMAS and IU in December.

 

[newtonjc]

I'm not enrolled in any sciences this semester. Just the 18 online credits I need to graduate. This gets me time to work a full schedule with the hospital (actually just got signed on to work with IUSM head of surgery in redesigning their resident scheduling in response to new ACGME hourly restrictions - heyo!).

I'll be following up here in about 3 weeks with my MCAT score, then the stress of finding a realistic school can start!

For the record, I started my MCAT 30 minutes early. When everyone else scheduled for my hour block started their writing portion, I was halfway through the biological sciences section. Never start early, I'm almost certain I bombed a 7-question segment because I couldn't concentrate on the readings with all of the clicking. FML.