School List Help - Or How To Strengthen App

[MissPinkPolly]

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Hello!

I'm a pre-med student and will be graduating from a state school next May 2014. WOOHOO!!!

But I'm struggling to determine how I should be preparing myself for my last year of college.
The pre-med advising program at my uni is less than satisfactory. My advisor says I should be applying this fall, but I don't feel confident in my stats.

Stats:
BS - Biology & Anthropology Double Major, Minor in Chem
Overall GPA - 3.42 🙁 Science GPA 3.2 🙁 👎thumbdownNon Science GPA 3.76
MCAT 31 12-9-12
Hospital Volunteer 1 year
EMT Volunteer 2 years
I'm in a Volunteer Studies Program at my school with 300+hrs volunteer work in my local community
Co-founder of my student org, and non-profit
Volunteered in Kenya, and Guatemala

I did fail 3 classes one sem... 👎, unfortunately. I was working Full-time, going to school, and didn't realize I had a severe case of sleep apnea, which was treated with maxillofacial surgery and rx! 🙂

No research, yet! (not sure if it counts, but studied human evolution and archaeology in South Africa!)
No Clinical exp. yet!

Good LOR.

Possible list of MD Schools:
Howard Uni - ....
VCU- MCV (where I realistically desire to go)😍
EMCV
GWU
Meharry
....

Not too interested in DO Schools, but maybe I should be.

Should I continue to look into lower, or mid tier schools, or should I prepare myself for Master's. Any suggestions would be helpful!

 

[AnxiousMan]

You have clinical experience if you volunteered at the Hospital and worked as an EMT, which is really good to see. You seem to have a good excuse as any for the failed classes so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I will leave the rest to the experienced fellow's in SDN

 

[Lya]

Hopefully, someone else can help with your school list, but I can chime in for your ECs.

Have you done some shadowing? 3.2 sGPA is bugging me. I would look into some SMPs just in case, although some people say you might not need it.

When you said you studied in South Africa, what exactly do you mean by that? Took classes? Did research?

What exactly did you do with your co-founded nonprofit? Do you have other leadership experiences other than being a co-founder?

How long did you volunteer in Kenya and Guatemala? Several weeks?


You do have some unique ECs, so I would say your ECs look decent for now. Yeah, low- and mid-tiers should be fine. If you want to aim higher, probably SMP and expanding some of the main ECs will be nice!

 

[AlteredScale]

If you are looking at medical schools with and sort of research initiative behind them. Don't apply to those. No clinical research means you have missed an important section in the field of medicine in their eyes I would say, so don't even waste your money.

Other than that if these schools you are applying to are mainly clinical and have very little research then go for it!. I'd say you have some spectacular EC's to balance the low GPA and mediocre MCAT (which I cringe saying because I don't know if I will even get a score like that so bravo, bravo).

You seem like a really strong candidate if you can really show how all these EC's shaped you. They can't be EC's for the sake of being EC's for a application. Show your passion for them during interviews and you are golden!

Best of luck!

 

[October88]

Hello!

I'm a pre-med student and will be graduating from a state school next May 2014. WOOHOO!!!

But I'm struggling to determine how I should be preparing myself for my last year of college.
The pre-med advising program at my uni is less than satisfactory. My advisor says I should be applying this fall, but I don't feel confident in my stats.

Stats:
BS - Biology & Anthropology Double Major, Minor in Chem
Overall GPA - 3.42 🙁 Science GPA 3.2 🙁 👎thumbdownNon Science GPA 3.76
MCAT 31 12-9-12
Hospital Volunteer 1 year
EMT Volunteer 2 years
I'm in a Volunteer Studies Program at my school with 300+hrs volunteer work in my local community
Co-founder of my student org, and non-profit
Volunteered in Kenya, and Guatemala

I did fail 3 classes one sem... 👎, unfortunately. I was working Full-time, going to school, and didn't realize I had a severe case of sleep apnea, which was treated with maxillofacial surgery and rx! 🙂

No research, yet! (not sure if it counts, but studied human evolution and archaeology in South Africa!)
No Clinical exp. yet!

Good LOR.

Possible list of MD Schools:
Howard Uni - ....
VCU- MCV (where I realistically desire to go)😍
EMCV
GWU
Meharry
....

Not too interested in DO Schools, but maybe I should be.

Should I continue to look into lower, or mid tier schools, or should I prepare myself for Master's. Any suggestions would be helpful!

Are the F's accounted in your GPA or replaced by a better grade?

Whenever you decide to apply I would apply to both lower tier MD programs and do. I would look into that as they allow grade replacement.

I think your goals for the next year should be to get your grades up and continue the ecs you feel passionate about.