MD PhD with very high MCAT and very low undergrad GPA - WAMC?

[Shubniguroth]

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[Goro]

Where's @aldol16 when you need him????

 

[Faha]

There a few schools you should remove from your list. U Washington accepts less than 1% of applicants who are not from states in the Northwest. UNC and the Texas schools accept few non residents with no connections to the state. Because of your high MCAT coupled with a low GPA it is difficult to predict which schools will interview you. The GPA-MCAT grid shows you have a ~50% chance for a MD acceptance. Due this uncertainty I suggest adding many mid to lower schools and consider all these:
Vermont
Quinnipiac
Stony Brook
SUNY Buffalo
Hofstra
New York Medical College
Albany
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Eastern Virginia
NOVA MD
Cincinnati
Oakland Beaumont
Medical College Wisconsin
Rosalind Franklin
California University (new school)
Kaiser and Roseman if they open for 2019
Your lack of clinical volunteering may also limit your chances for interviews. Your MCAT and research are impressive and should attract attention at some schools.

 

[Shubniguroth]

Your lack of clinical volunteering may also limit your chances for interviews. Your MCAT and research are impressive and should attract attention at some schools.

Faha, thank you for the advice! I appreciate it, and will add a few of those to my list/re-shuffle the low-yield out of state ones as well.

I realized I down-played some of my clinical volunteering in my original post, because it's a bit older, but I've fit it into my 15 slots. I think overall it's around 200 hours or so, but half of it is 3-4 years old. Everyone always seems to emphasize recent ECs with non-trads, so I didn't make these my "meaningful experiences."

Do you think that this relatively older stuff matters less, or should I emphasize it more in my PS, etc?

Thanks,
Shub

 

[Faha]

The older clinical volunteering matters since it is important to have some clinical patient exposure on your application.

 

[thenucleusaccumbens]

Well I can tell you from my experience as a med student at Mayo, in terms of your "will my undergrad GPA kill me?" question, I don't think it will here. Mayo doesn't have a GPA screen (they do have an MCAT screen), so your application will at least get looked at and your personal statement will be read. again in my experience (also applied with a high MCAT/low GPA with an upward trend), the admissions committee here is very holistic and can be quite forgiving when it comes to poor grades in the past. The rest of your application is very impressive and it sounds like you explain your undergrad GPA in your personal statement. I also agree with Faha that the older clinical volunteering is definitely still important.

 

[Walter Raleigh]

The older clinical volunteering matters since it is important to have some clinical patient exposure on your application.

True. However, he's got a stellar MCAT and a first-author paper in Science, plus a degree from an elite school known for grade deflation - I'm guessing Caltech, MIT, or Princeton.