So basically I graduated in dec. 2013 with a 2.2 GPA UG. I was a college athlete and very sick for my last year of school (in and out of the hospital). However, I am better now, and I am still determined to become a doctor. I just want to know what are the next steps I should take. I mean I know of course I could just retake the pre-reqs over again, but will the retakes be accepted. I also have been hearing that I should get my BSN (accelerated 2 yr program) get great grades on that, get a killer mcat score, and then apply. Everyone's advice is all over the place. So can anyone help? I know that this journey is going to be long, but I can be patient.
Please Read, Recent 2.2 GPA UG and need advice on the best route to medical school.
- Thread starter JDior
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
- Messages
- 2,240
- Reaction score
- 3,217
1. Retake all low grades and get A's.
2. Apply DO (allows grade replacement)
3. Profit.
Getting a BSN seems pointless. Also a killer MCAT will not make up for a 2.2 GPA. Even doing another undergrad degree will still leave you with a lowish GPA for MD schools.
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2013
- Messages
- 796
- Reaction score
- 913
I want to believe that nothing is impossible, but your road to medical school will be very very long. So long, that you'd spend the better part of your life just prepping for an application - and that's without factoring the ~10 years of school/residency. Ask yourself, is this something you want so badly that you'd be willing to sacrifice other fruitful careers that would undoubtedly make you happy? If your answer is still yes, go for it.
To echo @xffan624 :
Retake all C and below grades. You need to show that your performance is not reflective of your actual abilities (although I suspect, and you can confirm with adcoms here, that your uGPA will always be a red flag. Four years is a long time to screw up).
Apply DO - MD is probably out of reach, although there are schools that reward reinvention.
To even begin to stand a chance, you need to have a killer MCAT indeed. But I too believe a great score won't be able to erase 4 years of bad grades. I have to question the likelihood that you'd even get a great score - you'll need to not only build good study habits from scratch, but to overcome bad ones from college.
How are your ECs? They have to be absolutely stellar to make sure your app isn't DOA. I'd recommend doing unconventional things - join the Peace Corps, do search and rescue missions, start your own (actually helpful) non-profit, do research.
Best of luck to you!
To echo @xffan624 :
Retake all C and below grades. You need to show that your performance is not reflective of your actual abilities (although I suspect, and you can confirm with adcoms here, that your uGPA will always be a red flag. Four years is a long time to screw up).
Apply DO - MD is probably out of reach, although there are schools that reward reinvention.
To even begin to stand a chance, you need to have a killer MCAT indeed. But I too believe a great score won't be able to erase 4 years of bad grades. I have to question the likelihood that you'd even get a great score - you'll need to not only build good study habits from scratch, but to overcome bad ones from college.
How are your ECs? They have to be absolutely stellar to make sure your app isn't DOA. I'd recommend doing unconventional things - join the Peace Corps, do search and rescue missions, start your own (actually helpful) non-profit, do research.
Best of luck to you!
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2014
- Messages
- 16
- Reaction score
- 6
Agree with everyone above to certain degrees. It isn't too late for an MD acceptance in your future. But it really depends on how much work you're willing to do. Obviously, a 2.2 is going to take a lot of work to come back from. You will have to retake your prereqs because, lets be honest, you most likely don't have a solid base of understanding of the subject matter given your performance. From there, you can extend into an MD path by taking many more upper division science courses and performing very well.
After that, you can focus on killing the MCAT.
And along the way, you NEED to be solidifying your experiences- use your degree to get a research position- bust your ass and get good letters out of the experience- even if you don't get publications (research is SLOW and full of dead ends- real talk). Don't stop there- make sure you are sticking your foot in various clinical experiences, but at the end make sure there is at least ONE consistent clinical experience that you are dedicated to and can really, truly love and speak of in a knowledgeable, PASSIONATE way.
To be clear, you will probably need to do the classes part time if you want to build an enviable EC resume- extra time investment.
Obviously, this is going to take a really long time, so dig REALLY deep and ask yourself how invested you are in making this happen before you really start- because if at any point, you decide it isn't worth it, you may come out feeling bitter at the time/money/stress you put in which you could have spent elsewhere. Although, I believe everything shapes you as a human, so don't think of anything as a waste, as long as you learn from it.
So basically--yes, you can make it happen. But it will take a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears (so literally). But if you want to be a doctor- you will find a way. In my opinion, medical school is an option for everyone no matter their past, as long as they are willing to put in the work to rise above it.
Good luck!!
After that, you can focus on killing the MCAT.
And along the way, you NEED to be solidifying your experiences- use your degree to get a research position- bust your ass and get good letters out of the experience- even if you don't get publications (research is SLOW and full of dead ends- real talk). Don't stop there- make sure you are sticking your foot in various clinical experiences, but at the end make sure there is at least ONE consistent clinical experience that you are dedicated to and can really, truly love and speak of in a knowledgeable, PASSIONATE way.
To be clear, you will probably need to do the classes part time if you want to build an enviable EC resume- extra time investment.
Obviously, this is going to take a really long time, so dig REALLY deep and ask yourself how invested you are in making this happen before you really start- because if at any point, you decide it isn't worth it, you may come out feeling bitter at the time/money/stress you put in which you could have spent elsewhere. Although, I believe everything shapes you as a human, so don't think of anything as a waste, as long as you learn from it.
So basically--yes, you can make it happen. But it will take a whole lot of blood, sweat and tears (so literally). But if you want to be a doctor- you will find a way. In my opinion, medical school is an option for everyone no matter their past, as long as they are willing to put in the work to rise above it.
Good luck!!
Thanks everyone for your replies. i just want to clear some things up, i had a 3.5 gpa until my last two years of school when i was in and out of the hospital. And i have talked to other doctors (3 actually) who had a 2.0-2.5 gpa and are MDs not DO. So for all you nay sayers it can be done. i just want some more opinions regarding the matter. and i am
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 2,962
- Reaction score
- 3,982
Making excuses won't help you at all. I'm sorry you were ill, but you could have withdrawn from classes. To let your gpa drop from a 3.5 to a 2.2 because of health issues just shows poor judgement. You have a long row to hoe to make up for that if you want to get into medical school in the future.
Also, nobody is impressed by your n=3 sample size for low gpa success. Here's some more recent numbers, with much larger sample sizes, that you can use to better assess your chances, instead of using one-off, out of date anecdotes.
Best of luck to you, I hope you can put in the work to get the results that will let you do what you want to do.
Of all the places to go with a primary goal of remediating a 2.2 GPA, an accelerated nursing program seems like one of worst. It's both high-risk ("nurses eat their young"), and highly indirect (compare the very clinical nursing content you'd live in for two years with MCAT content, which is foundational basic science).
How old are they? The number of applicants keeps increasing, so it has been more competitive to get in. If you look at the AAMC data, the median MCAT went up by 1.7 and the median GPA went up by 0.08 in the past decade.
Also, could any of them be IMGs? As a pathway to practice in the U.S. this is becoming more high-risk with the residency crunch. Note that you can't necessarily tell IMG status from indirect information: talk about med school years in New York City could refer to clinical rotations to complete an MD from St. George's University in Grenada, etc.
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2013
- Messages
- 2,240
- Reaction score
- 3,217
Look at the tables stickied in the "What are my Chances thread?" unless you are a URM then your chance of getting into an MD school with anywhere near a 2.5GPA are nil (the chart doesn't even start below 3.1 GPA. Anecdotes of doctors in days past are not relevant to your current situation. DO is your only option that doesn't require you to do multiple years of GPA repair. If you think this is an unacceptable option then either face the fact that you will have to retake multiple years of coursework just to get a GPA that will be above the standard cutoff of 3.0 for most schools or go to the Caribbean and roll the dice of having 300K in debt with a useless degree.t
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2013
- Messages
- 198
- Reaction score
- 68
For one, please don't get your BSN unless you want to be a nurse. I am a nurse and let me tell you, it's a role that would take you too long to finally feel as if you know something (3 years). If you work in a facility where autonomy is frowned upon, you will struggle like I do since I have recently changed positions/facilities and it so sucks. I have a preceptor that I could run circles around in the ER but since I don't know anything about this new department, I'm almost "fresh" and she's been a complete snotty b$%ch because of it. Do you really want to deal with that? No.
As for your 2.2 gpa, go D.O. and get on with your life. It really doesn't matter because in the end, you'll still be a physician. I've been accepted to NP school but still would like the full autonomy that physician's have so I'm debating between both; that's my battle though.
Go D.O. and get on with your life. You'll do fine.
As for your 2.2 gpa, go D.O. and get on with your life. It really doesn't matter because in the end, you'll still be a physician. I've been accepted to NP school but still would like the full autonomy that physician's have so I'm debating between both; that's my battle though.
Go D.O. and get on with your life. You'll do fine.
