This is gonna be a long post so brace yourselves. I would just like some general advice from anyone really - undergrads who may relate to my situation, current post-bacc students, or those who were accepted into medical school through a non-traditional path.
So I'm currently in my senior year of undergrad at a top public university with crappy science departments and practically no pre-med support. I say this because though I realize my low gpa is mostly my fault, I know the school I go to plays a role in it and that it may even equate to a slightly higher gpa at some other schools. I'm graduating in May and if I had to guess I'd say I'll probably end up with around a 2.9-3.0 cgpa. I think my sgpa is probably in the 2.5-2.9 range, I honestly haven't checked in a while but I'm a Bio major so there's a lot of science classes in there. Other things about me - I've been volunteering in a hospital/clinic for 3 years, undergrad research for 2 years, some leadership and mentorship roles here and there. It's not like I spent all of college partying, quite the opposite in fact. I guess I just took the wrong set of classes sometimes and made some mistakes that cost me some A's that I could've easily gotten otherwise.
That being said, I know my only choice here is doing a structured post-bacc program. I've swallowed the pill that I'll be drowning in debt for a while but the goal is to do anything I can to get into med school no matter how long or how much it takes because I've sacrificed too much for me not to get where I would like to be. But I wanna make sure I have a good chance of getting in, so I was thinking of taking the next year after graduating to improve my clinical/patient interaction experience by working in the health field. So question 1 would be for this, what would be recommended? I was thinking along the lines of EMT or medical assistant, does anyone know of any other similar things I should look into?
After that year (during which I would take the MCAT so I can focus more on studying for it and doing well without the stress of school), I plan to apply to a post bacc program and apply to med school that same year so I can (hopefully!) matriculate the year after. So Question 2- should I go for an SMP or a certificate program? There's so many kinds out there that I'm not sure would be most realistic for me given my stats. Question 3 would be is it realistic/reasonable for me to apply to med school during my post-bacc? I know people do that since you can send in your grades as you go along but is that method geared more towards people with higher gpas? Would it be worth it for me to apply not knowing yet what my grades will be since they'll initially only see my 3.0?
All in all I want to make myself as competitive as possible to get into a program that can help me get into med school. So to summarize I want to do MCAT first, clinical work for 1 year, apply to med school then post bacc for 1 year. Sorry this is a lot lol but anyone with any input would be of great help!!
So I'm currently in my senior year of undergrad at a top public university with crappy science departments and practically no pre-med support. I say this because though I realize my low gpa is mostly my fault, I know the school I go to plays a role in it and that it may even equate to a slightly higher gpa at some other schools. I'm graduating in May and if I had to guess I'd say I'll probably end up with around a 2.9-3.0 cgpa. I think my sgpa is probably in the 2.5-2.9 range, I honestly haven't checked in a while but I'm a Bio major so there's a lot of science classes in there. Other things about me - I've been volunteering in a hospital/clinic for 3 years, undergrad research for 2 years, some leadership and mentorship roles here and there. It's not like I spent all of college partying, quite the opposite in fact. I guess I just took the wrong set of classes sometimes and made some mistakes that cost me some A's that I could've easily gotten otherwise.
That being said, I know my only choice here is doing a structured post-bacc program. I've swallowed the pill that I'll be drowning in debt for a while but the goal is to do anything I can to get into med school no matter how long or how much it takes because I've sacrificed too much for me not to get where I would like to be. But I wanna make sure I have a good chance of getting in, so I was thinking of taking the next year after graduating to improve my clinical/patient interaction experience by working in the health field. So question 1 would be for this, what would be recommended? I was thinking along the lines of EMT or medical assistant, does anyone know of any other similar things I should look into?
After that year (during which I would take the MCAT so I can focus more on studying for it and doing well without the stress of school), I plan to apply to a post bacc program and apply to med school that same year so I can (hopefully!) matriculate the year after. So Question 2- should I go for an SMP or a certificate program? There's so many kinds out there that I'm not sure would be most realistic for me given my stats. Question 3 would be is it realistic/reasonable for me to apply to med school during my post-bacc? I know people do that since you can send in your grades as you go along but is that method geared more towards people with higher gpas? Would it be worth it for me to apply not knowing yet what my grades will be since they'll initially only see my 3.0?
All in all I want to make myself as competitive as possible to get into a program that can help me get into med school. So to summarize I want to do MCAT first, clinical work for 1 year, apply to med school then post bacc for 1 year. Sorry this is a lot lol but anyone with any input would be of great help!!
