Problem planning after graduation (AND maybe a consultant)

[WhittieStudenti]

I recently graduated from a pretty small liberal arts college out in Washington State (Whitman College) and would appreciate help planning my next move. I graduated with a pretty abysmal 3.141 GPA, plenty of experience volunteering in local clinics and hospitals and having a charity event surrounding Providence St. Mary's Hospital under my belt. But after about 5 months after coming out of college, I still have a problem formulating a concrete plan of what activities, job and decisions that would effectively push me onto a course into medical school. Right now I have landed a case-research unpaid internship at Panel of Consultants (an IME panel based out of Seattle), have 2 shadowing gigs with Seattle Children's/Overlake Hospital and am interviewing for a volunteering position at the Pike Place Neighborcare Health Clinic. I know practically every SMP listed through the AAMC and SDN website but am cautious about committing to any program at the moment ($50,000 is alot of money). University of Washington and Seattle University is right next door so taking classes isn't out of the way. I have no intentions of applying anytime soon (maybe 2019-2020 class). What is everyone's thoughts on taking an SMP over classes? Will medical schools frown upon repeating courses at a different college to boost GPA or is SMP the only legitimate way override a previous record? Any other possible recommendations?

I've looked into volunteering abroad for a number of months and have reached out to a number of organizations (including SAMS and FIMRC) and will be participating in a mission trips to Belize & Iceland January/February 2018. Could taking a multiple-month volunteering trip really boost those chances for medical school? Do these trips really stand out during an interview or are they mostly hot air?

**Practice MCAT score(s): 522, 523, 520; will be taking MCAT in 3 months

Cumulative GPA: 3.141
sGPA: 3.005
Transcript Outline:
Fall 2013
Gens145 Freshman Encounters (Intro Course) - B
Phys155 General Physics I - B
Chem135 General Chemistry Lab I - A
Math126 Calculus II - B
Phil107 Critical Reasoning (Philosophy) - (B-)
Spring 2014
Gens146 Freshman Encounters (Intro Course) - B
Phys156 General Physics II - C
Chem126 General Chemistry - B+
Chem136 General Chemistry Lab II - A
Econ101 Principles of Microeconomics - B
Fall 2014
Engl150 Intro Creative Writing - (C+)
Math225 Calculus III - (B-)
Chem245 Organic Chemistry I - B
Chem251 Organic Lab Techniques I - (B-)
Biol111 Biological Principles - (C+)
Spring 2015
Chem246 Organic Chemistry II - (B+)
Chem252 Organic Lab Techniques II - (C+)
Psyc110 Introduction to Psychology - (A)
Soc110 Social Problems - (B+)
Hist182 History of Expansion and Enlightenment - (A-)
Fall 2015
Hist207 Age of Humanism and Reform - (B+)
BBMB325 Biochemistry - (B+)
Biol205 Genetics - W
Psyc240 Developmental Psychology - (A-)
Spring 2016
BBMB324 Biophysics - B
Biol205 Genetics - C
Chem411 Organic Chemistry of Drug Design - B
BBMB 327 Biomolecular Techniques - (B+)
Hist202 Age of Cathedrals - (B+)
Fall 2016
BBMB490 Senior Thesis - A
BBMB326 Molecular Biology - (B-)
BBMB336 Molecular Biology Lab - B
Biol471 Synthetic Cellular Biology - A
Hist17 Decolonization in Africa - (B+)
Spring 2017
BBMB400 BBMB Senior Seminar - (B+)
Hist380 Traumatic 20th Century - (B+)
Math247 Statistics with Applications - (B+)
Phil217 Bioethics - (A-)
BBMB490 Senior Thesis - (A)
Mus164B Elementary Application Music: Voice - A
Mus164k Elementary Application Music: Percussion - A

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[WhittieStudenti]

OH and if anyone knows any good consultants, please drop some names.

 

[DokterMom]

Looks like your weakest attribute is your GPA. Fix that!
A DIY post-bac may be all you need to do the trick (versus a SMP) , but you'll need to do extremely well in it. (No more B's!)

If you're scoring so well on your MCAT practice exams (real testing conditions?), you're clearly very bright. You will almost certainly be asked (OK - I'm asking) Why doesn't your GPA reflect your intellect?

 

[Goro]

Looks like your weakest attribute is your GPA. Fix that!
A DIY post-bac may be all you need to do the trick (versus a SMP) , but you'll need to do extremely well in it. (No more B's!)

If you're scoring so well on your MCAT practice exams (real testing conditions?), you're clearly very bright. You will almost certainly be asked (OK - I'm asking) Why doesn't your GPA reflect your intellect?

Agree 100%.

Also, the mission trips will be viewed as "medical tourism" and treated accordingly.

 

[WhittieStudenti]

What are your thoughts on how medical schools view official,structured Post-bacc programs (John Hopkins, Scripps, Goucher) versus taking additional classes at a state college (University of Washington)? Is it as simple as retaking poorly performed classes or would a few new, higher level courses (like post-grad level medicinal classes at the school of medicine)?

 

[WhittieStudenti]

@DokterMom I was able to take the "Practice" MCAT in the opposite wing hall of where an official MCAT exam was taking place. My college offered spots for these mock MCAT exams by using the AAMC practice exams that can be bought online and renting out space adjacent to the exam. They made sure the conditions were as sterile as possible to mimic the actual MCAT as closely as possible (hell, it was right next door to a AAMC trademarked exam).

As for why my GPA was so damn low: This practice exam was available about 4 months ago, the summer after I graduated. I stopped any form of drinking mid-spring semester of my senior year and am planning to never return. Not proud of it but I think everyone is deserving of change.

 

[calivianya]

What are your thoughts on how medical schools view official,structured Post-bacc programs (John Hopkins, Scripps, Goucher) versus taking additional classes at a state college (University of Washington)? Is it as simple as retaking poorly performed classes or would a few new, higher level courses (like post-grad level medicinal classes at the school of medicine)?

If you retake all of your sciences and make straight As, I think you'll be in good shape, especially with a potential 520s MCAT score. There may be some advantage to doing a formal post-bacc, but I did my own at my local state college and have a couple of II already. If you do well, where you went to school shouldn't hurt you.

You could do both if you wanted with the classes. Retake all of the science classes you got less than an A in, and throw in a couple of bio grad level classes along the way. Many schools will let you take some of the lower-level grad classes as an undergrad. I took four at my school, and they also had the benefit of being way more interesting than the undergrad classes, so it was much easier for me to do well even though the classes were much harder.

 

[mimelim]

I need to see it in a AMCAS GPA Grid to really give you an idea
https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...140d8acb35af/amcas_grade_conversion_guide.pdf

I agree. I certainly don't have the experience that others do to advise SMP vs. DIY post-bacc, so can't advise on that. Mission trips aren't a big selling point overall. But, by far the most important thing is GPA repair at this point.

 

[tiramisucheese]

Mission trip to Iceland? That's like saying you're going on a mission trip to London or Tokyo. It's a fully developed country...

 

[RogueUnicorn]

General rule of thumb in my mind before I fell out of the loop a bit was - if you can get GPA to ~3.5 with 2 years of DIY postbac, do that; otherwise go SMP

 

[WhittieStudenti]

@gonnif Does this fit as a AMCAS GPA Grid?