Questions

[PCPqueen04]

Well, where do I begin....

First, I am interested in attending medical school. I would prefer NYCOM or TOUROCOM, and SUNY StonyBrook or SUNY Downstate.

I attended Fairfield University in Conn my freshman year. After my first semester, I was dismissed for having failed all of my classes. After that semester, I took the rest of the year off and didnt work or go to school. The following fall, I enrolled in my community college and had to withdraw in the middle of the semester, so I have a semester of W's. I then returned to the community college that following fall, after working the whole time. I attended the community college for 3 semesters, while working 2 part time jobs. My GPA at the community college is a 3.5. Then, I attended the local 4 year state school, which isnt too competitive for a semester and I have a 4.0 there. All together, I have a 2.7 GPA and 65 credits. I took off another year and a half which leads me to now. Things were going well, I was working, until I was fired from my job of 5 years for stealing last year. I wasnt arrested , just had to sign a confession. I have another job, which I was hired at prior to being fired, which is retail. Anyway, I would really love to go to medical school, as it is a huge dream of mine.

My idea is

I am going to enroll in excelsior college, which is a distance degree college, so that I can finally finish my BA. I will have a concentration in psychology and english. I will be above a 3.0 when i graduate, possibly a 3.1.
I will attend the local state school, which is not too competitive for a second bachelors, in Biology. I am also going to apply to Columbia Post Bacc, and if I can get in, I will def go there. I am hoping to have a 4.0.
I am going to get a Masters in Biology if I dont get into medical school right away.
I am going to join the Americorps, so that I can prove that I am still a good person, because I have a huge heart, and I really want to help as many people as I can in my life and what happened was a huge mistake.
I am volunteering at my local hospital
I am also going to be working.


Am I crazy to think I will be able to be accepted to medical school or can it happen? I have all the determination to make it happen, and while I have made some pretty big mistakes, Ive come around. I believe this will take about 5 years to complete, maybe more, Ill be about 30 years old. Will this make any difference, because there will be a big time frame in between my events, and what I have done to change my life?

When you retake the classes, does the DO application factor in all new grades or just science grades?

Does anybody have any other suggestions? Thank you so much for your time.

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[futureboy]

Why bother with the distance school? Just get the BA in psychology/English and the bachelors in biology at the state school...

As for the other stuff, you seem to be getting ahead of yourself. One step at a time...

 

[NTF]

I think the things you listed are ok in theory, but I agree with futureboy that you're probably getting ahead of yourself. Concentrate on the immediate steps in front of you and you may find that some of the things you listed are superfluous as far as getting into med school. (And kudos for already having DO schools in mind). Since your academic mistakes are all front-loaded that helps in your repair process. Med schools do take into account upward trends when viewing your transcript.

#1)DO applications allow GRADE REPLACEMENT so if you retake some of the classes you failed you can essentially erase the failures as far as AACOMAS is concerned. Makes for a much faster path to GPA repair. AMCAS will simply average the two.
#2)I'd avoid the distance degree if possible. Try getting a job at a university hospital with tuition benefits. Start anywhere they'll hire you, diet tech, pharm tech, housekeeping, unit clerk. See if you can segue it into a direct patient contact job. Concentrate on getting A's. Take your time.
#3)Build ECs and LORs. Shadowing. Volunteering. Research. Patient Contact. Log LORs with Interfolio or VirtualEvals.
#4) When you're a little further along, book a meeting with your local medical school admissions office. You'll likely get good input on what is lacking in your app that you need to improve on.
#5) Don't take the MCAT until you're doing consistently well (30+) on TIMED PRACTICE TESTS.

Good luck. I don't see anything in your story that says med school is out of bounds for you. Keep us posted on your progress.