Potential Career Changer Wanting Advice on Chances

[SparklyRainbows]

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[Mr.Smile12]

Shadow any doctors? Work in any clinics or hospitals recently? Community service?

Your fate is not sealed until we see an MCAT. Then it's mission fit.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Edited Reply - I understand I don't have an MCAT, but would you be able to comment on how badly those transcript issues and IA's are going to affect me?

Yes to shadowing but not extensive (<15 hours). No the other two.

I'm sorry but I don't see transcript issues. COVID changed those expectations up for those taking classes in 2020-2022. Your should ask schools if they want you to retake your prerequisites with pass grades, but an MCAT and a record of strong upper level biomedical course grades will favor you.

Did you talk with your student conduct dean about these incidents and if there is a record of them? You need their help navigating questions about your IAs. If you matriculate, many schools will ask for a letter from this dean confirming information about your IAs.

IAs never appear on transcripts.

Having to pay a key replacement fee is not an IA to me. You don't have to volunteer your incredible ability to lose things. Buy some Airtags.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Lol thanks. It was a wild time in college.

The reason I asked is because that one lady (who has 1-2 doctor kids), said, verbatim, "Some MD school are more open to irregular transcripts than others...Others are looking for students who have excelled from Day 1 of undergrad. (And there are tons of applicants who fit that description.)" and "Right now your GPAs are Ok for DO schools-- and assuming you can show excellence in the pre-reqs you still have to go, you have a shot at getting an acceptance at a DO program or maybe one the MD programs that are open to re-inventors."

RE: IA - I will need to speak with them on Monday. There was a conduct meeting that I missed with Residential Life (accident; I thought it was the day after), but I promise it was just me locking myself out multiple times and nothing worse.

I promise I don't ask interview questions like, "How many times did you have to replace your access card or fob to get into your dorm?" It's awkward or funny like going for perfect school attendance from 1st to 12th grade... or maintaining one's virginity or not. But that's a digression...

 

[Goro]

I am in my early to mid 20's. I graduated from college almost 2 years ago. I started college premed but became discouraged by some B grades in the pre-requisites, so I switched majors and found another career path.

However, I was laid off recently from that career path (company was REALLY struggling financially) and came back to medicine. Medicine was also in my mind every single day when I worked at that career/job.

That all being said, I'm not too optimistic about my chances. I am ORM and have a 3.8+ cumulative GPA and a 3.5+ science GPA, though I did not finish my prerequisites yet.

Grades aside, I have several concerns about my transcript:

• I withdrew from my 3rd semester of college because of various physical/mental health issues and family stuff (grandparent illness).

However, someone else, online, who has 1-2 doctor kids, said that with my irregular transcript, I am only good for DO schools and MD schools that reward reinvention.

What are your year by year GPAs???

The "IAs" that you speak of or nothingburgers.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So you have only taken 2 science classes since 2020, and everything else is nonscience economics?

I would check out some career changing postbac programs. By no means are you out of the game for MD as long as you have the experience hours and more upper level science. I leave repeating prerequisite courses like Organic 2 to your postbac program advisors.

 

[eigen]

As others have mentioned, I don't see any issues in your transcript but you also don't have the courses you need.

The main issue I see is you seem to have next to no clinical experience or volunteering. Some schools I'm familiar with, the entire "academic preparation" part of the applicant score is <30%. The rest is all about your non-academic preparation, motivation, experience, etc. That's what stands out to me as missing for you.

Why you're listening to some random person online who had kids go to medical school over a physician that knows you also makes no sense to me.

 

[eigen]

Your GPA's are fine. Granted, they don't reflect your performance in many of the pre-requisite classes you need, from what I can tell.

 

[eigen]

You don't have a weird-ass transcript. But you don't have any of the non-academic experiences you need to be even a moderately strong applicant.

Rather than focusing on the post-bac, you should focus on that.

 

[eigen]

Why would that be weird?

P/NP was during a pandemic and they only one pre-requisite classes you need grades for anyway. And every med school I'm aware of allowed P/NP during the pandemic, esp. Spring 2020.

Again, you're hyper-focused on things that are nothingburgers and completely ignoring huge, glaring, red-flag issues.

 

[eigen]

Let me bold the important part for you:

P/NP was during a pandemic and they only one pre-requisite classes you need grades for anyway. And every med school I'm aware of allowed P/NP during the pandemic, esp. Spring 2020.

Your LOA was a long time ago, and you came back and did fine. Admissions committees aren't going to care about your Econ classes.

They're going to care how you do in the pre-requisite classes you need to take, most of which you haven't even attempted yet.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

Those are really weird IA’s, unless I misread something I highly doubt any of those would make any impact

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

The cliche / funny premed mantra is "I like science and want to help people." If you can't muster even that then you are in this for the wrong reason.

Getting experience on your application is more about proving to yourself that you want to go to medical school, rather than proving it to an adcom.

 

[gyngyn]

Since OP has deleted relevant posts, this will be closed.