I really need some advice so I wanted to ask you guys what you think I should do. I am an AA male with a 3.4 cGPA and a 3.3sGPA. I have taken the MCAT two times. The first I scores a 21M and the second I scored a 28P. I have extensive volunteer and research experience (two year shadowing doc in ER, neuro research with professor at school, community service, etc). I have been accepted to a DO post bacc program that advertises direct matriculation into the medical school if you get a 3.0 in the program and have at least a 23 MCAT. I dont know if I should do the program and have an ace in the hole as I apply to schools or if I should take my chances and apply to medical schools in june (both DO and MD). I really dont know what to do. I dont want to waste a lot of money and time doing a post bacc program that I do not need to do. My guidance counselor suggests that I just apply and take my chances but this is a huge risk. What do you guys think I should do??? I really need advice!
please help. dont know what to do
- Thread starter docdonny
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What is your year-by-year GPA (I'm looking for an upward grade trend here)?
Have you taken any upper-level Bio or Biochem, and if so, what grades did you earn?
Do you have clinical experience actively assisting sick people, or just the passive shadowing?
What nonmedical community service have you done?
Any teaching or leadership, jobs or hobbies?
Have you taken any upper-level Bio or Biochem, and if so, what grades did you earn?
Do you have clinical experience actively assisting sick people, or just the passive shadowing?
What nonmedical community service have you done?
Any teaching or leadership, jobs or hobbies?
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There are two points to address here:
1) Regardless of whether you participate in the post-bac or not, you will still have 15 months to do something productive during the application cycle while you wait. I would say do the post-bac unless you can think of a more productive alternative. (Can you find a job as an ER tech, nurses' aide, paid research assistant, etc?). This will be important should you face an unsuccessful application cycle.
2) Those programs are generally designed to give a shot to students who would not otherwise be accepted to any other program. If you occupy a seat with no intention of matriculating to the school, you would do so at the expense of a student with legitimate intentions. Now there would be nothing illegal in your actions, but it would certainly be immoral.
My 2 cents: Even if you took another 30 credits for a year and received a 4.0 for the year, your cGPA would still only be a 3.5. With a 3.5/28 you have a 36% chance of getting into at least one MD program (and probably close to 60% at a DO school). I say, if you can tolerate this particular school, do the post-bac and enjoy your career as a doctor.
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The AAMC stats grid for African Americans at https://www.aamc.org/download/157594/data/table25-b-mcatgpa-grid-black-0810.pdf.pdf would give the OP with a 3.4/28 at least a 76% chance of an acceptance (with some extrapolation) without a postbac.
GPA wise my freshman year I had a 2.93 and it went from there with lo less than a 3.5 from my sophomore year forward. The only slip up was in a cell bio class I took when I went abroad. I got a C (not bc I didnt try, the teacher did not like my "American writing style" on lab reports and gave me low marks). I have taken a few advanced bios (neurobiology, developmental neuro,) in which I got As in both.
My EC are pretty good. I was a chemistry TA, was the philanthropy chair for my fraternity which coached a little league baseball team. I shadowed hands on with a peds ER doc. for two years (assisted hands on as much as I was legally allowed to). I also shadowed a neuropathologist for a summer. I also did neuro research for a professor at my school and was able to present my research as a conference. For the past two years I have been doing protein purification work for a top 10 pharmaceutical company. The pay is fantastic and the job is very biochem, cell bio heavy as you could imagine. My main concern is that I leave a great job to begin a post bacc in august and then is November find out that I have been accepted somewhere and then have no job to make some money for the last few month I have before med school. I would not mind attending the medical school that the post bacc is affiliated with if I didnt get in anywhere else but the location, weather, etc is not ideal (at least to me). The other thing to mention is that I am a first time applicant. I did not apply when I got the 21 MCAT. Everyone says that because I am a URM I will get in with my stats but I really find it hard to believe and dont know if I want to take a gamble of skipping the post bacc and applying
My EC are pretty good. I was a chemistry TA, was the philanthropy chair for my fraternity which coached a little league baseball team. I shadowed hands on with a peds ER doc. for two years (assisted hands on as much as I was legally allowed to). I also shadowed a neuropathologist for a summer. I also did neuro research for a professor at my school and was able to present my research as a conference. For the past two years I have been doing protein purification work for a top 10 pharmaceutical company. The pay is fantastic and the job is very biochem, cell bio heavy as you could imagine. My main concern is that I leave a great job to begin a post bacc in august and then is November find out that I have been accepted somewhere and then have no job to make some money for the last few month I have before med school. I would not mind attending the medical school that the post bacc is affiliated with if I didnt get in anywhere else but the location, weather, etc is not ideal (at least to me). The other thing to mention is that I am a first time applicant. I did not apply when I got the 21 MCAT. Everyone says that because I am a URM I will get in with my stats but I really find it hard to believe and dont know if I want to take a gamble of skipping the post bacc and applying
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I would disagree with "everyone" that you'd get in as a URM despite your stats. If you had told me that your grades were uniformly low across the board, I'd have concerns. If you didn't have very good ECs, I'd have concerns. If you hadn't gotten As in upper-level Bio, I'd have concerns. But none of that is true, except I'm not quite sure of the timing of that C you got abroad and whether you drowned it out with a sea of As that term or did much better the next term to decrease its impact. Also, keep in mind that the summary of GPAs are year by year, not semester by semester, so the impact of that C would be further diluted by the adjacent semester.
Can you figure out how that would look?
In regards to your clinical experience, which is my only concern: how had you planned to list that? Shadowing is usually listed under Other, where most clinical experience is listed under Community Service/Volunteer-Medical/Clinical or Employment-Nonmilitary. You might consider splitting the experience into two parts so that the passive observership portion would be listed along with other shadowing under Other, but the active helping would be under Volunteer. Is there enough active helping %-wise for that to work out?
Can you figure out how that would look?
In regards to your clinical experience, which is my only concern: how had you planned to list that? Shadowing is usually listed under Other, where most clinical experience is listed under Community Service/Volunteer-Medical/Clinical or Employment-Nonmilitary. You might consider splitting the experience into two parts so that the passive observership portion would be listed along with other shadowing under Other, but the active helping would be under Volunteer. Is there enough active helping %-wise for that to work out?
