So I am finishing up my undergraduate degree and having some regret as to not pursuing my dream of attending medical school. After being forced out of my major last year in college I gave up my idea of a career in medicine and decided to go to law school instead as I felt it was my only other option. I have been interning at my local DA's office where I have had multiple conversations about my career goals and decided that I would give medical school another shot. I have applied to the post-bac program at UTD and hope to go this coming semester, but I just wanted to get a general feel if I was wasting my time or not. My cGPA is a 3.46 and my BCPM is at a 3.28 with some of my prerequisite coursework still unfinished. I have done very little medically related volunteering/shadowing in college and have no research experience. Any advice or insight is appreciated as I am sure that I will have to make a decision sometime very soon.
Post-bac or No Chance?
- Thread starter mjv362
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Def not wasting your time mjv. If the GPAs you listed are AMCAS gpa's, you totally have a solid shot at increasing both of those for MD if you take 30+ credits in a post bac or SMP. Spend the next one or two years working as an EMT or doing doing some teaching program while taking courses - then apply. You're going to have 40+ years in your career as a physician; 2 - 3 years is not a big deal if it means having options and being able to pursue your dream.
If you want DO, just retake a few of the courses you did poorly in since they do grade forgiveness - and do some and apply. You'll definitely be okay if you are perseverant.
If you want DO, just retake a few of the courses you did poorly in since they do grade forgiveness - and do some and apply. You'll definitely be okay if you are perseverant.
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Official post bacs are good if you select the right one, work hard and if graduation from the post bac is highly correlated with acceptance to medical school
You didn't mention your MCAT score.
That is going to be a key.
Some questions...
Has there been any grade trends. Has anything stood out? (One semester of 1.0GPA?).
How many credit hours have you taken.
Why major did you graduate with?
I find it odd that they forced you out of the major. I am not sure what school you attended, but I always thought that was only used on individuals with less than a 3.0GPA. They also do that with individuals who have failed a required class (or maybe not even required, just a "major" class) a given number of times.
Enlighten us on why you were forced out.
UTD requires 24 credit hours of Biology courses, so depending on how many credit hours you have taken already, that could bump your BCPM GPA up to a respectable level.
At UTD, before you get the certificate, you have to complete the pre requisites, so don't worry about that.
At UTD, you are required to get clinical exposure. 50 hours are coming regardless.
You should also hunt down, if you can, other avenues of clinical exposure. Also physician shadowing (at least one of which is a DO). Get letters from all, and ask for a strong letter from the DO. While you shadow the DO, try to get a lunch with him/her, if possible. Mention things you have done (volunteering). Then when you ask for the letter, send him/her a copy of your CV (they will probably already have it, as many ask for it when you ask to shadow), and mention, "can you mention my volunteering experience / other experience in the letter". The average is around 150 hours.
Also get some non medical volunteering done.
You also need to study for the MCAT (something I assume UTD will help you prepare for), and do well.
Given all that, you have a long road ahead of you. Likely two years of damage control.
I was in a similar boat as you. I started school wanting medicine. Earned ~ 3.2-3.3 GPA and caved to the idea that I wasn't good enough, and tried for law school. I exhausted two of my LOR writers for that, took the LSAT, applied to law school, was accepted, and decided not to go. I spent a 5th year in undergrad, back on the pre med path. Unfortunately, the May before summer my fifth year, I did poorly on the MCAT. caved again to the idea that I wasn't good enough and took the GRE and applied to graduate school. I am now in a PhD program, miserable, a couple weeks away from telling the director I want to drop.
It sucks to be in the position you are in. I know.
Take the time, do it right. 4.0 in the Post Bacc.
Ace the MCAT (what did you get on the LSAT and SAT if you don't mind me asking). Volunteer.
If your GPA is not high enough, take some more courses and up it. Just don't do what I did. I graduated from undergrad with 177 credit hours. Bachelors degrees in Biology and Psychology with minors in Physics and Chemistry.
My GPA is pretty much fixed, with the exception of the impact one solid year, of ~ 30 credit hours of BCPM courses could do for my AMCAS GPA (and even more so for my AMCOMS GPA).
Unfortunately, 30 credit hours of BCPM ups my oGPA to 3.53 and my BCPM GPA to 3.50. That would leave me with an upward trend of 4.0GPA my 5th year and 6th "undergrad" year. Depending on how well I do on the MCAT (if I bomb it again, I might have to throw in the towel (I am 23 years old, and have to move on)), I might end up doing the additional year of BCPM classes. I am not sure how I would do it, maybe a new school (I am not going back to UF), probably retaking classes to up AMCAS to 3.50, and AMCOMS to probably around a 3.60 depending on how many are retakes. Problem with me, is almost all my grades cluster at B+ or A. Some C+'s in classes that just didn't sit with me (Spanish and Calc). Grade forgiveness is hard, as any adviser would tell you, B+ isn't that bad, but a bunch of B+'s and there's a problem. If you GPA is clustered at A's and D's, you are in a different boat.
Point is, there are paths you can take. Don't take the path I did, and go to graduate school if you want to go to medical school.
Put in the work, make the improvements. Shadow, volunteer, get A's, study for the MCAT.
It might take you a couple years or more, but it's possible if you are not in a different boat. IE, you were kicked out for academic dishonesty... several failing grades...
Research is easy to get. I suggest you avoid biology / chemistry labs unless you really like that stuff. Psychology research, if you can find a lab with basic paradigms that will let you in, is a far more relaxed fit. A lot of the time they are dependent on undergraduate subjects, so the hours are good. It's really a win win.
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Have you taken the MCAT? I assume you have not, since you probably would have included it. I am with the poster above...I think you can do several things to improve your application and have a good chance, but you must be patient. If you are trying to take the MCAT by April or May 2011 and want to enter Fall 2012, you are rushing it a little. I say this because you will have to dedicate at least 30+ hours just to getting your gpa up a little, and it probably wouldn't be smart to study for the MCAT at the same time. You don't want to cram them all in at once just to save time, because it's possible that you won't get the highest MCAT score that you are capable of. In addition, it might take away from your classes that you absolutely need A's in.
I think you are in an alright position considering all of this. Just be patient and do your best. When you do decide to apply (hopefully in 2012 for Fall 2013, in my opinion) you need to get everything in early, and make sure you have good reasons for the career choices....so on and so forth.
I am a reapplicant who had to improve my situation before reapplying as well, and this year I have been invited to 6 interviews. Let me know if you have any questions. 👍
Haha geeze chrisebril you always tend to write a book when you post!
I think you are in an alright position considering all of this. Just be patient and do your best. When you do decide to apply (hopefully in 2012 for Fall 2013, in my opinion) you need to get everything in early, and make sure you have good reasons for the career choices....so on and so forth.
I am a reapplicant who had to improve my situation before reapplying as well, and this year I have been invited to 6 interviews. Let me know if you have any questions. 👍
Haha geeze chrisebril you always tend to write a book when you post!
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Have you taken the MCAT? I assume you have not, since you probably would have included it. I am with the poster above...I think you can do several things to improve your application and have a good chance, but you must be patient. If you are trying to take the MCAT by April or May 2011 and want to enter Fall 2012, you are rushing it a little. I say this because you will have to dedicate at least 30+ hours just to getting your gpa up a little, and it probably wouldn't be smart to study for the MCAT at the same time. You don't want to cram them all in at once just to save time, because it's possible that you won't get the highest MCAT score that you are capable of. In addition, it might take away from your classes that you absolutely need A's in.
I think you are in an alright position considering all of this. Just be patient and do your best. When you do decide to apply (hopefully in 2012 for Fall 2013, in my opinion) you need to get everything in early, and make sure you have good reasons for the career choices....so on and so forth.
I am a reapplicant who had to improve my situation before reapplying as well, and this year I have been invited to 6 interviews. Let me know if you have any questions. 👍
Haha geeze chrisebril you always tend to write a book when you post!
HAHA, ya... You should see my journal =(.
I think I spent a good 6 hours of straight writing in it yesterday.
Totally eased my anxiety attack. Still have no clue what I am doing, and trying to jump on a path that is probably going to end up just being another waste of time.
I have always wrote a lot. I like to paint the whole picture when I describe things. GPA is good.. but that is usually a number from four years of work. It should be broken down into years. I break it down even further into each individual class.
IE: Adcom : "so you got a 3.45... not good young man". Me.... "so you have a 3.45... but I see most of your B- --> C grades are in classes like Spanish, Calculus and "ways of learning".... humm. I also see you got an A in your next Spanish class, A's in Precalc, Biocalc, Statistics and Biostatistics and WTF is "ways of learning"...
Adcom : "go away dummy".
Meh w/e. The adderall compounds my already nasty ADHD symptom of talking too much by cranking me up, but focusing me. It's kind of strange. It doesn't do **** for my energy, but I get super focused on whatever I am doing. Couple that with the fact that I have a rather poor working memory and I constantly repeat things over and over again in a post / journal.
If you read any of my longer posts you will notice I say the same thing over and over again.
OP:
It can be done, but you are going to have to put in some work.
Don't settle. Not at this point. Maybe if you get to the point where I am at, it might be time to settle, but I don't think so.
I try to think of things as a positive.
I am 23 years old, and just not starting to catch up on the things, freshmen where doing to prepare for admission to medical school. I feel far behind, then I think...
Had I joined the marines out of high school like I planed (and now that I look back on it, should have) I would have let out at around 22 years old, and been done with college probably around 26 years old.
Nobody is going to tell them they are too old, so maybe 23, closing in on 24 in 7 months, isn't that bad.
Put in the work OP. Post bacc is the right decision. Maybe in three years when I am 26 and you are god knows how old, we will be in medical school. Chances are, ill be the only janitor in the world (damn economy and job market) with a bachelors degree in Biology, a bachelors degree in Psychology and a Masters degree in Microbiology.
Anytime you feel down just think, at least I don't have it as bad as chris.
Yeah I stilll have not taken the MCAT and don't plan on taking it until I have solid time to study for it. I know that I don't want to even think about entering medical school until 2013. Thanks guys for all of the advice and I definitley am leaning towards going to do the post-bac at UTD if I get accepted.
