Medical Reinvention + What should my next step be?

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Goro

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Hello, I am a senior (graduating fall 2020) and I'm trying to get a feel for how my reinvention process is going and get some ideas for the future.

My cGPA after spring semester is 3.6. My sGPA is the bigger problem, at 3.28. I've been working on improving my science gpa since my cgpa isn't gonna move much (171 credits).

This is the progression of classes I've taken so far. I didn't include non-science classes but they're almost all As with a few A-.

Dual credit classes
  • Chemistry B+ (3cr), Chem lab A (1cr)
  • Physics A- (4cr)
  • College algebra A- (3cr)
  • Statistics A- (3cr)
  • Short calculus B+ (3cr)
Overall gpa: 3.5

Freshman year
FallSpringSummer
  • Calc I B (4cr)
  • Chem I B- (3cr)
  • Chem I lab D (1cr)
Overall gpa: 3.385
  • Chem II B (3cr)
  • Chem II lab B (1cr)
  • Biology A (4cr)
Overall gpa: 3.714
Overall gpa: 3.834

Sophomore year
FSpSu
  • Chem I lab retake B (1cr.)
  • Ochem 1 C+ (3cr)
  • Physics I C+ (5cr)
Total: 3.044
  • Ochem II W (I actually have a good reason for this haha)
  • Physics II C (5cr)
Total: 3.091
  • Biochem C+ (3cr)
Total: 3.286

Junior year
FSp
  • Ecology and society A (3cr)
Total: 4.00
  • Genetics A- (3cr)
  • Intro Psych Data Analysis A (4cr)
Total: 3.947

Senior Year
FaSp
  • Cell bio A- (3cr)
  • Microbio A- (5cr)
Total: 3.785
  • Histology B+ (4cr)
  • Anatomy A (5cr)
  • Physiology A (4cr)
Total: 3.81

Obviously the B+ in histo this semester wasn't ideal, but man is it hard trying to look at microscope images on a tiny computer. :(

As for my future plan:
I will be taking Pathology for allied professionals over the summer. In the fall I will take immunology and audit retake ochem 1. Then in the spring after I graduate I'll take ochem 2 and the lab (my school does a weird single class for both labs so I don't have a lab for ochem 1 yet). After that I have a couple of ideas of what to do that I'd like some ideas on.

1. Get an MPH in epidemiology. I know this won't specifically help me get into med school, but I think the subject is really interesting (public health is one of my minors) and I wouldn't mind working in that field if medicine didn't pan out.
2. Do something like Americorp. I like the idea of this, but I don't really have a lot of people who could help me out financially and the idea of trying to live off that little money freaks me out (I was pretty poor growing up/on welfare + food stamps, which I think gives me some anxiety about this idea)
3. Get a job and take more classes in my free time. Not bad, but also a BA in psych doesn't exactly have the best job prospects haha.
4. Do an SMP. Not a fan of this as I don't like the risk involved. I'd rather wait and do this if I'm a reapplicant.
5. Give up and do something else. Also not ideal, but I like to be realistic. I'd probably try for PA school.

I appreciate any input! Thanks!
Forget the MPH. That won't help for med school.

You have two solid years of an upward GPA trend, which always helps. With a strong MCAT there are MD schools that will reward your reinvention, as will all DO. Actually, you're fine for DO right now.

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1) An MPH won't help you.
2) What's your MCAT score?
3) You may have to think about postbac/SMP. Your heavy year with mostly premed prereqs finishing off with a lot of C's can wave yellow flags among deliberators of your file. As @Goro mentions, you are probably given more slack for DO programs if your MCAT is strong and you can overcome the C's in physics and organic/biochem.
4) Where are your behavioral/psych/sociology courses? (I guess if you have a BA is psych, they're there.)
5) AmeriCorps? What's your situation now with shadowing, clinical, and non-clinical community service hours/experiences?
5) Pathology for allied health professionals may not help you in the eyes of screeners who might look up that syllabus to see if it's appropriate for science majors.
2) I haven't taken the MCAT yet because I wanted to wait until after I took Ochem II. Obviously that limits what advice you guys can give, but I won't be applying right away anyway. I just wanted to get a feel for how I was doing specifically with grades.
3) I am planning on taking classes for sure after I graduate, I'm just fairly risk adverse and don't know that I want to invest a ton in an SMP.
4) I'm doing socio in the fall and I have 30-some credits in psych.
5) Pretty mediocre to be honest. I work a lot so I don't have a ton of time to volunteer. ~100hr volunteering with Planned Parenthood, 50ish with Ronald McDonald House, 85 at a children's hospital. The latter two I will continue but COVID has gotten in the way of recently. Shadowing I was planning on doing this summer but that seems off the table too.
6) It seems pretty science-y but I will keep that in mind.
 
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