Plan to gain acceptance to med school

[Annieanne]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hello everyone,

I am not entirely sure if I am posting in the correct part of the forum. I am sorry about that and also that I do not have a lot of information to provide. I graduated about a month ago with an (undergrad degree) B.A. in Neuroscience with a 2.84 cGPA. I have not calculated my sGPA so maybe you can drop some tips about that in your comments. I came from a low income family and am a minority student. I struggled with family issues and health problems during my undergrad studies. I have not taken the MCAT yet, but I am planning on buying a set of Kaplan review books from Amazon. I would like to gain acceptance to a medical school. I understand my situation and I am okay with both MD and DO schools. Because my cGPA is below a 3.0 entering a masters program is a little more difficult for me. I am currently waiting to hear back about a job working as a research assistant at a well known psychiatric institute. I would like to go into psychiatry. I am taking some time off, but don't have anyone to consult about my next steps. I may be able to take some classes for free because of my employee status at the psychiatric institute so a non structured post-bac may be possible, but I'm not too sure I would be able to find some structure for myself. Should I join a masters program, do a post-bac, an SMP, or what are my other options? I will take some time to research the other posts as well, but wanted some advice on my specific situation. I am a certified life guard and EMT and have other research experience working with non-human primates. Thank you very much.

 

[Ismet]

Moving to pre-allo WAMC forum

 

[brochacho123]

Your safest and cheapest route would be DO. Your primary focus at the moment should be GPA repair. Retake all C/D/F's at a CC or local state school and get that GPA above 3.0 at the minimum. No formal program is necessary.

Master's degrees will not increase your undergraduate GPA. SMP's are really competitive and costly and would only recommend if your set on MD and after you do some GPA repair as suggested above.

 

[QuestionsAnswers]

Your safest and cheapest route would be DO. Your primary focus at the moment should be GPA repair. Retake all C/D/F's at a CC or local state school at get that GPA above 3.0 at the minimum. No formal program is necessary.

Master's degrees will not increase your undergraduate GPA. SMP's are really competitive and costly and would only recommend if your set on MD and after you do some GPA repair as suggested above.

I agree, in addition, you will really help your app by putting in an above average amount of time studying for the MCAT if you can, to get as good a score as possible. Try to aim for a 510+ which with a GPA above 3.o I would think would start to put you in a reasonable position for DO schools. Do you have URM status?

 

[Annieanne]

I agree, in addition, you will really help your app by putting in an above average amount of time studying for the MCAT if you can, to get as good a score as possible. Try to aim for a 510+ which with a GPA above 3.o I would think would start to put you in a reasonable position for DO schools. Do you have URM status?

Your safest and cheapest route would be DO. Your primary focus at the moment should be GPA repair. Retake all C/D/F's at a CC or local state school and get that GPA above 3.0 at the minimum. No formal program is necessary.

Master's degrees will not increase your undergraduate GPA. SMP's are really competitive and costly and would only recommend if your set on MD and after you do some GPA repair as suggested above.

Thank you very much for responding. I bought a 7 book Kaplan review set for the MCAT. I plan on taking the MCAT when I feel good and ready for it. If I can get hired at this job, I may be able to take classes for free. These things can get expensive so I'm glad I won't have to take out any more loans if possible. I looked up what URM status was, but i'm not sure what mine is.

I thought it was looked down upon to take courses at community college?

 

[candbgirl]

URM usually = AA, Mexican, Puerto Rican but sometimes other groups are too. It depends on the school . You have to figure out your sGPA. Count all your Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math classes for AMCAS(MD). Do the same but exclude Math for AACOMS (DO). For DO both of your GPAs need to be over 3.0 and over 3.2 is better. Realistically MD is going to be very hard since AMCAS doesn't replace grades like DO.


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile app