Dear SDN staffs,
I recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a Berkeley GPA of 2.92 (not including my previous grade before transferring, various reasons that caused this low GPA: work in a lab, increased difficulty of course work, lack of planning.....etc.) in Molecular and cell biology. I was a transfer student and took all of my general science courses in CC (gen chem, bio, ochem, math, and physic, with a GPA of 3.6~3.7). My GPA slipped I was about to quit my MD prep because of this stat, but then I learned something about SMPs, and thinking that I might still have a chance to make it happen.
Currently, I am working in UCSF lab with a project, so publication would be upcoming.
I do have a few years of community service experience (in hospital CCU and blood center before transfer, but stopped after transferring (started doing research in UCSF instead), hours are between 200~300 roughly.
I do have a lot of research hours: at least 1000 I am sure, made a couple poster and conference presentation, and again, currently working on papers
Unfortunately, I don't have much clinical experience like scribing or shadowing (not sure if the hospital CCU and blood center experience count, if not, what kind of clinical work should I be doing?)
Also I have not taken MCAT yet.
The questions I have are
First, is going to SMP to raise my GPA a viable/good option for me? (and help me to get into medical school?)
Second, if SMP is an option (or the only option), what am I lacking before applying to SMPs? I know MCAT is one for sure, but the GPA requirement is kind of bothering me as well, because my Berkeley transcript does not reflect my grades I got from my CC cources, if the admission office in SMP only consider my Berkeley GPA but not my overall undergrad GPA, then I am below the 3.0 mark, which is the minimum requirement for many of the SMP (If they do look at overall undergrad grade, I will be above the 3.0 mark I think, but not sure how to translate the grades between the two institutes into one). The trend of my GPA is not upward as well, as you may know now (which is something that SMPs value, I believe, should I take some postbacc courses to show an upward trend before applying to SMPs?). I was thinking if a great MCAT score would help to shift the balance. Also are there recommended SMP that you would suggest me to apply? (I heard that some of them have linkage to interview and admission)
Third, if SMP is not an option base on my current status, what should I do instead?
Thank you very much for all of your help!
