PhD-friendly medical schools?

[Creightonite]

Well, just trying to compile a list of school that value PhD degrees. I am looking into med schools that accepted low bacc/good grad. GPA people. I hear that there are some schools that do not even look at your graduate GPA... obviously I am looking for PhD-friendly medical schools... Another obsticle of mine is that I am an international student.

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[FDoRoML]

Your DO schools might be more appreciative but I HIGHLY recommend you consider taking some undergrad courses as a post-bac.

I was in the same situation... sub-3.0 UG because I was friggin' sick as a dog and too stubborn to leave school (what a dumb@ss!)... 3.9 Grad. I took a bunch of post-bac courses (some to re-take the med school pre-reqs and some to take new prereq courses that I hadn't had). I ended up bumping my UG above a 3.0 with a 3.99 post-bac (about 40 credits worth).

No MD schools will bother even interviewing you with a GPA like that unless you get a 45 MCAT, write REALLY good essays and explain everything, AND get stellar (I mean like "this person is the next best thing to God" stellar) LORs. And even then, it's along shot. They want committment to medicine to be evident and seeing that you're still going on a low UG GPA without showing them that you can do better now in those same types of courses as a post-bac really shows a lack of drive as far as they're concerned.

I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but you could do what I did (only be smart about it and apply to DO schools) and try and apply now. It might be a waste of money but I do believe some DO schools would be friendly towards you with the right ECs and LORs. Then, if no bites, you can talk to the AdComs and get suggestions about how to improve your app for next time. Guranteed they will at least say do post-bac work (will ask for other things if you lack in other areas, too).

BTW-- I applied a few years ago (not to DO schools though) and was totally unsuccessful. Not even an interview. I got my butt in gear and did things I suspected I ought to have done before, reapplied this past season and got a bunch of interviews and accepted at all but one of those (and it was mixed, DO and MD acceptances... just the DO accepts came much earlier in the season).

So, yeah, it can be done with work. I do think a few of the DO schools would have accepted me when I applied before, but I didn't know much about it and refused to consider it (I work at a top med school... lots of negativity here about it when I asked around, so that was all I had to go on!). Anyway, I did my OWN research on it for this round of apps and found that I'd be perfectly happy if that was the only type of school to accept my old butt.

If you need any advice, just PM me. Been there, done that. I'm happy to pass along some of the stuff I learned-- that's what I love about SDN. We share the knowledge from our collective legwork.

 

[RxnMan]

Well, just trying to compile a list of school that value PhD degrees. I have subpar BA grades (low 3.0), however my graduate grades are better (3.65). Taken MCAT and got a 25 like 3 years ago (retaking it this august). So far practice scores look much better (around 31 or so). I am looking into med schools that accepted low bacc/good grad. GPA people. I hear that there are some schools that do not even look at your graduate GPA... obviously I am looking for PhD-friendly medical schools... Another obsticle of mine is that I am an international student.

I was in a similar situation. Look at my profile (link below) and see what I had to do in order to overcome a 2.35 ugrad GPA.

 

[QofQuimica]

Well, just trying to compile a list of school that value PhD degrees. I have subpar BA grades (low 3.0), however my graduate grades are better (3.65). Taken MCAT and got a 25 like 3 years ago (retaking it this august). So far practice scores look much better (around 31 or so). I am looking into med schools that accepted low bacc/good grad. GPA people. I hear that there are some schools that do not even look at your graduate GPA... obviously I am looking for PhD-friendly medical schools... Another obsticle of mine is that I am an international student.

You might want to go down to the non-trad forum and search for the threads, but the gist is that after much discussion, we've basically come to the consensus that there aren't any schools that are particularly more likely to accept you just because you're older (have a grad degree, have more life experience) if your numbers are subpar. I think FD's advice was good. If you can get your UG GPA up a bit more, you'll have a lot better of a chance, especially at screening schools. Also, if you re-take courses that you did poorly in, the DO schools will replace those grades on your app, which will allow you to improve your GPA tremendously very quickly.

My personal experience is that having a high MCAT and a high grad GPA can help somewhat, but those things usually won't substitute for having a low UG GPA (or in my case, a non-existent one). There were some schools that flat-out rejected me pre-secondary and/or really gave me a hard time with my application (investigating me, requiring me to beg them for waivers of various requirements, etc.) because I have no UG GPA, in spite of my having a 43 MCAT and a 4.0 GPA for my PhD in chemistry. The other thing I'd suggest to you is to apply to a lot of schools. I wound up applying to 22, and depending on how your new MCAT turns out, you might want to apply to even more if you can afford it and you don't want to bother with the post bac route. But again, I really do think you should try to get that UG GPA up if you can; it will save you a lot of grief and trouble if you do that.

 

[Creightonite]

i think i got misunderstood a little bit I will be about 25-26 when I am done with PHD. My undergrad gpa is 3.1 overall and 3.2 in sciences. I cant imagine taking post-bac classes that would make any difference.... How many classes would I have to take take to get my GPA to 3.5??? with about 128 credits already taken.

 

[QofQuimica]

i think i got misunderstood a little bit I will be about 25-26 when I am done with PHD. My undergrad gpa is 3.1 overall and 3.2 in sciences. I cant imagine taking post-bac classes that would make any difference.... How many classes would I have to take take to get my GPA to 3.5??? with about 128 credits already taken.

Yeah, that's the problem with allopathic schools. They average the grades. The osteopathic schools replace grades though; that's why FD suggested them. So if you got a C, and you retake the course and get an A, they'll replace the C with the A when they calculate your GPA. Not sure how you feel about going DO, but it's an option FYI. Anyway, you can always try applying to allopathic schools and see what happens if you feel like the rest of your app is good. to you.