Rate my competitiveness

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Rabbit145

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Like many career changers, I've got a weaker undergrad GPA than my post-bac. I'll put my stats below for you guys to rate my competitiveness with whatever words you choose. Hopefully this will be helpful for other people in similar situations.

Undergrad: 150 credits, 3.3 GPA
Post Bac: 45 credits: 4.0 GPA
MCAT: 520 (98th percentile)

Post-bac is where I took all my science courses, but I took Abstract Math and Calc I & II in college and that brought the S&M GPA down a bit.
 
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Goro said:
Excellent for those schools that value reinvention, like Case, Duke, Columbia, BU, Miami and more.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight! I wonder, how do you know those schools value reinvention? I'd love to find more schools like that.
 
Sorry to hijack the thread. @Goro But how do you define "reinvention?" Do adcoms just look at stats and decide on them alone?

I want to project myself as such, even though my stats look pretty.... stable. Like I rarely had a semester with 4.0 (only 2 at a community colleges for the general curriculum). It's always one course or two that I didn't give a rat about. I just strife for "enough." So I graduated with like <~ 3.8. But after I got interested in medicine, I went back took all the bio/biochem/labs prereqs. I got all As, even in those 1 credit hour labs with ridiculous grading scale to make sure as few As given as possible. My school is kinda known for that BS...

I changed my attitude about knowledge in general too. I stopped studying for the exams (I remember this one class that I didn't know what the **** was going on during class, during exams, after exams. But I ended up with an A by virtue of scanning for matching keywords between the text in the questions and the book! It was open book. Had the book been longer and the professor used synonyms or if it were not open-book, I would have failed lol though I am pretty sure I would've come up with something... ). I just studied. I hated that halfassed approach I had during undergrad and grad (I gave even fewer rats- ended up ~3.6). I retain little knowledge during those years.

How do I project myself as such? I don't think I want to write about coursework in my personal statement. I feel like it gives a vibe of making excuses and an impression of my not being serious about anything...
 
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Reinvention is purely referring to stats when I use it. What Adcoms want to see is that the new you is not the same as the old you.


But how do you define "reinvention?" Do adcoms just look at stats and decide on them alone?

Nothing you write can do this. You have to prove it by academic excellence. You can't half-ass your way through medical school, not can you pattern-recognize patients' problems. And any attempts to explain things away in a PS merely comes off as excuse making.

How do I project myself as such? I don't think I want to write about coursework in my personal statement. I feel like it gives a vibe of making excuses and an impression of my not being serious about anything...
 
Oh......

My stats are very stable. I am not trying to explain the results because the results are not bad. I just hated the way I obtained them.

@Goro What about the MCAT?

Will retaking a score like 518 with 125 CARS (1st try) be viewed positively in those school? Can you give a list of reinvention schools? My dream school is Mayo...
 
Rabbit145 said:
Like many career changers, I've got a weaker undergrad GPA than my post-bac. I'll put my stats below for you guys to rate my competitiveness with whatever words you choose. Hopefully this will be helpful for other people in similar situations.

Undergrad: 150 credits, 3.3 GPA
Post Bac: 45 credits: 4.0 GPA
Total GPA: 3.46 GPA
Science & Math: 3.75 GPA
MCAT: 520 (98th percentile)

Post-bac is where I took all my science courses, but I took Abstract Math and Calc I & II in college and that brought the S&M GPA down a bit.
Click to expand...
I have almost your exact stats (3.47 GPA and 520 MCAT) but my GPA is purely from undergrad. I'm applying to ~40 schools. I hope we get in lol
 
baratheonfire said:
I have almost your exact stats (3.47 GPA and 520 MCAT) but my GPA is purely from undergrad. I'm applying to ~40 schools. I hope we get in lol
Click to expand...

Whoa, did you get a lot of recommendations to do that? I can't imagine you'll have time to do all the secondaries. I was hoping to get away with 15.
 
Rabbit145 said:
Whoa, did you get a lot of recommendations to do that? I can't imagine you'll have time to do all the secondaries. I was hoping to get away with 15.
Click to expand...

Also, I have no significant medical research in my background because I changed careers. Plenty of volunteer stuff though and I'm a scribe. So unless you've got blacker marks on your record....I hope I don't have to apply to that many schools.
 
Rabbit145 said:
Whoa, did you get a lot of recommendations to do that? I can't imagine you'll have time to do all the secondaries. I was hoping to get away with 15.
Click to expand...
Rabbit145 said:
Also, I have no significant medical research in my background because I changed careers. Plenty of volunteer stuff though and I'm a scribe. So unless you've got blacker marks on your record....I hope I don't have to apply to that many schools.
Click to expand...
I don't have any medical research but I have a year of bench research. I've also got plenty of volunteering and am also a scribe. Pretty much the only "black marks" on my record are 3 C+'s and graduating a year early due to a bunch of AP credits.
I'm just really nervous and don't think I can get in
 
baratheonfire said:
I don't have any medical research but I have a year of bench research. I've also got plenty of volunteering and am also a scribe. Pretty much the only "black marks" on my record are 3 C+'s and graduating a year early due to a bunch of AP credits.
I'm just really nervous and don't think I can get in
Click to expand...

Nah I think you're fine, seems to me the only thing you've gotta worry about is spreading yourself too thin!
 
Goro said:
Excellent for those schools that value reinvention, like Case, Duke, Columbia, BU, Miami and more.
Click to expand...


So I just wanted to follow up on this. Is it safe to say that I shouldn't expect many schools to screen me out before the secondary application process?
 
Goro said:
Secondaries can be a tax on the naive or optimistic!!!
Click to expand...

?? I get that, so I'm trying not to waste money on applications that are going to go straight into the trash. Thing is my GPA is low by most medical school standards, but my MCAT is incredibly high. So given the stats below; is it a waste of time to apply to schools like the university of minnesota, or U Chicago, or Boston U?

Undergrad: 150 credits, 3.3 GPA
Post Bac: 45 credits: 4.0 GPA
Total GPA: 3.46 GPA
Science & Math: 3.75 GPA
MCAT: 520 (98th percentile)
 
Having one high stat doesn't overcome a poor stat in another parameter. But BU is a school that rewards reinvention. Do not apply to U MN or any other state school unless you're a resident of that state.

Don't bother with U Chicago
 
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